Mila Kunis plays a long-lost alien heir to the planet Earth who gets to be Channing Tatum's damsel-in-distress in the new sci-fi film Jupiter Ascending, while The Theory of Everything star and 2015 Oscar nominee and fellow hottie Eddie Redmayne shows evil has never looked this good.
In the movie, which is by the creators of The Matrix, Earth was "seeded" by members of a royal family of an advanced humanoid race from another planet, with the plan of later collecting the "evolved" humans they had created and bringing them home. This includes Kunis' character, Jupiter Jones, a hotel housekeeper from Chicago, who is the fourth heir to an alien dynasty, which actually owns her home planet.
Tatum plays Caine Wise, a genetically engineered warrior sent to give her the deets and protect her from harm, namely from the forces sent by one of the other heirs, Balem, played by Redmayne, who has no intention to share the inheritage and has puts a bounty on Jones' head. Jupiter Ascending also stars Game of Thrones alum Sean Bean as an exiled alien living on Earth, who also tries to help her.
Jupiter Ascending hits theaters on Friday. Check out what critics have said about it.
1. Realviews' James Berardinelli gave the movie two and a half out of four stars.
"A close cousin to the special effects excesses of George Lucas in the Star Wars prequels, Jupiter Ascending makes sure that its entire budget ends up on display," he wrote. "There are some jaw-dropping space battle scenes and more pyrotechnics than even Michael Bay has attempted. One can throw many criticisms at Jupiter Ascending but it's never boring. It is, however, occasionally unfocused, sometimes confusing, and saddled with a too-predictable ending."
"The love story between Jupiter and Caine is rushed, giving the Padme/Anakin affair in Attack of the Clones a run for its money as the least convincing sci-fi screen romance in recent memory," he said, adding, "And, although Tatum's casting is defensible, the same claim can't be made of Kunis, who is out of her depth. Delightful in smaller movies, Kunis never convinces as the Earth-born, space-faring heroine of this would-be epic."
2. IGN's Max Nicholson gave Jupiter Ascending a score of 6.9 out of 10, or "Okay."
The movie, he said, "has all the makings of a space opera classic: gorgeous visuals, creative world-building and big philosophical ideas. However, the story never really clicks into place and relies too heavily on a romance that doesn't work. That's not to mention some of the quirky, tonally inconsistent set-pieces. While the universe and lore are notably impressive, Jupiter Ascending doesn't quite reach the starry heights it aspires to."
3. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy wrote that the movie's special effects and technical work appear "second-tier, acceptable but not on a level with the likes of Interstellar, Gravity and other cutting-edge sci-fi productions" and that "anyone hoping for the old Matrix magic to rematerialize (it's been 15 years) is due for more disappointment."
"Unlike The Matrix, certainly, there is nothing conceptual here that catches the viewer's fancy, only the spectacle of an ordinary young lady being swept up into extraordinary circumstances," he added. "The slowly percolating romance between Jupiter and her guardian may sweep young fans of Kunis and Tatum along up to a point but, while the characters swing through the air with the greatest of ease, thanks to Caine's late-model boots, the love story never becomes something to swoon over; there's something about the strapping man's little blond goatee and elfin ears that's a bit weird."
4. Screencrush's Matt Singer joked that the movie turned him into a Seinfeld character—the type that "can't follow the plots of films and invariably spends them whispering confused questions to their seatmates."
"Jupiter Ascending is never boring, but it's also never coherent," he wrote. "Andy and Lana Wachowski invented this rich, bizarre universe, then raced through it like a tour guide trying to get their guests through a museum in the last 15 minutes before it closes."
5. Schmoes Know's Kristian Harloff gave Jupiter Ascending 2.6 out of five "Schmoes," while co-host Mark Ellis gave it the same score.
"In this world, in this universe, as it were, there's a great story in here. Unfortunately, the story that they told with this movie wasn't that one," Ellis said.
Both praised Tatum's performance and Harloff said that while viewers will be "blown away" by the visuals, "there's no villain in this film that is worth anything." Kunis, he added, "looks like she's in a different movie sometimes."
"She's not necessarily bad in this film," Ellis said. "It feels like she was going at a different speed than the rest of the movie. You know when you're driving on the highway and the speed limit is 55 and you're stuck behind some old lady doing 45 and you're seeing cars blaze by and you're like, 'I wanna be in those cars!' That's just kinda how I felt watching her storyline."