Jupiter Ascending

Hi everyone,

Okay so I watched the movie Jupiter Ascending today and can I say that it was very much confusing (okay lets be real for a sec, I was also making cookies so maybe I missed a hidden cue here and there). Anyway, the movie was actually released on February 6, 2015 but it took a while for me to get around to watching it (and so I redboxed it). Also on another note, the movie's rating on IMBd is a cringe worthy 2.5/5.0 stars but alas I really wanted to watch this movie. Why? Well because I saw the trailer before and read its plot synopsis, which made me think that it was totally ripping off the Lunar Chronicles, therefore I needed to see it.

Hold on a sec, what are these Lunar Chronicles and what do I think of them? Well its actually a four-book series written by Marissa Meyer and starts from the book Cinder, with another book preceding the main series by 20 years called Fairest, and yet another book being released next year in February that has a collection of short stories to tie any loose ends (umm its called the Stars Above). Anyway, the bottom line here is that I love the series and will write a review once I read the final book (Book #4: Winter). Super excited to read it ... actually I even pre-ordered it to get it this November and yet it's still unread (gasp, the horror.... what am I doing).

Anyway, back to the movie, I am pleased to say that it did not blatantly rip off the Lunar Chronicles even though they both have: extraterrestrial princesses (the Cinderalla type, who lived a hard life to get by on the planet Earth before finding out that they were secretly extraterrestrial princesses), extraterrestrial family drama over the planet (aka who would rule over Earth), and even a wolf hybrid super soldier without a pack. So yeah, totally different hahaha.

But really, Jupiter Ascending is said to be an original work by the Wachowskis, who also made the Matrix and Speed Runner. Errrr, I don't know if I would say it is a totally new and original concept, because it totally fits within a sci-fi theme. Also, I personally like this theme, so I really can't dish any negative criticism on the movie there. Not only that, but I can't even say they ripped off the Lunar Chronicles because I still don't know what I watched... cough, cough whereas the Lunar Chronicle eventually explains everything in the plot of the series to give a well build fictional world and cast f characters.

Sigh, the truth is that the movie is full of holes. It could be expanded out somehow to make more sense, but as a stand alone the screenplay was just random. It did not really have an end, other than the usual (my favorite ending) cheezy "and the MC lived happily ever after."

********Spoilers beyond this point, reader discretion is advised******** 

Okay but if you want the movie spoiled, read on :)

First off, wow this movie felt rushed. Literally, after the first ten seconds I had to rewind it back because I missed major backstory. What! The opening studio logo wasn't even off for more than a millisecond before rapid narration started about the main character's parents-origin-backstory, aka how her parents met along with the when/where/how/what. All of this was explained in what felt like 5 minutes. Speaking of which, the main character is named Jupiter. The origin of her name is also explained in that rushed backstory. Basically (though literally it's all the information you get) her father and mother were both professors in St. Petersburg, Russia and they met on one cold night while her astronomy-loving father practically froze to death watch the planets and stars on his fancy golden telescope. It fast forwards to them being married (maybe, it skips over this) and the mother is pregnant with Jupiter. The father just finishes telling his wife that she should be named Jupiter when, cue the stereotypical Russian mania, kicks their door in demanding for the money they owe. They proceed in grabbing some of the big ticket items, including the father's golden telescope, which he begs for them to leave behind (just don't take the telescope, anything but that) and ends up being shot in response. Therefore the father is killed for the telescope, so maybe its important? The mother is shocked/hurt/something and promptly moves to the US with her sister illegally by stowing away on some ship where she gives birth to Junipter (Jupiter is the one narrating all this, but again more plot-holes, like why can't the mother trust anyone but her sister, why did she flee, why was the cliche Russian movie mafia out to collect, what did she use that money for if she is some school professor???) 

The movie flashes forward twenty years and mother, her sister, and Jupiter are all now living somewhere and working as cleaning ladies for rich people. The only real clear thing here is that they have to wake up at 4:45am every SINGLE day (hahaha cue the repeated motif of turning off that alarm clock). Jupiter really hates her life. Afterall she was born, without a land or a home but exactly when the planet of Jupiter was ascending at 25 degrees (A-HA so there's where the movie title came from) and so her aunt believes she is destined for greatness. Yet, she is stuck cleaning toilets. ----- meh, it was played off a bit weak, as most of it is being narrated off.

Anyway, these three ladies/women are living with family??? Again, no real mention how they got to where they are or who any of the other family members are... I guess they are cousins and uncles and whatnot. 

Jupiter and maybe one of her cousins are planning for Jupiter to sell off her eggs to made a profit from it (ha actually it takes a while to even know what they are doing, as the characters are referring to it as "it"). Apparently the cousin will get 10 grand and Jupiter will get 5 grand. What! How did they even reach this point. Anyway, while talking, Jupiter is looking at an ebay-like site listing selling her father's magical golden telescope for about 4 grand and so she agrees with the cousin that she will go and sell her eggs afterall to get her 5 grand and ultimately buy that telescope.

Now at this point of the movie (like 20 minutes in) there have also been scenes of the extraterrestrials after they "harvested a planet". You see that there are three siblings, even though one brother looks young while the other brother and sister look old with wrinkles. The young looking brother comments that the sister enjoys wearing her wrinkles or something of that sort and they all have their chuckle. Okay, obviously they are harvesting the planets for preserving their immorality, yeah yeah yeah, nothing new there (unless this is the first sci-fi movie you've ever seen... which is exactly how Jupiter acts when she finds out any sort of information, cue the shocked face). Okay, maybe I've seen too many sci-fi movies but instead of touching on that, it would have been nice to expand and give more world building in the extraterrestrial aspects of the movie. Instead, each time they just brush over it, mention something that leads to more questions and continue on, never addressing it again. 

Now to give them names, the extraterrestrials are of the royal family Abrasax and the three siblings are Balem, Titus, and Kalique. Balem actually, as a side note, is the actor Eddie Redmayne who played Stephan Hawking in The Theory of Everything (it was a pretty good movie) and will be Newt Scamanderin the new Harry Potter movie: Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them. 

Anyway the siblings enjoy alluding to things in the movie without giving the watchers of the movie any substance for world building. Nevertheless, apparently, Titus made his "failure" work in his favor and Balem is the supposed heir to Earth, which they all see as a more "prosperous estate" than any and all of Titus's estates combined. Ah, plot-holes, I don't even know who is older.

That being said, later in the movie we find out that the sister Kalique is 1404 years old, while her mother would be celebrating her 9100's birthday were it not for the fact that she was murdered. Again, major plot hole is that they never really flat-out say which of the siblings killed her..... unless the psychotic ramblings/shouting of Balem on how he helped his mother end her life really meant that he killed her. Or maybe I'm just over thinking it, but you know, first the sister Kalique hinted at knowing more than she let on about her mother's murder and then Titus alluded to it too before using it and warping it to use on manipulating Jupiter. Sigh, basically, there's more that went down there, or at least that's what movie alludes to with its many plot-holes, the the point where a movie on just the Abrasax would be well justified.

Seriously though, it gave me a Marvel Asgardian vibe and as we all know (well okay if you watched Thor and then Thor: the Dark World), major plot twists can occur when you deal with somewhat-immortals. Like how Loki supposedly died in the Dark World, but really he was alive and ended up taking the Asgardian throne while disguised as Odin.

After that movie, I really can't just accept that Balem killed his mother (especially when she was like 9100 years old). Though the characters of the movie are a bit 2D, so maybe indeed he did. Fine, then did Balem really die after plummeting off one of his refinery towers on the Planet Jupiter after his ramblings to Jupiter as he tried to kill her because she was the reincarnation of his murdered mother and he wanted Earth. Hahaha, what a mouthful that is~ 

Alas, if he killed her, then he would no longer have Earth anyway because of the workings of the will the Abrasax queen wrote off to her future self... huh?

So the other brother, Titus, might have had a better plan (which he executed before Balem) where he wanted to marry Jupiter and then kill her off to get the claim to Earth. There you go, now that is just like the plot in the Lunar Chronicles, bravo Jupiter Ascending. And yet, poor Titus, made villain mistake #1 when he told Jupiter's wolf-hybrid-super-solider exactly all of his plans and then tossed him out of the air lock and into space for dead. Which the wolfy Caine Wise character used to his advantage (one hover boot round house kick out of his binds later) by getting rescued by an ally ship and then proceeding to crash the Titus x Jupiter wedding (the one Jupiter agreed to for the purpose of getting a metal alien pardon plaque for Caine's pardon). Anyway, no harm done as Caine crashed the wedding... when Jupiter had (already) "only" gotten half of the wedding band tattooed onto her finger and so the wedding with Titus was void.

Anyway, there were many many many action scenes and through the movie each of the Abrasax siblings sent assassins or retrievers (or both or ones that double-crossed the one sibling for another sibling) after Jupiter because she was the reincarnation for their mother because her genome was in the same exact sequence, which would make her the owner of Earth (the run-ons for my headache of a screen-write). They on the other hand wanted Earth for themselves because one pint of the immortality potion they bath in to make themselves young is made from 100 people. Since Earth has 7 billion people, all the more backstabbing and double-crossing. Not to mention that I'm still if-y on that supposed will, like why if Balem is heir to the estate of Earth, can the identical genome of his mother that resulted from the cultivation of the genes that they themselves introduced on the planet overwrite his supposed authority.... like if bees are supposed to know the true royalty of Earth, won't they react to any of the Abrasax and not just her... otherwise if they are only programmed for the mother, wouldn't it be impossible to will it away to anyone else. I think if she was their older sister it would make more sense... so maybe this is the "originality" concept of the movie in play.

Ugh, as you can see, everything just hits the fan and nothing is really explained in the movie outside of the cliche. Then how does this movie end??? Well after Balem plummets to his supposed doom, Titus and Kalique just maybe give up or something. Afterall, they never bother the heroine Jupiter again (Why??? They didn't have any problems with that before... though, the sister didn't even do anything but show Jupiter her magical immortality bath and a statue of the deceased Abrasax queen and aka Jupiter twin). Jupiter goes back to Earth and goes back to waking up at 4:45am to clean people's houses. Great? Well she sits down to eat with her family (of unknowns because half of them weren't even named) and her cousin brings out a gift. Guess what, it's her father's telescope, the one he died trying to protect, the one she almost died for while trying to sell her eggs at the clinic (only to almost be killed by Balem's "Keeper" aliens and then saved by Titus's hired Caine West to be kidnapped by Kalique's goons and so on). Well, does the mystery of the telescope get discovered as a reoccuring motif in the movie? NOOO! That's because she needs to leave now to go on a date. That date is with Caine (remember the pardon I mentioned before) well now that Caine is pardoned (I guess maybe Jupiter swiped the pardon at the wedding) he has his bioengineering eagle wings (because everyone in the alian guard gets wicked eagle wings no matter what genes they are spliced with, be it wolf or dinosaur or even elephant) back and so he can give Jupiter his hover-skating (imagine speed skating) boots and they can go flying through the city..... The end.

Indeed, that was where the movie ended... it had a lot of action and alluded to lots of world building and back-story (so many characters were introduced but I know so little about any of them). Thus, I can say that the movie was.... interesting... but the plot-holes make me sad. I kind of wish that there could be a book series to go with this movie because two hours and seven minutes is not enough time to execute a complex sci-fi movie. Hahaha, if my explanation was full of holes, you basically get the gist of the how the whole movie moves.

I would rate it a 6/10 because the characters had a lot of potential and I do like the genre, but I have seen better execution and I weep (okay not literally) for the characters not being elaborated on further. Would I recommend it? Well if you are not detail-oriented, it's an action packed movie with some romance on the side, something girls and guys would enjoy, something you could talk about. If you enjoy writing fan-fiction, I'm guessing you have enough holes to write a good 1000 pages on hahaha. If you are detail oriented and like picking apart movies, this might just give you a headache. So my answer would be that it depends on what you want to take from the movie.  

Now to give Filipino Michael Cinco his due, he designed the dress Jupiter wore (well okay, Mila Kunis wore it technically) to her wedding with Titus. I love it!

Pretty!!!! What a wonderful design.

Wow, that headpiece, I wonder how much it weighs~

Love the design, the 3D flowers really make it pop

Okay, that's a wrap~ 

~(^.^)~




    

Your Lie in April ~ Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

What a bittersweet 22 episodes! This was one of the most touching and wonderful animes I have ever seen. Each of the four main characters: Kousei Arima, Kaori Miyazono, Tsubaki Sawabe, and Ryouta Watari were portrayed with such caring love, but so were all the minor characters too.

For anyone who has not watched it, it is definitely a MUST watch. It was beautiful music (both violin and piano), it has laughs, heartbreak, friendship, memories and so much more. It's a whole ship of feels and it is quite realistic (a delicious slice of life... no pie, but there are desserts included). The animation's art-style is also breathtakingly beautiful and full of color. The opening and ending were stunning and enjoyable. There is also great foreshadowing, some interesting metaphors, and one wonderful ending (the finale of final episodes) that wraps everything up in the form of a letter!

A 10/10 show!

The following contains major spoilers!!!

  

 

Your Lie in April, as the title, was also very clever because in the last episode Kaori's letter to Kousei said, "I only told one lie that day we met and it was that 'Kaori Miyazono likes Ryouta Watari' but that lie has brought me closer to you." I'm gushing with feels!

She is so full of life!

Now of the four characters, Watari's feelings are probably the least exercised, HOWEVER, it is evident that a lot of emotions and thoughts go through him, so in no way is his character two dimensional in complexity. Indeed, it is what isn't showed that will give more meaning to what is showed.  Watari is no fool but he does keep his feelings in check more then others (one great example of that is when his team loses their soccer tournament game and he comforts his teammates. He puts on a smile and cheers everyone up. Then alone, he goes into the bathroom stall and cries full of sadness and anger for letting his team down. He has taken the task of shouldering both his team and his friends.).

Wise words from Watari.

  

And then we have Tsubaki, who has been in love with Kousei since childhood. Her feelings are complex in that she doesn't want to admit to herself what these feelings are. She is in denial through at least the first half of the anime, where she even dates the former baseball captain (who is in love with her). However they both come to realize that she could never love him as the only one that circulates constantly through her thoughts is Kousei.

She is thinking about Kousei

She starts crying and says she is sorry

The captain takes it with a good nature and asks her if they can break up

He thanks her for being his girlfriend

And then there are a lot of flashbacks to Kousei's life from Tsubaki's perspective because she was always been there for him, always next to him.

Who is she trying to fool... she can't even fool herself

Especially because every time he smiles at her, her heart feels like it will burst out of her ribcage!

Just joking around with her normally

The FEELS and the butterflies fluttering!

But with the addition of Kaori, a wall has been built around Kousei that Tsubaki is hesitant to cross, that she is afraid to cross through because of his apparent feelings towards Kaori. 

What can she say to him to comfort him?

She realizes that her time with him will not remain like this forever, that they can't be together like they were in their childhood, especially when he tells her about his plans for high school:

Flashback-time!

She runs away from him... away from her feelings

but it does matter...

unrequited love ~(T^T)~

 And then there is this scene:

Ugh, Kousei is completely clueless in her feelings for him.

How soul-shattering! She finally realized her love for him though!

So she gets mad, a natural reaction for her

she has said that to him before and yet, everytime...

Deja vu!

Kousei is talking here

still Kousei talking, btw

As a side note, but not really because there are so many flashbacks as Tsubaki is wafting through her feelings:

aww, the whole feet comparison and realization thing for Tsubaki is so cute

  

Tsubaki's realization:

unfortunately no...

Oh snap it's a bit of a love triangle though but even if you don't like love triangles for their cliche-ness (like myself) this love triangle is bittersweet all the way through out.... hmm, however it doesn't come full circle until the last episode so it really needs to watched to be fully appreciated. Again, a major spoiler!!! 

Lets go (yay, a confusing chain): Tsubaki has always loved Kousei but played it off like she loved him as her brother. Kousei needed Tsubaki to be there for him through his tough childhood and really opened up to her. Watari is there for both of them and he acts as a middle-man for all their relationships. Kaori supposedly likes Watari and they enjoy their time together. Watari really starts to care for Kaori but he can see that Kaori doesn't actually like him and likes Kousei, also he sees immediately that Kousei likes Kaori. He just doesn't say anything because he is waiting for them to come out with it themselves and plays the middle-man well, though he grows closer to them. Watari also sees Tsubaki's feelings for Kousei and tries to support her too. Kousei realizes that for the first time in his life he is experiencing love but he feels like he is only "Friend A" to Kaori and thinks Kaori only has eyes for Watari. However, in the finale, Kaori makes it clear that she has loved Kousei since the first time she saw him as age five and that she was always trying to become close to him but couldn't see any room for herself in the friendship between Kousei, Watari, and Tsubaki. Now Kousei knows that his love wasn't one-sided, but he can never be with Kaori because she has died. Watari is seen to be having relationship trouble with his girlfriend. Tsubaki finally makes her feelings known to Kousei and is more active in her love. Thus Kousei has realized that Tsubaki loved him all this time and throughout everything he has experience, he has finally matured. Kaori also reveals that the reason why she is a violinist was because she wanted to play along side with Kousei, which is why she switched over from the piano at 5yo.     

AND then there is the relationship between Kousei and his mother. It is so painful because Kousei ends up losing both his mother and then Kaori, which is all interconnected with the music he plays. How? Well, his mother loved music and Kousei, so it made her so happy to see Kousei start to play her favorite piano music. However his mother then got sick with a terminal disease, so her life was slipping through her fingers. She couldn't play her beloved piano anymore and became obsessed with Kousei caring her will on. Kousei on the other hand started to play the piano believing that it would cure his mother and she would get better. He played perfectly because if he wasn't playing well, it would put him mother in distress and she condition would get worse. Kousei finally had enough and wished for him mother to die and that he wouldn't play and afterwards she did die. So when he was playing in the final round of the competition, he subconsciously closed himself off from his playing and couldn't hear his piano music any more. This made him stop playing altogether until Kaori came into his life. She made him look up into the light and pursue music again. She was actually very frail though and also didn't have long to life. When Kousei realizes that Kaori is also close to death, he thinks that it is his music that is taking them away from him. Ironically that is how Tsubaki feels as music seems to be taking Kousei away from her. Anyway, Kaori makes him struggle and keep playing the piano, helping him embrace both if problems with his mother and then with her own illness. Kousei on the other hand makes Kaori keep struggling to live and not give up. They all help each other move forward through life!

his mother's favorite song

a happy memory of his mother

he can finally let go

how beautiful!

 

 Also, there are so many cute moments between Kousei and Kaori:

....and then come the many jabbing feels!

Wait, it's not all sadness of course, there is great humor too!

she's spinning

Saying "I'm a jackass" with a straight face and it is so touching

There is humor and there is the recurring image/motif of black cats!

Then there is there are several touching final exchanges between Kousei and Kaori:

.... but she left him

But it causes him to grow up:

Kaori says this

~I met a girl under full-bloomed cherry blossoms and my fate begun to change

How Great! It really grew on me and I loved how it explored such real themes, like our mortality, the feelings of love, loss, and the connections made with other people; the words said and the words left unsaid. It was quite beautiful and I recommend it to everyone (both girls and guys, old and young) so it is such a great story!


My final opinions on the characters (they are very opinionated):

Well with the foreshadowing the the fact it was called "Your lie in April" I excepted that the lie would be something like she only had a month to live and then she died afterwards, leaving Kousei after the month. So I was pleasantly surprised when the lie was actually pertaining to her love of Kousei. That she was actually with the gang for about half a year because she died in the winter. Then it was a great play on the title because after the winter, spring came and he finally read her letter in the spring, which made it a whole year from the time he had first met her. Of course it was interesting to find out that she had known him since she was five. Thus I did early on that she must have seen his performance because she was always so adamant about him playing the piano.

Then I'm really happy Tsubaki and Kousei can be together, not necessarily because they are childhood friends and then precisely because they are childhood friends. I think that Tsubaki understands Kousei best in a sense because she has seen him grow all her life, however she doesn't know how to express it to him in words. Kaori could because the two of them were connected through music though. Then again, it was only because of Kaori's terminal illness that she grew to realize the fullness of life. Thus I think Tsubaki will get there eventually too, afterall they are all in middle school.

Watari is like the third wheel and in a way I totally empathize with him. He is going down a hard road because he has taken a large burden on himself in a more supporting role, but this role has also distanced him from everyone else (I mean come on, they even call him Watari more often, as opposed to Ryouta). Anyway I really hope he takes some of the burden off himself and shares it with someone else.

I'm happy it ended like that because it gives so much possibility for all the characters, both major and minor to grow. You could even say that it set the stage for them. It is quite the uplifting bittersweet ending it needed!    
 

Thanks for reading :)