Jupiter Ascending: Not a Flop For Me

                Hey everyone!  So I thought I’d switch things up a bit with a movie review.  I know I haven’t done one of these in a while.  Not that my love for movies have died down, but now I have so many movies and books to enjoy in the home, I don’t always go to the theatre.  With that said I did go Sunday and saw the new release of Jupiter Ascending, and picked up my ticket for the Thursday showing of Fifty Shades of Grey, which I plan to review also.  Limited spoilers just some overall thoughts, you know the drill.

                So I’m going to start out with the fact that, despite all the haters and the bad reviews I’d heard, I enjoyed the movie.  I have no shame in admitting I liked something others were bashing.  I liked the story.  I would give it a solid 4 Stars.  I was entertained through the whole thing, it has some issues but overall I felt it had more positives than negatives.  So I say go into it with an open mind and if you like the trailer and it seems at all interesting then give it a shot.

                I have no idea how to summarize the plot to this story adequately but here goes.  It’s a Sci-Fi story about a girl named Jupiter who has a less than glamourous life as a cleaner.  She soon finds there is more to the world than Earth, in fact it’s a very small piece of it all.  Oh and she is a Royal, and has legal claim over several realms, a fact that the current owners don’t see eye to eye with.  So between the 3 siblings there is lots of things going on to try and help and hurt the new Heir.  To make it through this, Jupiter must travel with a genetically modified warrior, Caine, to try and find her place and the best solution to her newfound status. 

                Okay so that might be a horrible description of it, and I’m sorry.  I just don’t know what to say to really explain it without giving things away.  Instead how about you check out the trailer to find out.

                That was so much better I think.  Anyways, I’m not clear on all the details but this movie was slated to come out back in the start of 2014, I remember seeing previews thinking it looked good and then never hearing about it for a year, then I saw them again and heard about the push.  Don’t know why or what just if you’re like me and swear you saw this trailer forever and a day ago, you may have. 

                The best thing about this movie was the visuals.  The world that was created was just beautiful.  So many times I wanted to screen cap the scene for my background and stare at it all day.  I only saw it in regular ol’ 2D so I can’t say if the extra money on 3D would be better.  On that I must add that there were some things that the 3D could have been pretty cool, but the scenes weren’t shot with the purpose of coming out at you like some movies can do.  So the beautiful land, er, spacescapes were one thing.  Then you add in the costumes and outfits, some of those dresses were beautiful, impractical as can be but beautiful.  And with any movie with different species we see a diverse set of characters with some strange characteristics and esthetics.  Some good make-up artists to do that work and to age some characters in a way that looks natural and not too out there is hard but pulled off.

                 Now moving onto the meat and bones of the story.  The plot was respectable, however, my biggest negative about the movie was that it had such a vast scale and so much going on sometimes it seemed a bit choppy going from one thing to another.  It was just over 2 hours long and  I know some people can’t deal with long movies so adding more would have been hard but I feel some more explanation or a bit different transition from one issue to another would have benefited the story as a whole. That being said there is a ton of stuff happening, different plot points and twists moving the story along.  Oh and tons of action.  There is constant fights, chases, explosions. And to temper it we also have some comedy.  There are some great little one liners that just totally made me laugh a bit too loud.  And what made them even better was that it was just what I was thinking myself, someone on screen voicing it.  My favorite one involves clothing.  And Mila Kunis does a great job in the role of being both naïve and determined.  She has her moments, just like many characters when we want to give them a good Gibbs head smack, but she also pushes through it. 

                That's all I really have to say about this movie.  Again I liked it and will probably buy it on DVD when it comes out.  So if this sounds like something you normally enjoy then give it a chance.  That's all for today.  I have some more book reviews to work on, I've already read 12 books in 2015 so whoohoo on that, and as I mentioned at the start I have my ticket to see Fifty Shades of Grey tomorrow with some friends and I plan to review it for you also.  So until then the usual applies.  Please take a moment to share your thoughts below.  Thanks!