MOVIE REVIEW: Jupiter Ascending

Written & Directed by The Wachowskis.

Starring Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglass Booth and Tuppence Middleton.

PG-13, 127 minutes.

Undocumented immigrant Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) begins the movie scrubbing toilets for the upper crust in Chicago. She wakes up every morning with a half-hearted “I hate my life” before she puts on the morning coffee for her mother and her aunt, all cramped together in the same room. There have been few humbler beginnings for protagonists destined for greatness, but you wouldn’t know it by the sterile gloss in which her drudgery is depicted in The Wachowskis’ new space opera.

Residing in that tricky gray area between science fiction and outright fantasy, the space opera can be difficult to pull off. Most often, the material will come across as inherently campy, especially when you throw in giant, winged reptiles, a space station docked within the clouds of Jupiter and a plot to continually rejuvenate the lives of the wealthy ripped straight from Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her. The direction taken with Jupiter Ascending suggests more of the earnestness of Star Wars than the sardonic winking of more recent fare like Guardians of the Galaxy. While the straight-faced goofiness on display is endearing, the story unfolds in overly-complicated, sporadic bursts that make it difficult to care about what’s going on.

In a universe that stretches to countless habitable planets, human beings have survived for billions of years as the dominant species. Against an increasingly convoluted backdrop, our heroine finds herself in the middle of an intergalactic dispute when it’s revealed she has the same genetic makeup as the deceased matriarch of the Abrasax family, the most powerful in the galaxy. Her protector is Cain Wise (Channing Tatum), a splice of human and wolf DNA with a checkered past and some sweet boots that allow him to whiz about the sky in defiance of gravity. Together, the two go up against the three Abrasax siblings (Eddie Redmayne, Douglass Booth and Tuppence Middleton) with the fate of the Earth in the balance.

As written, Jupiter is hardly a compelling character, providing the sort of blank slate audiences can project themselves onto only if this fantastic universe she’s experiencing for the first time is ours as well. This is broken, unfortunately, when we see the universe conspiring against her before her actual involvement in the story. Several extended scenes with our villains and the people they hire to protect or kill Jupiter are sprinkled throughout the first act instead of being used as a hook to bait the audience further into the story (see The Wachowskis’ own The Matrix).

This kind of shortcoming can be slightly remedied by a strong performance, but Mila Kunis’ plucky demeanor doesn’t translate amidst all the craziness going on around her. She doesn’t even have time to fully embrace the crazy, either, as she’s only given transitional scenes with which to comment on how “weird” her life is becoming (although there’s a wonderfully bizarre sequence showcasing the universe’s extreme bureaucracy). The only thing she seems to do best is make obviously manipulated decisions that undercut the kind of capable woman the filmmakers seem to believe she is.

Her romance with Tatum, presumably one of the main selling points, fizzles out as well. Not for an apparent lack of chemistry between them, more from a sense that the movie isn’t really trying to develop their relationship beyond his devotion to saving her at the last minute, and her subsequent gratitude for the heroics. While it’s troubling that The Wachowskis’ have not improved their handling of romances. It’s almost enough to forgive when lines like “I’ve always loved dogs” are would-be lead ins for a smooch.

If The Wachowskis are up to their usual tricks in the realm of abrupt romances and clunky character development, then the same goes for the intriguing ideas and dazzling special effects. An early action set piece whizzing around the skyline of Chicago is especially outstanding. The obscene amount of money put up to fully render this universe in a compelling way is clearly visible, making the shortcomings all the more glaring, unfortunately.

Jupiter Ascending, while not a total waste, comes as something of a disappointment following the truly fantastic Cloud Atlas. It marks what could be the final time the directors receive a blank check to do whatever they want, which is both a shame and probably a good thing all the same. Maybe next time, their penchant for fascinating ideas crossed with a mainstream sensibility won’t be muddled by questionable pacing and a script that could have used a little more polishing before it went in front of the cameras.

If you enjoyed N. Demmy’s ascent, you can find his latest work right HERE and his earlier articles and reviews over HERE.S

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