Movie Review – Jupiter Ascending (2015)
By: Garrett Collins
Starring: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, and Sean Bean
It seems to be more rare than ever to go see a new science fiction film with characters who were NOT originally read about on sets of glossy comic book pages. Over and over again, it seems people -me included- have been saying that Hollywood has become just a tad too comic book friendly. While these films have been consistently pulling in the dough for almost eight years now, I feel it is high time a film come out which doesn’t take already established characters and bring them to life for all to see. For that task, we have the Wachowskis. Creators of the incredibly immersive Matrix universe, the Wachowskis have taken a break from adapting books such as Cloud Atlas and V For Vendetta to return us to their mesmeric imaginations with Jupiter Ascending. Part Star Trek, part Star Wars, and yes, part The Matrix, Jupiter Ascending has accomplished the feat of bringing whole new characters and environments to the big screen. As Tom Hanks so elegantly put it around the time Cloud Atlas was released, you will never see the Wachowskis do anything halfway. If they put their minds to something, it will be done all the way. In the case of Jupiter Ascending, I would honestly say it works a lot of the time. But some bad casting choices and scattered storytelling keep it from being the science fiction masterpiece the Wachowskis (and studio heads who fit the bill) were looking for.
The plot of Jupiter Ascending is an alluring one, and for the first hour or so rarely missteps. Jupiter Jones (Kunis) is a woman with an outlandish name living a mundane life. That is, until she goes to a clinic to donate eggs for a greedy family member. The clinic is attacked and she finds herself getting rescued by Caine Wise (Tatum), a man who possesses the genetic splice of lycanthrope and bird. The reasons why and where the story goes needs to be experienced to be able to fully take in. An eight minute action scene shortly after these two meet is obviously meticulously storyboarded and incredibly breathtaking, and any questions as to if the Wachowskis had lost their action directing touch are answered in this long but never boring chase. Jupiter Ascending is full of scenes like this, which ultimately may be a key to its flaws. Whenever the story starts failing it, we are distracted by some beautiful costume and character design (the blue haired Asian girl who rides a cloaked air vehicle is my favorite), and it is only after thinking about the film later when these problems become readily apparent. For example, after Wise rescues Jupiter from the clinic attack, we are never shown the girl whose identity Jupiter took when she originally went to the clinic to begin with. Why the Wachowskis would let an obvious McGuffin like this hang in the air like one of their special effect ships is mind-boggling to me.
But the problems with Jupiter Ascending do not stop there. To play the emotionally tortured villain of the film, the Wachowskis called on Eddie Redmayne. Redmayne, who had a great 2014 with the critically acclaimed The Theory of Everything, is either the victim of bad character development or had a huge misinterpretation of the part he was given. I feel it is a little of both, as there are some scenes where he plays Balem yelling like the second coming of Michael Shannon’s Zod. Yet in others, his soft, hard to understand delivery made me look for a remote control with a subtitle button.
But whereas Redmayne has trouble with the material, Kunis (who is the first voice we hear in voice-over as the film starts) is a victim of bad miscasting. Now, do not get me wrong. I have absolutely no problems with Kunis as an actress. I have always adamantly said that I felt she was the best part of 2010’s Black Swan, and in the right role (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) she can be magnetizing. An action science fiction story, however, is NOT the right role for her. The two other people considered for this role were Rooney Mara and Kunis’s Swan buddy Natalie Portman (who recommended Kunis after she dropped out.) Both of these actresses can come off as both strong-willed and vulnerable. In the beginning of Jupiter Ascending, Kunis was really struggling with both. She gets better as the film moves along. But the early scenes, as well as one liners which she threw out and landed with a thud -though I will admit to laughing at her ‘I love dogs’ line- were almost detrimental to the film’s overall arc.
One more issue I had with Jupiter Ascending is its middle is a bit of a slog to get through. Here we are, going from an action scene to some exposition given by Bean, when all of a sudden a character named Titus (Booth) declares to marry Jupiter and then kill her. After a bit of an homage to Alien, Caine does get there in time to rescue her. But at this point, almost all exhilaration was gone. And although the film puts together a kick ass finale, it never quite lives up to its first hour. The scatterness of the film is probably the result of a script which reportedly had a draft of 600 pages.
Even with its faults, Jupiter Ascending is the attempt at originality in the world of science fiction which I have been looking forward to for years. How many films have jabs at capitalism, an homage to steam punk bureaucracy, and a pair of shoes worn by Tatum which will make you want to put all anticipation for the shoes from Back to the Future II away for the ability to fly through the air and skate? The film contains the most bewitching and seductive score of Michael Giacchino’s entire career. On top of all that, we also have lizards with gargoyle wings (which reminded me of The Fifth Element) and silver skinned bounty hunters. While The Matrix will probably always be the epitome of the Wachoskis’ popularity, I feel Jupiter Ascending will be remembered as a film which tested how wide the past half century’s science fiction and fantasy inspiration has spread. Will that result in yet another popular franchise? Probably not. But to me, it is the next best thing. It’s a nice try.
Final Rating: 6.5 out of 10