Jupiter Ascending – Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jim Milton

Synopsis

Jupiter Jones was born under a night sky, with signs predicting that she was destined for great things. Now grown, Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning other people’s houses and an endless run of bad breaks. Only when Caine Wise, a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting for her all along – her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.

Commentary

The Wachowski siblings have been trying to regain their Mojo since they released their break-out hit, The Matrix. This film is quite ambitious, but fails to match the sheer spectacle of The Matrix. The scenery is awesome, the acting is pretty good and the sound stage is immense and immersive. So what went wrong? It boils down to plot. The story was an incoherent mash up that makes it difficult to follow. Jupiter Jones, our heroine, has the same genetic makeup as a former space queen that owned the earth and its most valuable commodity, the human genome. From genes comes a powerful narcotic drug that all the space 1 percenters get to enjoy. Send in the half man/half wolf (why a wolf, of all the creatures in the universe? I don’t know, but all I could think of was Barf, from Space Balls) with some flashy flying shoes and you have your romance angle. Jupiter can control bees, too, but I don’t know how that moved the story along. Add some androids, flying lizard men, a few humans with large ears and the stone hearted villian that wants to marry/kill Jupiter and you end up with this mess of a movie. Interestingly, at no time does Jupiter act as if all of this stuff is just plain crazy. She just takes it all in stride like this is her every day, normal life. As you can guess, I was not really drawn into this movie emotionally or intellectually. Near the end, I was just watching my watch. This is a case of “great disc”, “bad movie”.

Technical

Excellent picture and sound. The CGI landscapes are gorgeous and the outer space shots are pure eye-candy. Sound is enveloping and quite active in all channels throughout the show. There are plenty of action scenes to keep your sub pumping practically from start to finish. This is an excellent demo disc for your home theater.

Extras

Included are a DVD and Ultra-Violet digital copy as well as these featurretes: Jupiter Jones: Destiny Is Within Us,  Caine Wise: Interplanetary Warrior, The Wachowskis: Minds Over Matter,  Worlds Within Worlds Within Worlds, Jupiter Ascending: Genetically Spliced, Bullet Time Evolved &  From Earth to Jupiter.