The Wachowski Siblings are unique among blockbuster filmmakers in that they have a wonderful sense of visual design and a great knack for creating crowd-pleasing popcorn movies that nobody actually goes to see. Seriously, after The Matrix kind of flared out the Wachowskis have tried again and again to replicate that early success with no luck. And they've tried it the smart way too, not just remaking The Matrix but by making new and different things like Speed Racer or Cloud Atlas, at least trying to show they weren't one trick ponies and earning critical acclaim along the way. And their latest effort, a high-concept space opera in the vein of Dune called Jupiter Ascending, already looks like it will suffer the same fate
Right off the back I want to give the Wachowskis credit for coming up with an original property and story. Jupiter Ascending is the tale of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), a Russian immigrant working as a janitor in Chicago. Her humdrum life is suddenly upended though when she's molested by aliens, rescued by the wolfman Caine (Channing Tatum), and learns she's the genetic reincarnation of what is effectively the Queen of the Universe. And as such, Jupiter is entitled to claim the former queen's position and property for herself. This information doesn't sit well with the former queen's children though, wary of any threat to their inheritance and wealth. Jupiter becomes caught in their power struggle, being manipulated and sometimes outright threatened into siding with one of them over the others. Things come to head when Balim (Eddie Redmayne), the crown prince, kidnaps Jupiter's family from Earth to force her into abdicating her position to him. And so the race is on to see who will control the universe and along the way Jupiter and Caine fall in love.
