I know there is another movie thread about Jupiter Ascending but I wanted to have this one be specifically compared to the Matrix since it was done by the Wachowski brothers. Do you guys see similarities or not? Was it a cheap attempt of having the same concept of the Matrix?
There are similarities but they are not glaring. If the Wachowski brothers used this as an attempt to bring back the same fame the Trilogy gave them then it was a poor attempt. About the only thing that was good in this movie was big screen special effects. The actors they chose for the roles were not good, they treated it like it was a TV series. What made the Matrix stand out was the strength of the characters in their respective roles - they made you feel this was necessary for survival in their world.
I tend to agree with you. I felt the whole thing could have been lots better if there were a deeper side to it but the addition of this poor girl set to be galaxy queen was just so out of the universe it was very hard to believe.
Jupiter Ascending was definitely cannot be classed with the Matrix movies. There was a lot more thought and depth to the Matrix world than there was to the Jupiter Ascending universe. I was expecting more but they failed to impress.
Much of Jupiter Ascending was strikingly beautiful visually. Like a piece of art that belongs in a fine gallery - I wanted to step back and say to the person next to me: "This is a wonderful piece of art, isn't it". Now I'm suddenly craving a little cheese plate and a glass of wine...
The story however, seemed little better than annoying. Just good enough to be worth watching, but perhaps that's because there just isn't much competition when it comes to the quantity of good science fiction movies? It's not worthy of anything like a "Top Ten" List story/plot/script wise.
Edited: Chris on 7th Nov, 2015 - 11:40pm
While I'm not as big on the Matrix as many of you are I can tell you that the Matrix was a more meaningful watch that Jupiter Ascending. Why did they have to select Mila Kunis for such an important role? It was her job to carry the entire movie and she failed miserably. Could anyone believe that Mila Kunis could save the universe? I did not feel it, maybe if it was some crazy parallel earth, just maybe.
The foundation of main plot of the story of the first part of the trilogy, which they got from me (And early revisions of their script), did not originally have the humans as a "Power source". Originally they were used for computational power. My reasoning was that the human mind's strengths could fill in areas where the AI computer remained weak.
In one of the interviews with Lana Wachowski, included on one of the "Extras" DVDs in a boxed set she is asked about that and explains that it was a changed requested by one of the "Suits" Or a producer - when the interviewer questioned if/why they didn't fight the change she said something like that it just wasn't that important to them, just another plot device.
That change was the single most upsetting thing to me about The Matrix, I was furious at the stupidity of that "humans as a power/heat source".