Star Trek Lives!

Wow!

I dragged my good friend Happy to see the new Star Trek movie. Now Happy isn't a huge SciFi or Star Trek fan, but she's a good friend and said, "Sure, I'd love to see that movie with you." We went and had lunch at the new Vietnamese place my sister Deej and I had found when she was here, then went to film.

Now some background, as a kid in the 1960's and '70's I watched Star Trek the original series in syndication on KSTW Channel 11 in Seattle. I enjoyed it, I can't decided if the "I, Mudd" or "The Trouble with Tribbles" episodes are my favorite or not. Time went on and I never really got into the new series Next Generation, if it was on I'd watch it, but it wasn't appointment TV. Then I got my first overseas posting to Asuncion, Paraguay. Lovely country, but at the time not much on TV in English and though I could do conversational Spanish -- the other person needed to speak much slower than they do in movies or television. But my good friend, Kreen had all the original episodes on VHS, and all the shows that showed of the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Kreen's collection became an unofficial lending library -- we all got hooked on Star Trek Next Generation, we even had a finale party for the series last episode. After Paraguay, I went to London and kept up with Deep Space Nine and the new series Voyager (but I was obsessed with Babylon 5). When the movies came out the entire Economic Section would go to dinner and the movie -- it was great fun. Then the movies started to suck eggs. DS 9 and Voyager went off the air. Enterprise did not grab me even though I have had a thing for Scott Bacula since Quantum Leap. So, when I heard about the new movie I didn't think much of it, but reports on http://www.aintitcool.com/ and were uniformly very positive--and these geeks are very critical of remakes, so I decided to give it a chance.

It was AMAZING. I want to see again! TODAY! Well, maybe not today, but soon.

The casting was spot on -- particularly Karl Urban as McCoy -- wow, a young (and a bit more handsome) DeForest Kelly. Yummy. But I digress -- the movie. The tone, the story, the sets, the action, the quiet stuff. Spot on in every sense. I haven't wanted to read anything about the movie because I didn't want to come into it with preconceived perceptions. I have inferred that some hardcore Trekkie's aren't happy with the change in canon. I can understand their point of view, but it's a new generation and they are remaking Star Trek and making it relevant again. I almost wish it was a TV series again, because I would totally watch this group go boldly onto strange new worlds and adventures. But a TV series would have the same production values and they'd end up losing the actors to movies.

My favorite bits -- the relationship between Spock and Uhura -- amazing and I never would've though it, but I love it. The bridge of the Enterprise -- WOW. I liked seeing the insides of the ship (where Scotty and Kirk ended up). I liked the scenes with Kirk's mother and father -- set a tone that really carried through. I wish Wynona Ryder and been on more -- I miss her as an actress. Need to see her doing more work. I liked the Spock/Kirk relationship, warts and all. I really liked the Captain Pike stuff. Loved seeing Leonard Nimoy as Spock...welcome back! Glad not to see William Shatner, I like him as original Kirk, but he would've been very out of place in this movie. I liked Simon Pegg as Scotty and John Cho as Sulu and the young man who played Chekov was good as well. I hope the next movie in the franchise gives them more to do.

I can't recommend this movie highly enough!

Benjamin Button

I really liked this movie. I've always kind of liked Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, but loved them in this film. I did have a few problems with some of the directoral and writing choices. The hummingbird thing -- didn't get it. Benjamin leaving Daisy while they were so close in age -- didn't get that either. I get that he wanted to give the baby a father to grow up with, not really having had one of his own -- but I still don't agree. If it had come when Daisy looked much older and people were thinking she was a lech or whatever it would've been called back then, yeah I get it. Unlike many of the critics I found no problem with the Katrina stuff -- it was real life and so much of that life had taken place in New Orleans.

On a side note: Movies in Oz are darn expensive and the concession food isn't much cheaper. They're pretty blatant about bringing in food from home so I guess the theater's don't have too much of a problem with it. But it the theater I go to in Woden has lovely seats with step down seating so even if a tall guy sits in front of me I have no problem seeing, yipee!