Jupiter Ascending

Who's looking forward to this? The newest featurette that came out a few days ago was so good that it should have been the trailer which I thought the real one was okay.

EDIT: Here's the first review, which is small but a rather positive one.

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/movies/what-on-earth-are-the-wachowskis-up-to-now/

Updated On: 1/31/15 at 03:59 PM

Space Opera has never been my favorite in the SF genre. I'll pass.

The Wachowskis are rather hit-and-miss. The Matrix was cool, but both sequels were, well, you know. Didn't like Speed Racer so much, and Cloud Atlas was a very good adaptation of the novel considering they only had three hours. That book deserved a 10 part HBO miniseries adaptation to fully grasp the scope of the incredible novel. I don't think I've ever seen a space opera movie before, but I'm interested in this one, despite it featuring two of the least talented actors working in hollywood today (did you see Mila Kunis in Oz The Great and Powerful? Dreadful!).

edit: wait, would Wall•E count as a space opera? Because I've seen that. Same goes for the Star Wars movies.

Updated On: 2/1/15 at 02:08 PM

After the Matrix (yes, all three), I am willing to throw down and support the Wachowskis in any direction they go... I rather see them aim high and fail spectacularly than movies that aim low and squarely hit their target.

A big-budget sci-fi film opening in the dead of winter? Yeesh. Bad sign.

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Just like CLOUD ATLAS before it, early reviews are torn up. This is going to be another love it or hate it kind of movie from these film-makers. Now I REALLY want to see this, not only for the space opera spectacle, but for how over-the-top it is to them.

Updated On: 2/4/15 at 11:06 AM

Does the 3D help it or not?

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I saw it this morning and what a mess! It felt like there was a four hour director's cut that was trimmed down to these 2 hours. Only Mila came out of it unscathed, though her character is totally unbelievable and absolutely unfazed by all the crazy things that happen to her.

Redmayne is atrocious. He speaks in this Marlon Brando mumble and then (campily) yells a line here and there. His part isn't large, but he sure makes it memorable.

Poor Channing just looks bored and has no character to speak of. I guess they couldn't even think up an interesting backstory for him to work with.

The first 30 minutes or so are unnecessarily confusing and the three siblings have very little interaction once the plot gets going. The Titus sequence ends so abruptly that 15-20 minutes must have been cut from it.

It was visually interesting and the 3D was well done.

I wonder if they'll be given the chance to make a movie on this scale again.

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Also saw it. Disaster on all accounts except maybe visually. The costumes were the most puzzling to me (besides the plot): that purple dress was stunning, as was the blue one the sister wore. The wedding dress was nice, but the head piece was ugly, and besides that only Redmayne's costume seemed to even fit his character. Terrible.

I described Redmayne's performance as a bad impersonation of Ralph Finnes playing Voldemort.

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Had such a great time with this, campy, fun, over the top and barrel load of fun. Plus it has one of the best movie pick up / come on lines ever.

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The best description of Eddie Redmayne's performance I've seen is that he knows he's in a bad film and he chooses to deliver more than any bad film fan could ever want.

"I wonder if they'll be given the chance to make a movie on this scale again. "

The Wachowskis have basically said they don't expect to get such a big budget again (and implied that it was edited from the longer print they wanted--perhaps why it was dumped now instead of last Summer as planned.)

Also the head of Netflix has gone on a sort of campaign (and damage control) about how their movies have suffered from studio interference and edits but the new Wachowski sci fi 8 episode series premiering on Netflix in June, Sense8, will prove what they can do with a proper length. I admit, I'm willing to give it a try--Lana Wachowski has said that it will focus on gender and sexuality heavily, which could be awful but obviously is something she knows about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense8