Despite all of the bad reviews I have seen I still had to see it. I'm a fan of the Wachowskis' works, even though they've all been somewhat terrible since the first Matrix film, (which I now assume was just a fluke). Even though their films tend to do terribly at the box office and are panned by critics, I still find them fascinating, in one way or another. Jupiter Ascending is no exception. Like Cloud Atlas before it, this film tries so very hard to tell a simple enough story in a most complicated way. As many critics have pointed out, the visuals are done quite well, and this film had some of the best action sequences they've pulled off since the highway chase in the second Matrix film. It wasn't the visual spectacles or action that interested me this time, but more the way they used science-fiction to tell a story of people in power and their greed winning over compassion for others. Beneath the strange face of the film, under the facade of silly looking genetic hybrid people, lies a story of a few families so wealthy and so well-connected that they feel they can do whatever they choose, and that rules, or ethics do not apply to them. Under the guise of a space opera may be the film's main ideas and concepts, that are more akin to our current world than meets the eye.

3.5 Stars (out of 5)