Jupiter Ascending
Directors: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Starring: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne
127 mins; Class 12;
KRS Releasing Ltd

The Wachowski siblings’ Cloud Atlas is one of the films that really made an impression on me in the past few years. This sprawling, time-travelling epic boasted a perfect combination of engrossing narrative, intriguing characters and their signature penchant for astonishing visuals.

Sadly, their follow-up Jupiter Ascending includes only one of the above (hint: it is neither the narrative nor the characters), making this yet another blip in the otherwise rather exciting career of the people who brought us the Matrix trilogy.

Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum star in this convoluted and ultimately unsatisfying sci-fi extravaganza.

Kunis is Jupiter Jones, who was born after her father was brutally murdered in a violent robbery in St Petersburg. Having moved to Chicago with her Russian mother, Jupiter grows up with her extended family.

Now a young woman, she works as a cleaning lady to the wealthy… unaware that great things await her.

For Jupiter is being carefully watched by the surviving members of an ancient alien dynasty, the House of Abrasax, where siblings Balem, Kalique, and Titus squabble among themselves about their inheritance and the threat Jupiter poses to them.

A messy narrative

When a violent attempt on her life is thwarted by alien bounty hunter Caine (Tatum), Jupiter learns that her fate could alter the balance of the universe.

Jupiter Ascending is a film chock-full of scenes that seem to have been computer-generated to with-in an inch of their life. The Wachowskis can certainly be applauded for creating a breath-taking alien universe of large and imposing planets orbiting their vast imaginary cosmos, peppered with sleek and stylish space craft travelling to and fro, superior and sophisticated weaponry, exquisitely-designed costumes, an eclectic ensemble of humanoid beings and elaborately-choreographed action scenes, meaning the eye certainly has a field day.

Much less the soul, let alone the brains, however. For, as oft is the case, eye-catching visuals do not a good movie make and Jupiter Ascending’s plot proves to be uninvolving and ultimately too confusing.

For even the film’s basic plotlines remain unclear. Why Jupiter is the chosen one or, for that matter, what she is actually chosen for are never properly explained.

The underlying subplot about the true and proper owner of planet Earth on the one hand and humans being harvested to create a youth serum that allows eternal life on the other, is just garbled nonsense. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the unrelenting action and overpowering visuals purposely served as a distraction from the weak plotting.

Making matters worse is the weak characterisation across the board. Despite being the hero of the piece, Jupiter is forever on the sidelines of the action, serving as a passive character in her own storyline.

And Kunis can do little with a poorly-written, bland part that causes her to be captured at various points, ironically protesting all the while that she has no idea what is going on.

Tatum’s pointy ears are a distraction, although he does take his shirt off, much to the delight of his female fans and he gets to glide around in some funky flying boots. But that is the only exciting aspect of his character.

The biggest disappointment is Eddie Redmayne… he who will receive the Best Actor Oscar tonight for The Theory of Everything. Here, he is as unashamedly over the top as he was subtle and restrained in the latter. For in Belam he has created a rather haughty, effete character with a predilection for hissy fits (and a strangely affected hoarse voice).

How the Wachowskis, who adapted novelist David Mitchell’s rich and complex prose into an equally compelling screenplay for Cloud Atlas, could come up with such a messy narrative is a mystery.