Jupiter Ascending (2015)

[RobinHood26]

Holy shit this was beyond  fucking terrible. A couple cool shots I guess, thats the only positive. How can a movie this visual, look and feel so lifeless and bland. My god this is a snore. Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum are both a bore, no chemistry. The first 10 minutes of the movie could all be chopped off. It goes from epic looking over the top space/sci-fi to cheap under PD'd real world and its awkward. 

 

The guy with feathers for facial hair lol, Sean Bean doesn't die? Lame. Sean Bean is half Bee?  15 characters are introduced and then never seen of again. 175m on this turd. I don't see WB taking a risk on them again.

 

Super disappointed in the score too, everything felt reused. The main villain theme is basically the Klingon theme in STID. 

 

I could not wait for this movie to end, right when it faded to black I rushed out the theater as fast as I can. My 3 friends and I all gave it a unanimous D.

 

 

D (64)

Edited February 9, 2015 by Jay Hollywood

[Ezen Baklattan]

One of the most memorably bad movies I've ever seen. Aside from the art direction nothing about this movie works and in that regard it's utterly amazing. 

 

Mind you, Speed Racer was one of my favorite films of 2008 and Cloud Atlas one one of my favorites of 2012. 

Oh god, like Free Birds bad? 

[darkelf]

Not enough Redmayne

6/10

The Good: Tatum, Redmayne, Beean, visuals, score and the (unfulfilled) potential of back-stabbing siblings (yes, I am giving props for something they failed to fully accomplish)

The Bad: Kunis, forced romance and the over-complicated plot, especially in the middle.

The Ugly: that dude who first meets Lord Redmayne on Jupiter

[Brilliant Dynamite Neon]

Great visuals.  I mean, awesome.  Nearly as good a Flash Gordon sequel as one could hope to see.  A pretty darn good Warhammer 40K film, for that matter.

 

But the story is all over the place thematically.  The biggest issue, really, is that they create an escapist fantasy featuring a world I don't want to escape to.  I mean, I don't want to be Space Princess, and I don't see why anybody else would, either.  The world they create is one in which Jupiter has been handed a soul crushing responsibility.  Either she does nothing, and is a monster- living the good life with her hawkdog while trillions are obliterated in the name of plastic surgery in a jar, or she tries to change it, and likely lives a short and unhappy life (the system they create is simply too big for one person, even one royal, to change).  Worst of all, the film implies that she chooses the first option.  How are we supposed to root for a character like that?  I mean, the film shows us a character like that, and we're supposed to hate Titus and his fairy tail orgies.  But I don't see a ton of difference between the way he lives his life and the way the film ends with Jupiter living hers- isolated from any responsibility and enjoying the privileges her assets afford her.   Heck, the only person in the film that seems to really have a grasp of how monstrous the setting is?  Titus.  The most spoiled, most self-centered, most debauched character in the film is the film's moral center.

 

All in all: This is the first film from the Wachoswkis that I would call "Bad".  They've made others that weren't my cup of tea, but this one is just a poorly done film when it comes to everything but the visuals.

 

C, for the visuals alone.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Brilliant Dynamite Neon

[antovolk]

Not half as bad as I expected. Eye and ear gasm galore. Story satisfying enough even with the YA-esque cliches, overstuffing and theatrical cut-lile skipping over bits and abandonment of characters.

Also EDDIE REDMAYNE. EDDIE REDMAYNE. EDDIE REDMAYNE. Character totally useless but super enjoyable to watch.

P.S. it’s (if not actually but it feels very much thanks to the story beats and character arcs - and that's all depending on your definition of the genre) YA. But it embraces the genre & its cliches w/o screaming I’M ANOTHER CLICHE YA FILM PLS HATE ME.

6/10

[IndustriousAngel]

B-, 6/10

some cool images, and an overall interesting premise with promising characters. otoh, the nteresting premise and characters get barely explored, instead we get point- and endless chase and destruction scenes. Also, much of the images was too off-the-rack, the strongest influence maybe "The Fifth Element" (and that was far funnier).

booo Wachowskis, you CAN do better as you showed in the past!

[max314]

Jupiter Ascending (Wachowski, 2015):

 

 

Jupiter Ascending is exactly like The Matrix.  Both Jupiter Ascending and the Wachowskis' paradigm-shifting chef-d'oeuvre finely stitch together comprehensively immersive universes from a polymathic range of interests and influences.  Both films attempt to make sweeping commentaries about life, love, humanity and society.  And both films wrap these ideas in comforting genre conventions, all whilst searing our eyeballs with audaciously dreamlike visuals.

Jupiter Ascending is, also, absolutely nothing like The Matrix.  Where the films diverge is in their style and tone.  Where The Matrix engineered a grimy, industrial aesthetic that reveled in rebellious cool, Jupiter Ascending celebrates its own silliness, pitching itself somewhere between the Wachowskis' cubist experiment Speed Racer (2008) and the Neo Seoul storyline in their pantheistic opus Cloud Atlas (2012).

The real question, then, is not: "Does Jupiter Ascending live up to The Matrix?"  Rather, the question is: "Does Jupiter Ascending live up to its own ambitions?"

The short answer is: "Yes."

Set to a palette of unhinged imagination that evokes both Brazil (Gilliam, 1985) and Alejandro Jodorowsky's conceptual artwork for his conspicuously unproduced adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel, 'Dune', Jupiter Ascending has all the childish abandon of a Saturday morning cartoon show from the '80s, like ThunderCats or He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.  It has just as many thrills and spills and excuses to giggle as something like the recent Guardians of the Galaxy (Gunn, 2014).  Every action scene would end with a realisation that my fingernails were set deep into my palms; proof enough that the Wachowskis haven't lost their penchant for directing visceral action.  And the Wachowskis haven't lost their penchant for crafting cool characters, either.  The likes of Channing Tatum's wolf-spliced bounty hunter, Caine Wise, and Eddie Redmayne's flying dino-henchmen strut into the duo's Badass Hall of Fame with effortless swagger.  Even the unfairly maligned Eddie Redmayne himself – dripping with disconcertingly Oedipal sensuality – has every chance of being remembered for an iconic performance, even if it's for all the wrong reasons.

Speaking of unfair malignment, the film's plot does not lack focus, despite myriad accusations to the contrary.  The primary narrative and emotional drive of the film is that of Mila Kunis' regal recurrence wanting to re-unite with her family back on Earth, but being compelled instead to confront the cosmic duties that have been thrust upon her.  This emotional anchor works because we actually care about Kunis' birth family, specifically her mother (Maria Doyle Kennedy), with whom she shares a genuine warmth and love in the film's opening reel.  Their relationship pays off in the film's climax, and is arguably the real "love story" at the heart of the film.

It's not that Mila Kunis' refreshingly female-assertive romance with Channing Tatum doesn't work, because their chemistry crackles with endearing playfulness; but it ends up playing more like a subplot than the A-story, which may also be why some audiences were left emotionally distanced from the film.  The other reason people may have felt distanced was the fast pace.  When the credits roll, the audience feels like they just want more of everything – more of Caine's anti-gravity acrobatics, more of Jupiter's ostentatious wardrobe, more beautiful worlds for your eyes to feast on, more interplay with Tatum and Kunis, more backstory about Stinger's history, more Abrassax conspiracies...  And yet, when you look back on the film, you realise that it was packed to bursting point with all of the above.  As we swiftly follow Mila Kunis through a fascinating cross-section of the latest Wachowski-verse, the journey is perhaps a little too swift, a little too condensed.  The positive is that there is plenty to mull over during repeated viewings – the jargon of Caine and Stinger, for example, evokes worlds and images in the way a novel might.  The negative, however, is that audiences may have trouble settling into the groove of the story.

Jupiter Ascending would have pre-dated its contemporaries in space fiction, Guardians of the Galaxy and Interstellar (Nolan, 2014), had it not been pushed back several months from its original 2014 release date.  There is a noteworthy comparison to be made by way of Jupiter Ascending taking the fun-but-vapid space cowboy genre conventions of the former, and combining it with the somber, socially aware commentary on human consumption and collonisation of the latter.  The coincidence that these films occurred within approximately half a year of one another is a graphic confirmation of the Wachowskis' mission to combine high concept with high thinking.  Perhaps even more importantly is the fact that Jupiter Ascending rejects both the realist mantra of Christopher Nolan and the reluctantly fantastical tone of James Gunn, choosing instead to use its outlandish budget to construct the most lavish cosmic phantasmagoria that we have ever seen.  It is a graphic confirmation that the Wachowskis' sense of artistic exploration, in an industry that clings in terror to the status quo, is as awe-inspiring as any space adventure.

Jupiter Ascending may not the best entry in the Wachowskis' filmography, but it is among their most visionary.  That's saying something.

 

★★★★★

Edited February 14, 2015 by max314

[IndustriousAngel]

 

 

Jupiter Ascending is exactly like The Matrix.  Both Jupiter Ascending and the Wachowskis' paradigm-shifting chef-d'oeuvre finely stitch together comprehensively immersive universes from a polymathic range of interests and influences.  Both films attempt to make sweeping commentaries about life, love, humanity and society.  And both films wrap these ideas in comforting genre conventions, all whilst searing our eyeballs with audaciously dreamlike visuals.

[...]

Jupiter Ascending may not the best entry in the Wachowskis' filmography, but it is among their most visionary.  That's saying something.

 

★★★★★

You know, if the Wachowskis had spent as much work on the script and worldbuilding of JA as you did on that review, we would have gotten a better movie.

I'm with you on the design work and the ambitions, but those carry you only so far. The very interesting background - this interstellar society for whom Earth is only some backwater estate - gets barely explored. Since you mentioned "Dune" - yep, I was thinking about "Dune" too during some sequences, Foss' design but even more the story itself with the feuding interstellar families. And that's where JA completely falls short, sacrificing every possible complexity or depth on the altar of eye candy and action.

 

btw, there's even a much closer comparison in literature where a simple Earthling discovers he's really a monarch from one of the families ruling the universe - that's Farmer's "World of Tiers" series, and that's a story completely without political or philosophical subtext or ambitions, but 100% action and sense-of-wonder, and still it's a far better story and joyful ride than the trite stuff the Wachowskis served us with JA.

[max314]

You know, if the Wachowskis had spent as much work on the script and worldbuilding of JA as you did on that review, we would have gotten a better movie.

The Wachowskis spent years building the world of Jupiter Ascending, and it shows. So they get an A for effort, or "work".

However, the finished product failing to connect with you is an entirely different issue.

The very interesting background - this interstellar society for whom Earth is only some backwater estate - gets barely explored.

[...]

...the feuding interstellar families [is] where JA completely falls short, sacrificing every possible complexity or depth on the altar of eye candy and action.

Interesting point.

What would you have done differently?

...Farmer's "World of Tiers" series [is] a story completely without political or philosophical subtext or ambitions, but 100% action and sense-of-wonder, and still it's a far better story and joyful ride than the trite stuff the Wachowskis served us with JA.

I haven't read the 'World of Tiers' series, but the Wachowskis are aiming to combine "action and sense-of-wonder" with "political [and] philosophical subtext" with Jupiter Ascending.

As I mentioned in my review, it is this merging of high concept with high thinking that makes the Wachowskis' work so interesting.

[MovieGuyKyle17]

Jupiter Ascending: The film is visually stunning but the story is really boring. There was some stuff that happens toward the end between Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis characters that felt very forced. The acting from the majority of the cast is good except for Eddie Redmayne. Redmayne's over the top acting was atrocious and at times very laughable. I went into this really hoping it would be good because I like the Wachowskis. They usually always go all out on their productions and I respect that. Cloud Atlas was one of my favorite films of 2012, and I own it on Blu-Ray. I wanted this to be good but was vastly disappointed.

Grade: C-

[James]

Well, finally saw this and man oh man, I wanna say so many things.

 

I don't even know where to start... ok, let's take it one at a time: story, characters, visuals, direction, soundtrack, overall.

 

The story is great. That is one of the best aspects of the film. The idea behind it is so unique it makes the movie one of the most daring ones ever put in cinemas. The world itself is wonderfully built. Kalique's planet and culture, as shortly descibed as it was, made me stare in awe and clenching and unclenching my fists. I like writing and I so would've wanted to have this idea.

The only downside, and that's pretty much my only problem with the whole movie: this is a beautiful. beautiful concept and the 2 hours time limit doesn't do it justice. This probably deserved more screen time than even the LOTR trilogy because the ramifications of this universe are so complex it's mindboggling. This movie alone should've been 3-4 hours long. I realize time is money (  in the real life and in the movie as well), but I would've liked to see more politics. The scene at the beginning with Balem, Kalique and Titus was a stroke of genius. I would've liked more of that. And the same goes for the system on Ouros, with the whole birocracy thing that I get so well since I'm in law school (both me and my gf giggled at that). Plus, the moral issue. This movie opens more moral issues that most films which have that as a central idea. In the end it all comes down to more screen time!

 

The characters: first, Balem, because everyone seems to be talking about him. Redmayne was PERFECT. That is how a human that treats whole planets like dollar bills should be like. He's cruel, power driven, unstable - and this last part is what gives the character it's appeal.

Jupiter - well, I can't put myself in her shoes, because I more or less agree with Balem and Kalique and Titus. Why would you return back to your old life when you can live forever and have the universe at your feet. But those are my ideas, so in the end it's ok.

Tatum was also good.

 

The visuals - c'mon, even the haters admitted they are incredible and they are. Again - Kalique's planet. My heart jumped at that scene.

 

The direction - it was clearly good, but that is not a surprise. The Wacho's have yet to make a badly directed movie.

 

The soundtrack - A. I have it on repeat.

 

So the overall movie was great. It was definitely worth suffering through a whole month of exams thinking of how I'm going to see it . Top 3 all time? If it would've been 1-2 hours longer yes, but as it is right now - I don't think so. Still, it's the best I've seen from the Wachowski's yet and that says a lot for me.

 

 

A+

[RobinHood26]

James whats your real grade. I already know every movie you like gets an automatic A. But compared to other A+ movies what would you give it? 

 

Because you gave the Hobbit an A but then said compared to LOTR its a B. Whats your true grade? Or is this movie just as good as ROTK? 

[James]

James whats your real grade. I already know every movie you like gets an automatic A. But compared to other A+ movies what would you give it? 

 

Because you gave the Hobbit an A but then said compared to LOTR its a B. Whats your true grade? Or is this movie just as good as ROTK? 

No, it's a B+ movie compared to ROTK. I mean, there's no A movie compared to that. Actually, that's not true. DH2 gets an A.

Edited February 16, 2015 by 69 Shades of James

[Ethan Hunt]

See I don't understand giving movies grades based upon comparing it to my favorite movie. Transformers has it's own special grade for me A++

There is a certain standard set for A+ films, and A films, and so on. If I feel a film meets my standards for an A+ film then I will give it an A+

[James]

See I don't understand giving movies grades based upon comparing it to my favorite movie. Transformers has it's own special grade for me A++

There is a certain standard set for A+ films, and A films, and so on. If I feel a film meets my standards for an A+ film then I will give it an A+

I am the same. I gave JA an A+, didn't I?

[RobinHood26]

I am the same. I gave JA an A+, didn't I?

 

Nvm, I give up, its pointless. 

Edited February 16, 2015 by Jay Hollywood

[Empire]

No, it's a B+ movie compared to ROTK. I mean, there's no A movie compared to that. Actually, that's not true. DH2 gets an A.

This way of grading movies makes my head hurt.

[Alpha]

 

C-

[Rorschach]

I was gonna say C but I'll say B- because Channing Tatum with wings

Red Bull gives Channing Tatum wings Edited February 16, 2015 by Ackerman Master Race

[ShouldIBeHere]

I at least had hoped for it to be entertainingly bad or surprisingly good.

 

But it was just mostly bad in a boring way.

 

D+