Whenever someone brings up Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s body of work, The Matrix is always at the center of the conversation. Maybe Speed Racer and Cloud Atlas get some mentions thanks to their vocal followers, but their spacefaring epic Jupiter Ascending is typically swept under the rug. A critical and financial disaster, most people wouldn’t blame you for forgetting about it. And that’s a shame because we believe there are enough reasons after 10 years to give it a rewatch with new eyes.

Millennia-spanning human dynasties that harvest planets to make their lives longer, a human whose genes were spliced with a space wolf’s, reincarnation backed by hokey, half-explained science… Jupiter Ascending isn’t an easy sell, but behind the weak story is some excellent world-building, and it’s exactly the sort of ‘bad movie’ that’s worth revisiting.

Jupiter Ascending spends far too much time yapping about market disputes and profits while failing to present a compelling narrative built around it. The story orbits around Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), who was named by her astronomer father after the famous gas giant. Her dull, aimless life in Chicago as a cleaner who’s stuck with her relatives is the opposite of special though.

Despite the classic Cinderella setup and colorful sci-fi universe, the Wachowskis’ script is smothered by half-baked exposition and infighting, centered around the highly profitable business of ‘harvesting’ developed worlds for ‘youth serum’ the extraterrestrial elites use to live for thousands of years.

Add overblown family matters that come and go (at least two major villains are entirely dropped and never brought up again) to the mix and you’ve got a muddled mess of a plot.

Despite its shortcomings, you can’t deny that Jupiter Ascending continues to be a gorgeous movie. The CGI work has its ups and downs, sure, but the Wachowskis traditionally excel at making fantasy come to life and this is no exception. Many would even argue the ‘overly digital’ look of their post-Matrix movies is a feature and not a bug. Their works, no matter the setting, could be considered the opposite of grounded, with high saturation and vibrant lighting working well in tandem with the exuberant sets, costumes, and shiny spaceships of their space opera to create an ethereal, dreamlike world. If you’re looking for tangible realism in Jupiter Ascending, you’re watching it wrong.

To the surprise of no one, unmistakable big-name composer Michael Giacchino gave this space odyssey his all. The original soundtrack isn’t just a good accompaniment; it almost sells the entire thing on its own. It’s playful, classical, and even menacing when it needs to feel weighty. After giving the equally divisive John Carter at Disney a good push in 2012, his expertise yielded similar results here. It’s an enchanting score that deserves a much better movie behind it.

So, were we wrong about Jupiter Ascending? That’s for each casual viewer, cinephile, and critic to decide. It has some remarkable positives and a passionate vision, that’s for sure. But getting through its rougher patches and ignoring the misguided decisions remains challenging.

Perhaps time will be kind to Jupiter Ascending as we’re bombarded with far duller franchise flicks and uninspiring hogwash, but it’s still too soon to start with the ‘Jupiter Ascending was great, actually’ posts.

  • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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    12 hours ago

    Biggest wonder is how the matrix was so good when everything else they made was absolute garbage.

    • djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 hours ago

      I mean, casual audiences dislike everything but The Matrix, so it’s not even like that franchise is seen as “so good.” The real answer is that the Watchowski’s clearly like making very thought-provoking, artsy films. If you’re into that sorta thing, their filmography is pretty good! I love the Matrix trilogy, the Animatrix, Cloud Atlas, Speed Racer, V for Vendetta, even though I’d call all of them weird films. Most people aren’t really interested in watching a philosophy lecture though, so a lot of people find their films boring.

      The real problem with Jupiter Ascending, as well as some of the issues with Cloud Atlas and the later films of the Matrix trilogy, is the same the Watchowski’s have always had; studios don’t wanna make thought-provoking art films. Things get cut, rearranged and jumbled up to try and turn their art into something for public consumption. Personally, I think it just ends up resulting in a worse product, but considering The Matrix: Resurrections has almost double the audience score of The Matrix: Revolutions, people must like the studio meddling.

        • MrScottyTay
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          10 hours ago

          I think people just didn’t care to go see it. Me included. But anyone i know who has seen it loves it.

          • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
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            9 hours ago

            It was torn apart by youtubers. Issues like wierd overlays transitions and stylistic choices. I liked it but I don’t think it aged well either