Movie News, Reviews, & Reactions 2010

[Eärendle]

Winona Ryder's age aside, I'm not sure what more you would want. Anything other than one of the established crews would be a reboot/re-envisioning and arguably none of the established crews could sustain the franchise going forward. From reviews posted at the time, it seems to have reached a broader audience than most of the films and many Trekkers ranked it in their top 3. Add in a strong box office and dvd sales, Abrams did good.

[Crafty_Pat]

Tron was my very first walk-in movie experience (in a double-feature with Wrath of Khan). It was one of the most influential experiences of my youth and remains a creative touchstone for me to this day. I'm also a creator who believes deeply that brands must evolve with their audiences. So far, I have no reason to believe Legacy won't deliver on the needs of the past as well as the present. Change, alter, and electrify indeed...

[Crafty_Pat]

It's official. Transformers 3's subtitle is...

Dark of the Moon

Wonder if I'll have to take a valium before I see this one too. 

[Desertpuma]

Caught the second one by complete happenstance on cable

[@stroVal]

I rather liked it, though I'm admittedly not a strong Trekkie. I like the franchise, and my knowledge of it runs rather deep, but it's more for professional than personal reasons. My favorite series by far is DS9, which I understand most die-hard Trekkies disregard as "not Trek enough," and my favorite movies and series episodes involve them breaking from tradition (excepting Khan, which is glorious).

I loved DS9[the amount allowed by law]

So, with all that said, I adore the new movie. I think it's flawed in some ways - mainly due to structure and dramatic presentation - but I also firmly believe it's exactly what the franchise needs right now. It preserves the original timeline and simultaneously gives modern audiences new mysteries and new paths to adventure, which - let's face it - the original series pretty much abandoned long ago.

I liked it too and yes it was flawed...
Some major astrophysics mishaps(I know I know... ''its a film'')
But as my father put it(an old trekkie and an engineer) ''Thats the first time I actually felt the Enterprise was there... and I was in it too"
Maybe they needed that lesson from Star Wars yes? (0k don't shoot me  I love both franchises ;p )
Yeah they can go wherever they want with this new universe.Even a whole new tv series

[@stroVal]

It's official. Transformers 3's subtitle is...

Dark of the Moon

Wonder if I'll have to take a valium before I see this one too. 

Why would you willingly sit through that? 

[Crafty_Pat]

I liked it too and yes it was flawed...
Some major astrophysics mishaps(I know I know... ''its a film'')
But as my father put it(an old trekkie and an engineer) ''Thats the first time I actually felt the Enterprise was there... and I was in it too"
Maybe they needed that lesson from Star Wars yes? (0k don't shoot me  I love both franchises ;p )
Yeah they can go wherever they want with this new universe.Even a whole new tv series

I can forgive (most) matters of physics and realism. This is, after all, the series that brought us some of the most ridiculous sci-fi concepts of all time. But that ice planet sequence - despite giving us not one but two very important moments for a new Star Trek launch (an awesome non-human monster and a fleeing - and therefore very human - Kirk) was otherwise a bit too convenient for me. Seriously? Kirk, OG Spock, and Scotty all suspiciously wind up on the same planet in the twilight of the second act? ::squints:: I see what you're sellin' and I ain't buyin'.

Plus, those Orion slave girls... Wow. Taking a concept and original execution as awesome as that, casting not one but two of the most gorgeous women in Hollywood to portray them, and winding up turning red-blooded American males off... That, that takes talent.

Still, they managed to give us a (mostly) grounded, (generally) engaging, (extremely) fun film with solid characters, great moments, awesome sets, one of the finest trailers ever to hit the cinema, and most importantly of all, a firm footing with modern audiences, so I can forgive the little things.

[Crafty_Pat]

Darren Aronofsky to Develop, Direct 'Machine Man'

...which sounds pretty damn interesting...

"Described by Mandalay as an "amped up pop-thriller," the story centers on a gadget geek and engineer at a forward thinking tech firm who is tired of going through life average and unnoticed and is also obsessed with his own self improvement. He decides to replace his weak, fleshy parts with high-end titanium performance upgrades of his own design but then discovers other entities have designs on him for their own motives.

"Barry is publishing one page per day in real time as an online serial, with the whole story to be published as a novel by Vintage Books in Spring, 2011."

Max Barry, of course, being the author of the spectacular Jennifer Government.

Here's a link to the page-a-day. I don't have time to read it just now so let me know what you folks think!

[Number Three]

It's official. Transformers 3's subtitle is...

Dark of the Moon

Wonder if I'll have to take a valium before I see this one too. 

Why would you willingly sit through that? 

I've always blamed it on nostalgia making people stupid, and the misbegotten public notion that over-the-top action is antithetical to competent filmmaking. 

[Crafty_Pat]

It's official. Transformers 3's subtitle is...

Dark of the Moon

Wonder if I'll have to take a valium before I see this one too. 

Why would you willingly sit through that? 

I've always blamed it on nostalgia making people stupid, and the misbegotten public notion that over-the-top action is antithetical to competent filmmaking. 

I want to like the Transformers movies, I really do. I actually like most of Michael Bay's catalog, especially early on, before the tempo of his movies became actively dangerous for anyone with a heart condition. Transformers 2 was especially bad in this regard, literally never letting up once in over 2 hours' running time. The sound was perhaps the worst offender, at times becoming so overwhelming that I'm sure some hapless bastards lost fillings into their popcorn tubs.

All that said, there's still the Michael Bay of old - the guy who could super-charge a well-written script without sending the audience to their mobiles dialing 911 to report assault and battery. Remember The Rock, for example? Awesome movie. I'm hopeful that with the backlash the second one prompted, and Bay's subsequent apology and promise to dig a bit deeper this time around (and hopefully to also lay off the VU pot a bit), we'll finally get something worthy of the source material. Or so one can dream.

[ThunderMonkey]

I liked it too and yes it was flawed...
Some major astrophysics mishaps(I know I know... ''its a film'')
But as my father put it(an old trekkie and an engineer) ''Thats the first time I actually felt the Enterprise was there... and I was in it too"
Maybe they needed that lesson from Star Wars yes? (0k don't shoot me  I love both franchises ;p )
Yeah they can go wherever they want with this new universe.Even a whole new tv series

I can forgive (most) matters of physics and realism. This is, after all, the series that brought us some of the most ridiculous sci-fi concepts of all time. But that ice planet sequence - despite giving us not one but two very important moments for a new Star Trek launch (an awesome non-human monster and a fleeing - and therefore very human - Kirk) was otherwise a bit too convenient for me. Seriously? Kirk, OG Spock, and Scotty all suspiciously wind up on the same planet in the twilight of the second act? ::squints:: I see what you're sellin' and I ain't buyin'.

The way I view the whole ice planet meeting was that it's simply fate, but yeah... that was a little too easy.

[glimmerrat]

The way I view the whole ice planet meeting was that it's simply fate, but yeah... that was a little too easy.

There's fate, and then there's a deus ex machina ass-pull.

Incidentally, we took our son to see Alpha and Omega today. It was so boring that we left before the end.

[MilitiaJim]

There's fate, and then there's a deus ex machina ass-pull.

Of all the gin joints in all the world, she had to walk into mine...

(With apologies to all offended by my butchering the line.)

[Krensky]

I honestly don't get the fan rage at the new Trek.

My parents are massive trekkies. They fought to keep it on the air in the sixties. They didn't go out on Fridays (or whenever) until after the show was over. The loved TOS, TNG, DS9 (which always felt like it was copying what B5 did the season before), Voyager (bleh), and Enterprise (double bleh). They hate Braga (I think... the producer who publicly said he hated Gene's vision of the future and the show) with a passion.

They also loved the movie.

I honestly don't get the fan whining over it.

[Nepenthe]

It's official. Transformers 3's subtitle is...

Dark of the Moon

Wonder if I'll have to take a valium before I see this one too. 

... to prevent you from Mooning back?