Jupiter Ascending Review

‘Could this get any weirder?’ Mila Kunis asks at one point in Jupiter Ascending. With bees that recognise royalty, hover shoes that allow the wearer to skate and surf in thin air, and Channing Tatum wearing pointy prosthetic ears; the answer is definitely no Mila, it probably bloody couldn’t.

Jupiter Jones (Kunis) is an ordinary girl from Chicago, born under a night sky with the stars aligned to spell out her destiny for future greatness. Her reality is cleaning toilets; day in, day out like a modern day Cinderella. Out of the stars, flies her very own Prince Charming... or perhaps that should be Prince Channing, with Tatum playing a hunter who has been sent to Earth to find his princess. He’s a genetically engineered ex-military hybrid; part man, part dog with gravity defying boots and a keen sense of smell. His mission is to discover Jupiter who, unbeknownst to her, is actually an intergalactic royal heir and in line to inherit a fortune that could decide the future of every human on Earth.

The Wachowski siblings have never really dealt in small ideas. Their debut Bound feels light years away from this epic space saga which eclipses even The Matrix and Cloud Atlas for the scope of its ambition. However, Jupiter Ascending is not the masterpiece that either The Matrix was, or that Cloud Atlas may one day be hailed as. It is brimming with action, special effects and imagination, but is sadly lacking when it comes to character and real emotion. This is like The Fifth Element on steroids; if you liked Luc Besson’s vision of the galaxy, strap in for more bonkers creatures and OTT villains than you can shake a misplaced Lightsaber at.

Jupiter Ascending has Hogwarts extras, Koopa Troopas from The Super Mario Bros movie, henchman dressed like gimps and plenty more crazy aliens for its down to earth heroine to contend with. It also has Eddie Redmayne on turbo charged uber-villain duties. As one of a trio of royal siblings that are squabbling over what to do about the threat that Jupiter poses to them, he chews the huge and extravagantly designed scenery to pieces. With his creepy features and strained voice, it is a shame when he resorts to moments of SHOUTING to make sure he tips over into pantomime.

Jupiter Ascending is a film filled with chasing and rescuing, but the action scenes go by in a bit of a blur of special effects and repetitiveness. Kunis gets a few chances to show her charm but spends most of the film going from outrageous costume to costume and either clinging to Tatum or chasing Channing (who forgets to put his shirt on for a large section of the film) for a quick kiss. If Jupiter Ascending isn’t numbing with its action, it’s getting bogged down with the likes of Sean Bean delivering pages of exposition. If you just want to know what's in Tatum's genes, you might want to wait for Magic Mike XXL.

Still, if you like big special effects driven space odysseys more like The Fifth Element than Interstellar, then Jupiter Ascending might just be the star you’ve been searching for. 

Watch the trailer:

More recent reviews from I Love That Film:

Selma

American Sniper

Birdman

The Imitation Game

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

New trailers: Godzilla, Edge of Tomorrow, Jupiter Ascending

Three brand new trailers to celebrate this festive season; Godzilla, Edge of Tomorrow and Jupiter Ascending.

Godzilla

The teaser trailer for Godzilla is finally here after a few false starts  and many videos going online before being taken down and blah blah blah. Starting with a group of soldiers being dropped into a city and putting us right in the point of view of one of them, there is an unbelievable air of dread about the whole thing. We get glimpses of a fair amount of destruction, a lot of running and a decent slice of emoting, particularly from Bryan Cranston, the artist formerly known as Walter White. Godzilla only briefly emerges from the smoke but it's a hell of a lot more of the monster than we got from the Cloverfield trailer back in 2008. Enjoy!



Edge of Tomorrow

Retitled from the probably a bit better but equally baffling All You Need is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. It looks a little bit Source Code, a little bit Groundhog Day but has a hell of a lot more big ass guns, big ass explosions and looks a hell of a lot of fun. The soundtrack to the trailer is suitably robotic and repetitive and I wonder if they are now going to release a new trailer to Fatboy Slim's Eat Sleep Rave Repeat but perhaps re-dub with Eat, Kill, Die, Repeat. Check out the trailer:



Jupiter Ascending

The Wachowski's don't look ready to dial down their desire for the epic anytime soon. After the critically divisive Cloud Atlas, they return with more science fiction, this time with Channing Tatum in distracting makeup and Mila Kunis looking gorgeous as ever. Not sure what is going on here but it certainly looks huge in scope, loaded with special effects and hopefully might have a few big ideas up its sleeve. Check out the trailer:



Any of these take your fancy?

CLOUD ATLAS will blow your mind

Cloud Atlas is finally out in the UK today after a long delay since it was released in the US last October. Here is my review of the epic film adaptation of David Mitchell’s best selling novel starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.

Six stories over six very different time periods. All put together these stories suggest the interconnectedness of human life both throughout history and across races, genders and boundaries of power and exploitation. Sounds pretentious? Well it should be but Cloud Atlas smashes through boundaries to become one of the biggest and best epics of the century so far.

From the 19th century to the distant post-apocalyptic future, humans appear bound to both each other and to making recurring mistakes, but also to form bonds of kindness and cruelty that can create ripples of consequences through history.

In 1849, a doctor helps an African slave escape aboard a ship; in 1936, a young composer is exploited by his older mentor; in 1973, a journalist comes under threat while trying to expose the dangers of a San Francisco nuclear power plant; in 2012, an editor tries to escape from a nursing home. Then in the future of 2144, a clone-slave in Neo Seoul escapes captivity to reveal the disturbing truth of her society; and finally in a post-apocalyptic future, the survival of civilization on a distant planet is threatened. Somehow these are all connected.

Slavery is present in numerous forms, love blooms in unlikely places and the human capacity for good and evil is explored across time and space. From the slave girls of Neo Seoul to the African slaves of days gone by, exploitation is everywhere, the ability of power to corrupt and for the oppressed to rise up is ever present.

Directors the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix) and Tom Tykwer (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer) pull off the impossible, transforming a book incredibly difficult to adapt into a visually stunning and brilliantly crafted piece of cinema. Some of the parallels and similiarities between the stories are made more obvious here than in the book and it makes for a more streamlined and coherent retelling, easier to follow and promoting themes to the forefront of viewers’ minds.

The choice to have actors taking on a multiplicity of roles is bold and brilliant. Though there are missteps (Tom Hanks' Irish gangster is a notable misfire), the idea that any actor can play any role, whether it be Black, White, Asian, male or female is central to the films thesis and despite the make up failing to hide the true ethnicities of the characters, the point is loud and clearly recieved. We are all the same underneath these labels we have given each other. Some have called it tasteless, but it is a brave and noble idea that on the whole succeeds.

Tom Hanks excels in some roles but dissapoints in others. Ben Whishaw emerges as a stand out, mainly as the young composer, but the entire cast admirably tackle their many roles, sometimes even completely disappearing under the layers of make up. Hugh Grant and Hugo Weaving also make the most of sinister characters, making memorable villains out of minor roles in a number of the stories.

Cloud Atlas is incredibly ambitious, an impossible adaptation that manages to capture the essence of the book and improve it with a streamlined and smart narrative structure. The directors have created breathtaking, visually astounding different worlds, taken a potentially pretentious idea and visualised it on a grand scale, both entertaining and intellectually stimulating.

There may be flaws and it may test some viewers’ patience but Cloud Atlas is an emotional and unforgettable piece of epic cinema.

Rating 4/5

Cloud Atlas is released in the UK on Friday 22nd February 2013. Watch the extended trailer below but be warned, it's nearly as long as the film!