schneefink (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
schneefink) wrote2015-02-26 02:11 pm
schneefink) wrote2015-02-26 02:11 pm
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Jupiter Ascending: so much fun
"Jupiter Ascending" was a lot of fun!
I think I'm going to have to make (at least) two posts about it: about the movie, and about the movie's reception, because the latter is both interesting and frustrating.
Things I liked:
- The tech! The space rollerskates are very cool and I want some. And a shield. And the flying motorcycle thingie, and the spaceships. Spaceships!
- The movie was extremely pretty. The clothes were interesting and appropriate, and the fight scenes exciting and only a little bit confusing and too flashy at times. The graphics and special effects were very impressive, and there was a lot of scenery porn. The spaceships! I've watched quite a few movies and shows with spaceships and planets, but JA was something special.
And Jupiter was never used as sexy eye candy, that was a very pleasant surprise. Only Caine was, and I enjoyed seeing him shirtless ;-)
- I liked the minor characters, the bounty hunters and the splices and the bureaucrats. They fit well into this world and they were fun in their roles. Plus, dragon soldiers! It made this 'verse's population look diverse despite the fact that there apparently are no real aliens, or we haven't seen them yet.
Best minor character: Captain Tsing. She's amazing.
- One of the things that finally convinced me to watch the movie was reading that as someone with a loyalty kink I would probably enjoy the Caine&Stinger relationship, and that's very true. Buttons pushed.
- Worldbuilding: on the one hand it's a bit annoying that some pieces of worldbuilding were left so vague, mainly for fic-writing purposes, and some omissions were more obvious than others. But there was a sense that there was a world, better yet a universe, full of strange wonders and alien things and huge events, but also with mundane things like bureaucracy. The bureaucracy scene was such random fun.
(I don't like it when bureaucracy problems have to be resolved with bribes though. It means the system doesn't work, and that's always depressing.)
- Regenex, or what it's called. A huuuge economy based on people doing terrible and immoral things for immortality. There are so many cool things you can do with that. It must be very important for medical reasons as well. And the huge baths are probably not required, just a luxury for rich people (or they can be reused.)
So royalty lives for centuries, clearly they, and their society, have very different perspectives on a lot of things. There are long- and shortliving beings living side by side, what a contrast that must be. How rich you are is measured by how long you can afford to live, and how many people you can afford to grant longer lives as well: I imagine that royals grant their families and loyal servants and maybe friends longer lives as well, who are dependent on that royal's good graces to survive.
- Finally, and most importantly: Jupiter! I love Jupiter Jones a lot.
There's her background as an illegal Russian immigrant; it would have been better with a bit less stereotypes, but at least the Russian wasn't too terrible (from what I can say; I've heard much worse.) I liked her family, meddling and complicated but loving.
I like her as a heroine: she gets thrown into chaos, tries to make the best of it, makes mistakes but tries to do better next time, and is willing to sacrifice herself and her family to a torturing madman to save Earth. She's much easier to identify with than someone who "wins" by knowing/learning martial arts. And yes, she develops a crush on Caine fast and she's a bit awkward about it, but so what? Having something that's at least somewhat normal amidst all that craziness seems pretty sensible to me. (Plus I like het relationships where the woman is in charge, so Jupiter loving it when Caine calls her "Your Majesty" is good for me.)
Yes, the movie was a bit overly dramatic at times, and the royalty-recognizing space bees were unnecessary. But they were cool! And nothing was so over-the-top that it threw me out of the story (Balem's buildings on Jupiter-the-planet collapsing and his dramatics reminded me a bit of Mustafar near the end.)
I'm looking forward to the DVD release, because I missed some things and I want to watch it again. And then there are things the movie doesn't mention that I'm curious about:
- What exactly are the Aegis and the Legion, and how do they fit together? My guess is that the Aegis are a kind of police force, and Legion = military, with the Skyjackers as an elite unit. And if you have a military – and a huge battle was also mentioned – who are you fighting against? Who is fighting?
If there are several royal houses, and the Aegis isn't under their command and neither is Orous, how does the government work? Sort of like the EU to the different European countries maybe, with more influence in some areas and less in others?
- Society as a whole, races, social status. There's royalty on top, splices and androids and tersies (I think that was the term for humans from farm planets?) on the bottom, and in the middle, probably "normal humans" like Captain Tsing appeared to be and I think we saw some in the bureaucracy scene. Probably all with very different lifespans. How does social mobility work? So much to work with.
- And of course I want to know what happens next, but that's for fic to explore :) Some recs coming soon. I want so much fic, especially futurefic.
I think I'm going to have to make (at least) two posts about it: about the movie, and about the movie's reception, because the latter is both interesting and frustrating.
Things I liked:
- The tech! The space rollerskates are very cool and I want some. And a shield. And the flying motorcycle thingie, and the spaceships. Spaceships!
- The movie was extremely pretty. The clothes were interesting and appropriate, and the fight scenes exciting and only a little bit confusing and too flashy at times. The graphics and special effects were very impressive, and there was a lot of scenery porn. The spaceships! I've watched quite a few movies and shows with spaceships and planets, but JA was something special.
And Jupiter was never used as sexy eye candy, that was a very pleasant surprise. Only Caine was, and I enjoyed seeing him shirtless ;-)
- I liked the minor characters, the bounty hunters and the splices and the bureaucrats. They fit well into this world and they were fun in their roles. Plus, dragon soldiers! It made this 'verse's population look diverse despite the fact that there apparently are no real aliens, or we haven't seen them yet.
Best minor character: Captain Tsing. She's amazing.
- One of the things that finally convinced me to watch the movie was reading that as someone with a loyalty kink I would probably enjoy the Caine&Stinger relationship, and that's very true. Buttons pushed.
- Worldbuilding: on the one hand it's a bit annoying that some pieces of worldbuilding were left so vague, mainly for fic-writing purposes, and some omissions were more obvious than others. But there was a sense that there was a world, better yet a universe, full of strange wonders and alien things and huge events, but also with mundane things like bureaucracy. The bureaucracy scene was such random fun.
(I don't like it when bureaucracy problems have to be resolved with bribes though. It means the system doesn't work, and that's always depressing.)
- Regenex, or what it's called. A huuuge economy based on people doing terrible and immoral things for immortality. There are so many cool things you can do with that. It must be very important for medical reasons as well. And the huge baths are probably not required, just a luxury for rich people (or they can be reused.)
So royalty lives for centuries, clearly they, and their society, have very different perspectives on a lot of things. There are long- and shortliving beings living side by side, what a contrast that must be. How rich you are is measured by how long you can afford to live, and how many people you can afford to grant longer lives as well: I imagine that royals grant their families and loyal servants and maybe friends longer lives as well, who are dependent on that royal's good graces to survive.
- Finally, and most importantly: Jupiter! I love Jupiter Jones a lot.
There's her background as an illegal Russian immigrant; it would have been better with a bit less stereotypes, but at least the Russian wasn't too terrible (from what I can say; I've heard much worse.) I liked her family, meddling and complicated but loving.
I like her as a heroine: she gets thrown into chaos, tries to make the best of it, makes mistakes but tries to do better next time, and is willing to sacrifice herself and her family to a torturing madman to save Earth. She's much easier to identify with than someone who "wins" by knowing/learning martial arts. And yes, she develops a crush on Caine fast and she's a bit awkward about it, but so what? Having something that's at least somewhat normal amidst all that craziness seems pretty sensible to me. (Plus I like het relationships where the woman is in charge, so Jupiter loving it when Caine calls her "Your Majesty" is good for me.)
Yes, the movie was a bit overly dramatic at times, and the royalty-recognizing space bees were unnecessary. But they were cool! And nothing was so over-the-top that it threw me out of the story (Balem's buildings on Jupiter-the-planet collapsing and his dramatics reminded me a bit of Mustafar near the end.)
I'm looking forward to the DVD release, because I missed some things and I want to watch it again. And then there are things the movie doesn't mention that I'm curious about:
- What exactly are the Aegis and the Legion, and how do they fit together? My guess is that the Aegis are a kind of police force, and Legion = military, with the Skyjackers as an elite unit. And if you have a military – and a huge battle was also mentioned – who are you fighting against? Who is fighting?
If there are several royal houses, and the Aegis isn't under their command and neither is Orous, how does the government work? Sort of like the EU to the different European countries maybe, with more influence in some areas and less in others?
- Society as a whole, races, social status. There's royalty on top, splices and androids and tersies (I think that was the term for humans from farm planets?) on the bottom, and in the middle, probably "normal humans" like Captain Tsing appeared to be and I think we saw some in the bureaucracy scene. Probably all with very different lifespans. How does social mobility work? So much to work with.
- And of course I want to know what happens next, but that's for fic to explore :) Some recs coming soon. I want so much fic, especially futurefic.