The House of Abrasax - A Jupiter Ascending Fanedit - Complete

I, like many people, had heard pretty much universally bad things about Jupiter Ascending and as such I had avoided watching it.

However, since discovering fan editing as a hobby my viewing habits have changed. Seeing as Netflix are currently streaming it in the UK I decided to waste a few hours and see whether or not it was a potential candidate for an edit. The answer was a resounding yes and a week later my blu-ray arrived.

Jupiter Ascending feels, at times, like Terry Gilliam's Brazil crossed with Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and looks like the bastard child of Dune, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Chronicles of Narnia. Its a fun silly romantic space opera and deserves more respect for what it does well but the criticisms levied at it are certainly not without grounds. 

Things I loved:

• The setting 
• The plot (for the most part)
• The key sci-fi concepts
• The character designs
• The mech designs
• Eddie Redmayne chewing the scenery 

Things I didn't enjoy:

• Some of the dialogue
• Every scene with Jupiter's family
• The pacing

My planned edit is a pretty straight forward affair and not dissimilar to my Valerian - No Love Lost edit. In fact I consider this a companion piece to both my Valerian edit and my After Earth edit.

The main issue I have with the film is to do with a single narrative thread. However, unlike Valerian's lackluster love story which is interwoven through multiple scenes the plot elements I'd like to remove, which revolve around Jupiter Jones' family, are all stand alone sequences. They have an awkward "comedic" tone, feature a particularly loathsome character and having watched the film twice I can honestly say they add nothing but take away soo much. Removing them immediately improves the pacing while removes a lot of the cringe factor.

It is somewhat disappointing that there are no deleted scenes as I would have loved to see some of the ideas the film touches on explored in greater detail but it wasn't to be. So I will not be adding anything to beyond my title card and a couple of additional sound effects. The music is spread across all the channels so a rescore is definitely off the table but thankfully the score is pretty solid if unmemorable. There'll be some light resequencing of scenes to give the film a more cinematic opening sequence and several weaker lines of dialogue will be trimmed if possible.
Current changes:

Removed - 15 minutes of Jupiter's Family antics including:

• Jupiter's dad meeting her mum
• Jupiter's dad's death
• Jupiter's birth
• Jupiter's job
• Jupiter's cousin forcing her to sell her eggs at a fertility clinic and demanding 60% of the money (?!)
• Jupiter's cousin wasting all that money
• Jupiter's cousin being told off by all the family for forcing Jupiter to sell her eggs
• Jupiter's being reunited with her family and returning to work

Removed - 2 minutes of a vague, exposition heavy, introduction to the three Abrasax siblings

Moved - I have also repurposed the title sequence shots of Jupiter and combined them with Eddie Redmayne's ship returning to Jupiter to form the new opening scene. originally this sequence was at the 13 minute mark preceded by 9 minutes of family shenanigans. This required some tweaks to the studio cards.  

Moved - The kidnapping of Jupiter's family had been moved to immediately after the promotion of Greeghan.

Colour regrade - The film is very dark and the colours surprisingly muted. I've gone through and regraded it to give a brighter, vibrant palette more in keeping with the pulpy story content. It also serves to reveal even more of the fabulous set, character and mechanical designs.

Current runtime: 1:50:48
Theatrical runtime: 2:07:26

this was a film I wanted to like/enjoy but couldn't for mainly the above reasons. Hope this edit elevates it. is the ending satisfying, or is it sequel bait (I forget)?

orchidal said:

is the ending satisfying, or is it sequel bait (I forget)?

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It is an ending in that it leaves you wondering what might happen next but it certainly isn't a cliffhanger. It's actually very similar to how the original Matrix film ended which I certainly didn't feel needed a sequel.

Potential artwork

Here's the first sample of this project.

I took the shots of Jupiter from the title sequence and combined them with introduction to Balem Abrasax and his forces (which originally took place 18 minutes into the film) this allowed me to removed the unnecessary back story of Jupiter's Mother and Father and provide a more impactful/visually stunning opening sequence. This then segues into the introduction of Caine.

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That works shockingly well. 

• Opening with the spectacle of the ships and the scope highlights them instead of letting them get buried by the sensory assault of the rest of the film.  
• Frontloading Redmayne's performance does a fantastic job of setting the tone of the rest of the film.  It reminds me, in all the best ways, of FLASH GORDON -- of course you start with your scenery chewing madguy and his minions!  

Really looking forward to seeing how the rest of this progresses.

Scar said:

That works shockingly well. 

• Opening with the spectacle of the ships and the scope highlights them instead of letting them get buried by the sensory assault of the rest of the film.  
• Frontloading Redmayne's performance does a fantastic job of setting the tone of the rest of the film.  It reminds me, in all the best ways, of FLASH GORDON -- of course you start with your scenery chewing madguy and his minions!  

Really looking forward to seeing how the rest of this progresses.

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Yes! I hadn't thought of it but you're right. Like Flash Gordon at its core Jupiter Ascending is a campy bombastic space opera that features some cartoonish heroes and villains. When I saw it for the first time I went from grinning like a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons to cringing at the awkwardness (and ultimately irrelevance) of the family drama. It's far from high art but its weird and silly and had novel ideas I've never seen in other sci fi stories. I like it's aesthetic, it's casting (for the most part) and it's originality. I'm encoding the first draft this evening so of you'd like to preview it drop me a message.

I like it, and really like the orchestral stings when the title comes on screen. I think you should try revealing the title one syllable at a time, it matches up with the number of stings. "the-house-of-ab-rax-as" and I would hold on it a little longer before cutting away. If it doesn't work, oh well, but it might help spice it up a bit.

wow yes, this is a movie I loved in theaters and have always loved and defended for the reasons you laid out... went for a re-watch recently after talking it up and the first 30 were so tedious apart from ER simmering and halfdog hoverblading 

like, the film is exaltant for being high budget ridiculous and not really bothering to justify a whole lot -- it shouldn't be wasting anytime trying to ground it at all

this is actually the main film I have especially wanted to see an edit of, which had made me think perhaps I should try this stuff out myself someday though I'm overdone with hobbies as it is

Cheers! Awesome!

addiesin said:

I like it, and really like the orchestral stings when the title comes on screen. I think you should try revealing the title one syllable at a time, it matches up with the number of stings. "the-house-of-ab-rax-as" and I would hold on it a little longer before cutting away. If it doesn't work, oh well, but it might help spice it up a bit.

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That's a really nice suggestion, I'll give it a whirl. Thanks Addiesin.

grimscribe said:

...it shouldn't be wasting anytime trying to ground it at all...

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Exactly and that, ultimately, is what the family scenes are; a waste of time. It's a real pity they didnt use the time they spent on irrelevant human interest/awkward comedy on developing other plot elements.

I would be willing to preview this for you.

Thanks for giving me the chance to preview this, Malthus.  

My initial responses, after watching the HOUSE OF ABRASAX preview (then rewatching JUPITER ASCENDING):

A NEW BEGINNING:  Good God I forgot how horrible the original film's opening was.  Losing Jupiter's family scenes and the first Abrasax scene does a splendid job of reshaping the movie's first act into something exciting and interesting.  Very smartly done. 

Starting the film with Balem and his henchmen sets the proper tone of spectacle and for the rest of the movie in just the right way, plus relays just enough exposition for us to get the gist of our plot thrust without burying us in exposition, then transitioning straight from that into the first hunter battle gives us a jolt of action.  This is how the original film SHOULD have started. 

A BIT MORE TITLE FLAIR:  I'll agree with Addiesin's earlier suggestion re: giving the title reveal a bit more room to breathe by spacing the timing of each word out a bit more.  On your final version, I'd also recommend cutting the JUPITER ASCENDING title from the end credits.

A TOUCH OF FAMILY:  Part of me wants to see a few shots of Jupiter's life (cleaning the toilets, eating at the crowded table, etc.) just prior to seeing her at the clinic -- sans the terrible voice-over from earlier, sans any terrible dialogue -- just so we get a brief glimpse of her family prior to their kidnapping later in the film.  That said, the immediacy of her introduction works nicely as well, so I'm of two minds here.

DE-NEURALIZER:  Losing the walk-in closet scene with Katharine and the keepers is the right call.  However, it does make the business with the cell phone picture and later memory wiping more than a bit ambiguous.  Narratively, it makes sense that the picture exists -- it's how the keepers found her -- but the moment itself needs a bit more support due to the cuts. 

• OPTION 1 If possible, amplify Jupiter's reaction to the strange picture on her phone, with an audio sting and maybe a "doubletake" reuse of the pic to show her confusion, to make it more significant.  Better yet, if there's a point in the film (preferably cut family scenes) where she said "What??? " or  "what the hell?? or "Oh my god" or "What is going on?," something quizzical, repurpose it while her face is unseen so that she's saying it in reaction to the weird photo on her camera.
• OPTION 2 It would be easy enough to not show the pic on the camera.  A bit of masking/matte work could replace the screen with a call from Mom (like the phone screen around the original 16 min mark when Mom calls).  The problem comes in when Jupiter and Caine discuss the short term memory wipe after the air battle over the city. Looking at the shots in the scene, I can't see a good way to easily cut around it unless a) you skip the bit about memory alteration altogether and just show the damage magically repairing and move on from there, or b) find a way to relay the important info (memory wipes) while the camera's on the instant repairs.

WHO'S VLADIE: No one misses Vladie.  He sucks.  If all evidence of his existence could be wiped from the film, the world would be a better place.  The moment of the phone ringing is unfortunately necessary to get Jupiter out of the room for Caine and Stinger to talk while she's not around, otherwise I'd say just cut the phone call entirely.  Instead I'd suggest matteing/masking it so that it shows her mother calling, not him (using the the phone screen when Mom calls earlier in the film that I mention in Option B above.)

A IDEA RE: GRADING:  Part of me wonders if playing with the color grading a bit might make the movie's visuals a bit bolder and brighter.  On the rewatch, I was surprised as how darkly lit much of the film is.  I like blue color color grading as much as the next guy, but here it almost feels out of place.  The colors were more vivid in my memory than they were in the actual film.  A bit more of that FLASH GORDON flash might do a world of good.

DOUBLE DRAGONS:  This is all the Wachowski's fault, but Balem's Sargorn henchmen Tskalikin and Greeghan are nearly indistinguishable visually.  Part of me really wishes the color of one of them could be tweaked to make them more distinct.  

TAKING THE FAMILY HOSTAGE:  Again, SO glad this scene this scene, like so many of the other family ones, has been shortened.  Might I suggest, though, relocating it?  Again, this was a choice made by the original film, but it always felt like it interrupted the flow of the original film where it happened.  We're in the middle of the Titus section of the story -- we just saw Caine get shot into space -- we don't need to cut back to Earth right now. 

I suggest instead moving this scene to directly follow Tskalikin's execution and Greeghan's promotion, so it's Greeghan immediately taking action now that he's in charge.  That way, the audience can get wrapped up in the Titus plot and almost forget about what's happened to the  family by the time Jupiter returns home and finds it a wreck and the family missing

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE:  One small bit, and ultimately one of personal preference, but it feels like the Wachowskis let one small scene run a line longer than it should have.  Once Caine is saved from space and questioning Stinger in lookup, Caine asks Stinger a series of questions, the last of which Sean Bean gives a humorous read of (he considers before he answers the last one "no.")  I'd cut there instead of Caine giving the captain permission to let Stinger go (who is HER captive, not his) and it seeing like everyone just walks laconically out of the scene.

ALL-IN-ALL:  Your fanedit has done wonders to redeem this film for me.  Removing the unfunny humor of the family scenes removes bloat, improves the pacing, puts the movie's strongest suits on more full display, and lets the actual humor of the film stand out more clearly.  Had this been the film released in theatres, perhaps the word of mouth would have led to better box office.  Well done, Malthus!   I look forward to seeing the finished product .

Scar said:

Thanks for giving me the chance to preview this, Malthus.  

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Thank you for offering to preview it for me and for providing me with such in depth feedback.

Scar said:

A NEW BEGINNING: Very smartly done...This is how the original film SHOULD have started. 

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Glad you enjoyed the restructure, I think much of the negativity towards this film stems from its convoluted and pretty unnecessary opening.
 

Scar said:

A BIT MORE TITLE FLAIR:  I'll agree with Addiesin's earlier suggestion re: giving the title reveal a bit more room to breathe by spacing the timing of each word out a bit more.  On your final version, I'd also recommend cutting the JUPITER ASCENDING title from the end credits.

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I've been experimenting with this but have yet to find something I'm completely satisfied with. RE: End credits, I'll take a crack at it.

Scar said:

A TOUCH OF FAMILY: That said, the immediacy of her introduction works nicely as well, so I'm of two minds here.

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Yeah I too was tempted to retain some elements in this edit but all me attempts felt choppy and added little while impacting the pacing of the start.
 

Scar said:

DE-NEURALIZER:  Losing the walk-in closet scene with Katharine and the keepers is the right call.  However, it does make the business with the cell phone picture and later memory wiping more than a bit ambiguous.  Narratively, it makes sense that the picture exists -- it's how the keepers found her -- but the moment itself needs a bit more support due to the cuts. 

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Absolutely spot on, I realise this a minor plot hole that needs patching and true to form you've provided me with some nice work arounds. I initially wanted to cut the whole scene but it impacted subsequent scene. I think masking might be the way to go here but I'll have a better idea once i've given it a shot.
 

Scar said:

WHO'S VLADIE: No one misses Vladie.  He sucks.  If all evidence of his existence could be wiped from the film, the world would be a better place.  The moment of the phone ringing is unfortunately necessary to get Jupiter out of the room for Caine and Stinger to talk while she's not around, otherwise I'd say just cut the phone call entirely.  Instead I'd suggest matteing/masking it so that it shows her mother calling, not him (using the the phone screen when Mom calls earlier in the film that I mention in Option B above.)

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I'm not sure this is such an issue but if the above masking works I'll redo it here otherwise I'm happy with this. The implication being the call was important enough for her to take but not important to the narrative.
 

Scar said:

A IDEA RE: GRADING:  A bit more of that FLASH GORDON flash might do a world of good.

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I think the film could certainly stand to have a slight regrade. Maybe increase the warmth a smidge, decrease the gamma to lighten it a little and add a touch more saturation. My only concern would be skin tones, keeping them looking natural is keep to the enjoyment of the film.

Scar said:

DOUBLE DRAGONS:  This is all the Wachowski's fault, but Balem's Sargorn henchmen Tskalikin and Greeghan are nearly indistinguishable visually.  Part of me really wishes the color of one of them could be tweaked to make them more distinct.  

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Agreed, they do look alarmingly similar but I fear recolouring a single character is beyond me at the moment.

Scar said:

TAKING THE FAMILY HOSTAGE: I suggest instead moving this scene to directly follow Tskalikin's execution and Greeghan's promotion

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This is a fab idea, definitely going to implement this.

Scar said:

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE:  One small bit, and ultimately one of personal preference, but it feels like the Wachowskis let one small scene run a line longer than it should have.  Once Caine is saved from space and questioning Stinger in lookup, Caine asks Stinger a series of questions, the last of which Sean Bean gives a humorous read of (he considers before he answers the last one "no.")  I'd cut there instead of Caine giving the captain permission to let Stinger go (who is HER captive, not his) and it seeing like everyone just walks laconically out of the scene.

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I'll have to rewatch that scene but I might take a shot at this
 

Scar said:

ALL-IN-ALL:  Your fanedit has done wonders to redeem this film for me.  Removing the unfunny humor of the family scenes removes bloat, improves the pacing, puts the movie's strongest suits on more full display, and lets the actual humor of the film stand out more clearly.  Had this been the film released in theatres, perhaps the word of mouth would have led to better box office.  Well done, Malthus!   I look forward to seeing the finished product .

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Thank you Scar. Honestly, working on this edit really made me wish the film had been better received as the world the Wachowskis have created here is rich, fun and ripe for expansion. I'll post more samples once I've made some progress.

I'm making steady progress with this hope to have a second draft encoded and uploaded this Friday.

Malthus said:

I'm making steady progress with this hope to have a second draft encoded and uploaded this Friday.

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Awesome. I'd be interested in checking out the second draft when it is done.

As per the suggestions of @"addiesin" and @"Scar" I have reworked the titles:

As suggested by @"Scar" in their feedback I have taken a stab at regrading the film.

A IDEA RE: GRADING: Part of me wonders if playing with the color grading a bit might make the movie's visuals a bit bolder and brighter. On the rewatch, I was surprised as how darkly lit much of the film is. I like blue color color grading as much as the next guy, but here it almost feels out of place. The colors were more vivid in my memory than they were in the actual film. A bit more of that FLASH GORDON flash might do a world of good.

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Here are some samples:

Sample #1 Before and After


Sample #2 Before and After


Sample #3 Before and After


Sample #4 Before and After


Sample #5 Before and After

Scar said:

On your final version, I'd also recommend cutting the JUPITER ASCENDING title from the end credits.

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Masking out the title with an image wasn't an option given all the movement and lighting changes and simply cutting it didn't produce satisfying results so I made this work around. While this may look simple it taught me some valuable lessons about my NLE of choice Lightworks. The editor features the ability to add text to the screen but animating said text produces jerky results. My solution as to create an image of the text I wanted with a transparent background then I overlaid that image and manipulated it instead. I'm pretty pleased with the results, although I might change the font colour. I'm sure this is really basic stuff for many of you but as someone who is entirely self taught solving problems like this independently is one of my favourite aspects of this hobby.

I'll be encoding draft #2 this afternoon and should have it uploaded by tomorrow.

Changes from draft #1:

• Reworked dissolve transition in opening
• Reworked titles
• Resequenced family kidnapping to position it after Greeghan's promotion
• Colour regrade throughout
• Amended credits

After rewatching the new draft I'm quite OK with the ambiguity of the photo of the keepers, given that Jupiter had her memory wiped she, like us, is in the dark.

Masking out Vladie's photo on Jupiter's phone looked more jarring/noticable than simply leaving the >1 second shot as is and as such I've chosen to leave it.

I revisited the scene with Sean Bean being questioned and it's a very brief scene and one I'm okay with. Trying to cut Caine's line to the captain resulted in a choppy experience and as such I've left it as is.

PM me if you'd like to preview draft #2