Saw the movie "Jupiter Ascending" a while ago. The action sequences were very well done and the CGI was pretty masterful but...
The movie starts with a Tragic Backstory (capital letters because trope) about how the protagonist's father was murdered and her mother illegally immigrated from Russia. Jupiter (named for her father's favorite planet) was born on a ship in the middle of the ocean. In a dirty railroad car that was stacked for shipping because as mentioned her mother was immigrating illegally. Why she felt she needed to sneak over the border when this woman was a well off college professor I will never know. Actually yes I do. For character building, but there were other ways it could have been done without the whole Tragic Backstory thing.
Fast forward and Jupiter is a maid with her mother and aunt, who work for this man who seems to be her mother's brother in his cleaning service. Despite being very poor and cleaning toilets for a living, Jupiter's makeup is always perfect.
Que the "Young woman who is Different From All the Other Girls" and "Not Pretty but Not Ugly" and "Actually Yeah Pretty" set of tropes with a side of "I Hate My Boring Life". Not having perfect skin is not a character flaw, for future reference.
Fast forward, she almost gets kidnapped by aliens. Gets saved by Mysterious Hot Stranger in a thrilling action sequence. Finds out she is a
Now, the movie from here on out is going to be split into three near identical arcs. Which go as follows: Jupiter is kidnapped by one of the children of the woman she is supposed to be reincarnated from. She almost makes a terrible decision to give up legal ownership of the earth (which she has???Somehow???) to said person. Mysterious Hot Stranger man stars in a ten minute rescue seen doing the impossible that as, acknowledged frequently by other characters, would kill anyone else.
Rinse and repeat.
End of the movie Jupiter goes back to her boring earth life in poverty (despite being Queen of the Universe and being able to choose to live anywhere else) and lives a happy life moonlighting with Mysterious Hot Stranger whom she is now dating. You know, instead of using her new found power to try and stop the frequent *genocide of entire planets to create fountain of youth water*.
Why the rest of the royalty doesn't just go ahead and harvest Earth with her on it, or the one person who knew she existed kept his mouth shut about it since he wanted her dead we will never know.
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