Movie Review: "Jupiter Ascending"

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

PG-13

2.5 Stars out of 5

Writer/Directors                Andy and Lana Wachowski
Cinematography                John Toll
Music                                   Michael Giacchino
Art Direction                       Charlie Revai (Supervising Art Director)

Jupiter Jones                       Mila Kunis
Channing Tatum                 Caine Wise
Sean Bean                            StingerApini
Eddie Redmayne                Balem Abrasax
Tuppence Middleton        Kalique Abrasax
Douglas Booth                   Titus Abrasax
Maria Doyle Kennedy       Aleksa

 

In 1984 David Lynch tried to bring to the screen Frank Herbert’s masterpiece, Dune. The movie was visionary in many ways with remarkable artwork and a sense of just how alien a human civilization far into the future could be. That being said, the movie was something of a mess; perhaps a cinematic example of one’s grasp not equaling one’s reach. In the book, Dune was a fully realized world of customs, cultures, characters and yes, the basics of science fiction, technology and action sequences. But can such a wide ranging world vision be also fully realized in a single two or three hour movie? David Lynch failed to do so in “Dune”, and now the Wachowski siblings have failed as well with their 2015, “Jupiter Ascending”. Somewhat like “Dune”, the Wachowski’s have tried to grasp just how alien a human civilization could be (while telling a young woman-centric tale), but like Lynch their reach has just as surely failed to create a story that both incorporates a vision of that alien universe and a coherent story line that has any kind of connection to the viewing audience.

The film starts off in a mildly promising manner as it describes how Jupiter Jones’ (Mila Kunis) parents meet and fall in love in St. Petersburg, Russia. After losing her husband during a robbery, Aleksa (Maria Doyle Kennedy) flees to America with her soon to be born daughter, Jupiter. Jupiter grows to be a young woman that works as a maid to the wealthy. The audience is led to believe Jupiter has dreams beyond cleaning toilets. Meanwhile, the film shifts to the Abrasax siblings: Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Kalique (Tuppence Middleton), and Titus (Douglas Booth). These three scions of a powerful family seem to come straight out of a play by Shakespeare (King Lear?). They war amongst themselves even as their wealth comes from “harvesting” planets such as Earth. The harvest consists of sacrificing the populations of the galaxy’s various Earth-like planets in order to create a type of youth serum. These early parts of the story are reasonably straightforward, but the story then gets intentionally byzantine as it tries to detail how the three Abrasax siblings vie with one another to capture Jupiter. You might reasonably wonder why a toilet-cleaning Russian émigré to America would be such a hot target. Evidently, Jupiter is an exact genetic match for the deceased matriarch to the Abrasax family, and thus a threat or a target of one sort or the other to Balem & Co. Sent in to “rescue” Jupiter is Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), a gene splice from human and wolf genomes. Fortunately for Jupiter, her future beau looks more human than canine. In any event, a series of CGI and live action stunts quickly ensues as everyone jockeys to control Jupiter.

According to statements made by Lana Wachowski, she was inspired by Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” when she co-wrote this movie with her brother. Her intent was to show that strong female characters could find a way to solve their problems without resorting to the tactics employed by males. That may have been her intent, but what she and her brother have produced is a series of meetings between Jupiter, her companion/protector Caine (i.e. Toto) and the three Abrasax offspring; each meeting linked by standard sci-fi CGI pyrotechnics. Admittedly, the stunts and CGI are impressive, most notably an extended fight above Chicago. But the meetings are repetitive and inane: Jupiter is asked in two of the three meetings to sign away her genetic rights, the audience knows this is a big mistake, and at the last moment, Toto/Caine rushes in to save her. This script, poorly defined as it is, is still clear enough for the average viewer to look at it, yawn, and mumble to themselves, been there, done that. Was this script really written by the same authors that wrote “Cloud Atlas” (2012) – a truly thoughtful and coherent film with something to say about the endurance of love, the abuse of the weak by bullies, and the ravages being wreaked upon the Earth?

I am fully willing to grant the Wachoskis’ and their Art Director, Charlie Revai high marks for an intriguing vision brought to the many alien set pieces. Much of the wardrobe and clever notions as to what gene splicing might do, or what a far future robot might look like were quite entertaining. And there were multiple sequences where humor was well done; most notable was a longish segment wherein Jupiter had to run a bureaucratic gauntlet to gain her genetic rights. This latter part of the movie had a scene between robots of identical appearance but opposite agenda contesting one another, and yet one more segment played by Terry Gilliam of “Brazil” (1985) replaying a scene from “Brazil” as he finally grants Jupiter her rights. The other technical aspect of the movie worth commenting on is the score by Michael Giacchino. I may be in the minority based on other reviews I have read (reviews that commented favorably on the score), but I found the score to be bombastic; though it was fully in sync with the whole notion of a movie played as yet one more comic-book inspired film.

If one wants to see a movie propelled by special effects, “Jupiter Ascending” may be the movie to see. But I found it seriously disappointing. The art work, the costumes, and the hints of ideas as to just how exotic a human civilization could become suggest to me a movie with much more depth than just one more action-packed space opera. This movie could have been like “Cloud Atlas” a movie that used science fiction to explore ideas and themes that could not be explored in any other genre. Instead, it settled for one more example of the comic book movie genre, never really getting into any ideas worth thinking about. Frankly, if a fun, mindless space opera is what you want, go see “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014); it’s better made, more logically written and much more entertaining.