Jupiter Ascending (2015)

[WingedSerpent]

Anybody here own one of the Spectrum books?  Their these annual volumes awarding the best in Sci-Fi and fantasy art.  One of those or five random pages of Deviant art seem like they would form the story boards for this movie.  It looks incredible.  From the strange space ships, to the galactic cities, to the designs of the backgrounds and props looks amazing.

The movie's story however, left somethings to be desired.

Jupiter (Mila Kunis) is a house cleaner working with her immigrant family in Chicago.  Her astronomer father was killed by a home invasion and so her family came to America and she was born in transit.  (That was a part that didn't sit right with me, but I'll get into that later).

At a clinic, the doctors revel themselves to be aliens and try to kill her. She's saved by a hunter who is a human/ wolf hybrid and its reveled she is a genetic reincarnation of a matriarch of a family dynasty that rules much of the universe. The three other siblings are trying to get her either killed, or married to one of them (basically marring their mother)  order to legally harvest the human race.

At times, this movie was trying so hard to be Dune it was kind of funny. 

This is one of those movies where I was waiting for an info dump just so I knew what was going on.  Plenty of things happen that seem important or certain plot threads are abandoned.

Like when I said when the father is killed at the beginning, its acted and played much more like its a professional hit instead of the random home invasion its supposed to be.  For a while I thought the aliens where trying to kill the prospective heir to the throne, but no.  They didn't know about her until much later.

By the way, this movie uses a good amount of UFO lore, like ancient aliens origins, cover-ups aand even crop circles in the first have.  During the second half is when it becomes Dune.

At that point, the movie tries its hand at intrigue with waring factions inside a powerful house, control over important resources, and the most blantant set up for a Solent Green reference I've every seen in a film. (I didn't say joke, because that part is plaid straight, but its something that Mike and the Bots would look at and say "Nah, too easy")

And man, did this movie ever have one of the least threatening main bad guys ever.  The eldest son of the house, is one of these villians that mainly speaks in whispers, then when he tries to be loud it sounded like his voice was cracking.  I was laughing at him.  Maybe that was the point.  That this guy was more of a child trying to be imposing when he really wasn't-and that was similar to the other one as well.   

Definitely a style over substance movie, that tried to have a complex plot-but didn't get it to work as well as they wanted. 

It looks amazing, and I might  recommend it only because it helps to see it on the big screen. 

[Flangepart]

Ah, yes...whisper Villains have it hard in the movies. Just like real life.
Hard to get things done when the minions are asking 'What did he say? Abduct the Churl? What's a Churl?"

[rebel_1812]

am I the only one turned off by Mila Kunis as an actress.  She always plays the same character and is never likable in movies.  Her movies doesn't seem to do well at the box office either.  Pretty much made the Max Payne movie unwatchable.  Why do they keep casting her?

[Flangepart]

Because she's cute and works cheap?
Nice FX...but the title does seem misspelled...should be 'Jupiter A$$-ending.'

[zombie no.one]

am I the only one turned off by Mila Kunis as an actress.  She always plays the same character and is never likable in movies. 

I think she's pretty hot but not a great actress. In fact Ive only seen 1 movie with her in, American Psycho 2, which was so bad it was hilarious. definitely recommend that to all bad movie lovers btw...

[Neville]

Is this as bad as it seems? Didn't care much for the Matrix sequels, but I like the films the Waxhowskis did afterwards, like "Speed Racer" and "The Cloud Atlas".

[daveblackeye15]

I plan to see it Friday. I want to see it since I hear it's a trainwreck and one part because it sounds like an interesting set of ideas.

[ChaosTheory]

And man, did this movie ever have one of the least threatening main bad guys ever.  The eldest son of the house, is one of these villians that mainly speaks in whispers, then when he tries to be loud it sounded like his voice was cracking.  I was laughing at him. 

You mean the villain played by OSCAR-WINNER EDDIE REDMAYNE? I can't wait until the BR/DVD comes out and they can slap that statement across it 
I'm on the fence about watching this one. The trailers looked so so stupid but I generally like the Wachowskis (MATRIX sequels aside).

[Zapranoth]

Go in with your sights set low, and expect eye candy and a movie that bursts with its own insane mythology, and it's all good.
I enjoyed it a lot.  But don't go in expecting high art.     I think pretty much all of us here are capable of that.

[GoHawks]

At times, this movie was trying so hard to be Dune it was kind of funny. 

One of the production companies that made this movie is "Dune Entertainment".  Coincidence? 

Take a look at Wikipedia's list of films they produced.  Many of these I've never even heard of.  Most of those I have heard of you couldn't pay me to watch, especially those made for 20^th Century Fox.  (Of course, YMMV; I like bad movies, I just don't like terrible ones.)

[Neville]

I finally watched it. I came in with my expectations low, but I still found myself confused and bored after a few minutes.

On the other hand, it does have a heroine who cleans toilets for a living, which is something neither Luke Skywalker nor Flash Gordon would know how to do.