Mila Kunis is a girl named Jupiter living in Chicago. She hates her life as a cleaning girl with meddlesome relatives. Her Russian astrophysicist dad was killed even before she was born. But it turns out her genetic profile makes her a queen in some distant universe where there are three siblings fighting for supremacy.
This is the Abrasax family of Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Kalique (Tuppence Middleton), and Titus (Douglas Booth). They believe that Jupiter is the reincarnation of their mother. A professional tracker with extended ears, Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), then takes Jupiter away from our planet and takes her to their own distant universe.
The biggest problem with the movie is that it looks confused and you have a hard time figuring out what they’re all trying to do and, because of this, you just don’t care whatever happens to anyone. You don’t feel any sympathy even for Jupiter and though she may be in danger, you don’t feel any sense of urgency for her.
No doubt the special effects are good and the costumes do look expensive. Well, they reportedly have a budget of more than $150 million, so what do you expect? The dazzling digital imagery includes high-flying fight and chase scenes with Tatum wearing special boots that allow him to fly and somersault high up in the air. But even the love story between Jupiter and Caine seems forced and hurried. Also sad to take note of is the fact that Kunis and Tatum just don’t have any chemistry. No wonder the movie is a big flop in the U.S. The chief villain here is Eddie Redmayne, who’s currently nominated as Oscar best actor playing scientist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything”. But here, he overacts all over the place, sometimes talking in a whisper and sometimes screaming in outrage like he wants to be the new Tom Hiddlestone, the fey villain Loki in “Thor”. He should pray that Oscar voters won’t get to watch his performance here before they cast their votes for they would surely be turned off and vote for Michael Keaton in his stead.
