You are not logged in. Please login or register.
This movie is a warm hug from a good friend. It's so completely lovable that I just cannot fathom how much people are hating on it.
Did anyone else see it? The Wachowski Defense Squad needs more members at the moment.
Not yet, but I saw your recommendation on twitter and I'm definitely going to go see it. Disproportionate criticism makes me deeply suspicious, so I'm gonna go make up my mind for myself.
edit: is it worth seeing in 3D, or just regular?
Last edited by Herc (2015-02-07 17:58:31)
I haven't seen Jupiter Ascending, but I've definitely been in the Wachowski Defense Squad since loving the heck out of Speed Racer.
+2
Phi, I knew there was a reason I liked you.
I saw it last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's got some flaws but it's thoroughly entertaining. And ORIGINAL!?!?
....The Siblings are hit-or-miss with me. I liked The Matrix, hated the sequels, didn't hate Speed Racer but didn't really like it much, loved the shit out of Cloud Atlas. They're about 50/50 with me.
What about Bound?
Bound is pretty solid; not nearly as "visionary" as their later movies, though, but at least there's some hot girl-on-girl action 
Every trailer I saw made it look like Dune and the SW Prequels had a baby.
Since it's come out, ever review seems to describe a movie that fits that description.
Unless I start seeing some serious turnaround in response, I can't imagine I'll see it in theaters.
Last edited by BBQ (2015-02-09 17:31:47)
Are we talking book Dune or Lynch's Dune? Because the way I read it was a "Shut up and take my money" type of a moment.
Regardless of the criticism towards the PT, I still appreciate the visuals of the film. I've heard that Jupiter Ascending has quite striking visuals.
I gotta go with Fire on this one. The Wachowski's doing Dune meets Prequel Trilogy, with 2015 VFX techology, sounds like the most amazing acid trip of a movie ever. At that point it moves solidly into Prometheus territory, the story can be shit if it wants, but it's gonna be damn pretty.
Give me all the tickets pls.
The best description/review of Jupiter Ascending I've found was something akin to: "It's like Flash Gordon, crossed with one of those sci-fi themed pinball machines from arcades of old."
+1
Interesting write-up on what went wrong and how this even got green-lit in the first place:
http://deadline.com/2015/02/jupiter-asc … 201369053/
Like I've said before, I can't knock these two for their ambition, but I don't give them a pass for it either. If you're gonna spend 200 million on your original wacky ass sci-fi movie and are given final-cut (?!!!), you'd better damn-well make sure you get it right. They have terrible taste in performances and dialogue (honestly the warning signs are even there in the 1st matrix in a couple scenes), and no amount of sincerity changes that. The end result of all this is going to be a dozen original sci-fi movies by young filmmakers getting rejected/cancelled.
Last edited by bullet3 (2015-02-10 06:28:57)
The end result of all this is going to be a dozen original sci-fi movies by young filmmakers getting rejected/cancelled.
That's been a thing way before Jupiter Ascending came along. It's called the "Hollywood System".
Seriously though, smart, original science fiction that doesn't have a name (in front of and/or behind the camera) that the audience recognizes and the market can bank on has always had general difficulty in getting made. Films like Moon and District 9 are anomalies. Exceptions that prove the rule. Jupiter Ascending failing at the box office won't have much impact in other sci-fi properties getting made and once it comes down to the bottom line, it doesn't even matter if the film was actually good or not. Sure, a studio might be resistant to spending that much money on something like this again but that's always been the case with such a risky genre and besides, the smaller-budgeted, independently produced route is typically where one goes to find more substantive, sci-fi cinema, anyway.
Consider this: Jupiter Ascending is a sci-fi spectacle that "didn't work". Okay but Guardians of the Galaxy is a sci-fi spectacle that "did work" and then some. I think as sci-fi fans, we'll be okay for a while. I mean, it's not as though films like Ex Machina are being pulled from release and buried, over Jupiter Ascending not making a mint at the box office. We at least still have that to look forward to.
+1
I don't agree. Yes, big budget original film-making has been dying a slow-death for the better part of 20 years, and is almost completely non-existent now. Which is exactly why I'd argue it's increasingly more important for the rare movie like this that does get made to be a successful one. It's not a coincidence that Interstellar came out in the same release window that Gravity was a breakout hit in a year before it, and this year The Martian is going to hit at that same time of year. If Gravity was a failure, would The Martian have even been green-lit? Studios look for any excuse to say no to an unsure project.
Guardians of the Galaxy was successful, but it's based on a comic-book. If Jupiter Ascending was awesome and a breakout hit, the narrative might've been that people want to see cool ambitious projects on screen that show them things they haven't seen before. With it bombing, the takeaway for the execs will be that Guardians was only a hit because of the Marvel effect, and they'll just double-down on the comic-book adaptations.
I love the little independent genre flicks as much as anyone, I can't wait to see Ex Machina, but its a bummer if we're basically relegated to seeing those types of movies on VOD, which is increasingly where they are getting released (unless you happen to be in NY or LA).
Is Interstellar going to be the last epic-canvas original sci-fi story? I certainly hope not.
Last edited by bullet3 (2015-02-11 04:30:57)
God dammit, it was really original. Mila was totally miscast. The central theme is straight hero's journey. But holy shit was this thing PACKED with decisions. SO. MANY. DECISIONS. And fuck it...I respect the hell out of that movie even if it's far from great.
It was like an Oakland Side Show next to a Jackie Beat drag show, next to a joint session of congress inside a TED talk. How can you not admire the giant, pulsating balls on this thing.
Who cares what all you guys think? Chinese teens demand punching robots, so that's all the big budget sci-fi you're gonna get for the rest of the decade. 
Powered by PunBB, supported by Informer Technologies, Inc.
Currently installed 9 official extensions. Copyright © 2003–2009 PunBB.
