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Sound Off: The Wachowskis' Sci-Fi 'Jupiter Ascending' - Thoughts?

by Alex Billington
February 6, 2015

Now that you've seen it, what did you think? "It can be difficult for people from underdeveloped worlds to hear that their planet is not the only inhabited planet." The new Wachowskis movie is here. In theaters everywhere is Jupiter Ascending, the spectacular new sci-fi space opera creation from Lana & Andy Wachowski (of The Matrix trilogy, Bound, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas) starring Channing Tatum as wolf-hybrid Caine and Mila Kunis as Jupiter. Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean, Douglas Booth & Gugu Mbatha-Raw are in here, too. Is it any good? Or is it a mess? Are the Wachowskis doing well or in trouble? Once you've seen it, leave a comment with your thoughts on The Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending.

Spoiler Warning: We strongly urge everyone to actually see the film before reading ahead, as there may be spoilers below. We also encourage all commenters to keep major spoilers from the film to a minimum, if possible. However, this is an open discussion from this point on! Beware of spoilers, don't ruin this movie!

To fuel this fire and get this discussion going, there's much to admire about Jupiter Ascending, but I can't help but say it's one huge mess. The Wachowskis are pretty much going-for-broke Star Wars here, inventing an entire universe of characters and creations to play around in. It's actually kind of awesome, but the story is so jumbled, and flips so blandly between Jupiter's life as a toilet cleaner and her potential-to-be-heir to the entire Earth (though she seems so uninterested). On one hand, I wonder if there's a longer cut of this that explains more, on the other, I don't know if much can save this because so much of it is just a hot mess.

Despite these criticisms, I will compliment the FX and visual style of Jupiter Ascending as its the kind of big, crazy, original sci-fi that I love seeing. Another critic (at The Film Stage) made a comparison saying it's this year's John Carter and that's about right. There are a few mind blowing action sequences distributed throughout the film, with stunning space sequences and amazing spaceships of all sizes in it. I enjoyed getting into this part of the universe, and it's refreshing to see some original ideas executed on such a grand scale. But there isn't enough of a worthwhile story for me to call it a good movie, it's purely a spectacular sci-fi concept stuffed into one flimsy script. At least it's fun to watch Channing Tatum as the wolf-hybrid.

What did you think of The Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending? Sci-fi sensation or total disaster?
We will remove any comments that indicate you have not seen the movie, as this area is meant to discuss the film only once you have seen it and can talk about your thoughts. Please keep the comments civilized!

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33 Comments

Haven't seen it yet but; Mila topless ***** Mila not topless *

Bill on Feb 6, 2015

Everyone keeps describing it as 'original' but the 'normal person is really royalty' trope has been done to death. They did it better in Spaceballs. It's sad that a movie this expensive is going up against Spongebob . . . and is expected to come in second place. Yet the Wachowskis will get millions more for their next 'original' 'mess'.

CoosCoos on Feb 6, 2015

That's not what "original" means you spectacular idiot.

davidshaw on Feb 6, 2015

well 1st There is NO original story ... or at least , no more original THEMES ... this is more like Snow White meets the 24the century ..., as was noted months ago hating it appears to be universal ... that being said IF you had an extra $20 around , and got nicely intoxicated , the visuals in IMAX might be worth it . that much you could see from the commercials/trailer ... Is It So Bad That It's Good ?

Dominic on Feb 7, 2015

Speaking of spectacular . . . Jupiter Ascending was spectacularly crushed by Spongebob Squarepants. How embarrassing.

CoosCoos on Feb 9, 2015

Not a fan of any of the actors. Mila is a good looking lady, but that can't get me in the seat. The trailers didn't sell me. Pass until someone I know and trust gives me the recommendation, which I doubt will happen.

tree on Feb 6, 2015

Literally nobody cares.

davidshaw on Feb 6, 2015

You mean since the Matrix? Cloud Atlas was not without its flaws but it was still good, in my book.

Sascha Dikiciyan on Feb 6, 2015

Does Sean Bean's character live? That's all I want to know.

Steven on Feb 6, 2015

Haha im pretty sure he will die. 😉

Sascha Dikiciyan on Feb 6, 2015

Saw it at the IMAX in 3d last night. He lives.

octopus9498 on Feb 7, 2015

Good film for 3D?

Steven on Feb 8, 2015

I thought the 3d was pretty good. But that's just me...

octopus9498 on Feb 20, 2015

One of the worst movies I have ever seen. It's like the Wachowskis brother and sister rewatched the Matrix and then had a movie marathon of Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and The Labyrinth and then decided to write a script combining all of them together.

tyban81 on Feb 6, 2015

One of the absolute worst movies I have seen in a long time, with exception of the special effects. Calling it a mess is putting it lightly. I would call it a train wreck. Absolutely horrible and would recommend it to no one. I will never, ever watch this crap again. John Carter was Way better than this pile...I had such hopes. Wachowski's just keep getting progressively disapointing with each new film they come out with. Any studio that gives them money at this point is just throwing it away. Hell, I would rather watch Water World 20 times than have seen this once. Ugh!

foomanchew24 on Feb 6, 2015

Well damn.

John Doe on Feb 7, 2015

Indeed, It was absolutely Horrible!!!!! I fits the category Dragon Ball Evolution. I was the first to walk out the movies half way through and then like 20 others behind me

RipFaze on Feb 7, 2015

VFX are nice in this movie. The story is not really interesting and without surprises. Of course it is still way better as Transformers for example or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! And yes John Carter was better as Jupiter Ascending.

Devid on Feb 7, 2015

Yes, you really set the bar high with those two movies. 😉

Sascha Dikiciyan on Feb 7, 2015

Sorry to disappoint you guys but i loved it. The plot was decent. I don't expect every sci-fi flick to be a thesis on existence sprinkled with sophisticated contemporary philosophical themes.

notanai on Feb 7, 2015

after reading all this comments I will pass seeing this. But the strangest is there are so many good sience fiction novels out here with depth and still come up with a original own story. The whole oeuvre of dan Simmons is there for grabs, and he won allot of times the Hugo nebula awards like Stephen King did, but still they come up with teenage storylines. Realy stupid... By the way i liked cloud Atlas, but hey that was no original story from them, maybe it's not to late...

ari smulders on Feb 7, 2015

They've tried. God knows they've tried to make Hyperion into a film. Hell, Simmons himself made a comment that Scorcese was interested in doing Hyperion (was there for that one). Instead, we'll probably just need to be OK with The Terror TV show that MIGHT be getting made.

denverchris on Feb 8, 2015

Dan Simmons is such great sience fiction writer and Hollywood still passes on him. Religion, Greek philosophy, Shakespeare, new age thinking, resurrection, a great enemy the shrike, everything is in it... Unbelievable they still won't find money to produce it. It must be of course a trilogy, but the first one should be made awesome, to justify the other two. Only a great director can pull it of and that's problem number two.....

ari smulders on Feb 8, 2015

Can we please have a moratorium on dissing sci-fi movies? They have the poorest metrics across all genres; least budget, least number of movies made, least box office sales, even the tv shows get canceled the most. SO if we can starve off the caustic rhetoric that'll be nice. Please if you're looking for sophisticated plots and Shakespearean character development stick to drama. Leave this struggling genre for those of us that want it to survive.

notanai on Feb 7, 2015

SO you would be happy with a pile of dog shit labeled SciFi? I for one would rather GOOD SciFI get made.

Brian Sleider on Feb 7, 2015

A pile of dog shit scifi is better than no scifi.

notanai on Feb 9, 2015

A pile of dog shit, is a pile of dog shit.

Brian Sleider on Feb 9, 2015

Better still

notanai on Feb 18, 2015

Went with a buddy of mine, we both contemplated walking out of the cinema quite a few times, but stayed in hopes that the film would get better.... It never did. The only redeeming feature of this film was the vfx. The Wachowskis have been on a downward spiral as of late...

cg on Feb 8, 2015

Just saw the film the other night. So lets do the pros first. This film as a phenomenal score. The music picks up and carries the action when it hits. Next point, the action scenes are gorgeous, they play off the score well and keep the viewer engaged. Small note, I think most of the acting is great, but sadly falls short with a Cinderella in space plot that just couldn't sink its hooks in. I think it was all there, but the characters and plot just couldn't bring us to suspend disbelief.

LcE on Feb 8, 2015

Uh... if you think some dude riding around on rollerblades and kicking butt is cool, you might just enjoy this movie. Which gets me to the next point, does Channing's character ever take off his shoes. Man that has got to be gross. Seriously, this movie would have probably been sooooooo much better if 1) they broke this movies story into 2 or 3 films, and 2) if every thing that took place in this movie was more believable. Everything about it was over the top in all the worst ways.

backwardsprogress on Feb 9, 2015

I guess im one of the few people who actually liked this movie. I think people had unrealistic expectations and then when realized, they just dumped on this film.

dsjj251 on Feb 11, 2015

Finally got a chance to check this movie out. In my opinion I enjoyed a fair chunk of the movie and I was actually quite surprised considering the amount of negative reviews pointed towards this movie. I thought it was on par at worst. I'm not a big fan of Rotten Tomatoes but the fact that Battleship, even thought I didn't mind that movie lol, got a better score really grates me. Let's start with the parts I didn't enjoy. The pacing was a bit off and the story really needed a consistent base to build upon, especially given that you are introducing a new world to your audience. It reminds me of those moral tales that parents use to tell their kids to make sure they do the right thing. It was always here is what happened, never really building anything behind them. The dialog in this movie was so flat, so much so, that it got a bit annoying. The little jokes they were trying to pull off really didn't work. I thought the acting was meh but to be honest they did their best with what they were given from what I can gather. The entire segment that Tatum had his shirt off while crossing worlds and fighting bad guys I thought was a bit forced. Hey I know the guy is good looking and women swoon at the sight of him but really come on. Are you guys advertising for Magic Mike 2 now. Now to what I liked. I thought the universe in which this story takes place was just waiting to be explored. There was so much I wanted to know about it because I thought the ideas were interesting. It saddens me that this will probably be the last venture into this world. The action scenes were beautifully put together and the VFX, ship designs and worlds were really well done. By far the stand out for this movie is that beautiful score. It was the driving force behind every action scene as well as subtle in certain scenes just to add colour to it. Also did anyone else find the scene in which she was going to get her titles was a bit weird and it felt like it really didn't add anything to the movie?

TK on Feb 28, 2015

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