Upside Down

Alright, I am going to do my best to explain this movie because its an interesting one.

Basically, the movie takes place in a different world where there is a such thing as double gravity. This gravity is shown in the existence of two worlds. Each have their own sense of gravity but at some point in the sky, one could go from one field of gravity into the next.

The picture to the left is the best way I can describe it.

There's a lot of physics to go along with that that the movie tries to explain but it is all very confusing.

Its is also explained that one world is the rich world and they extract energy from the poorer world. There's a huge divide between the two worlds, but of course, Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst find love in a hopeless place, Rihanna style.

So Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst meet at a young age and fall in love even though they are on opposite sides of this world. Well something bad happens and it interrupts their love. Sturgess's life is ruined by this corporation working to put the lower world down and Kirsten Dunst is thought to be dead.

Fast forward a couple years and Kirsten Dunst is not dead but instead has a little bit of amnesia. Sturgess is working on a formula he got from his aunt to counteract the laws of dual gravity.

As luck would have it, Sturgess realizes Dunst isn't dead and he figures out a way get a job in the corporation she works for. He then starts a mission to make a potion that balances out the effects of dual gravity and make Dunst remember their love.

What a load of crap.

I will give the movie credit, visually the movie is really really pretty. It has some really great over arching shots and the visuals of creating two worlds basically sandwiched on top of each other, it looks really visually stunning.

But as for a story, its the biggest pile of crap in the world.

Jim Sturgess starts the movie out talking about the physics of the world they live in. All he had to do was explain that there is two fields of gravity in this world. Objects from each field stay in their field regardless of where they are. The only way to counteract is to get reverse matter. But if something stays in contact with that reverse matter for too long, it will burn. Pretty simple.

Instead Sturgess goes on a really douchey explanation about love and how it transcends physical boundaries and some other bullshit.

He may as well should have started the movie off like this.

I mean I'll give the guy some credit.

If I was a girl I would be crushing really hard on Jim Sturgess. He's kind of like a British Ryan Gosling without the body. It kind of reminds me of how Ryan Gosling got his starts from the Notebook. Sturgess has done a lot of romantic movies and getting a fan base of women who think he's cute.

However, its not really Sturgess's acting that is the problem with this movie. Its the script.

Its just horribly done. Not only are the physics of this world confusing as hell, but they're so convoluted with Sturgess giving exposition on love!

Also the whole Kirsten Dunst getting amnesia has really no point in the grand scheme of things and goes away faster than it showed up.

The Corporate development involving Sturgess's aunts formula was a little bit interesting but it was never really clear what Sturgess's end goal was. There gets a point where the corporation wants the formula and can only get it from Sturgess. How do they attempt to get it? Throw Sturgess in a car, threaten him, and then throw him out of the car. Then you never hear from that corporation again.

Finally the whole, the upside is better than the lower side them throughout the movie has the quickest resolution I've ever seen in a movie. One moment you've got a bunch of upper world people beating the crap out of Jim Sturgess and then you have kids from both worlds playing a weird version of basketball and everything is fine.

There was no climax, there was no real development between Sturgess's character and Dunst's character, they're just in love. Its just like another Sturgess movie I've seen.

Two people just meeting and looking at each other (maybe singing a song) does not equate love.

As you can see, the writing for this movie was really shitty.

The one redeeming quality of the movie was the visuals.

The movie was pretty... that's it.

I started this review about a quarter through the movie, eventually took a break and finished the movie. You can probably tell the difference in tones. I think this movie started out alright, if not a little douchy with all of Sturgess's monologues of love.

Overall, Upside Down is a really poorly written movie. Visually its spectacular and that would be alright if there was anything resembling a story. Unfortunately, the story is crap and just not good at all.

I'll leave you with this. I may as well end this review with one more Across the Universe song. Here's All You Need Is Love. Maybe I'll review Across the Universe soon but for now, here's another song from that movie.