MOVIE REVIEW: JUPITER ASCENDING (2015)

Jupiter Ascending came after a last minute delay to its release schedule. Starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, this movie is a mixture of space-opera and sci-fi. It has the general story about a chosen one just living a pretty underwhelming life in a world full of wonders.

Mila Kunis stars as the titular Jupiter, a Russian immigrant cleaner. However, she is also the exact genetic reproduction (and this believed to be reincarnation) of the former queen of the universe. He (former) children are each trying to find her so that they can trick her to signing away her inheritance. Channing Tatum is a wolf-soldier tasked with tracking her down. However, once he realises he was tricked, he turns into her superhuman protector and general bad-ass.

And that really is the meat of the story. Jupiter is kidnapped a few times, shows increasing agency in not throwing her inheritance away (which would mean the death of the earth as it is harvested for genetic material), and having Channing Tatum do cool stuff with his futuristic technology (such as rocket boots and temporary doorways) to save her. Which isn’t to say it is all bad.

Jupiter Ascending does an admirable job of keeping the movie pace up and not being caught up to much in world-building. It would have been easy for the movie to get stuck on some part of the lore it is building up. However, a couple of action scenes do overstay their welcome and seem to drag out a bit just to show some cool set-piece instead of letting it develop organically.

Overall there is not much to say about this movie. The lore they build up behind the worlds is quite good, the action scenes are also quite good and the character development of Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum is also good. It was entertaining for its 2+ hour run-time, but not too much stuck with me following the end credits. In the past, it is the very definition of an average movie. Today, however, it is a refreshing movie that is not a sequel/reboot/remake and not a superhero movie.

3.5 out of 5 wolf-spliced waffles.