When the trailer for the Wachowski’s JUPITER ASCENDING hit back in December, the response was lukewarm. After many were disappointed with both SPEED RACER and CLOUD ATLAS (two movies I enjoyed), it is going to take a lot of convincing that their next project is going to be on par with THE MATRIX. There is still hope but a second trailer will have to convince those that are undecided.
The first official image from JUPITER ASCENDING has been released and it features star Channing Tatum in his full alien-albino-bounty hunter-elf costume shooting some guns while jumping in mid-air. Like the trailer, this image doesn’t give much aside from a definitely bizarre casting and costume design. The rest of the cast is pretty solid including Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, and Eddie Redmayne, but it is also hard to sell audiences on projects that aren’t based on comic books these days. Even Channing Tatum couldn’t sell audiences on WHITE HOUSE DOWN which means JUPITER ASCENDING is a risky project.
Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) was born under a night sky, with signs predicting that she was destined for great things. Now grown, Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning other people’s houses and an endless run of bad breaks. Only when Caine (Channing Tatum), a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting for her all along—her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.
For me, I have never had an issue with Andy and Lana Wachowski when it comes to showing us something visually amazing on screen. But, as with THE MATRIX sequels, sometimes their screenwriting csn border on convoluted. JUPITER ASCENDING could be the next MATRIX or the next JOHN CARTER. Time will tell.
JUPITER ASCENDING hits theaters on July 25, 2014.
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