Film

Jupiter Ascending

Name: Jupiter Ascending
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action
Released: 2015
Cast: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth

Jupiter Ascending is a visually extravagant space opera about a janitor who discovers she's royalty in a vast intergalactic empire. The Wachowskis pour baroque production design and elaborate action across two hours of gleeful excess. It's for people who want spectacle to overwhelm logic, who love watching imagined worlds more than credible plots, and who appreciate ambition even when it crashes.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love lavish, overstuffed space opera where the sheer invention of the worldbuilding, airborne chases and gleefully baroque villainy matter more than tidy plotting.

Skip it if you want something lean and character-driven, since this one sprawls across a long runtime and its earnest romance and mythology can feel tangled and self-serious.

What it asks of you: Two hours and seven minutes of patience with dense exposition and lurching tonal shifts, though it rewards being swept along by its sheer scale.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Fifth Element1997

A similarly maximalist space adventure that prioritises dazzling visuals, operatic drama, and sheer imaginative pleasure over narrative tightness. Both films swing for the fences with colour and scale.

But The plot is equally baroque and sometimes incoherent. If you need a film to make logical sense, this will frustrate you in identical ways.

Flash Gordon1980

A gleefully campy sci-fi spectacle that knows exactly how absurd it is and leans into it completely. Pure pulp imagination rendered with conviction, regardless of sense. The spirit of shameless fun is identical.

But The acting is knowingly broad and the effects are dated. Some people find that tone insufferable rather than charming.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets2017

Another wildly ambitious space adventure with stunning practical and digital production design, weird alien worlds, and a plot that exists mainly as scaffolding for setpieces. Made by a director chasing visual poetry over coherence.

But It's visually busier and narratively thinner than Jupiter Ascending, and not everyone finds beauty in that particular kind of gorgeous mess.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Jupiter Ascending

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Annihilation2018

Both films treat visual world-building as the true story, but Annihilation shows what happens when that impulse becomes existential dread rather than operatic romance.

Alex Garland creates an alien ecosystem that's visually rapturous and deeply strange—spectacle in service of genuine unease. Like Jupiter, it builds lavish impossible worlds, but where Jupiter Ascending is romantic, this is unsettling. Both are sensory overwhelming in opposite directions.

But It's slow and meditative, with ambiguous metaphors instead of clear stakes. The beauty is alien in ways that feel cold, not warm. Patience is required.

Aquaman2018

A blockbuster that embraces colour, camp, and absurdist world-building instead of grimness. James Wan creates underwater spectacle with the same 'more is more' philosophy. Both films trust visual rapture over logic.

But The tone is cartoonish in ways that break immersion for many viewers. If you want earth-toned realism, this is not your film.

Thor: Ragnarok2017

Colourful, kinetic, and willing to be ridiculous. Taika Waititi stages action against neon backdrops and lets his cast have fun. It has the same cheerful disregard for seriousness as Jupiter Ascending's best moments.

But The comedy sometimes undercuts genuine stakes. Some viewers feel the tone is too light for the material being handled.

Dune2021

Epic scope, intricate political dynasties, and extraordinary visual ambition. Villeneuve takes cosmic storytelling seriously in a way that complements Jupiter Ascending's world-building impulses, even if the tone is far more austere.

But It's genuinely difficult to follow on first viewing and requires patience. The pacing is glacial compared to Jupiter Ascending's momentum.

The Dark Crystal1982

A singular vision realised through obsessive creature design and practical effects. Like Jupiter Ascending, it's a film you watch for the texture and strangeness of the world itself, not narrative clarity.

But It's slow, deliberately alien in tone, and has none of the kinetic action that makes Jupiter Ascending work. The mood is far stranger and more remote.

John Carter2012

Another expensive, visually ambitious space adventure that flopped and gets unfairly dismissed. It's earnest about impossible romance against alien vistas and builds worlds for their own sake. Worth reevaluating.

But The pacing is clunky and the film struggles to balance multiple tones. It's easier to see why it failed than to find what works in it.

Hercules2014

Dwayne Johnson in an absurdist mythological action film that doesn't pretend the plot matters as much as watching attractive people in elaborate costumes fight things. It's trashy fun executed with craft.

But It's genuinely stupid, with thin characterisation and no real dramatic weight. Some viewers find that exhausting rather than liberating.

Barbarella1968

Jupiter Ascending is essentially a 2015 remake of Barbarella's sensibility—naive heroines thrust into ornate cosmic politics—but with contemporary VFX budgets and action design. Seeing the source material clarifies what the Wachowskis were attempting.

A 1960s camp space opera that understands Jupiter Ascending's DNA: bright colours, nonsensical plots, gorgeous women in impossible costumes navigating absurd universes, and a complete absence of embarrassment. It's the ancestor Jupiter was remaking.

But The sexual politics are dated in ways that feel uncomfortable now, not quaint. The pacing is slack by modern standards and some sequences drag badly.

Wings of Desire1987

Both centre on a protagonist discovering their cosmic significance and grappling with love while caught between human and divine realms, but where Jupiter Ascending treats it as adventure, Wings of Desire treats it as elegy and grace.

Wim Wenders films angels watching over a city with intimate, poetic camera work and an almost biblical sense of wonder. Jupiter Ascending's spiritual core—a being of grace finding herself divine—is here treated with genuine tenderness and metaphysical seriousness instead of spectacle. Both ask what it means to discover you are not human.

But It's deliberately slow, in black and white for much of its runtime, and concerned with philosophy rather than plot. If you want action and colour, this will feel remote and difficult.