Sunday, February 15, 2015

Jupiter Ascending – review

Jupiter Ascending is a sci-fi movie directed by the Wachowskis that pays homage to a lot of the movies that came before it.  There are elements of Star Wars, Dune, Cloud Atlas, and even Brazil. The cast is charismatic and a lot of fun to watch. It is a clever space opera that hopefully will get its audience despite the poor reviews.

Jupiter Jones, played by Mila Kunis, is a cleaning woman who hates her life. After going to sell her eggs at a fertility clinic, she is attacked by aliens.  Caine Wise, played by Channing Tatum, saves her. Jupiter discovers that she is a member of the royal family, Abrasax, who control various planets and reduce the populations into a youth serum.  Jupiter becomes entwined in assassination plots and power feuds.

Mila Kunis is cute as a button. She is a strong female protagonist that makes the story very relatable. Channing Tatum is good at playing a heroic space adventurer.  Eddie Redmanye as Balem, the evil dynastic ruler, hams it up like a melodrama villain. Everyone is enjoyable in his or her part and make the movie entertaining.

The costumes are nothing short of amazing. The sets and the designs of this universe are unique and wildly fun. From the dinosaur guards to the ships that resemble Renaissance buildings, there was clearly a great deal of vision put into this movie.  It was especially hilarious to see how even though the worlds are incredibly high tech they still have to deal with slow and inefficient bureaucrats.

If you are a fan of sci-fi movies you will likely enjoy this movie.  It is a smart movie that delivers on action with characters that really are enjoyable. It would be interesting to see if this grows into a series like the Matrix movies.  It is certainly worth checking out for a good time at the movies.