Movie Review: Upside Down

So I recently decided to watch Upside Down, a film written and directed by Juan Solanas, starring Jim Sturgess and Kristen Dunst.

To be honest, ever since his breakout in Across the Universe, I have been a Jim Sturgess fan, so I had been waiting for this movie to come out since I read about it more than a year ago... and here is what I thought of it after finally getting a chance to watch it. 

The film should be a clever one, because from a first view it seems to be a new way of depicting what we know. There are two worlds that co-exist in a parallel line, facing each other, the one above is where all the reach people live, the one "down below" is where the poor ones live... and also where the people from above go get their oil. Rings a bell?

Well, so will the rest of the story. Here Solanas tried to make a new approach to the classic "we are from different worlds but we are in love... therefore defy the rules to be together" story. Could I say he achieves this? Yes. The situation he created is very creative and he made sure to point it out with the awesome visual effects and making a statement out of it with photography compositions you don't regularly see in a film. The thing is, that he caught up so much in explaining on-screen how this universe he created works that he kind of forgot that a good story needs to develop the characters emotionally too.

This ends up being a nice looking sci-fi film (yes, every second of it you will be reminded visually that this is a world that doesn't actually exist), where "down below" looks like a post-revolution eastern European country and the world "above" looks like your mental image of New York; and the love story? Well, it ends up being a complete cliche. No growth of the characters, nothing. Really, Kristen Dunst's character has about 20 lines... 18 in which you can predict the exact words she will say before they come out of her mouth (this is the level of cliche). 

So do I recommend it?

Well, unless you really are into especial effects this shouldn't be a top pick to be honest. Maybe the story can be more appealing for girls than for guys, because you end up getting your cheesiness fix and a fair dosis of "awwww"... plus, I have to say, Jim Sturgess is always nice to watch. As for gentlemen reading this... well, all the action scenes you can see are in the trailer, you get a cheesy and predictable love story, but you do get a nice look into Juan Solana's imagination...

So now you are free to go watch it and get your own opinion.

As a reference: if you've seen "Just in Time" and you've liked it, go for this one; I could make a HUGE statement about how this two movies are so alike.