Jupiter Ascending

Most recent entry by the Wachowskis (of The Matrix fame) and you can definitely see similar themes. The world created is one where earth is a planet owned by a wealthy family for the sole purpose of harvesting humans. The matriarch of this family has died and there is a bit of a power struggle among the heirs when they discover that Mila Kunis is the true heir (and owner of Earth). So they try to kill her and Channing Tatum is sent to protect her. This is big scale space opera with all the drama and special effects one would expect. I can't say that the acting or the story is high quality. But is was enjoyable. Like The Matrix, what really enjoyed was the meta-theme and social commentary that the film presented. In this case, the Wachowskis are really presenting a critique on capitalism. They do this by taking the principles of capitalism and pushing them to their extreme. How would capitalism work and what arguments would you make if you push it forward into a galactic scale? And in this scenario, capitalism becomes comical (in the tragic sort of way). Wage disparity and power differentials that have been news recently (think Occupy and the 99%) result in ownership of lives as capital in an explicit way. Anytime you can make me think, you get at least
3 stars (out of 5)