Name: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb page
Genres: Horror, Mystery
Cast: Mila Kunis as Jupiter Jones, Channing Tatum as Caine Wise, Eddie Redmayne as Balem Abrasax, Sean Bean as Stinger Apini, Douglas Booth as Titus Abrasax, Tuppence Middleton as Kalique Abrasax, Charlotte Beaumont as Kiza, Doona Bae as Razo, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Diomika Tsing.
Written and directed by: The Wachowskis
The Three Acts:
The initial tableau: Before Jupiter is born to a British astronomer father and a Russian mathematician mother, her father is killed and her mother's life destroyed by PC thugs in Russia. The film jump shifts to the 'present' (our future) in Chicago. In some impossibly rich other world, brothers Balem and Titus spar over opaque issues. Within this context, Earth is an extremely valuable bauble to be 'harvested'; this involves genocidal removal of all inhabitants. Jupiter is at the heart of this, since her DNA somehow blocks all transactions that the brothers quarrel over. In Jupiter's own life, there is little but hard work, poverty, and lack of mobility.
Delineation of conflicts: Balem owns Earth, Titus wants it, and Kalique conspires behind them both. Balem is drawn to Jupiter from past associations, but he intends to kill her to free up his harvesting of Earth. Titus hired Caine to find Jupiter and protect her from Balem. Someone has hired Apini; this takes a while to become clear. Jupiter has a lot of lost memories that filter back at odd moments. Worlds collide when Jupiter tries to sell some of her eggs for cash: her DNA is up for analysis.
Resolution: The conflicts go on and on, and do eventually resolve. It just takes a long time to get there.
One line summary: Poor script and acting undermine the lavish production.
Statistics:
a. Cinematography: 8/10 Most of the film is lovely to watch. The CGI, though ridiculous, is pretty to the eye.
b. Sound: 8/10 Mostly professionally recorded and assembled into the film.
c. Acting: 4/10 Mixed bag. Sean Bean and Nikki Amuka-Bird were fine. Channing Tatum was terrible. Doona Bae was even worse than usual. Eddie Redmayne was onscreen entirely too much.
d. Screenplay: 4/10 Based on the script, I answered the following questions. Whom do I identify with? No one. Whom do I empathise with? Again, no one. Is there a single character that I care about? No. Do I care about the fate of the future Earth? No, this is all clearly fantastical nonsense. Do I care about the society of ultra rich pampered aliens who treat Earth as a coal mine? No. These factors make 130 minutes of film seem terribly long.
Final rating: 5/10
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