But after finally giving in, I have to admit it is visually pretty stunning. One cannot knock the Wachowskis when it comes to that. The adulterated trailers on YouTube truly don't capture it, only full 2K or 4K on a large screen.
And even when the storyline is absolute garbage to follow, you still feel like you're watching something based on a crazy French or Italian comic strip from the 1960s or 1970s. I mean, it has that disorienting, bonkers feel of some Métal Hurlant content or Barbarella or Valérian and Laureline or Valentina -- but minus the sex. And maybe that cheap avant-garde stylishness of Mario Bava with a vastly larger budget. And there are steampunk glimpses blended in there (probably due to Kunis's character dragging along the Oz and Alice influences).
And in the second half, there is some semblance of a plot finally emerging after all (even if it's the same recycled Wachowski stuff). Additionally, I've got to commend them for a female protagonist that's not of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider mold. Yeah, as the mockery trailer says, Kunis keeps getting saved again and again -- but that's actually a break from the monotony of legions of warrior queens since Ripley.
Dickens explained that where Hollywood typically portrays strong women in action films as "Arnold Schwarzenegger with boobs", Jupiter Ascending presents Kunis's character differently...
The Wachowskis themselves describe the plot of the film as an effort to reverse the classical science-fiction trope of the hero who is "emotionally withholding and strong and stoic". Instead, they tried to create a new form of female space opera hero.
"We were, like, 'Can we bring a different kind of female character like Dorothy or Alice? Characters who negotiate conflict and complex situations with intelligence and empathy?' Yes, Dorothy has a protector, Toto, who's always barking at everyone. And that was sort of the origin of Caine."
The story was partly inspired by Lana's favorite book,the Odyssey. [...] "The whole concept of these almost spiritual journeys and you're changed."
Another inspiration was The Wizard of Oz which Lana contrasts to the Odyssey. "Dorothy is pretty much the same at the end as she is at the beginning. Whereas Odysseus goes through such an epic shift in his identity."