Jupiter Ascending (3D)

First Hit:  All this film has going for it are a few interesting visuals.

Before I knew it, this film descended into the realm of “are you kidding me?” Not only was the premise stupid the execution of this premise was almost as bad.

The only thing that saved it were some of the visuals. Really:  People owned planets in our galaxy? They were divided up amongst 3 people whose job it was is to harvest human specific DNA stuff to make themselves live longer. Their stated goal - to live as long as one can - even unhappily. The planet owners claimed the only worthwhile commodity that exists is time? Titus Abrasax (Douglas Booth), Kalique Abrasax (Tuppence Middleton) and Balem  Abrasax (Eddie Redmayne) owned planets and did the harvesting.

Each wanted the prize planet Earth (of course where most the human type people live). Kalique and Titus live on spacecraft and Balem lives in the red eye of Jupiter which is protected from the gases by some structure he’s built. With Earth being the most desired planet, each of the Abrasax’s kids are trying to find and entice the rightful owner of Earth to give it up to one of them.

Earth is unknowingly owned by earthling Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), who also happens to be their reincarnated mother. When she learns that she owns Earth… OK you may start to get my drift. This story is so far-fetched, complicated and convoluted that it just doesn't (read as "can’t") work. Oh heck, I forgot there is also a hero Cain Wise (Channing Tatum) who flits about on shoes that allow him to skate through life and space at outstanding speeds. Mind you no one else in the film has these skate shoes.

The visuals of the different worlds, of the red eye of Jupiter and the space vehicles are good to very good but that is about it. The dialogue was stilted, the premise undefinable, and the execution miserable.

Kunis was OK, and given the level of story-line, script and direction this is a complement. Booth was bland. Middleton was barely OK. Redmayne was disastrous. The difference between this role and the one as Stephen Hawking is like night and day. Tatum was very disappointing. However for all of these people it wasn’t their acting that brought this down, it was the concept, script and direction. I wonder how they all got bamboozled into taking these roles. Andy and Lana Wachowski did the producers a disservice by actually pitching and making this film.

Overall:  Don’t waste your time. It is bad even in 3D.

Cloud Atlas

First Hit:  A difficult concept to make believable in film but here it works fairly well and is interesting.

The concept that the energy/spirit of who we are never ceases to exist and manifests itself in bodies is not new.

His Holiness Dalai Lama has revisited us 14 times. If you watch the Martin Scorsese film “Kundun” (HHDL’s nickname) you will see an enactment of his discovery of who he is and was. Anyway, Cloud Atlas takes us through people and their connections through many different expressions of their lifetimes.

Tom Hanks plays multiple versions of a good guy as does Halle Berry his connected partner. This very long (almost three hours) film goes by surprisingly fast because there are 6 story lines the audience has to follow.

The credit for this film being engaging and interesting is to the fine direction under Tom Tykwer with Lana and Andy Wachowski. I found myself wanting to know more (and read this also as caring more) about some story lines versus others. T

here were storylines I wanted to dismiss quickly while others I had more interest in. Without tipping my hand too much, the future stories were more interesting to me as were 2 of the historical stories. At times the scenes and sets were amazing in their ethereal beauty while others were sharp in their rough starkness.

Without me having to go back (and I won’t) watch it again, what struck the following day was; did anyone learn enough in their previous versions of themselves to go from being a bad guy to a good guy? Was there redemption? I don’t think so. This thought took me to thinking how much better this film might have been if an energy/spirit learned from their past behavior and moved to a different based energy. But then again it would have been a whole other film.

At one point the film did strike a chord in me which I think is true: “Love is real. Everything else is an illusion. Live in this realm and you will be at peace.”

I wondered how hard it was for the actors to stay in character for all the roles each had to play – and therefore kudos to all. Hanks was very good but typical of himself in his roles as Dr. Henry Goose, and 5 others. Halle Berry was strong in her 6 roles. Jim Broadbent was really fun to watch in his 5 roles. Hugo Weaving had 6 really disparate but interesting roles as the bad guy. Jim Sturgess was the young hero in 7 roles and did this well but I didn’t think the Asian makeup worked well. Doona Bae was mesmerizing as Sonmi-451 (interesting reference to another famous 451) and her scenes stole much of the film. Lana and Andy Wachowski along with Tom Tykwer wrote an interesting screenplay from David Mitchell’s book Cloud Atlas (named for a symphony). They also did an outstanding job of keeping this long film moving and engaging the audience.

Overall:  Interesting, far reaching, and well done but not great.