Have you ever gone to a movie expecting it to be bad? If you've seen any of the Twilight films I'm sure you have. This past weekend Jupiter Ascending was released into theaters around the country. The film was supposed to come out in the summer, but six weeks from its release the film was pulled. Some say due to bad test screenings. Warner Bros said it needed more time on special effects. Last week I watched every day as the critic rating for Jupiter Ascending on Rotten Tomatoes descended further and further into Transformers: Age of Extinction territory.
I went into this film hoping the cast could save it. Channing Tatum is starting to gain my respect as an actor with films like 22 Jump Street and Foxcatcher. Eddie Redmayne is in a two-horse race with Michael Keaton for the Best Actor category in this year's Oscars. And Mila Kunis just had Ashton Kutcher's baby. I feel like one of these thespians are making the wrong career choices.
Kunis plays Jupiter, a girl who lives with her Russian family in Chicago and works as a maid. One day she is abducted by aliens and is told she is the universal equivalent of a reincarnated space queen. In her will, the queen left her reincarnated-self control of Earth. But the queen's three children all want the planet for its resources, mainly for dissecting humans to make a liquid that keeps beings young forever. Along her journey, Jupiter is protected by a spliced-outcast turned bounty hunter; Caine. Played by Tatum, Caine must protect Jupiter from the royal family, and find a way to save Earth from their galactic greed.
Let me starts off by saying Channing Tatum was the best actor in this film. Three years ago I would have slapped myself for saying that. He plays the cool space-hero with some great gadgets. I want his gravity boots! This, along with the two other films I mentioned of his, is bringing me closer to believing he may actually be able to play Gambit from the X-Men come 2016. The real test will be the Cajun accent.
Eddie Redmayne is sadly the worst actor in the film. He plays a villain who mainly keeps his voice low and monotone, which would have worked if he didn't have fits of rage periodically. That's not called "playing it cool" that's called "turrets syndrome." Meanwhile, Mila Kunis did what she always does; she neither disappointed nor impressed me.
The Wachowski's may not have the best track record after the first Matrix film, but they are definitely one of the best at creating worlds. Even though I think this film is just a metaphor for how corporate greed will kill us all. I feel like they've only scratched the surface of this mythology as everything is being explained to the audience at a stop-and-go pace. We'd get a little bit of back story, and then a little bit of action, and then a little more back story, etc.
And I will give them credit for the visual effects. The actions sequences were great, and any film that features my favorite city to look at is good for me. Certain moments in the film almost made me feel like I was watching a 1980's sci-fi film like The Last Starfighter or Dune, with all the cheesiness included.
But the film suffered too much from bad to mediocre acting, bad pacing, and being about twenty minutes too long. I think there was plenty of material to be split into at least two films. This might have given the directing siblings an ability to keep the film more focused and have less dead space. I don't think the film deserves it's current 22% Rotten Tomatoes score, but it failed to live up to it's potential. I might even be willing to see a sequel, just to see how far this rabbit hole goes.
RATING: C-
No comments:
Post a Comment