The Wachowski siblings' Jupiter Ascending had a pretty rough go of things earlier this year when professional critics around the world panned it before its theatrical release - but now ScreenJunkies has arrived to do a more in-depth post-mortem as the film prepares to be released on Blu-ray and DVD. Prepare for spoilers!
The latest episode of Honest Trailers has arrived, and it's a rather brutal take-down of the Wachowski's latest film. The big question that is repeatedly raised is how a movie this patently ridiculous can warrant a reported budget of $176 million, and the film never really manages to answer that question itself. It's definitely not a high point of the filmmakers best known for bringing us The Matrix.
As many critics pointed out when the film hit theaters, it's not hard to appreciate what the Wachowski's are doing, as it's nice to have a bit of original sci-fi breakthrough in a world of sequels and adaptations, but the whole thing is incredibly messy and doesn't really work as a story. Jupiter, played by Mila Kunis, does a good amount of wandering through the plot, and the villains range from pointless to way overdone (I'm looking at you, Eddie Redmayne).
Perhaps the greatest sin, however, as the video points out, is the fact that the end of the movie leaves absolutely nothing changed. Jupiter may be queen of the Earth, but she can't actually tell anybody about it, and all she gets out of the experience is a pair of gravity boots. And let's not forget the fact that there are still two Abrasax siblings out in the universe who will probably do everything in their power to get the flow of RegeneX going again as quickly as they can. It makes the entire story that precedes the conclusion feel pointless, and that's hardly a good thing.
Jupiter Ascending has managed to find its own cult following - as all weird sci-fi films tend to do - but that following didn't exactly save it at the box office. By the end of its run, the movie only managed to make $181 million worldwide, which wasn't enough to cover the film's production budget and the cost of its marketing. All of this points to the Honest Trailer's new title for the film likely being very accurate:
Jupiter Ascending is now available for pre-order, and will be released on both Blu-ray and DVD on June 2nd.
