directed and written by the Wachowskis
I was one of the few people I know who, when Star Wars: Episode I came out in 1999, was more blown away by Andy and then-Larry Wachowski's then-groundbreaking sci-fi/martial arts hybrid The Matrix.
It was that initial affection for their work that enabled me to sit through two laborious sequels to The Matrix, and the DVD of their infamous anime adaptation Speed Racer. Such was my admiration for that one movie that I was able to forgive them three consecutive transgressions before deciding to pass on the sprawling, ambitious but widely ignored 2012 film Cloud Atlas, a complicated film that not even certified box-office titan Tom Hanks could save from commercial oblivion.
That notwithstanding, I was so awed by the trailer for Jupiter Ascending, however, that I was ready to jump on the Wachowski train yet again. I walked in hoping that they had rediscovered the mojo that had made The Matrix one of the most engaging films I had seen in my post-college youth.
Jupiter Ascending is the story of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) a Russian immigrant to the United States who lives and works in Chicago with her family, who run a house-cleaning business. She discovers, to her shock, that she is actually the heir to an intergalactic empire, the spoils of which are being fought over by three alien siblings, Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) and Titus (Douglas Booth). Jupiter is apparently the reincarnation of their mother, the matriarch of the house of Abrasax, and as a result, each of the siblings wants to get hold of her for their own purposes. Balem wants her dead outright, while Kalique and Titus have slightly different plans. Kalique hires a team of trackers, while Titus hires one, Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) a former soldier. Caine gets to Jupiter first, but it is only after a series of harrowing chases, double-crosses and meetings with the siblings that Jupiter finally realizes why the three of them want the planet Earth as badly as they do, and realizes that she is the only thing standing between them and the end of the human life on Earth.
Now, the good news is that the film is utterly gorgeous. From John Toll's exquisite cinematography to the sumptuous production design that was drawn from a myriad of inspirations to some truly amazing special effects, the Wachowski siblings have made it clear that they have lost none of their flair for the visually spectacular. I'll grant that constantly "dusky" backdrops made it easier for the VFX teams to hide flaws in the computer-generated imagery, but that detracted very little from the overall look of the film, which, to my mind anyway, made the very best use of camera technology that Hollywood currently has to offer. The hurricane-choked atmosphere surrounding Balem's ship, when viewed from space, is stunning; it's basically like a painting. The movie is simply wonderful to behold.
(Spoilers)
The problem, however, that the story of this movie, the Wachowski's first all-new, original intellectual property since The Matrix, distinctly feels like a rehash of that movie in some very specific and crucial ways. Jupiter, like Keanu Reeves' Neo, learns that the world is not quite what she thought it was. Also, the people of earth, like they were in the post-apocalyptic world of The Matrix, are cattle here; they just don't know it. In The Matrix, humans were batteries for robots. Here, we're basically beauty care products. This is not an exaggeration.
(Spoilers)
It seems Warner Brothers asked the Wachowskis to come up with something new, and apparently the best they could do was recycle their one really good idea. It doesn't help that actors like Eddie Redmayne probably spent most of their energy to keep from laughing out loud reciting some truly risible dialogue. Not only that, but the pacing, for reasons I cannot quite understand, is simply terrible. The movie's two plus hours feel more like three.
That's not to say the film doesn't have anything else going for it; apart from the eye-popping if occasionally generic action sequences, most of which feature Tatum's Wise in action, there's a highly entertaining sequence in which Jupiter gets a taste of intergalactic bureaucracy when she accomplishes the necessary documents to establish her title to Earth, one in which renowned director Terry Gilliam actually has a pretty prominent role. It's a hilarious sequence that, quite, honestly, belongs in a better movie than this one was.
Considering the critical thrashing and box-office bitch-slapping this film has received, one wonders just how many more blank checks, if at all, Warner Brothers (or any other studio, for that matter) will be willing to write for these two.
6/10
Friday, February 20, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
My List of Things I Hope Sony and Marvel Remember in Rebooting Spider-Man
Now that the Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have finally seen eye-to-eye on what to do with my favorite fictional character Spider-Man, I am a happy fan. There are a few things I hope they remember as they sit down and prepare to relaunch the franchise with the sixth movie since 2002.
1. NO MORE ORIGIN STORY - Hands down, one of the most difficult things to sit through about the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man was the retread of his origin story, especially the death of Uncle Ben. Sam Raimi's take on that particular aspect of Spider-Man's history was pitch perfect, and Marc Webb's was just clunky in comparison, although by having the thief-killer get away, they did establish a motive for Peter to play the masked vigilante before he realized he had a higher calling.
Still, all together, the Spider-Man movies have made something like $4 billion at the global box-office, meaning it's rather unlikely that most people would still remain unfamiliar with Spider-Man's back story. I say this is on my wish list, because to my mind there is still the risk that Sony/Marvel might trot one out just to emphasize that all previous continuity has been discarded. I think the origin can be covered in an opening credits sequence.
2. KEEP THE LATEST ITERATION OF THE COSTUME - After talking about something to discard, I'd like to mention something that I think Sony/Marvel should keep, and that's the costume that Spider-Man wore in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was basically brilliant, and which took everything that was good from both the comic books and the previous movies and put it up on the screen. The first Amazing Spider-Man costume from the 2012 movie was awful, and to my mind was developed solely to distance the reboot from the original trilogy, especially Spider-Man 3. That might be the case here as Sony may try to start fresh, but as with the origin, some things don't need to be done over again. It wasn't the costume designer's fault that the last movie sucked, after all.
3. MILES MORALES WON'T WORK - There are rumors that Sony is contemplating using Miles Morales, the half-African-American, half-Puerto-Rican kid who became Spider-Man in the "Ultimate" universe after the death of that universe's Peter Parker. As a reader who owns thirty-plus issues featuring Miles as Spider-Man, I can categorically say that this won't work. Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man in a very specific narrative context, one which involves the death of Peter Parker, and something tells me there's no way in hell that Sony or Marvel will want to kill that character. One cannot simply insert Miles into Peter's back story, because that wouldn't be Miles, it would just be ethnic recasting, and considering the internet firestorm Fox endured for Michael B. Jordan, a black actor, as the traditionally Caucasian Johnny Storm, I'm not sure that would go over so well with a studio looking to rejuvenate an ailing franchise.
4. SPIDER-MAN DESERVES AN EPIC MUSICAL THEME - This is just a matter of personal preference, but of the three composers who came up with themes for Spider-Man, I liked the work of James Horner the best, and not just because I've long had a soft spot for his work. For me it perfectly captured the balance between earthbound Peter Parker and high-flying Spider-Man. Hans Zimmer wrote a solid job, even though his theme seemed to have been lifted from Mark Isham's music for the baseball drama 42. Unfortunately, it is more likely than not that all of the previous Spider-Man music will be discarded in keeping with the spirit of rebooting. Whoever they get to compose music should give Spider-Man a tune that is both distinct and memorable, and as much as possible, they should steer clear of cookie-cutter composers like Brian Tyler. I think Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino would be a good fit of the webslinger.
Finally...
5. PETER PARKER HAS TO BE SOCIALLY INEPT - While I understand the need to replace him, I liked Andrew Garfield's performance for the most part. What I didn't like about him was that he came across less like an outcast and more like a rebel of sorts. Basically, though Garfield's performance definitely had heart and while he understood the character pretty well, he wasn't quite as socially inept as Peter Parker is traditionally supposed to be. Tobey Maguire, whose performance was also flawed in quite a few ways, got this right about the character, though at times he overplayed it. Peter Parker is a nerd, after all, and he needs an actor to play him like one, maybe not in the mold of the cast of Big Bang Theory, but definitely one a little less charming than Andrew Garfield.
1. NO MORE ORIGIN STORY - Hands down, one of the most difficult things to sit through about the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man was the retread of his origin story, especially the death of Uncle Ben. Sam Raimi's take on that particular aspect of Spider-Man's history was pitch perfect, and Marc Webb's was just clunky in comparison, although by having the thief-killer get away, they did establish a motive for Peter to play the masked vigilante before he realized he had a higher calling.
Still, all together, the Spider-Man movies have made something like $4 billion at the global box-office, meaning it's rather unlikely that most people would still remain unfamiliar with Spider-Man's back story. I say this is on my wish list, because to my mind there is still the risk that Sony/Marvel might trot one out just to emphasize that all previous continuity has been discarded. I think the origin can be covered in an opening credits sequence.
2. KEEP THE LATEST ITERATION OF THE COSTUME - After talking about something to discard, I'd like to mention something that I think Sony/Marvel should keep, and that's the costume that Spider-Man wore in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was basically brilliant, and which took everything that was good from both the comic books and the previous movies and put it up on the screen. The first Amazing Spider-Man costume from the 2012 movie was awful, and to my mind was developed solely to distance the reboot from the original trilogy, especially Spider-Man 3. That might be the case here as Sony may try to start fresh, but as with the origin, some things don't need to be done over again. It wasn't the costume designer's fault that the last movie sucked, after all.
3. MILES MORALES WON'T WORK - There are rumors that Sony is contemplating using Miles Morales, the half-African-American, half-Puerto-Rican kid who became Spider-Man in the "Ultimate" universe after the death of that universe's Peter Parker. As a reader who owns thirty-plus issues featuring Miles as Spider-Man, I can categorically say that this won't work. Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man in a very specific narrative context, one which involves the death of Peter Parker, and something tells me there's no way in hell that Sony or Marvel will want to kill that character. One cannot simply insert Miles into Peter's back story, because that wouldn't be Miles, it would just be ethnic recasting, and considering the internet firestorm Fox endured for Michael B. Jordan, a black actor, as the traditionally Caucasian Johnny Storm, I'm not sure that would go over so well with a studio looking to rejuvenate an ailing franchise.
4. SPIDER-MAN DESERVES AN EPIC MUSICAL THEME - This is just a matter of personal preference, but of the three composers who came up with themes for Spider-Man, I liked the work of James Horner the best, and not just because I've long had a soft spot for his work. For me it perfectly captured the balance between earthbound Peter Parker and high-flying Spider-Man. Hans Zimmer wrote a solid job, even though his theme seemed to have been lifted from Mark Isham's music for the baseball drama 42. Unfortunately, it is more likely than not that all of the previous Spider-Man music will be discarded in keeping with the spirit of rebooting. Whoever they get to compose music should give Spider-Man a tune that is both distinct and memorable, and as much as possible, they should steer clear of cookie-cutter composers like Brian Tyler. I think Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino would be a good fit of the webslinger.
Finally...
5. PETER PARKER HAS TO BE SOCIALLY INEPT - While I understand the need to replace him, I liked Andrew Garfield's performance for the most part. What I didn't like about him was that he came across less like an outcast and more like a rebel of sorts. Basically, though Garfield's performance definitely had heart and while he understood the character pretty well, he wasn't quite as socially inept as Peter Parker is traditionally supposed to be. Tobey Maguire, whose performance was also flawed in quite a few ways, got this right about the character, though at times he overplayed it. Peter Parker is a nerd, after all, and he needs an actor to play him like one, maybe not in the mold of the cast of Big Bang Theory, but definitely one a little less charming than Andrew Garfield.
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