The biggest
selling point for Jupiter Ascending would have been the fact that The
Wachowskis (no longer the Wachowski Brothers) are back after a hiatus of nearly
3 years. The siblings have never given
us a disappointing movie to date.
Complicated yes. Disappointing
never.
But all good
runs must come to an end. Midway through
Jupiter Ascending, I was actually put in a spot because the rest of the world
seemed to be panning this movie and I was perfectly happy with what I had seen
till then. But it was all downhill after
that. Almost everything about the second
half of Jupiter Ascending was not Wachowski.
The concept of
this latest Science Fiction flick set somewhere in the distant future in the
city of Chicago is quite impressive. The
Wachowskis begin by establishing that us humans are not the only intelligent
species in the world. In fact the world
that we live in today is a spin off from an ancient and distant planet (I cannot
remember the name at all).
The universe is
controlled by the Abrasax family who are currently down to three – the elder brother
Balem (Eddie Redmayne), the younger brother Titus (Douglas Booth) and the only
sister Kalique (Tuppence Middleton). Each
of them are over 10 millenia in age and own the universe. The part defined as Earth is owned by Balem.
However, as luck
would have it, the first right to Earth is actually with an unknown and
insignificant earthling called Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis). Jupiter happens to have an identical genetic
signature to the Matriarch of the Abrasax family and therefore automatically
has claim to Earth. Balem has other
ideas but standing in his way is an inter-galactic warrior called Caine Wise
(Channig Tatum).
Jupiter
Ascending is a concept that has hitherto not been explored. Parts of it are old but the concept of
farming human beings to extract the most valuable component of all – TIME – is fascinating. The build up through the first half is superb
with some great Wachowski style action of course the extremely Wachowski style
complex story.
The make up and
SFX are simply world class but the complicated story will not go down too well
with most people. Let me tell you that
it is much less complicated that Cloud Atlas which I thought was one of the most
amazing concepts in cinema history.
Having said that, the second half is disappointing.
The story moves
from a solid base into a mushy love story between Caine and Jupiter. The Wachowskis fail to hold the audience
thanks to some very average narration.
The below par performances don’t help the cause either. Mila Kunis and Tatum look woefully out of
place. But for Redmayne, the entire category of acting would not have met the
benchmark. 6 on 10 and possibly a one-time
watch.
Watch the trailer
on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3634147097/?ref_=tt_ov_vi
No comments:
Post a Comment