Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Directed by Lana Wachowski
In a universe where human genetic material is the most precious commodity, an impoverished young Earth woman becomes the key to strategic maneuvers and internal strife within a powerful dynasty…
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What critics say influenced Jupiter Ascending
These influences include, but are not limited to: Moebius; David Lynch’s Dune; entry-level critiques of capitalism; the 1980 Flash Gordon movie; Brazil, which gets both a dialogue reference (“27b-stroke-6”) and a Terry Gilliam cameo; spiritual transmigration; personal transformation; transhumanism.
Whether they are borrowing from “Star Wars” in creating a series of nutty looking characters or goofing with a wink and a nod on “Hitchhiker’s Guide” or even “Brazil,” the meaning of it all is hallow and comes off as a pale imitator.
Fans will notice a sequence echoing Terry Gilliam's “Brazil” that doesn't seem to fit.
It deliberately recalls Brazil , the brilliant dark comedy that Terry Gilliam famously had to smuggle out of Universal 30 years ago and screen for critics himself to prevent the studio from mutilating it.
I was strongly reminded of Brazil - an intentional allusion made concrete when the final bureaucrat on Jupiter's odyssey is played by none other than Terry Gilliam.
It's filmed as an homage to Terry Gilliam's Brazil and Gilliam himself has a cameo at the climax of this scene.
Dazzling to behold yet puny of imagination, the movie takes the “Star Wars” formula — hero myths nicked from Joseph Campbell, cutting-edge visual effects, comic-strip dialogue, goofy-looking aliens — and reduces it to generic Big Box shelf product.
If The Matrix was full of bullet-time thrills and cool Keanu-ness, if Cloud Atlas was goofily cartoonish in its attempt to bring David Mitchell's across-the-cosmos novel to the screen, then Andy and Lana Wachowski's latest, Jupiter Ascending, falls somewhere in between - with Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz, and Star Wars as reference points.
Whether they are borrowing from “Star Wars” in creating a series of nutty looking characters or goofing with a wink and a nod on “Hitchhiker’s Guide” or even “Brazil,” the meaning of it all is hallow and comes off as a pale imitator.
Likewise, they could have approached the design of this far-out film in a number of ways, and they have gone for something that is pulpy and beautiful and that almost gleefully ignores the "commonplace worn-in" look that has been one of the standards for science-fiction ever since "Star Wars" and "Alien."
Jupiter Ascending is like the cantina scene in Star Wars.
These influences include, but are not limited to: Moebius; David Lynch’s Dune; entry-level critiques of capitalism; the 1980 Flash Gordon movie; Brazil, which gets both a dialogue reference (“27b-stroke-6”) and a Terry Gilliam cameo; spiritual transmigration; personal transformation; transhumanism.
Jupiter Ascending achieves a doofy grandeur from time to time, borrowing heavily from Dino De Laurentiis and Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon with a gee-whiz sense of wonder.
Lana and Andy Wachowski, directors/writers/fabulators of the Matrix trilogy and Cloud Atlas return with an old-fashioned space opera that borrows heavily from the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars novels and cartoonist Alex Raymond’s Thirties-era Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
It has the murky colors and helmet-clad design of Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon, the wishful awe of Close Encounters, the artistic density of Ridley Scott (or Lisa Frank, for that matter), and of course, the operatic grandeur and sympathy of George Lucas.
Just look at 1980's enjoyably goofy Flash Gordon - or last year's Guardians of the Galaxy , for that matter.
Think Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless in the 1980 camp classic "Flash Gordon" meets Steve Carell’s John du Pont in "Foxcatcher."
These influences include, but are not limited to: Moebius; David Lynch’s Dune; entry-level critiques of capitalism; the 1980 Flash Gordon movie; Brazil, which gets both a dialogue reference (“27b-stroke-6”) and a Terry Gilliam cameo; spiritual transmigration; personal transformation; transhumanism.
Lana and Andy Wachowski, its moneyed creators, have gone on record saying as much, but such defiance in the face of bloodthirsty chuckleheads is plainly evident from the film itself — a proud, super-expensive, quasi-explicable sci-fi semi-disaster in the vein of “Zardoz” and David Lynch’s “Dune.”
It ultimately reminds of David Lynch's notoriously bloated, overblown 1984 bomb, "Dune," and this is not a comparison which any movie should be thrilled to receive.Jupiter "Please, Call Me Jupe" Jones (Mila Kunis) was born on a ship headed for America, an illegal alien without a home, without a country, and without a father.
Their last film — the ambitious gender-bending and centuries-spanning D.W. Griffith-on-LSD “Cloud Atlas’’ — didn’t hang together as a narrative either, but at least nobody could accuse the Wachowskis of rummaging through the recycling bin for ideas from the likes of David Lynch’s “Dune’’ and their own “Matrix’’ trilogy.
The mythology of Jupiter Ascending reads like a high school book report on Dune by a student who never read the book, but instead got drunk, watched the David Lynch version, and passed out long before Sting showed up in his space underwear.
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Audiences will unavoidably, unfavorably compare Jupiter to past enjoyments like Star Wars and The Fifth Element, and the Wachowskis do no favors by taking a break in the story for what amounts to a five-minute Brazil fan film, complete with a cameo by director Terry Gilliam.
Sadly, even they are overshadowed by the movie’s garish production design which borrows liberally from Marvel Studios, “The Fifth Element,” Moebius, and bastardized Gothic architecture.
However, it plays out like a convoluted mix of The Princess Diaries meets The Fifth Element , with the siblings blending an overabundance of sci-fi premises and visuals.
There are conspicuous echoes of Stars Wars, The Fifth Element, Transformers, Men In Black, Brazil (Terry Gilliam has a small cameo), Signs, and at least a dozen more.
Luc Besson managed to juggle similarly assorted planets and subplots in the air, or lack thereof, with 1997’s The Fifth Element, but Jupiter Ascending has little of that space opera’s zany genius.
What I’m saying is that there’s about a 50-50 chance that Jupiter Ascending becomes The Fifth Element of the 2010s.
Some have wondered if this is Redmayne’s "Norbit"—a reference to the dreadful Eddie Murphy comedy that is rumored to have cost him a best supporting actor nod for his turn in Dreamgirls—but that seems unfair.
The name, of course, references that time when Eddie Murphy was primed to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for 2006's Dreamgirls but instead came up empty-handed, with one theory being that his critically reviled comedy Norbit was in theaters during the voting period and Academy members were too embarrassed to mark his name on the ballot.
Norbit is a loathsome, repugnant pile of misogyny and xenophobia and fat-shaming, but you can’t say Eddie Murphy doesn’t give it his all; Jupiter is a better movie, but Redmayne contributes a terrible, half-assed, laughable performance to it.
Though “Jupiter Ascending” isn’t cheap-looking, it still recalls such chintzy “Star Wars” copycats as “Battle Beyond the Stars” (1980) and “The Last Starfighter” (1984).
Here, buried under decibels of deafening score (from J.J. Abrams’ favorite composer, Michael Giacchino, working without the solid underlying musical theme of his Pixar and “Star Trek” work), the movie zips from one dazzling setting to another, back and forth between Earth and Jupiter and who knows where else.
You’ll also be reminded of "Dune," " Star Wars ," " Star Trek ," "Alien," "Blade Runner," "2001: A Space Odyssey," " Game of Thrones " and "The Wizard of Oz " -- and that’s just in the first 20 minutes.
Though “Ascending” is half the title, people are always falling from incredible heights into an apparent abyss in the Wachowski siblings’ latest, a madcap mash-up of “Star Wars,” “Dune,” “Star Trek” and even “Soylent Green” that has impressive special effects but a narrative about as smart as a Buster Crabbe “Flash Gordon” serial.
A couple of decades or so later, the girl, played by Mila Kunis, will say, "Just call me Jupe," for she grows weary of being called Your Highness by Outer Space People, many of whom are adorned with leftover "Star Trek" prosthetics.
The whole thing is so earnestly, self-seriously over-the-top, so ridiculously rich in excess, it’s like a gonzo, gazillion-dollar mash-up of Plan Nine From Outer Space and Guardians of the Galaxy steered by a committee of 13-year-old boys hyped on an all-weekend Star Wars/Star Trek marathon and fueled by an endless supply of Mountain Dew and Pixy Sticks.
But they end up being subsumed by the tediously familiar visuals, sound effects and music (composer Michael Giacchino seems to be recycling cues from the " Star Trek " movies, which weren't too distinctive in the first place).
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You’ll also be reminded of "Dune," " Star Wars ," " Star Trek ," "Alien," "Blade Runner," "2001: A Space Odyssey," " Game of Thrones " and "The Wizard of Oz " -- and that’s just in the first 20 minutes.
It must be said, as well, that Jupiter Ascending falls under so many influences — Terry Gilliam, George Lucas, Luc Besson, The Wizard of Oz, Carl Sagan, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tom Hulce in Amadeus, Björk on the cover of Homogenic — that all the visions blur and compete.
Allusions to "The Wizard of Oz" are patently obvious right down to the title character pleading by the third act that she just wants to go home, but they only serve to remind of a 1939 treasure that will continue to stand the test of time long after this film has been largely forgotten.