Star Trek Into Darkness

ACTION/ADVENTURE, SCI-FI/FANTASY

Wrath

8.5 out of 10 | MOVIE, DVD

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Rated: PG-13  Intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence
Release Date: May 16, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes

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Director: J.J. Abrams
Writers: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, based on the characters and television series created by Gene Roddenberry
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachry Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, Alice Eve

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SYNOPSIS:  After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

REVIEW: J.J. Abrams (Super 8) returns with his highly anticipated follow-up to his grand re-imagining of the Star Trek universe. With fans clamoring for the next installment, Roberto Orci (Cowboys and Aliens), Alex Kurtzman (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), and Damon Lindeloff (Prometheus) draft a retelling of, perhaps, the most beloved Star Trek big screen tale that doesn't involve whales.

James T Kirk (Chris Pine, Rise of the Guardians) is the captain of the USS enterprise. Ignoring Starfleet Federation prime directive, Kirk and McCoy (Karl Urban, Dredd 3D) steal a religious scroll in order to lure the planet's primitive inhabitants away from danger. When Spock (Zachery Quinto, What's Your Number?) gets into mortal danger, Kirk again ignores regulation to save his friend. With catastrophe adverted, Spock and Kirk face disciplinary action back on Earth, with Kirk losing command of the Enterprise and Spock being reassigned. Their demotions and reassignment are short lived when a terrorist within the Federation bombs a London technology archive and then targets the captains and commanders of all the local Starfleet ships. After the second attack, Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller, RoboCop) declares an all out a manhunt for the man named Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch, War Horse). Armed with a classified payload of photon torpedoes, Kirk is reinstated as captain of the Enterprise and sets off to the neutral zone in pursuit of Harrison. But when he and his crew arrive, their ship is disabled and Kirk's conscious get the better of him against the man who killed so many. Instead of bombing Harrison on the planet with the torpedoes, Kirk decides to arrest him and make him face the charges against him. But there is more than meets the eye as Harrison reveals that there is a bigger conspiracy within the Federation. Kirk and crew must decide whether to investigate Harrison's claims or ship him back to Earth for trial.

J.J. Abrams is a huge fan of the Star Trek universe and deserve the accolades of his reboot/prequel/sequel of the long-standing series. How do you take a 50-year-old franchise back to its roots in a satisfactory way? Abrams took all the time-warping story-twisting that Star Trek is known for to make a phenomenal reboot of the franchise. Many speculated that this second film of Abrams would be similar in scope to the second film of the original cast films with the story of Khan. I believe any fan of the universe will realize that Cumberbatch is the villain as soon as they see any of the trailers or commercials. Abrams must be an encyclopedia of Star Trek lore. He adds in details, Easter eggs, and nuances that may be evident to only the most diehard Trekkie fans. Sure, there are references that any casual fan will recognize, but there are also other references that would not be known unless a true die hard of the Star Trek mythos pointed them out. All add to the familiar, but new, trek universe that the director has created.

Pine, Urban, Saldana (Colombiana), Quinto, Pegg (Shaun of the Dead), Cho (Identity Thief), and Yelchin (Fright Night) fall into their old roles of Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and Checkov, respectively, with ease, more natural in their takes of their characters than ever before. The brash young, seemingly infallible Kirk learns the hard way that luck, a cavalier attitude, and a blatant direspect for the rules will not always win the day. Uhura and Spock learn that logic and emotion are not mutually exclusive. McCoy continues to spout out mixed metaphors in the face of adversity. Sulu finds his voice and confidence, seemingly ready to become a star fleet captain himself one day. Scotty, always wary of the shenanigans of his superiors off the Enterprise, puts himself in several picarous situations when his mouth runs too long. And Checkov continues to be a jack of all trades, helping the bridge, running engineering, and figuring out complex formulas. Benedict Cumberbatch, as the infamous Khan, takes a classic original series villainous character and turns the new incarnation on its ear. Still a brilliant warrior with advanced genetics, Cumberbatch is even more savvy and charismatic than that played by Ricardo Montelban. Cumberbatch looks menacing, superior, and self-assured just standing at attention in the Enterprise's brig.

Abrams Delighted with his re-imagined Enterprise in the original Star Trek mythos. He follows up with the story that every fan wanted to see, giving the fans what they wanted in an familiar, but unexpected way. New fans will love this story that was put together, while older die hard fans of the original films may be bothered by the fact that one of their beloved antiheroes has changed so much.

The use of anamorphic photography continues from the first film, adding extra dimension to every frame of celluloid. The CG effects are astounding, the battle sequences are amazing, the story is strong, and the characters are just what you want them to be. For the franchise uninitiated or deeply devoted, Star Trek Into Darkness should be a fun warp ride into the unknown frontier.

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Dredd 3D

Judgement is Served

★ ★ ★ ★ out of 5 buckets | Matinee and DVD

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Rated: R Language, some sexual content, strong bloody violence and drug use

Release Date: September 21, 2012

Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes

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Director: Pete Travis
Writers: Alex Garland, based on characters created by Carlos Ezquerra and John Wagner
Cast: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Warrick Grier, Wood Harris, Domhnall Gleeson, Langley Kirkwood, Edwin Perry, Karl Thaning, Michele Levin

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SYNOPSIS: In an future where the planet is an irradiated wasteland, the remaining population lives in Mega Cities policed by men and women who act as judge, jury, and executioner.

REVIEW: Pete Travis, director of Endgame and Vantage Point, takes the law into his own hands to direct his own version of the American law enforcement officer from the British science fiction anthology magazine 2000 AD. Based on the creation of writer John Wagner and artisit Carlos Ezquerra in 1977, and written by Alex Garland (28 Weeks Later, Sunshine), Travis brings his own sense of judgement to the character of ultra-violent lawman Judge Joseph Dredd. 

In an irradiated wasteland that was once the United States of America, the US population of 800 million people live in a walled in Mega City One that is a walled-in concrete and steel city landscape stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C.. The crime rate is high and the existence is more of survival than prosperity. In order to quell the raging disobedience of the populace, the Hall of Justice was formed by the Justice Department with law enforcement officers named Judges. These Judges act as judge, jury, and executioners with the authority to arrest, sentence, and execute criminals on the spot, if warranted. Joseph Dredd (Karl Urban, Red) is one such judge. After taking down a trio of drugged and homicidal criminals, Dredd is ordered by the Chief Judge (Rakie Ayola, Sahara) to take out a 'special' rookie Anderson (Olivia Thirlby, The Darkest Hour) on shift for pass/fail assessment. When a triple homicide is called into Control, Dredd and Anderson go to the Peach Tree section high-rise to investigate. When the bodies lead to a drug-dealing den for the new potent Slo-Mo and to murder suspect Kay (Wood Harris, Just Another Day), prostitute turned druglord Ma Ma (Lena Headey, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles) locks down the Peach Trees structure to flush out and kill the Judges.

Dredd 3D marks a turning point for the popular Judge. In 1995, Sylvester Stallone took on Judge Dredd in a loose adaptation of a storyline involving his brother/clone Judge Rico. Throughout, Stallone's Dredd takes off the helmet on many occasions and finds himself in a relationship to a female Judge, both decisions contrary to the spirit of the character and the comic series. Although Stallone's jawline would have worked well under the helmet, Judge Dredd is considered a domestic theatrical flop. Now, Pete Travis goes back to the basics and keeps with the laws of the series. Karl Urban's Dredd never removes his helmet. In fact, none of the Judges remove their helmets in the story, except rookie Anderson (who has a good reason to skip the headgear). Also true to the graphic series, Dredd is a no-nonsense dispenser of justice with his gun as a the final word in criminal judgement.

Continually compared to The Raid: Redemption, Dredd 3D encompasses some of the same plot points, and I cannot in good conscience not discuss the differences and similarities between the two films. The Raid: Redemption and Dredd 3D both have a violent druglord holed up at the top of a massive highrise with innocent bystanders cowering away from the hail of bullets and armed thugs tasked with eliminating the external threat of the law. The violent action is severe in both films, but where Iko Uwais's Rama relies on brutal hand-to-hand martial arts skills when his guns are not enough, Urban's Dredd is a brawler with a cool DNA-activated weapon system with a variety of special rounds ranging from incendiaries to armor piercing shells. The Raid: Redemption has an entire SWAT team assaulting a modern day high-rise. Dredd 3D has only a lone veteran Judge with a first-day rookie tagging along for her training assessment. Both films are incredible finished feats of violent cinema, one for the modern day and one for the wastelands of the future.

True to its comics roots, Dredd 3D embodies the authoritarian, ultra-violent law-enforcement of the not so distant future. Dredd is all business, from his dispensement of judgement to his assessment of his Judge trainee Anderson. His responses and queries are quick and decisive, based on a long career in law enforcement filled with violence and death. When Urban's Dredd utters the famous line, "I am the Law," you realize that this version is what the film should have been from the jump. There is nothing cute or comical about Travis' version, with no sidekick comic relief needed to bolster the story. Utterly violent, bloody, and grim, Judge Dredd is now the gritty broiling hero (not anti-hero, because he is the law!) that everyone in the UK knew him to be from the comics put into print since 1977.

Karl Urban is the perfect Dredd, taking his imposing size, gravelly simmering voice and square shadowed jawline. Lena Headey, the scarred prostitute turned turf destroying drug kingpin Ma Ma, trades in her tough woman persona from The Sarah Conner Chronicles for a ruthless peddler of Slo-Mo and death. Olivia Thirlby, as a first-day Judge, goes from inexperienced novice to semi-hardened executioner all in the span of a single day's tour of duty. The rest of the cast is vast and unnamed, most taking a bullet from the barrel of someone's smoking barrel.

Dredd 3D is an ultra-violent actioner not for the timid or faint of heart. With a solid story, plenty of flying bullets, and bodies hitting the floor, this gritty and dark tale keeps with the source material. I believe Pete Travis and crew have done the character justice, but I will let you be the judge, jury, and executioner. 

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Priest

Not Much To Sink Your Teeth Into

Director: Scott Stewart

Writers: Cory Goodman, Min-Woo Hyung

Stars: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, Lily Collins, Christopher Plummer

SYNOPSIS: After centuries of war between humans and vampires, a tentative peace has been reached. With humans living behind the walls of mega-cities under church laws, vampires have prospered and gained strength. When his niece is kidnapped by the vampires, a warrior priest disobeys church doctrine to track her down.

Very loosely based on the original Korean comic graphic novel by Hyung Min-Woo and written by rookie film writer Cory Goodman, veteran visual effects man and Legion director Scott Charles Stewart re-teams with Paul Bettany for Priest. Gone are the zombies, the twelve fallen angels, and the rich complex story line from the comic, replaced with hordes of vampires and warrior priests. And instead of taking place in the times of the Crusades, the 19th century Wild West and modern day, Priest takes place in an alternate Earth's post-apocalyptic future.

The setting of the film alternates from the dark, ash-filled industrial religion run society with a look similar to Judge Dread and George Romero's Land of the Dead to a bright stark desert wasteland that hearkens back to Road Warrior: Beyond Thunderdome. Even the climax of the film tears a page out of Beyond Thunderdome's third act with the use of a desert train chase.

Priest strays wildly from the source material, and those who are not familiar with Min-Woo Hyung's graphic novel come away with a straight-forward vampire hunter revenge flick while fans of the Priest comic will be critical of the end product. Paul Bettany returns in great physical form as the dedicated warrior title character. Now that the wars against the vampires is over and the rest of the bloodsuckers have been forced on penal reservations, the warrior priests have been forced back into the general society structure within one of many mega-cities that the last of civilization cower within under the rule and protection of the Clergy.

When his brother Owen and his family is attacked, and niece is kidnapped, Priest disobeys Clergy doctrine in order to hunt down those responsible. Christopher Plummer stars as the head monsignor Orelas of the Clergy, bow beating and looking down on Priest with wonderful disdain and entitlement. Cam Gigandet joins the film as the wasteland Sheriff Hicks who enlists Priest's help, complete with a perfect 5 o'clock shadow and a knife throwing demonstration and target shooting right out of The Magnificent Seven. The antagonist simply named Black Hat (Karl Urban) steals his scenes with his ultra cool ex-priest, current-vampire hybrid performance. Finally, the women of the film, Priestess (Maggie Q) and the niece Lucy (Lily Collins), make good impressions, but are stunted by their lack of screen time. One good move made was that the vampires, other than Black Hat, are sightless, over-sized fanged mutants rather than glamorized pretty boys.

Although coming in at a vamp's tooth under 90 minutes, Priest still slowing plods along as it sets up the action scenes. One of the beginning scenes where Priest confesses to a prerecorded monsignor via a public confession booth and a microphone gives us a taste of a society that could have been explored further. One of the first larger action sequences in the bowels of the vampire "reservation" camps uses the smokey darkness to effective and creepy success. And in the climatic third act train chase, we are treated to a triad of cool sequences, from a furious fight atop the train cars between Priest and Black Hat, to Hicks moving through the rail cars trying to find Lucy, to Priestess looking to destroy the rail line while fighting off masked motorcycle marauders.

Whether in 2D or 3D, Priest should have tried to stay closer to its origins. The film is tight and somewhat steady but, ultimately, left me drained.

WORTH: Matinee or Netflix

RED

Occupational Hazards
[Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Ellen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, Karl Urban]



image from collider.com

RANT: It's been awhile since I was able to get to the movie theater. Last weekend consisted of attending the New York Comic Con. I got to hang out with the "Women of Battlestar Galactica" and the cast of AMC's "The Walking Dead". And since I still was basking in the afterglow of comic geekdom, I decide to hang out at Six Flags Great Adventure for Columbus Day for the last gasps of coaster riding. It was truly a wonderful way to exit the Summer!

SYNOPSIS: Attempting to adjust to a life after a career of CIA black OPs, Frank Moses finds himself the target of government assassins. Recruiting the girl he has befriended and other retired specialists, the team head out to find out and stop their pursuers.

The marketing touts "RED" as the best action comedy of the year. Of course we all know that marketing is designed to get us to the theatre. Personally, I went to the movies because of the action star power of Bruce Willis. As a fan of Willis and his track record of action excellence, I usually go to any film that he is involved in. Even his lesser works are fun to watch. Director Robert Schwentke, known for Jodie Foster's "Flightplan" and Eric Bana's "The Time Traveler's Wife", takes the all-star cast of Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ellen Mirren and John Malkovich on a cross-country trip of guns and laughs.

Bruce Willis stars as Frank Moses, a retired CIA operative adjusting to life without adrenaline. Constantly calling Mary Louise Parker's Sarah at the pension office, Frank tries to strike more than a friendship with her. One night, a wetworks team attempts to assassinate Frank in his Ohio home. Frank travels to Kansas City to collect Sarah as her live is in jeapardy as a result of their phone chats. Enlisting the aid of former wetworks and black operatives Joe (Morgan Freeman), Marvin (John Malkovich) and Victoria (Helen Mirren), Moses and his team piece together the reasons why they are being targeted for elimination. As they dig deeper, they find that the contracts are being signed by parties that may be beyond the scope of even the US government's covert branches.

Willis actually plays the straight man in this film. He proves that even though he is not in "Die Hard" prime, Bruce is ever the action hero. Meanwhile, the comedy comes easily as Willis is surrounded by the quirkiness of a deranged John Malkovich, the smooth stylings of Morgan Freeman, the naive excitement of Mary-Louise Parker, and the sexy confidence of Helen Mirren. On a side note, Mirren made me fall in love with her again with a role toting semi-automatics,

On the other side of the coin is Karl Urban's CIA agent William Cooper contracted to eliminated Moses by his superiors. Driven by blind ambition, Cooper echoes what Moses was in his career's youth. Urban plays Cooper cool and collected, a hulking presence in a "company" issued suit. Rebecca Pidgeon plays Cooper's superior Cynthia Wilkes, a ever present CIA spook.

The film is well paced in plot, action and laughs, all done up in perfect balance. The stars make the movie, but the movie stands just as tall on its other merits. The film, aside from kicking ass and causing laughs, gives us a glimpse of what adjustment to retirement can do to a person, as well as what it is like to extend past your perception of use to society. If you are a fan of any of the cast, give this flick a shot. Of course, make sure you are not on the receiving end of Helen Mirren's sniper scope!

Worth: Matinee and DVD

I am also trying out a new rating system shown below based on reader reaction to my somewhat complex monetary rating scale. I will give both ratings and see what kind of reaction I muster. A movie can receive up to 5 popcorn buckets. Why popcorn buckets? Because I am a slave to the thousand + calorie delight! Enjoy!