JUPITER ASCENDING (PG-13)
Released by Warner Brothers
Review by Adam Mast
While at the Sundance Film Festival in late January, a handful of attendees were surprised by a secret screening of the new sci-fi film, JUPITER ASCENDING. Sundance is a very unlikely place to unveil a big, splashy Hollywood movie, but for whatever reason, that’s what Warner Brothers did. While I wasn’t there, word coming out of Park City’s historic Egyptian Theater immediately following the screening was not good.
It’s been a long road for this latest epic from the visionary Wachowski siblings (THE MATRIX). JUPITER ASCENDING was initially expected to make its theatrical debut last summer, but Warner Brothers mysteriously pulled it from the schedule and revealed that they would bump the release back by nearly 6 months. That announcement would be followed by a big marketing push at Comic-Con International where reaction to the footage screened was lukewarm at best.
One good thing that’s come out of all the negative buzz surrounding this movie is that it lowered my expectations and this probably greatly factored into my liking JUPITER ASCENDING a lot more than I might have otherwise. As it stands, what this movie lacks by way of a messy, meandering, campy, ape shit crazy screenplay, it more than makes up for by way of visual bravado and an outstanding Michael Giacchino score. Seriously! This movie is positively amazing to look at! From the art direction, to the costumes, to the ship designs, to the breathtaking visual effects, the Wachowskis have, once again, proven to be expert world builders on a grand scale and quite frankly, I wish I would have seen this one in IMAX.
In JUPITER ASCENDING, Mila Kunis is Jupiter Jones (no relation to Indiana)– A fatherless beauty looking for a purpose in life. She spends her mundane days as a caretaker but she continues to hold out hope that there’s more to her existence than cleaning toilets. Jupiter soon discovers that she is of far greater importance then she ever could have imagined after being saved by pointy eared alien, Caine Wise (played by Channing Tatum), during a medical procedure. Wise, as it turns out, is a part wolf, part man-hybrid warrior and he’s the only thing that stands between Jupiter and a world destroying baddie called Balam Abrasax (a gleefully morose Eddie Redmayne.)
To call JUPITER ASCENDING overstuffed would be a gross understatement. Essentially, this is a madcap fusion of STAR WARS, CINDERELLA, FLASH GORDON, SUPERMAN, THOR, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, INTERSTELLAR, MEN IN BLACK, Abrams’ STAR TREK reboot, and THE MATRIX, with a pinch of SPACEBALLS thrown in for good measure. There are elements borrowed from other sci-fi and fantasy properties as well, but the previously mentioned titles are the most noteworthy.
The Wachowskis have a propulsive energy that keeps this sci-fi milkshake from turning in to the lifeless movie it could have been had it been in the hands of a lesser film-maker. There are a handful of truly astonishing action sequences in this picture and while there were certainly countless moments when I was rolling my eyes from the sheer silliness of it all, I was never bored. Furthermore, the Wachowskis deserve props for treating the plot, no matter how absurd, with a certain measure of reverence and in its own odd way, the movie is all the more endearing for it. Essentially, this is a B-movie (make that a Bee-movie) in an A-list movie’s clothing.
Mila Kunis, while pretty, is a bit of a blank here and she fails to generate any sort of real chemistry with a very entertaining Channing Tatum but thankfully, JUPITER ASCENDING gets plenty of mileage out of a fun supporting cast including Redmayne and the great Sean Bean.
Listen, JUPITER ASCENDING is hardly a master work. It lacks the pure (and joyful) adventurous spirit of last year’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and it fails to capture the poetic, intricate nature of the under-appreciated CLOUD ATLAS but still, this is a colorful, vibrant, energetic ride and it’s far from being the disaster some would have you believe.
