Movie Review Monday: Jupiter Ascending

IMDB

Stand-alone to date

PG-13

Notable Cast:

Channing Tatum

Mila Kunis

Eddie Redmayne

IMDB Blurb:

"A young woman discovers her destiny as an heiress of intergalactic nobility and must fight to protect the inhabitants of Earth from an ancient and destructive industry."

Review:

Okay so this had such a great premise and it could have been a great movie!  But it wasn't.  To be honest, I think this would have been best as a duology because there's simply not enough information but maybe they will make a second movie!  You never know...

To expand on that, there were just too many loose ends at the end of the movie.  For example, what happened to the youngest brother, Titus?  After his plan with Jupiter failed, did he really just not do anything else?

The whole thing with the 'industry' (I don't want to give away that part because it's the best reveal in the movie) was actually really great and makes you think about if there are any alien races (ish - again spoiler) out there and if they're simply using the rest of the planets for their gain.

In general, though, the way things were explained were a bit confusing and they sort of took the back road with the whole explaining thing.  There were also things that weren't elaborated on that should have been (like Caine's condition and what it actually means).  There are just so many holes!

As for the romance, I really, really want to love it and I do sort of because it is sweet but it's also so cliche and sort of insta-lovey.  It's the typical, boy saves girl, they go on an adventure, near death experiences, badabing badabang they're in love.  There was also this whole damsel-in-distress thing going on with Jupiter that I could NOT get over.

Despite all that nastiness, there are good things like the action and as I've already mentioned, the whole idea.  There have been a lot of space films recently but none quite like this which I can appreciate (although at some points I couldn't help but think of the Lunar Chronicles...) so I think it deserves 3 stars over 2 because some form of originality is hard to come by in Hollywood.

The Final Verdict:

It was just an okay movie with some rather annoying holes in the explanations and plot lines that weren't completed (like what the family remembered in the aftermath... THAT was totally glossed over).  Jupiter at least tried to be a strong character even though she ended up as the damsel-in-distress quite a few times.  The action is great and the premise was pretty good as well.

3 stars

Quotes:

"My mother made me understand that every human society is a pyramid, and that some lives will always matter more than others. It is better to accept this than to pretend that it isn't true."

"It can be difficult for people from underdeveloped worlds to hear that their planet is not the only inhabited planet."

"We need a plan."

"We need firepower."

"Life is an act of consumption, Jupiter. To live is to consume and the human beings on your planet are merely a resource waiting to be converted into capital, and this entire enterprise is just a small part in a vast and beautiful machine defined by evolution, designed to a single purpose: to create profit."

"The more you care, the more the world finds ways to hurt you for it."

"Time is the single most precious commodity in the universe."