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Jupiter Ascending
May. 9th, 2015 03:51 pmLast night I finally got around to watching Jupiter Ascending.
I don't really think there's much new to say about it? I think there are parts that would have bothered me a lot more if I hadn't been spoiled for them. (Note: you can be spoiled for 80% of the plot and still go "OMG WHAT? WHAT? WTFBBQ?" the whole time.
The main thing that bugged throughout was that, for all that the movie seems to have been the result of sitting a 15 year old girl down and telling her to list off all the things that she thinks would be cool in a scifi movie, and then cramming all of them into 2 hours, it's still very squarely in the male gaze, not the female gaze. In the scene early on when one of Jupiter's clients comes in in her underwear and was running around her room for a while wearing just a bra and underwear, I had some serious cognitive dissonance. It felt like the character had just escaped another movie (probably a slasher movie) and was totally lost. The scene with Tuppence Middleton's (or her body double, for all I know) butt and the zero-gravity orgy (LOLWHUT) didn't cause dissonance, but it felt like I slipped into the "for the boys" version of the movie for a few moments there, and that wasn't the movie I signed up for.
On the flipside, sure, there's a sequence where Channing Tatum is running around shirtless, but it wasn't male flesh that's considered "forbidden" or prurient, unlike the above scenes, and it wasn't shot in a way to emphasize his sexual desirability, but to emphasize that he's strong and powerful. The scenes where Caine is the most strongly portrayed as romantic/sexual are the ones where he's fully clothed and staring at Jupiter with googoo eyes and angsting about how he's half-dog and half-albino (LOL WHUT NO IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT LOLWHUT) and so totally unworthy and cannot make a move even when she's saying she's always liked dogs and asking if he wants to lick or bite anything at the moment (*fetal position giggles*). I mean, I do think they're at least somewhat aware of the whole "male gaze' thing and that maybe it shouldn't be TOO present in a teenaged girl's intergalactic secret princess fantasy, because Jupiter herself doesn't really fall under it, even in her array of SPACE PRINCESS and SPACE WARRIOR costumes, but if so, they forgot that it doesn't only count when it's the female lead.
Random bits:
1. The romantic scenes were awful, guys. SO AWFUL. But in a way that made me want to go "aaawwww" and pat them on the head and send them off with a cookie.
2. I've always found Channing Tatum's complete inability to act oddly endearing. (OTOH, Mila Kunis can act, even when given lines that make you want to groan, and that helped balance it out).
3. I normally like Eddie Redmayne, but I found him mostly boring here. Pity.
4. Should there ever be a sequel, it should be subtitled "1001 Ways To Cling To Channing Tatum While Almost Dying."
5. But why can't I have Jupiter's Wacky Russian Family's adventures in space?
Meanwhile, CW has cancelled The Messengers after only 3 episodes, which is pretty fast for CW, even if they did put it in the worst timeslot ever. But fear not! SPN and TVD shall forge on with their billionth seasons, finding new and special ways to treat women and POC horribly. (Ok, fine I haven't watched either since their third seasons, and was very into the first seasons of both, but I haven't heard anything to make me things that made me drop them have gotten any better.)
In better TV news, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries has started up again in Australia, and so can be found online, so at least there's that.
I don't really think there's much new to say about it? I think there are parts that would have bothered me a lot more if I hadn't been spoiled for them. (Note: you can be spoiled for 80% of the plot and still go "OMG WHAT? WHAT? WTFBBQ?" the whole time.
The main thing that bugged throughout was that, for all that the movie seems to have been the result of sitting a 15 year old girl down and telling her to list off all the things that she thinks would be cool in a scifi movie, and then cramming all of them into 2 hours, it's still very squarely in the male gaze, not the female gaze. In the scene early on when one of Jupiter's clients comes in in her underwear and was running around her room for a while wearing just a bra and underwear, I had some serious cognitive dissonance. It felt like the character had just escaped another movie (probably a slasher movie) and was totally lost. The scene with Tuppence Middleton's (or her body double, for all I know) butt and the zero-gravity orgy (LOLWHUT) didn't cause dissonance, but it felt like I slipped into the "for the boys" version of the movie for a few moments there, and that wasn't the movie I signed up for.
On the flipside, sure, there's a sequence where Channing Tatum is running around shirtless, but it wasn't male flesh that's considered "forbidden" or prurient, unlike the above scenes, and it wasn't shot in a way to emphasize his sexual desirability, but to emphasize that he's strong and powerful. The scenes where Caine is the most strongly portrayed as romantic/sexual are the ones where he's fully clothed and staring at Jupiter with googoo eyes and angsting about how he's half-dog and half-albino (LOL WHUT NO IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT LOLWHUT) and so totally unworthy and cannot make a move even when she's saying she's always liked dogs and asking if he wants to lick or bite anything at the moment (*fetal position giggles*). I mean, I do think they're at least somewhat aware of the whole "male gaze' thing and that maybe it shouldn't be TOO present in a teenaged girl's intergalactic secret princess fantasy, because Jupiter herself doesn't really fall under it, even in her array of SPACE PRINCESS and SPACE WARRIOR costumes, but if so, they forgot that it doesn't only count when it's the female lead.
Random bits:
1. The romantic scenes were awful, guys. SO AWFUL. But in a way that made me want to go "aaawwww" and pat them on the head and send them off with a cookie.
2. I've always found Channing Tatum's complete inability to act oddly endearing. (OTOH, Mila Kunis can act, even when given lines that make you want to groan, and that helped balance it out).
3. I normally like Eddie Redmayne, but I found him mostly boring here. Pity.
4. Should there ever be a sequel, it should be subtitled "1001 Ways To Cling To Channing Tatum While Almost Dying."
5. But why can't I have Jupiter's Wacky Russian Family's adventures in space?
Meanwhile, CW has cancelled The Messengers after only 3 episodes, which is pretty fast for CW, even if they did put it in the worst timeslot ever. But fear not! SPN and TVD shall forge on with their billionth seasons, finding new and special ways to treat women and POC horribly. (Ok, fine I haven't watched either since their third seasons, and was very into the first seasons of both, but I haven't heard anything to make me things that made me drop them have gotten any better.)
In better TV news, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries has started up again in Australia, and so can be found online, so at least there's that.
