Jupiter Ascending
Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”
The Wachowskis have developed a reputation for making visually-striking, thought-provoking science fiction, but this latest misfire fails at the latter quality and only sometimes manages the former. It starts off on the wrong foot, with a first act weighed down by tin-eared dialogue, cinematic clichés, cheesy art design, cheesy sound effects, plot contrivances that arrive out of nowhere, and a ridiculously convoluted mythology. It improves somewhat when the main characters meet, not by shedding those qualities (they're a problem through to the final scene) but by adding some decent sci-fi action sequences to the mix, including its one legitimately great scene, an aerial chase above and through a strangely underpopulated downtown Chicago that belongs in a much better movie. I read somewhere that this film was delayed eight months so that they could finish the special effects, but why didn't they spend more time before filming to finish the script? The dialogue is so bad and the characters so thinly sketched that the movie becomes reminiscent of the Star Wars prequels. Supposedly the script was trimmed down to one-third of its original size, which explains why so many bizarre ideas are introduced without explanation and then forgotten. I liked the action scenes and some of the cleverer ideas and the anti-free-market subtext, but overall the movie's a great big mess (soon to be a great big financial flop) and I cannot recommend it.
− February 7, 2015 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply
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Erik Bates: “It was ok.”
Cookie-cutter. I can't help but feel I've seen this story before.
− December 25, 2015 • more by Erik • log in or create an account to reply
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Samir Mehta: “It was ok.”
This movie simultaneously rules and sucks. I have a lot of love for the Wachowskis but this is a bizarre, insane movie. It's weird that the pair that can put out such brilliant stuff as the Matrices (I love all three) and Cloud Atlas can also do this. It felt like a passion project but without any real coherency in story or message. An odd, bad film, but a watchable one.
− December 28, 2015 • more by Samir • log in or create an account to reply
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