There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can get behind a wonderful,
over-the-top inheritor of the Flash
Gordon mantle such as Jupiter
Ascending, and those without an ember of joy in their cold, dead hearts.
Here’s a story straight from the Pulp Age of Science
Fiction: a peasant learns of a royal heritage, endures a wobbly period of
uncertainty and disorientation, then finds his courage, saves the world, and
gets the girl. However, there’s a modern
twist: the peasant’s a woman. She gets
the boy.Beyond that, Jupiter Ascending is pretty standard stuff. You’ve got your evil, decadent overlords bent on no good. You’ve got your knight errant. You’ve got your fantastical creature designs, thoughtfully designed alien landscapes & technologies, and fate of the world-type stuff hanging in the balance.
That said, Jupiter
Ascending is *good* standard stuff.
Eddie Redmayne goes well over the top as a villain in the finest
tradition of Ming the Merciless. Channing
Tatum is up for anything as the knight errant, imbuing the hokiest science
fiction exposition with urgency and color.
And Mila Kunis, as the peasant girl with royal blood in her veins, does
a marvelous job of showing us her character’s arc from dissatisfied nobody (But
I was going to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!) to resolute
somebody (You’re up to no good, Villain.
And I’m going to stop you!).
So the question to ask yourself is this: do you
enjoy pulpy, goofy sci-fi adventure crafted with love and an eye toward
fun? If so, expect to start smiling very
early in this film, then keep smiling right up to the credits. Jupiter
Ascending is a pleasant surprise.
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