Over the weekend I saw Jupiter Ascending. While I enjoyed it, I couldn't help but notice some common
problems with sci fi, running rampant in this movie.
For a little
clarity I'm going to give you a quick run down of the opening of the
movie then use that to explain some common mistakes that occur in sci fi
stories that don't quite work. See if you can spot some of the problems
as I explain. And if you get lost in the explanation skip to the bold
*** section and see why you got lost.
Meet the parents
The
movie opens with a narration and meeting Jupiter's parents as they first find
each other. Dad likes science and astronomy, Mom likes that he's crazy and into
science. Fast forward, boom Mom is pregnant, and Dad wants to name the
kid Jupiter. Mom says you can't name a kid after a planet, and then they
get robbed in their own home. Dad tries to stop them from getting his
precious telescope and gets shot and SPOILER **DIES**. At this point we aren't sure what this
has to do with the story other than how our main character came to be.
Meet Jupiter
Fast
forward some more and here's Jupiter. She wakes up at 4:45 am every
morning, cleans toilets with her mom in fancy homes, and dreams of
something more. Her life is boring and it sucks. YAWN. We get it Jupiter doesn't like things as they are, and feels like she should have more out of life.
Meet the sibling aliens
We
are on some beautiful planet with tall shiny buildings and it's
deserted. Oh wait who are those two? They are wearing fancy clothes and
talking about inheritance. A third guy materializes out of mid air. One guy
wants to make a trade and the other thinks it's cause he squandered his
inheritance. They seem to tolerate each other and be related, but we
don't know who they are, why we should care about them, or what they have to do with
Jupiter who we just met.
Jupiter and her cousin
We know
Jupiter wants nice things and can't afford them so she is getting her
eggs harvested cause she wants to buy a telescope like the one that got stolen from her Dad. Her
skeevy cousin has talked her into this and is using her for money. Again
why do we care? What does this have to do with Jupiter and her story.
Meet more crazy aliens
We
have some new crazy aliens with cool hair and tattoos on a roof
watching another alien on the ground. Oh he's got cool boots, he's
called a something or other that I never caught the name of. And oh hey,
we can't let him live, but we won't tell you why.
Alien with the cool boots uses some cool tech to walk through a solid door into a fertility clinic to look at some records.
Aliens on the roof descend to the ground, one has a cool hover bike.
Alien
with the boots emerges with a cool energy shield and they all fight in
this epic fight scene with laser weapons and hover boots, but we aren't
quite sure why.
Jupiter sees aliens
We've got
some crazy lady Jupiter works for and cue the aliens mind probing the
weird lady. Jupiter takes a picture on her cell phone that she later
can't remember.
Crazy alien sibling wants someone dead
Cue crazy alien sibling number one. He wants what's rightfully his. What is that? We aren't really sure. He also wants someone dead. We aren't sure who said person is or why.
Jupiter goes to get her eggs harvested, uses a fake name
The
aliens find her and scan her. She's the one, let's kill her! Cue crazy
alien with the hover boots and she's rescued in some grand fight/chase
scene. It's super cool. I SWEAR! But I still have very little clue as to
what's happening to her or why.
Jupiter wakes up with alien
Every
time he opens his mouth, it's to explain the world as he knows it, and
to explain how everything Jupiter knows is only a partial truth. He was
sent to rescue her by some guy and cue the info dump.
Are
you still here or did you get lost? If you got lost, there's no shame. I
saw the whole movie, and I'm still not quite sure I understand what
happened. The problem is, by this point we are so far down the rabbit
hole, I'd say at least 30 to 40 minutes deep in this movie, and we have
nothing to latch onto. There's a million different story lines and
characters, and very little grounding. But hey everything looks really cool! They are trying to build this amazing world with awesome tech, and keep secrets from the audience,
but in the process all they have done is create confusion and little
connection to the characters. And spoiler, as the movie goes on every
time an alien opens his or her mouth, there's more giant dumps of
information.
So what went wrong?
Cool Scenery
Hey
everything was gorgeous, visually stunning in fact, but none of it
seemed to have any point in the story. In fact sometimes we had no idea
what planet we were on or why it mattered. It very often gave the
audience a "why are we here" and "why should we care" feeling.
Cool Tech
What
is sci fi without cool tech? I love fun things like hover boots, hover
bikes, and energy shields. But if it's just floating around early in the
story to say hey this is different than the world we know today, and it
doesn't seem to fit with in the context of the story, it will probably confuse
your readers. Put the cool tech in by all means, but at least make some of it serve a purpose with the plot and/or characters.
Character Development
Sometimes
we get so excited about sci fi and all the possibilities that we forget
the reader needs to connect with our characters. We can throw cool
characters in there, but if we have no reason to care about them or
connect with them from the beginning, we as a reader are going to give
up and move onto something else.
Dropped in the Action
Fight
scenes, yes they are cool and full of action and excitement. The
problem with them is, if they are done incorrectly, you feel dropped in
the middle. Even worse when there's crazy tech and characters the
audience doesn't care about, this creates chaos and confusion. We get
those, "who are these people", "why are they fighting", and "why should we
care" feelings. If you are going to have an action sequence or a cool
fight scene make sure the reader is grounded in it so they know why
the parties are fighting, and why it's so exciting.
Back Story
This
is a common problem in a lot of books not just sci fi. That said, in Jupiter Ascending did we really need 20 minutes of movie to explain how
Jupiter's parents met, how she came to be, and that her life sucks cause
she cleans toilets? Nope. Sure it told us she had money problems,
wanted greater things for her life, and got her to the clinic where she
was attacked by aliens, but a much more interesting story may have shown
Jupiter's struggle with money in some fun way and let the dad's
telescope thing come out a little more organically.
Show vs Tell / Info Dumps
Now
I put these together because they seem to go hand in hand. While sci fi
can have slightly more telling than say a contemporary story, there
still needs to be a balance between show and tell. There are ways to
show different worlds, alien species, and what they are all about
without telling the audience everything about them. And if every time an
alien opens his or her mouth it's to dump a million pieces of
information on the reader, then you are just going to overwhelm them
with weird names, facts, and plot with a lot of unnecessary
back story. So there needs to be a way the reader can be informed of the
important information organically and gradually. It needs to be woven seamlessly
throughout the story instead of like word vomit on the page.
All
that said,
Jupiter Ascending had a lot of potential. And if you take it
for a visually stunning movie with some cool ideas then you will enjoy
the movie. If you rip it apart for it's many plot problems, you may not
like it as much. I found myself having to turn my brain off at times and just enjoy the pretty scenery and awesome technology. So
if you write sci fi, use this as a lesson to create cohesive, exciting
sci fi with awesome characters and a kick ass plot that unfolds before
the readers eyes and entices them to keep reading.
