The Case for Ascension

Another Eddie Redmayne film and once again he is the outstanding performance in this one, though in Jupiter Ascending it is for all the wrong reasons.

He plays the bad guy this time, and is channelling some kind of hoarse, unstable alien in a way that none of his fellow “aliens”, including his family, seem to be able to replicate.  If the brief for the role was “go over the top”, then he succeeds in spades, his almost camp performance eliciting outbursts of laughter from the audience in my session whenever he started his deranged shriek.

Though a deranged shriek kind of describes the film itself.  Its bonkers, with amazing visuals and incredible special effects that seem loosely tied to a fairly thin plot.  Mila Kunis as Jupiter continues to shed her Meg Griffin image by being an intergalactic beauty that, through cosmic genetic coincidence, happens to be the exact doppelganger of an expired Queen and so stands to inherit the Earth, unless the remainders of her family stop her.

Jupiter is therefore kidnapped and traded and, worst of all, forced to wear some truly insane outfits, including a large black bondage gown for dinner, all of which she does meekly and mildly.  About the only time she shows any gumption (or sense of character) is in her interactions with her rescuer, Caine, a man-dog in the buff form of Channing Tatum.  The pace slows at these “romantic” moments and the dialogue is allowed to be something other than exposition (sometimes), so there is the chance for Kunis to try and make her character at least likeable, if not someone to actually support.

Personally, I felt more attached to the crew of the starship Aegeis, the military crew assigned to help keep Jupiter safe from the predators out to kidnap and either marry or kill her.  While the elephant-like pilot was a bit odd, the crew of humans, part-humans and robots was pretty awesome, even if their efforts were not always effectual.

The final showdown on Jupiter itself was utterly bonkers.  I have no idea what was happening half the time, and thought I saw some of the set from the Atmosphere Processer from Aliens in amongst the explosions and pyrotechnics from… well, heaps of action movies.

And so, in the end, it is all pretty generic action and adventure, but done with a huge sense of fun and excitement and good pacing.  I have no idea what was happening half the time, but at least I was interested in a way the trailers for Divergent 2 and Seventh Son that preceded the film utterly failed to provoke.

Verdict: Jupiter Ascended may not be in the house of great Sci Fi or action films, but it is on the cusp of being something entertaining and the special effects are as gorgeous as Venus tinged with the destructive power of Mars.  And as for Sean Bean…. Well, does he die in this film too?  7 star signs out of 10.