Review of Jupiter Ascending (2015) by Andres M — 28 Jun 2015

Spoiler Ahead:

The Battlefield Earth of the year. Jupiter Ascending is a disgracing cinematic attempt to create something original. It's proof that Pixar is the only studio left capable of creating original stories in outstanding quality.

The story is completely ridiculous. It follows the "story" of a teenage girl who dreams of being important and being special. One day she is tracked down by a bunch of evil hunters who work for some evil villain, and is saved by an elfish dude who takes her on journey that will make her learn how important she is to the galaxy. There literally is nothing else to the plot. And it is a shameful shame.

For the past decade, summer films or blockbusters were mostly nothing but sequels, reboots, and adaptations. For once, we hope to every once in a while receive an original film that would receive universal acclaim and make money like Pixar, but after seeing this, we should be more thankful that the hopping lamp studio exist, because lets face it, without a team of filmmakers that focus on originality and quality, Hollywood would only rely on already established franchises on success, as they would believe that new stories would only backfire, as there would not be many major studios to prove them that originality can be successful. And this film is a perfect example of hollywood's point.

The premise is outstanding, but the story is not well executed, and neither is the script. It calls itself an original story but relies on clichés, and stereotypes, and recycles elements from other movies, which is not original. It is an original story with the mind of a generic blockbuster. As someone told me, you can have a remarkable story and give it to a crappy team of filmmakers, and the results would be crappy. For example, imagine Toy Story, instead of being made by the geniuses of Pixar, was made by Michael Bay, or M. Night Shamylan, the film would suck because they don't know how to create a film with compelling characters or timeless story. That's this film. If it were directed by Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, or Brad Bird, the final results would be vastly superior, because they, (along many other brilliant directors, and their team of filmmakers) actually know how to direct and put all their effort to make sure their product and vision is perfect. The Wachowskis didn't even try at all. But the saddest fact is, they don't even care, which is the main problem. the script is completely laughable. It's a total shame, this film is a total shame.

Being made by the Wachowskis, rather than put anything effort on script or directing, waste beautiful time on visual effects. Don't get me the wrong, the CGI is an absolute work of beauty. From gorgeous designs, grand set pieces, and realistic effects, it works beautifully. Unfortunately, it is overused and in your face that it alienates the CGI, and changes it from love to complete hate, and its overuse consumes all believability to it. In fact, considered their films on a visual standout are masterpieces, they seem as if they were originally visual effects supervisors from ILM, who went out to do something that they really can't do: directing and writing. Seriously, there is nothing wrong with committing a life to doing nothing but visual effects, they bring realism, and imaginations to life. The Wachowskis should of commit to visual effects and they could've done great things, and win Oscars, because looking by their films, they spend most of the time focusing on creating the visuals and look of the film.

I won't talk much about casting, because lets face it, there is nothing noteworthy to talk about, other than the fact that Channing Tatum considered to be part of the film, which still concerned me. Michael Giacchino's score was the only great part of the film. The score was fantastic, but it is a deeply painful shame for such stellar orchestrations to be used for such a undeserving picture.

Jupiter Ascending is another lame CGI misfire, that you will hate, and thankfully forget. If you want something original, but good, then wait for Pixar's inside Out, it will be worth the wait, unlike this film.