Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable’

Yesterday I watched the Mummy Curse of the Dragon Emperor. That movie is awful. It feels like every shallow attempt to make a summer blockbuster crammed into one. Jet Li’s Mummy form is kind of cool, but otherwise I couldn’t believe how bad the script was. On the other hand the Wackness has one of the best scripts i’ve seen on screen in a while. It doesn’t hurt that we have reached the point where they are telling stories about my High School years with the time it takes to reflect those times properly. I love the soundtrack, and Ben Kingsley is great as usual, but I wonder how he ends up in these roles. One of the better movies I’ve seen lately!

Well I saw Watchmen today and I’m not sure what I feel about the movie yet. I think it will need time to sink in. From a technical standpoint it is an amazing accomplishment. There are shots that stand out from the comic and really show the filmmaking prowess of Zach Snyder and company. On the other hand the movie feels stitched together and really short even at 2 hours and 45 minutes. I know this will have the fanboys come down hard on me, but I think the problem lies in the book, not the film.
For example Jessica really did not like Watchmen and the problem is with the source material itself. She thought it summed up everything she hates about superhero movies, the excessive violence, the cheesy one liners, but most of all the girl costumed hero, in Watchmen, Silk Spectre, is a typical comic book female. Her basic problem with her is that she can only be complete with a man. I didn’t catch that while watching as being male I’m sad to say I didn’t look for it.

I can see her point, and it makes me wonder if we will ever have a strong female super hero on screen. And there it’s mostly a problem with the source material. It is a product of it’s time, and as revolutionary and game changing as it was in the 80’s, it doesn’t really fit with the world we have twenty years later. The cold war is not the scary thing we all thought it was anymore, and even though this film would have looked awful made in that time period it would have been an outstanding and more thought provoking piece of cinema then. Now, it acts like a history lesson, a very beautiful piece of comic history, but almost museum like in it’s narrative. Shhhh!!!! No talking in the gallery!

It’s not to say I didn’t like Watchmen. There are parts that I loved. Rorschach is spot on and I know it will be hard for me to read the book again, without the actors voice attached. I’ve heard people complain about the lack of score, but the musical choices, were the one thing that kept me in the time period throughout the film. I want to know why BSG and now Watchmen both love All Along the Watchtower? It seems a strange choice for this movie with it’s relevance in the current series of Battlestar and actually takes me out of the experience and the only song that didn’t fit with what was on screen.

I think the true test for me and Watchmen will be when the extra long DVD comes out and I can get the whole story as filmed by Snyder and see it in a less compact form.
Either way, I’m glad the film was made. It was said this could never happen. It has. And it’s as close to the comic that we could have hoped for. I’ve got to wonder if Alan Moore’s greatest fears have been realized. A film that is actually on target to his source material, may have shown a dimmer light on his writings current importance?
The film get’s a B for entertainment and eye candy unlike any other superhero movie made so far.
I only wished it meant more.

Every year the summer movie season is the thing I most look forward to during the cold winter months. It’s something I can visualize better than any of the other activities that come with the warm weather. And although this summer doesn’t conjure up the going to the theatre every week that last year did, there are still some bright spots up ahead this year. Here’s where I’ll be the following weekends this season,

May 1st Wolverine
Although my hopes aren’t very high for the film, I still would love a good solo Wolverine film. My fear is that Tom Rothman who is poison to 20th Century Fox has ruined what could have been a great film. I will go, but if it ends up being mediocre I won’t be suprised.

May 8th, Star Trek
There is not a film all summer that has my excitement level tipped overboard like this one. JJ Abrams has the cred to make this work and it looks better than any previous incarnation of Trek before it. I’m not a big believer in canon as a bible, so all you complainers please don’t talk to me. This looks fun and that is just what Star Trek has needed. Can not wait.

May 22nd. I’m skipping Angels & Demons as I hated the first movie and going to see if we really need another Terminator movie. Early trailers look decent and it will be good if they at least get the feeling of T2 right and stay far away from T3 territory.

May 29th UP! It will be hard to top my favorite film of 2008 Wall-E, but even coming close to that artistic success will make me very happy with Up. The new trailer has a great line in Squirrel! and I can see this being a fun adventure. The question becomes do I see this in 3-d or regular?

June 5th Land of the Lost My hopes aren’t super high for this, but if it turns out to be a decent family flick with good comedy and not overly annoying Will Ferrell it could be this years Get Smart.

June 19th Year One. (No Poster Out) Jack Black and Michael Cera in Year ONE. Why not?

June 26th. Transformers 2. O.k. Michael Bay, blow stuff up. It’s Transformers, were you expecting a story?

July 3rd. Public Enemies. A strange choice for July 4th weekend but Michael Mann directing Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in a period John Dillinger piece. Awesome.

July 17th Harry Potter. I kind of feel like this series needs to end as soon as possible. Out of what I know I’ll see it’s my least looked forward to movie of the summer.

August 7th. Oh no this is going to be bad. Stephen Sommers has yet to prove to me he can direct. But they will get my eight bucks on popcorn value and Ray Park as Snake Eyes anyway.

August 21st Inglorious Bastards. Rounding out my summer with Quentin Tarantino seems about right as this could be great, or could be as bad as Death Proof. Kind of like most of these films this summer.
I’m sure there are other movies I will see as they sneak in and some comedies that I haven’t listed but so far it’s going to be mighty hard for 2009 to top 2008.

Recently I’ve caught up on a lot of movies I missed this year. From Vantage Point, (which was good but I hate that style of storytelling) to Hancock last night. And then I went to see Benjamin Button, and we are heading out for an early show of Slumdog Millionaire today. So far I can say there are reasons to miss all of them. I’m surprised that Benjamin is a best picture nominee. It’s a good movie, but is it top 5? It’s hard to distance myself from my fanboy leanings but I think even from a non fan view, Wall E and The Dark Knight are much more cinematic achievements and both of them have been nominated for more awards this season than Button. It seems the Oscars like the Television Emmys are still not ready to reward Genre media as serious competition. Well America has responded with their wallets and if people won’t go the theatre to see your movie, then do you think they are going to turn on their televisions to watch you give them an award? It would have been good for the Oscars just from a viewership standpoint to at least nominate The Dark Knight. Even the Art House Elitists would agree, this wasn’t just your mall summer movie popcorn fare. And to leave it out of contention, is wrong, especially when you have rewarded dreck like Titanic in the past.

Add another piece to next May’s exciting movies or is it?
You be the judge from Fox’s first trailer for Wolverine in Quicktime on a weird Myspace page
I’m not so sure about the Gambit casting choice and the final scene with the helicopter is laughable. Thoughts?

So I got my Blu Ray Player today at one of those chaotic must have, push and shove you till it hurts day after T-day doorbusters at one of those corporate tricks where they want you to buy everything by giving you deals on one thing. I smiled when the cashier said “is this it”, pointing to the two players (one for me, one for my brother). “Why yes it is. Thank you.” I’m sure my receipt flashes across some number cruncher in a large cubicle, tallying whether these sales are worth it to bottom line. Really I don’t care. I have now officially entered the age of High Definition. It started almost two years ago with my TV, then my Xbox360. This past spring I upgraded my cable and now I have the player for my cinematic experience.

So what movies should I put on my list? Note to self, no personal purchases till after the Holidays. Dark Knight is out soon and that’s a must. Certain things I’m tempted to upgrade, like Terrence Malicks “The New World”, a movie just recently described to me as “you stare at a f***ing tree for two hours”. Yeah, my kind of cinema. I feel like some of my movies won’t benefit from Blu Ray at all.  But would something like Lawrence of Arabia? Even though it wasn’t shot in HD, wouldn’t the picture of that movie just shine in true widescreen?

Anyway. Once I wake up, I’m going to hook it up and play with all my old dvd’s and see how the upconvert looks. Fun Fun Fun.