Star Trek Into Darkness

Okay, so here's the warning: Further down the page, this review will contain spoilers. Do not click on the G+ link or read any further if you haven't seen the film yet. I'm going to start with the spoiler free version, but then I'm going to get spoilery. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So, basic impressions: I loved it. I thought it captured pretty much all of the things I have loved in Star Trek, beginning with the Classic Series and running through to the darker, post-Roddenberry era, while also retaining its own, distinctive style. In the latter camp, the film retains the bright-white Enterprise main set designs, the slightly tweaked exterior appearance (which is matched to other Federation vessels) and the more industrial look of the engineering section, the updated uniforms and the sleek, silver phasers with their rotating kill/stun emitters, helping to establish the new universe as a coherent entity in its own right.

The film balances action, pathos and humour well, the action is fast-paced, with suitable breaks for the audience to catch its breath, and despite the trailer's best efforts retains a couple of surprises. On that subject, man but that trailer is an odd one, rearranging some lines in a way that actually goes against the key point of the scenes they come from.

So, yeah, this is another good one.

Is it as good as the first reboot? More importantly, perhaps, is it as good as the former second film?

I would say yes to the first, no to the second, but only because Wrath of Khan is so goddamn good.

And now, the spoilery bit.

Benedict Cumberbatch is not your father's Khan Noonian Singh; he is, however, awesome, and has a different backstory to explain the changes in the character. He is also, as ever, an ideal foil to the Enterprise crew because he can match them all on some level. Smarter than Spock, bolder than Kirk, stronger than any three of his enemies. I predicted the basic model of Kirk pursues a vendetta against Khan way back and they work it well, at the same time threading in Khan's own quest for vengeance and a surprise drop from DS9 in the shape of Section 31.

In terms of lifts from the older material, we also have Carol Marcus, torpedo designer, Bones performing surgery on a torpedo (and of course an 'I'm a doctor, not a...' line). There is a whole section towards the end which serves as almost a flat inversion of an iconic scene from Wrath, and the obligatory roar delivered in fine style if from an unexpected source. On the subject of those last two, they are things that could have been done very, very badly indeed if mishandled even slightly, but the emotional control of Zachary Quinto's Spock continues to be played as more fragile than Nimoy's, and in this film is specifically noted as a choice that he makes, rather than a state of being. It's also never noted, but having effectively snubbed the Kobayashi Maru test in the rebooted universe, Kirk not only faces the no-win scenario for the first time here but also correctly determines its creator's solution.

Oh, and there be Klingons here, somewhere between the old and the new with their more refined cranial ridge, helmets and redesigned bat'lehs. Being a colossal nerd, I was disappointed to see their homeworld names Kronus, rather than Qo'noS, but I guess that would have been a tad confusing. I wasn't wild about the new Bird of Prey design, but then I really loved the old one.

Movie Musings - RIP Ray Harryhausen

Way, way back in the mists of time, even before the virus effect graphics in The Thing were deemed way too advanced to be rendered by any computer, there were two kinds of dinosaur movie. One type took a lizard, stuck some horns on its head, filmed it crawling around and fighting another lizard, and called it a tyrannosaurus Rex fighting a brontosaurus. The other painstakingly built articulated models of dinosaurs to the best available reference and used stop-motion animation to make them seem to move like live things.

The first kind was cheaper, and had the advantage of real-time filming, but the second always felt more real, and much of that was due to the work of one man.

Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) was a pioneer of stop-motion, a technical wizard and a master terasgenitor; he created movie effects that were unrivaled for decades. Even today, few CGI creations feel as real as his work, and it was only with the advent of large-scale animatronics that effects began to interact with actors as well as they seemed to with Harryhausen's animations. Many modern productions contain CG sequences which are shot and staged as an homage to the master, his influence is that great.

While stop-motion is not used much in feature films these days, Harryhausen remains something almost unique in cinema: A technical visionary whose work has never been surpassed. His influence will long outlive him.

Star Trek Movie Musings - The Undiscovered Country

Back to the even numbers with The Undiscovered Country, and this is a film that benefits both from more adept production on every level, and from comparison to the cursed abomination that was the fifth movie. This is not an awesome movie, but following The Final Frontier it looks so very good.

Short synopsis: An industrial accident forces the Klingons to the table, with their alternative being a desperate gambit to seize territory. When the Chancellor chooses to talk, a conspiracy frames Kirk for his assassination to use his hatred of Klingons as a cassus bellum.

In many ways, it's one of the cleverest and certainly most complex of the movies, playing with the idea of a war hero in the age of peace; Kirk the warrior, faced with finding common ground with a people he has demonised in his own mind, both as 'the enemy' and as his son's killers. It's great achievement is in making Kirk wrong, but still sympathetic.

It is also the last of the classic series movies, and as such a triumphal send off, with a moving coda as the crew head off for one last jaunt.

Iron Man 3

After Iron Man 2, I was a little dubious about this particular corner of the Avengers franchise. The first movie was excellent, but the second retrod old ground and seemed over-reliant on spectacle and Scarlett Johansen's catsuit. It wasn't terrible, especially not by the overall standards of superhero movies, but the modern standard of superhero movies is now so high that it was a disappointment; perhaps the only one of the current Avengers crop.

So, enter Iron Man 3. In the standard pattern of the superhero trilogy - which I'll discuss in another post sometime - this was the beatdown movie, the one that would push the hero to the limits and then some, and on that score it delivered. Where it first surprised me was in its treatment of Stark's PTSD following the events of The Avengers. Rather than leave the ensemble piece to its own thread, it carried through, in Killian's reference to 'that big guy with the hammer' and the closing cameo, but more critically in the psychological effects of Tony's near-death experience in the vacuum of space.

We see more of Stark and less of Iron Man in this one, and the villains are a deliberate inversion of Stark. Iron Man and Extremis are both about overcoming a weakness, but where Tony Stark channels the inner qualities and strengths he has discovered since his imprisonment through the external shell of his armoured suits, while the Extremis subjects are empowered by something artificial put into them. The film also does an excellent job of inserting its villains into Stark's backstory without feeling like either a complete ass-pull or too much of a Checkov's cast. I also love what they did with the Mandarin.

So, yeah, I enjoyed this film, and for more than the spectacular set pieces. Unlike 2, it really felt as if it was taking the characters forward and it rounded off the trilogy well. Whether there will be more Iron Man movies or whether Stark just returns for future Avengers sequels, I'm excited to see him again - which I never expected to say of Iron Man, any more than I expected to enjoy a Captain America movie - and I truly hope they can keep hold of Downey Jr.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is not the film advertised by its trailer, hence my inclusion of the trailer here instead of the poster, so we can look back at the merry jaunt through the end of existence we were promised, but not delivered. It's not a fault of the movie; rather this is a movie that could probably not have been properly trailed and the trailer makers did what they could.

Bittersweet is a word that I don't use too often; like 'comedy drama' it's usually used idly to describe something that doesn't fit into the usual categories.In this case, however, both of those terms are apt. Seeking a Friend... takes a serious subject and treats it with appropriate dramatic weight through comedy. It balances fatalism and hope, even in the most hopeless of scenarios, in a sedate exploration of the things that are truly important.

It is a film, one of the few, that actually made me cry.

Steve Carrell is perfect here, his trademark hangdog expression evoking with Dodge the passive despair of a man whose life fell apart years ago but he's only just starting to realise it, especially compared to the brittle energy of Kiera Knightley's unfulfilled extrovert Penny.

The supporting cast are equally effective, each group representing a different response to the coming apocalypse: Dodge's friends desperately trying to escape the futility of what they've worked for, the manic energy of the Friendsies crowd, the stoic avoidance of the survivalists; William Petersen's brief turn as a truck driver with a terminal illness who has found new life in knowing that his prognosis is now longer than the world's. And then there is Martin Sheen in a quietly affecting almost-cameo as Dodge's father.

There's no flash, even the end comes without effects shots, and it's the stronger film for it.