Jupiter Ascending (2015): Review

The main thought that I had throughout watching this movie was that it tried really hard to be a great space odyssey but it never really made it there. It wasn't as bad as I feared it but it was just too ambitious to really be able to pull off. That being said it did keep my interest throughout but I just wish it wasn't as full on stupid space since info that means nothing to anyone. There is a lot going on and lots of information being rattled off, and I really wish that these types of movies would stop putting other languages with subtitles that I have to read (distracting) and stop with all the space lingo mumbo jumbo. It felt like I was trying to just figure out what everything meant and part of why I want to see it again it to try and make sense of the stupid terms that don't really fit or add anything to the movie. When a movie is pushing the grandioseness of the scope adding all of these terms that don't mean anything to anyone just gums up the works and makes it bad when things don't follow together.

This movie stars Mila Kunis as Jupiter Jones, a woman without a real purpose in her life, who's genes are an exact match for a deceased space queen.  Due to being this genetic reincarnation she is entitled to take her inheritance which is the earth. This is an issue, because of the three siblings who were the children of her old self and are all battling for power and they all want to use her for their own devices.  Jupiter is found and then protected by Channing Tatum's Caine Wise, a splice ex-soldier who is a cross between a human and wolf. Jupiter is naïve and overwhelmed, while Caine is conflicted and set to protect her. She is drawn into an Odyssey of being drawn into different locations and traps when all she wants it to go home.
Like I said this movie has a lot of information and stuff happening, the scope was just so big and the information too much, but if you can just let that go and it is easy enough to follow. She doesn't know what is going on, is being manipulated by those around her for their own purposes (she is extremely gullible and at time I struggle to see how she didn't see some of it coming) and Caine is trying to be able to save her (will he be able to get there time and again in the nick of time?).  They throw in the obligatory romance between the two but there is no real build up to this and falls short for me. Now that I am thinking about it, if Mila Kumis could have been a better presence on screen, I would have easily forgiven more of al the nonsense going on because the movie was somewhat entertaining if overambitious and is the type of blockbuster movie that I forgive for its faults if I care about the main actors, but I did really care at all about her portrayal of Jupiter. 

For the most part, I enjoyed the overall casting and interpreations the characters (I liked a lot of the bit supporting characters). The characters where not that developed and there were way too many weird animal alien creatures, but the actors did well with them. Like I said the big failure of this movie was that it was over ambitious and wasn't able to really pull it together. If they would have stopped trying to make it all make sense, added a bit more fun (a la Guardians of the Galaxy), and just went with the ridiculousness instead of trying to make it all really come together it would have been better.
There wasn't really anything truly horrible about this movie but it does fall way short of the mark which it needed to be in order to be good. It is worth filling time if you like these types of movies but it not anything that must be seen.

My Rating: 1+