shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2015-02-08 09:08 am
shallowness) wrote2015-02-08 09:08 am
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Jupiter Ascending
This is going to get wordy and over-excited, but this film stepped all over many of my buttons, some of which I didn’t know I had. I am full of glee. I don’t think a movie has given me so many of the B-movie thrills I want on an A-movie budget in a while. It was the film I’ve been looking forward to since I thought it was coming out last year (and a little bit more). The Guardian review ends with It’s all very chaotic and entertaining, like a bizarre cult sci-fi TV show that somehow survived a threat of mid-season cancellation. Well, if you’ve been around here for a while, you will know that that’s my stomping ground. I want to go see it again, despite its flaws. So what follows is the equivalent of squeeing and cackling in text form. With spoilers.
Jupiter Jones is not, as widely reported, a janitor who finds out she’s space royalty. She’s a cleaner, in point of fact. Cinderella PLUS Beauty and the Beast are referenced (plus there’s a bit of Sleeping Beauty in there at times). Along with the fairy tale IN SPACE element, there’s plenty of nods to the Wachowskis’ other films – Jupiter’s the One like Neo is the One, which makes Caine Wise her Trinity, except not. It’s basically the film I thought the Wachowskis were gagging to make when I watched the New Seoul section in Cloud Atlas. There’s a chase section, the equivalent of tattoos...
Speaking of, James D’Arcy and Doona Bae show up (I was all ‘HI, GUYS’), but that is not even the chiefest of delights the supporting cast provide (which is more diverse than the leads. Although, actually, it’s rather Brit heavy).
Spoilers now. D’Arcy plays Jupiter’s father, Maximillian, a charming but dippy astronomer, who insists on calling his child Jupiter, to his wife’s dismay. But when he dies before the baby is born, she honours that. And who plays her? Maria Doyle Kennedy, AKA Orphan’s Black’s Ms S, who is the Russian half of Jupiter’s family (so Kunis gets to speak some Russian) which also includes Jeremy Swift AKA Spratt from Downton Abbey. That’s right, the Dowager Countess’s butler plays a Russian. And Jupiter has a fierce mother. ALSO there’s Sean Bean, and SPOILER his character does not die. That is cause for celebration in itself, no!?
The leads are Kunis, what big eyes she has when she opens them up, and charismatic enough that I wish she was in a better film (even if I would not love it as much) as the Earthling who is a bit like Lois Lane (curious, falls from great heights a lot, has an alliterative name) only she finds out she’s the genetic Recurrence of a very powerful woman – a queen, really – which means other powerful people who know more about what that means want to kidnap and kill her. Oh, and there’s this whole conspiracy on Earth to hide the fact that human life started elsewhere in the ‘verse, and yes, there are aliens and tech that make cameraphones look backward. (I particularly liked the explanation for crop circles.) Can Jupiter find out why she matters so much?
Well, she’s helped to stay alive long enough to do so by Channing Tatum’s hunter turned protector who, GET THIS, is a genetically engineered Splice, more dog than human i.e. a SPACE WEREWOLF. So, yeah, that. He gets to do most of the cool stunts, because he has gravity-resistant boots and the equivalent of Wonder Woman’s writs thingies, I think. He has pointy ears. His voice – well, no wonder Jupiter is obsessed with getting him to repeat her title. (Still, most of the dialogue he and the other characters are given is poor.)
So, Jupiter is the reincarnation of the mother of three of the Abrasax family, who reminded me of Greek gods, with the misuse of power, squabbling, jostling for position and barely sub subtext between them/their dead mother. Jupiter meets them all and has to figure out who is lying and why. This is the first film I’ve seen Douglas Booth in, I loved how he was shot and he was pretty good, while Eddie Redmayne, not the only one in guyliner, seemed to have decided to channel Flash Gordon and gave a good old camp English villain, hissing and SHOUTING. They’re sort of like Rich Space Vampires.
The dialogue has a lot of expositing to do. It’s daft, but it looks, as you’d expect, spectacular, apart from a few moments, which I think were down to the murk involved in watching a 2D version of a film that’s also in 3D, but the planets, the ships and the cozzies, not to mention the aliens, were really cool. And I would love to see the movie again in the cinema, because I was inwardly hooting and grinning through all of it. Jupiter and Wise’s romance works despite the writing, and I was shipping the two mercs who turned out to work for Kalique – it’s a question of trust between them!!! And, unlikely though it will be, I would love, love, LOVE for there to be a spin-off featuring the Aegis – the cops of this verse – specifically the ship that Jupiter and Wise keep hopping on and off. It’s got a batch of interesting faces on it, some of whom seemed snarky, who were quite competent, led by Captain Tsing (played by Nikki Amuka-Bird). And they open portals to jump through space...
I can imagine this was conceived as a series of films, given the name, Jupiter Ascending, which works on many levels. I’m dubious about that impulse of the Wachowskis, given the depths The Matrix sequel sank to. Besides, it’s not had great reviews, although the Saturday afternoon screening I was at was jam-packed, but maybe that was 3D avoidance.
But still, it ends with Jupiter facing off her enemy and showing she’s better than they are. Okay, Wise then comes and rescues her for the tenth time, but the film ends with her returning to her cleaning job and LOVING IT, because it’s better than being Queen based on human misery, snogging her new boyfriend and owning her own pair of cool anti-grav boots. It also ends with our space werewolf getting an upgrade, because his wings (yes, his WINGS) have been restored to him, and while I have never read wingfic in my life, in the context of the film, this was like a cherry on top of the cracky, barking goodness.
Jupiter Jones is not, as widely reported, a janitor who finds out she’s space royalty. She’s a cleaner, in point of fact. Cinderella PLUS Beauty and the Beast are referenced (plus there’s a bit of Sleeping Beauty in there at times). Along with the fairy tale IN SPACE element, there’s plenty of nods to the Wachowskis’ other films – Jupiter’s the One like Neo is the One, which makes Caine Wise her Trinity, except not. It’s basically the film I thought the Wachowskis were gagging to make when I watched the New Seoul section in Cloud Atlas. There’s a chase section, the equivalent of tattoos...
Speaking of, James D’Arcy and Doona Bae show up (I was all ‘HI, GUYS’), but that is not even the chiefest of delights the supporting cast provide (which is more diverse than the leads. Although, actually, it’s rather Brit heavy).
Spoilers now. D’Arcy plays Jupiter’s father, Maximillian, a charming but dippy astronomer, who insists on calling his child Jupiter, to his wife’s dismay. But when he dies before the baby is born, she honours that. And who plays her? Maria Doyle Kennedy, AKA Orphan’s Black’s Ms S, who is the Russian half of Jupiter’s family (so Kunis gets to speak some Russian) which also includes Jeremy Swift AKA Spratt from Downton Abbey. That’s right, the Dowager Countess’s butler plays a Russian. And Jupiter has a fierce mother. ALSO there’s Sean Bean, and SPOILER his character does not die. That is cause for celebration in itself, no!?
The leads are Kunis, what big eyes she has when she opens them up, and charismatic enough that I wish she was in a better film (even if I would not love it as much) as the Earthling who is a bit like Lois Lane (curious, falls from great heights a lot, has an alliterative name) only she finds out she’s the genetic Recurrence of a very powerful woman – a queen, really – which means other powerful people who know more about what that means want to kidnap and kill her. Oh, and there’s this whole conspiracy on Earth to hide the fact that human life started elsewhere in the ‘verse, and yes, there are aliens and tech that make cameraphones look backward. (I particularly liked the explanation for crop circles.) Can Jupiter find out why she matters so much?
Well, she’s helped to stay alive long enough to do so by Channing Tatum’s hunter turned protector who, GET THIS, is a genetically engineered Splice, more dog than human i.e. a SPACE WEREWOLF. So, yeah, that. He gets to do most of the cool stunts, because he has gravity-resistant boots and the equivalent of Wonder Woman’s writs thingies, I think. He has pointy ears. His voice – well, no wonder Jupiter is obsessed with getting him to repeat her title. (Still, most of the dialogue he and the other characters are given is poor.)
So, Jupiter is the reincarnation of the mother of three of the Abrasax family, who reminded me of Greek gods, with the misuse of power, squabbling, jostling for position and barely sub subtext between them/their dead mother. Jupiter meets them all and has to figure out who is lying and why. This is the first film I’ve seen Douglas Booth in, I loved how he was shot and he was pretty good, while Eddie Redmayne, not the only one in guyliner, seemed to have decided to channel Flash Gordon and gave a good old camp English villain, hissing and SHOUTING. They’re sort of like Rich Space Vampires.
The dialogue has a lot of expositing to do. It’s daft, but it looks, as you’d expect, spectacular, apart from a few moments, which I think were down to the murk involved in watching a 2D version of a film that’s also in 3D, but the planets, the ships and the cozzies, not to mention the aliens, were really cool. And I would love to see the movie again in the cinema, because I was inwardly hooting and grinning through all of it. Jupiter and Wise’s romance works despite the writing, and I was shipping the two mercs who turned out to work for Kalique – it’s a question of trust between them!!! And, unlikely though it will be, I would love, love, LOVE for there to be a spin-off featuring the Aegis – the cops of this verse – specifically the ship that Jupiter and Wise keep hopping on and off. It’s got a batch of interesting faces on it, some of whom seemed snarky, who were quite competent, led by Captain Tsing (played by Nikki Amuka-Bird). And they open portals to jump through space...
I can imagine this was conceived as a series of films, given the name, Jupiter Ascending, which works on many levels. I’m dubious about that impulse of the Wachowskis, given the depths The Matrix sequel sank to. Besides, it’s not had great reviews, although the Saturday afternoon screening I was at was jam-packed, but maybe that was 3D avoidance.
But still, it ends with Jupiter facing off her enemy and showing she’s better than they are. Okay, Wise then comes and rescues her for the tenth time, but the film ends with her returning to her cleaning job and LOVING IT, because it’s better than being Queen based on human misery, snogging her new boyfriend and owning her own pair of cool anti-grav boots. It also ends with our space werewolf getting an upgrade, because his wings (yes, his WINGS) have been restored to him, and while I have never read wingfic in my life, in the context of the film, this was like a cherry on top of the cracky, barking goodness.
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