Reviews: Jupiter Ascending (2015)

                           

           
                   Send This Movie To 'Jupiter' Where It Belongs

      At the very beginning, Mila Kunis' character says "I hate my life" as she wakes up. That line probably sums up the reaction of those that had to suffer through this movie, including myself.

      Story:
     Jupiter Ascending follows the story of a woman named Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) who is hunted down by three royal siblings from space looking to claim her ownership of Earth that apparently she is entitled to and ends up being protected by a half-man half-wolf named Caine (Channing Tatum).

      Ups:
    I thought the score by Michael Giacchino was pretty good and quite beautiful. I won't go deep into the effects and production design because these days, the effects and production design on sci-fi films usually do look spectacular.

     Downs:
    First, I'll go into the acting. While I thought Channing Tatum does a good enough job, Mila Kunis looked bored out of her mind. She looked like she kept waiting for her check to clear. Same with Sean Bean. Also, while Gugu Mbatha-Raw does a fine job with the small role she is given, she is still wasted. Lastly, I'll get into Eddie Redmayne. His performance is so laughably bad, that once you see it, you can't unsee it. I'm quite stunned the Academy didn't take his Oscar back as punishment.

     Also, the script is such a mess, with too many ideas and things going on, that I didn’t follow all the different characters and plot points. Nor did I care about what was going on. Plus, what angered me so much about the film was how it was a sci-fi film that still delved into stuff like revenue and land ownership and so on. I don't watch sci-fi for that stuff.  I want to be transported to a different future or universe. Yet I don't want to watch a sci-fi version of MSNBC nor do I want to see too many ideas put together. A few characters at a time and no overbloated visual effects. Speaking of the characters, because there are so many, I just didn't care what happened to them. Especially Jupiter who is such a weak damsel that it is a shame that we are still getting characters like her in the midst of films like The Hunger Games and Frozen which depict stronger female characters.

    Consensus:
  Overall, Jupiter Ascending is an overbloated anger inducing mess that seems destined to rank among the likes of other D-grade sci-fi films like Barbarella and Battlefield Earth. 

Grade: F