After co-directing the cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic threads of the Cloud Atlas adaptation, the Wachowskis are back with Jupiter Ascending, their first original science fiction epic since The Matrix. The film stars Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, and Game of Thrones’ Sean Bean (Ned Stark).The teaser trailer, released today, sees Tatum playing Caine, an intergalactic warrior and assassin who has some rather curious elven ears. Not to worry, though; he is more than badass. As Tatum noted in a Collider interview, he is a "splice," a kind of test-tube baby with human and wolf DNA.Caine is tasked by the Queen of the Universe with assassinating Jupiter Jones, an unfortunate Russian immigrant played by Kunis. But when his former commander Stinger, played by Sean Bean, informs Caine that Jupiter has the royal genes to become the next great leader of the universe, he goes rogue in hypnotic fashion.Granted, it sounds quite formulaic at surface level—the sort of Campbell-type hero stuff that dominates Hollywood thinking. From the trailer’s first frame through its exposition of Caine’s mission, it can’t help but feel just a little bit like Rick Deckard on the hunt in Blade Runner. But as the Wachowskis dig deeper into the film’s intergalactic worlds, it becomes a political, social, and economic allegory.As Caine explains to Jupiter, Earth is an underdeveloped planet in a universe full of the technologically-advanced. We’ve seen this before in science fiction, but a clip of the Queen’s dialogue unwraps this idea further. “Your Earth is a very small part of a very large industry,” says the Queen, suggesting the planet is part of a techno-economic zone. Think of Earth as a third-world country in a universe of intergalactic globalization. I daresay it almost has a trace of the narrative and even visual feel of Samuel R. Delany’s proto-cyberpunk space opera novel Nova.As is to be expected in a Wachowski film, the action, choreography, and visual effects look flawless. The biggest surprise is that Tatum seems like he could be damned good as Caine—no joke. While the Wachowskis’ work on Cloud Atlas’ science fiction threads were more than sufficient, it’s good to see them back at some original cyberpunk storytelling.Jupiter Ascending hits theaters July 25, 2014.
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