Star Trek Into Darkness

Well, I've finally seen 'Star Trek Into Darkness' and I liked it. [SPOILERISH] I liked it despite its flaws because you know what? It's Star Trek not Nova. I never watched Star Trek because I expected the science to be right, or all the plot lines to be logical. For that, I watched Star Wars. What I do enjoy is watching a set of characters I grew up with have exciting adventures. And this is what STID delivers.

My biggest quibble is the same I had from when I first heard the rumors. With the whole of the alternate Star Trek Universe, why mess with Khan? And in a way, it was Khan with a bit of Undiscovered Country conspiracy mixed in. Anyway, Wrath of Khan always had an emotional resonance because the audience had traveled with this crew of actors for some time. Many since the very beginning, Myself, through reruns in the early seventies and later some of the tie-in novels. There was a connection, so when Spock died, it was a heartbreaking shock.

While in the new franchise the characters are still the same, the actors playing them ares till new and there is not emotional attachment when one or the other is facing certain death. Not yet anyway. If J.J. Abrams needs to dabble with the old cannon go with some of the lesser known stuff, the B-sides of Star Trek. Let him work his magic with that material.

That said, I'm looking forward to repeated viewings of Sunday afternoon showings on Space a year from now. :)

Movies I've seen - Winter Edition

Actually I haven’t gone to the movies all that much. Winter is cold and the walk from the parking lot to the front doors of the theater is a lot longer than it used to be twenty years ago. Nevertheless I managed to drag my butt out there for a few movies.

As usual in no particular order:

Die Hard: A Good Day To Die Hard - I liked this movie although it took me a while to warm up to the actor cast as John McClane’s son.  Frankly, in retrospect, I still don’t like him.  But that doesn’t take away away from the fact that this is Die Hard and all the over-the-top explosions, improbable car chases, larger than life characters, and just improbable scenarios that go with the franchise.  Sit back, forget about reality and enjoy. Yippee-kiyay! Ah, you know the rest.

Oz, The Great and Powerful - When I first saw the trailers for this one I though, pass.  Then I saw a different trailer and I thought, hmm, perhaps, if nothing else, for the kids.  And so, I took the kids, but I went with an open mind. Sadly, the movie failed me, and my kids felt the same. Visually stunning, but not much else. For me something just wasn’t gelling and after considerable thought I have come to the conclusion it was the star James Franco.  The women might love him, but I’ve yet to see a performance of his that I’ve liked.

The Croods – Again, one of those movies where I saw the trailers and didn’t think much, but I’d heard good things from the critics and I hadn’t taken my kids to the movies for a while. My oldest bailed on this one, but my youngest was interested and so we went. It was a pleasant surprise and may well be Nicolas Cage’s best performance since Kick Ass. How sad is that?

Iron Man Three – Yes. Yes. And Yes. The only thing that was wrong with Iron Man Three was that with all his money Jon Favereau should have hire Gweneth Paltrow’s personal trainer to lose some pounds for his role. His character is supposed to be an ex-boxer not a Sumo wrestler. Beyond that, perfection in a comic book world where any illogic makes sense.

Bonus:

Movies I meant to see, but ended up waiting until they got to DVD.

Wreck-It Ralph – This one had been out for a while, and one I had no desire to go see which may have affected my viewpoint when I finally did see it. I don’t know. Something about this one just didn’t work for me. I think the story itself wasn’t enough to fill the space required. But my kids liked it, so this may be a case of what do I know.

Django Unchained – When I saw the Oscars and Christoph Waltz beat out Tommy Lee Jones for the Best Supporting actor I thought old Tommy Lee got robbed.  But I hadn’t seen Django yet and now that I have, I understand why Christoph won. While Tommy Lee was perfect as Thaddeus Stevens, the man himself was not exactly a sympathetic character until near the end of the movie when his motivations are revealed. Christoph’s Dr. Shultz on the other hand is completely likable from the very beginning despite being a cold-hearted killer, a dead-or-alive bounty hunter only too happy to go with option A. The rest of the movie is classic Tarantino set in pre-civil war America and well-worth watching.

Jack Reacher – Is nothing what I expected. I expected some sort standard Mission Impossible shoot-a-thon with impossible car chases to break up the monotony. Jack Reacher is actually a mystery with an intriguing enough story to keep you watching. Worthy of a DVD or download rental.