Jupiter Ascending

JUPITER ASCENDING (12)

D: Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski

Warner Bros/Village Roadshow (Grant Hill, Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski)

US/Australia 2015

127 mins

Science Fiction

W: Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski

DP: John Toll

Ed: Alexander Berner

Mus: Michael Giacchino

Channing Tatum (Caine Wise), Mila Kunis (Jupiter Jones), Sean Bean (Stinger Apini), Eddie Redmayne (Balem Abrasax), Douglas Booth (Titus Abrasax)

The Wachowski's attempt to create an epic science fiction universe to emulate Star Wars is a royal mess.

Utilising the same Alice In Wonderland stencil they used for The Matrix, Mila Kunis stars as Jupiter Jones, a penniless cleaner who is really the queen of Earth, caught up in a power play with the royal houses of the galaxy who target her for assassination. She is protected by a fallen angel with wolf-like characteristics (played by Channing Tatum, of course) who she ends up falling in love with.

Jupiter Ascending crams way too much into the running time, drawing inspiration from several science fiction movies, including Brazil which it makes reference to in abundance during the second act, especially when Terry Gilliam slips in a cameo.

Despite cramming in too much info, it feels on many an occasion that even more was left on the cutting room floor, making for a choppy storyline that never makes any sense. Some of the visual effects are well done, but when the characters and performances are so poorly handled this means absolutely nothing.

Style over substance would be a polite description. Nonsense over narrative is much closer to the mark.

2/10