Saturday, 9 May 2015

"Because a dream is the only way any of this make sense."


Year: 2015
Directors: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Writers: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski

Jupiter Jones was born under a night sky, with signs predicting that she was destined for great things. Now grown, Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning other people's houses and an endless run of bad breaks. Only when Caine Wise, a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting for her all along - her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.
- Written by Production

I mostly read about this movie on Tumblr. At first all the comments seemed to be mocking, so I didn't pay too much attention. Then people started to actually praise this movie and the mocking tone was gone. That made the whole movie interesting.

The story doesn't give that much originality to the audience. It's very similar to typical fantasy and science fiction stories. I'm almost bored at pointing out clichés in fantasy or science fiction, because those genres alongside with romantic comedies seem to have some kind of rule about the amount of clichés. But clichés sometimes make movies easy to watch. Usually movies with clichés aren't too complex, like cliché science fiction isn't the kind of science fiction that would actually make you think about ethical questions, no, no, those kind of movies only deal with such obvious ethical questions and give the answers. And the audience hardly disagrees.

But what made this story surprisingly interesting was the world. I feel like the writers weren't too picky about all the details they added. Some of the elements were very imaginative. Like how bees recognised royalty. These kind of details were absolutely ridiculous, but they worked. They gave this science fiction world something you usually find only in fantasy. And in anyway the world was very interesting. I sort of hope I could find out more about it, it seemed complex, imaginative, somehow original, beautiful and fun.

Jupiter Jones seems like a typical Mary Sue character, but I wouldn't say that's a weakness or a fault. Sure, they are easy to write, it feels like the writers sometimes don't even try when they come up with Mary Sue characters. But Batman is a Mary Sue. He definitely is, and none of the geek boys are complaining about that. So let's not complain about Jupiter Jones. She was easily likeable character, even though she wasn't, well, original. But considering this complex interesting world, it was probably easier for the audience to get the same main character that is basically, well, everywhere.

Of course this movie has the same weaknesses most science fiction movies have. Firstly, quick introduction: suddenly you are in space and you wonder who the hell are these folks. Thankfully Jupiter was just as new to this world as us, so we got explanations when she got them. Also, even though special effects were really nice, many of the action scenes were still messy and hard to follow.

Visually this movie was absolutely stunning: the effects, the cinematography... And the costume department, holy hell, I'd wear so many of the space dresses if I could.

So even though the story and characters are pretty basic, the world of Jupiter Ascending is very interesting. Everyone interested in science fiction should see this movie, just to see how far you can go, how imaginative your writing and character and world building can be. But as a film... Jupiter Ascending is just decent. Visually beautiful, interesting, but it doesn't really astonish you the same way science fiction movies like Moon do.

☆☆☆☆☆
5 / 10

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