Jupiter Ascending, film review: The Waschowskis' work is so juvenile not even Eddie Redmayne can save it

The glory days of The Matrix seem light years away

Jupiter Ascending, the kitsch new sci-fi blockbuster from Lana and Andy Waschowski, blends astonishing special effects work with plotting that would barely pass muster in a bad Saturday morning episode of Flash Gordon or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Seen on a big screen in 3D, it certainly provides an eye-popping spectacle. You won’t grumble that you’ve been short changed in terms of either action or production and costume design. The opening few minutes are masterly. Love, death, birth and the entire back story are condensed into only a few moments of screen time. We learn how Jupiter Jackson (Mila Kunis) has lost her father and come to be working as a cleaning lady in Chicago.

Early on, the contrast between Jupiter's grim daily existence and what is happening on the distant planets in drawn in comical fashion.

Jupiter is a “recurrence.” That is to say she has the identical genetic profile to Seraphi Abrasax, the deceased matriarch to one of the most powerful families in the universe. That puts her in mortal danger.

The performances are enjoyable enough in their own overcooked pantomime way. Eddie Redmayne is clammy unctuousness personified as the whispering villain, Balem Abrasax. Channing Tatum yet again reprises his action man routine, this time in saving the galaxy mode. Kunis brings vigour and humour to her role as a modern-day Cinderella, a poor Russian girl who discovers that she is actually Queen of a distant universe - and soon gets to dress the part, as if she auditioning for Jane Fonda’s role in a remake of Barbarella. The script, though, is a dud. The glory days of The Matrix seem light years away as the Wachowskis’ work grows ever more juvenile.

The Wachowskis borrow from Under The Skin (notably the idea of “harvesting” humans) and other offbeat recent sci-fi movies as well as from Star Wars. They’re caught, though, in some purgatorial world between kids’ action-adventure and cerebral adult thriller. The arch dialogue (Bees “ sniffing” royalty, Jupiter telling Channing Tatum that she likes dogs when she discovers he’s part wolf) and horribly predictable denouement don’t help.