Ever since 1999 with the release of “The Matrix”, the Wachowskis have had failure after failure. Mostly, and probably, is because they have great ideas, but the execution is not what is truly perceived. Enter their recent film “Jupiter Ascending”, a sci-fi tale that has a lot of promise, but nothing truly worth remembering. While the film is entertaining visually, the rest is nothing memorable or worth talking about. “Jupiter Ascending” is probably a sign that the Wachowskis need to retire in the film industry.
The story involves a woman named Jupiter (Mila Kunis) finds out that she actually is part of a bigger conspiracy than she thought. She then meets a man named Caine (Channing Tatum) who reveals to her that is royalty. Yes, royalty… IN SPACE! Now the hunt is on for Jupiter in order for her to advocate her power and release the Earth unto powerful political forces to harvest humans as a resource.
“Jupiter Ascending” is a film that is dumb. The story really has no clear focus, and there are a lot plot holes that are encountered. Also, if this were toned down to a younger age demographic, then this would have worked out as a young adult sci-fi/action movie. The editing is a pain as the action is moved so frantically that the viewer does not have a clear understanding of what is happening on the screen. It must hurt even more in 3D. Yet there are two major problems with this movie that cannot be ignored.
For starters, the acting is bad. However, it’s not the worst, but it’s still pretty bad. Finally, the real meat and potatoes of this movie in terms of badness is the setting. While this movie does feature a lot of futuristic technology, it’s set in modern times. Even though the setting is okay, this leads to even bigger plot holes within the story. What this all comes down to is that while a modern setting is nice, a more futuristic one could have improved the strength of the film.
With that being said, there are two things that make the movie work. The music compliments the movie well with a nice orchestrated score. And, the visuals look fantastic; yes this movie was mostly shot in front of green screen (for the most part), and yes this does up the production costs, but it makes everything look clean and polished in the end.
In conclusion, “Jupiter Ascending” is a bad movie from the Wachowskis, but it could have been worse. It’s not like it is going up against a kid’s film. Oh, wait…