It's exactly the same plot as the Matrix. Working Joe finds out he/she's a special snowflake messiah figure by sexy mysterious strangers with special powers and they tell her/him all along the world as she/he knew it was an illusion underneath a terrible conspiracy to oppress/harvest humanity.

Stupider Ascending: The Spacetrix

I loved the unwieldy clusterfuck that was Cloud Atlas -- I've watched it more times than its length should reasonably allow -- and this still looks oddly dull to me.

@1 or you know...the classic 'chosen one' mythos.

@3 told exactly the same way as the Matrix.

Only with pew pew pew spaceships! In stead of pew pew pew tentacle robots!

Seems kind of unfair to be thrilled at mute visuals that suggest life off the screen, but if anything audible -- like a cough or a line of dialog -- suggests there's more going on, then that character has to come back and resolve the subplot?

Hmmm... I kind of felt the same way about the Matrix sequels. Amazing at times, but completely ridiculous dialog at other times. Stunning visuals, but occasionally preposterous sci-fi ideas. Kind of dumb if you thought about it too much, but hella fun to watch if you shut off the analytical part of your brain.

Still, even the very worst Wachowski movie is 100 times better than Transformers. Jupiter Ascending sounds like it would be perfect to see while high. Thank you for the fair warning, but I'll probably see it anyway.

How is Sean Bean killed? How is he killed, goddamnit?!

I loved it! The whole film is nuts, and I can't believe the Wachowskis got it made. But it was fun, comprehensible, and absolutely beautiful. I want people to go see it in a theater so that it will be a hit, and maybe lead to more original space operas like this to be made.

Seeing previews for the film, it looked interesting up until they inevitably cut away to a brief line mumbled by Redmayne's character that totally brings me out of it. I understand that one of the points of film previews is to establish that "this is a bad guy", but I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be be tipping their hand so far as to let the audience know how badly the actor is hamming it up.

Sean Bean's character's daughter coughs in manner suggesting she'll soon be sick, but it's never addressed again? Are you sure that in the Wachowski's quest to appeal to Americans, they didn't start borrowing ideas from The Room?

I gotta say, I quite enjoyed this actually. I had read the reviews beforehand and I could identify all the issues but I wasnt bothered by any of them. Also, the cough is referenced later as a minor plotpoint.

@)7 My guess would be death by boredom...

I loved it. It's a fun, dumb movie that's actually fun, unlike over 90% of things billed to me as fun, dumb movies. My one complaint is that it took too long to leave Earth. Totally disagree with Paul about the love stuff - it was deliberately inept, nothing true about it, and the dog comment was just LOL.

The lipstick- wearing robot conducts them through the paperwork starstruck me as a coded portrayal of a gay robot, and he was obviously played for laughs. Eddie Redmayne minced through the film throwing hissy fits and wearing capes. He has no interest in women (in contrast to his brother, who takes part in an anti-gravity orgy) and has the biggest set of Mommy issues this side of Norman Bates. Straight? I think not. Mila Kunis can't cross a street without being rescued by Channing Tatum. Significantly, the only thing she accomplishes without Tatum's help in the whole movie is kicking Redmayne's swishy gay ass. In all other respects she is damsel in distress, and the only other female character of note has no agenda beyond maintaining her beauty. Jupiter Ascending is a movie about the future with the social sensibilities of 1953.