Jupiter Ascending – Movie Review by Pamela Coyle Williams

Directors: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Writers: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Stars: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne

This action packed film starts in St Petersberg before moving to Chicago, where Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) lives with her Russian Mother (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and cleans toilets for a living – she hates her life. Yet she was born with signs predicting she is destined for greatness. Her dodgy cousin convinces her to harvest her eggs to make money, this is when she encounters Lord Balem’s (Eddie Redmayne) alien ‘keepers’, who try to kill her.  Lord Balem is heir to the Abrasax dynasty and owns earth. He wants Jupiter killed as her genetic make up is the same as his mother and this would make her Queen of the earth.  He has plans to harvest humans on earth to make a youth serum/honey that allows them to live for many millenia. Enter genetically modified inter-planetary hunter Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) who comes to earth to protect her from Balem and sets Jupiter on a path to learning her destiny.

Written and directed by the Andy and Lana (previously Larry) Wachowski who directed The Matrix, it is partly inspired by Lana’s favourite book The Odyssey. The script is under whelming and the characters are a little one dimensional, you never really feel you get to know them. Mila Kunis as the heroine spends most of her time being rescued by Caine, either from falling trough space or being kidnapped by the Abrasax family, and their romantic involvement is forced and not very convincing.  There is very little humour from any of the characters and the one-liners are poor. Redmayne’s fey whispering villain character is one of the better performances.

Special effects are cutting edge although the Star Wars style fight scenes are a bit long-winded. Great sci-fi sets, this film is full of action and adventure. I enjoyed the amusing bureaucracy scenes, which are ‘Harry Potter’ ish in style.  This wonderfully imaginative film is visually thrilling, the story line fantastical but the script and characters just don’t cut the muster.