Jupiter Ascending (12A.)
Directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski.
Starring Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean, James D'Arcy, Douglas Booth and Tuppence Middleton. 127 mins.
Some time at the start of the creative process that would result, after his death, in the film A.I, Stanley Kubrick, envious of the blockbuster grosses earned by the newer generation of Spielberg and Lucas, engaged Sci/fi writer Brian Aldiss in the task of helping him come up with the ultimate science fantasy adventure. Over long months the pair bashed out treatments involving princesses and robots and intergalactic space battles. After numerous drafts the pair sat down to see what they had created and realised that they had simply re-written Star Wars.
After a decade and half of failure the Wachowskis have made a concerted effort of their own to come up with a calculated, audience friendly space opera that will get them back in the winners' enclosure. Jupiter Ascending looks like no S/F paperback has gone unread in its preparation. Visually it seems to have sprung directly from the front cover of an E.E. “Doc” Smith novel. The story, about a humble earth girl (Kunis) who discovers she is a galactic queen and has to save the earth which is being squabbled over by warring siblings who wish to harvest its resources, has been hacked together from elements of any number of space operas. But what they have come up with isn't Star Wars. It isn't even prequel Star Wars. It's Krull with bells on.
The Wachowskis's problem is that The Matrix was the last time they were able to effectively communicate their ideas to an audience. Its sequels had great action sequences, held apart by lengthy stretches of portentous and impenetrable jawing. It was about something major, but I could never work out what. In comparison Jupiter Ascending is a meagre selection of so/so action scenes, strung together by stretches of banal, yet still impenetrable, yap. It doesn't pretend to be about anything important, but is still mystifying.
And say what you like about the Matrix sequels, the action sequences were cutting edge and still look good today. The action sequences here are just bog standard CGI mishmashes, with precious little invention.
The main purpose of the film is to make a number of British thespians look very silly. The Brits are cast as the baddies and they are the worst kind of villains being both rapacious capitalist exploiters and snobbish hereditary rulers. They get the worst of the dialogue. In comparison, Kunis and Tatum actually do quite well. This is the kind of mess which can make the best of actors look like proper plums but they both make it out with their dignity intact. Unlike Eddie Redmayne who decides to play the part of the main baddy in the style of a Shakespearean actor who has lost his vocab chords to throat cancer but isn't letting that stop him. Mostly he restricts himself to hoarse whispered menace, saving himself for odd burst of shouting.
Cloud Atlas review
Speed Racer review
Directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski.
Starring Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean, James D'Arcy, Douglas Booth and Tuppence Middleton. 127 mins.
Some time at the start of the creative process that would result, after his death, in the film A.I, Stanley Kubrick, envious of the blockbuster grosses earned by the newer generation of Spielberg and Lucas, engaged Sci/fi writer Brian Aldiss in the task of helping him come up with the ultimate science fantasy adventure. Over long months the pair bashed out treatments involving princesses and robots and intergalactic space battles. After numerous drafts the pair sat down to see what they had created and realised that they had simply re-written Star Wars.
After a decade and half of failure the Wachowskis have made a concerted effort of their own to come up with a calculated, audience friendly space opera that will get them back in the winners' enclosure. Jupiter Ascending looks like no S/F paperback has gone unread in its preparation. Visually it seems to have sprung directly from the front cover of an E.E. “Doc” Smith novel. The story, about a humble earth girl (Kunis) who discovers she is a galactic queen and has to save the earth which is being squabbled over by warring siblings who wish to harvest its resources, has been hacked together from elements of any number of space operas. But what they have come up with isn't Star Wars. It isn't even prequel Star Wars. It's Krull with bells on.
The Wachowskis's problem is that The Matrix was the last time they were able to effectively communicate their ideas to an audience. Its sequels had great action sequences, held apart by lengthy stretches of portentous and impenetrable jawing. It was about something major, but I could never work out what. In comparison Jupiter Ascending is a meagre selection of so/so action scenes, strung together by stretches of banal, yet still impenetrable, yap. It doesn't pretend to be about anything important, but is still mystifying.
And say what you like about the Matrix sequels, the action sequences were cutting edge and still look good today. The action sequences here are just bog standard CGI mishmashes, with precious little invention.
The main purpose of the film is to make a number of British thespians look very silly. The Brits are cast as the baddies and they are the worst kind of villains being both rapacious capitalist exploiters and snobbish hereditary rulers. They get the worst of the dialogue. In comparison, Kunis and Tatum actually do quite well. This is the kind of mess which can make the best of actors look like proper plums but they both make it out with their dignity intact. Unlike Eddie Redmayne who decides to play the part of the main baddy in the style of a Shakespearean actor who has lost his vocab chords to throat cancer but isn't letting that stop him. Mostly he restricts himself to hoarse whispered menace, saving himself for odd burst of shouting.
Cloud Atlas review
Speed Racer review
