Star Trek Into Darkness

One of the most popular franchises in pop culture history, Star Trek has been on the public mind since it debuted on TV in the 1960s. It has spawned spinoffs, films, countless iconic characters and pop culture moments. In 2009, it got a franchise reboot of sorts with the highly successful and very entertaining feature film, Star Trek. It took a couple years, but the sequel hit theaters this past spring/summer and was just as good and just as entertaining. Warp speed to 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness.

It's the year 2259 and Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) remains the commander of the U.S.S. Enterprise, one of Starfleet's most important ships. Following a mission on a primitive planet that forces Kirk to disobey orders and put the crew and ship at risk, Kirk has the Enterprise taken away from him and much of his crew reassigned to other ships. The reassignment is put on hold though when a former Starfleet officer, John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), leads a brutal attack on a Starfleet officer with horrific casualties inflicted. Harrison escapes Earth into deep space, but Kirk isn't far behind. He's been placed back in command of the Enterprise and must pursue Harrison. His orders seem suspicious though, and as Kirk, Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the crew of the Enterprise draw closer to their destination, they all begin to suspect what they've been sent to do.

Before seeing the 2009 franchise reboot, I had no experience with the Star Trek world(s) other than the most prominent cast members and a pop culture reference here and there. It's everywhere. You've got to pick up some stuff almost incidentally, right? I headed into both these movies with no real expectations. I wanted to be entertained. So what have I taken away from both these science fiction flicks? One word, and that's F-U-N. These are good, old-fashioned science fiction films with tons of action, very cool characters, and the necessary imagination to explore all sorts of far-off worlds with the energy of a little kid. I liked this sequel as much if not more than the original, 133 minutes of pure fun. It's a little long but the movie itself is never slow. If you're a fan of the franchise, series or just the original, you'll definitely like this one.

Whatever director-writer-producer extraordinaire J.J. Abrams seems to touch, he does so with a golden touch. I think his genuine love of what he's doing translates to his stuff, TV shows like Lost, the Star Trek movies, his Mission: Impossible entry. He's like a kid at heart. Above all else, Abrams' goal seems to be to entertain. With a science-fiction story like this, there's a natural dependence on CGI, but 'Darkness' never overdoes it. Sure, it's obvious we're watching CGI, but it blends in seamlessly with the action. We've got cool, roguish heroes like Pine's Kirk, a great villain in Cumberbatch's Harrison, a very solid supporting cast and action around every corner with all sorts of very visual, very colorful planets and aliens to explore and meet. Also worth mentioning is composer Michael Giacchino's score (Giacchino, a frequent Abrams collaborator), helping pump the action and story along. 

Playing the iconic Captain James Kirk (still no William Shatner cameo), Pine again brings a great energy to the lead role. He's funny, cocky, a very capable officer, always looking for a new adventure, and always, ALWAYS looking out for his ship, his cast and his friends. The dynamic between Pine and Quinto's Mr. Spock is pretty perfect, two polar opposites managing to make their friendship/relationship work so well together. Kirk is all about impulse and in the moment, not always thinking about the long-term consequences. Spock, a Vulcan (look for the pointy ears), is all about logic, what should be done, and the percentages of getting the job done. They play off each other effortlessly, Kirk trying to humanize Spock, Spock trying to bring Kirk back down to some sort of Earthly norm. Also look for Leonard Nimoy in a quick appearance.

The rest of the ensemble cast fills in the parts nicely around the leads. Returning from the original as the crew of the Enterprise are Karl Urban as Bones, the medical officer, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, the communications officer, Simon Pegg as Scotty, the ship's fiery Scottish engineer, John Cho as Sulu, the helmsman, and Anton Yelchin as Chekov, the ship's navigator. New to the crew is Alice Eve as Carol, a weapons specialist who knows more than she's letting on. Also returning is Bruce Greenwood as Starfleet officer and mentor to Kirk, Admiral Pike. Peter Weller plays Fleet Admiral Marcus, one of the highest ranking Starfleet officers around. In the villain department, Cumberbatch is perfect as Harrison (but that ain't his name....wink, wink), a more than worthy foe to Kirk and the gang, a villain potentially for many movies to come.

For the diehard Trekkies, there's also some cool nods to the franchise. Most importantly though, it knows where the franchise, series and characters have come from, but it creates its own legacy. These movies were meant to be fun and eaten with a big tub of popcorn, basically the definition of a summer blockbuster. It made almost $500 million worldwide so audiences are clearly eating it up. From the opening chase on a primitive red-planet to the non-stop chase through the second half of the movie, it's one fun scene after another. It's not a great movie, but it's not supposed to be. Popcorn, summer blockbuster = epically fun.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013): ***/****

Doom

One of the biggest successes and breakthroughs in video games in the 1990s as new systems and higher technology games became available was the first-person shooter. These games put the player right in the game. What you saw on the game was the game. You traveled through levels and worlds, taking out bad guys, goons, zombies, monsters, and any other imaginable opponent. Nintendo 64 had Goldeneye, PC platforms had Wolfenstein, but the most popular and probably the most well-known was Doom and its many incarnations. It was only a matter of time before a movie version was made so while 2005's Doom isn't exactly a case of striking while the iron is hot, it's a good example of a video game turned into a movie...semi-successfully at least.

Just to get this out of the way, I should say I never played Doom as a video game and have little background knowledge on the game or its sequels.  I knew the basic background but went into the movie with no preconceived notions of what this movie had to be about, what it had to get right. So I started it, enjoyed it, and read up about it.  I can't say I was surprised to see the decidedly negative response from both critics and movie-going audiences.  This is not a movie made to impress the critics. It's a stupid shoot 'em up action flick that tries to deliver some sort of adrenaline rush while also giving some scares and surprises along the way.  Many of the negative fan reviews seem to stem from a personal background in the game. "Oh, they changed this...they didn't do that...that's stupid." You get the idea, usual fan complaints. I liked it for what the movie was, mindless action with a cool cast and some very cool, unique action sequences.

Far in the future in the year 2046 on Mars, a scientific archaeological dig site sends out a transmission claiming something strange is happening, something is attacking the staff.  Sent to investigate and hopefully save the staff on-site is a Marine response team, a Rapid Response Tactical Team, headed by veteran soldier Sarge (Dwayne Johnson) and Reaper (Karl Urban). Leading a six-man team, the Marines find out that the remaining staff isn't telling them everything they know.  Reaper's estranged sister, Samantha (Rosamund Pike), is one of the scientists on Mars, but her motives may be more for the company than for the survivors. Investigating exactly what caused the distress call, the bodies start to mount.  Waiting in the long stretches of vacant hallways and underground sewer system is something that threatens to kill all of Sarge's men, and possibly, get back to Earth and unleash Hell there too.

A mix of science fiction, horror, and action, Doom is at home with the men on a mission sub-genre....I should say men on a mission on steroids.  Everything is amped up here. Early on in his efforts to make the jump from pro wrestling star to the big screen, Johnson -- AKA The Rock -- is quite a presence in the lead.  His Sarge is tougher than nails, ready to sacrifice anything and everything if it helps him accomplish his mission.  He's driven to the point of obsession, even more so as he sees some of his men start to get picked off.  Another rising star in the action genre, Urban is the real star here, or at least I thought so. His John Grimm -- call sign Reaper -- is a prototypical action here, the loner with a checkered past dealing with his fair share of inner demons.  The team of Marines include Destroyer (Deobia Oparei), armed with an immense mini-gun, Duke (Razaaq Adoti), Destroyer's best friend and a ladies man, Portman (Richard Brake), the sex freak and smart-ass, the Kid (Al Weaver), the newbie trying to prove himself, Goat (Ben Daniels), the religious fanatic, and Mac (Yao Chin), the guy fated to be monster bait. With so many characters, much of the focus is placed on Sarge and Reaper, but the remaining six members do a good job bringing their characters to life with limited screen-time.  It is a sci-fi men on a mission movie though, and it's always interesting to see who makes it, and how the others are dispatched in typically gruesome fashion. Also worth mentioning is Pinky (Dexter Fleming), a tech expert working with the team.

Using that mix of sci-fi, horror and action elements, Doom doesn't waste much time with any unnecessary storylines or characters. Those other story lines are there, but the focus is on the mysterious creature(s) terrorizing the station. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak doesn't go overboard with attempts to shock or surprise you, things jumping out of the darkness at the screen. The tension is there naturally, playing on your fears of what could be in the dark, what's waiting there to strike.  The obvious negative of that feature is that the movie is incredibly dark visually. Watching Sarge and his men weave through the sterile hallways and claustrophobic sewers, it's hard to see anything, much less distinguish between good guys and bad guys.  The look of the movie is pretty cool though when you can actually make things out.  If this makes sense, it has the look of a video game, the generally empty hallways with their robotic, empty walls, the expanses of the meeting places and conference rooms.  If you're going to make a video game movie, do it right, like this one.

Now this is a video game movie so one thing it just can't mess up is the action sequences.  Thankfully, it doesn't as Doom can hang its hat on some well-handled, exciting and nerve-wracking action.  There aren't many in the way of extended shootouts, more so quick firefights that are over as quick as they started.  It is a movie based off a first person shooter, and in one of those scenes that just had to be made, one character has a shootout as if the viewer was the character. It's a video game turned into a movie, the viewer seeing what the character sees as he maneuvers his way through a zombie/monster infested grid of hallways.  You know it's coming, but a video game that revolutionized the first person shooter genre had to have this scene and do it well. Wisely though, this camera technique isn't overused or overdone. It's used exactly once toward the end of the movie for maybe three or four minutes all told.  Definitely a cool way to liven things up in the action department, a department always looking for something new and exciting to keep audiences interested.

More than the action though, the actual storytelling steps to the forefront in the last 45 minutes.  With no background in the Doom world, I wasn't sure how everything was going to be explained, how it would all come together.  For a sci-fi/horror flick that isn't exactly taxing on the brain, the explanation is pretty cool.  No spoilers here though, but the explanation did provide some groans judging from the reviews I read.  Good and bad natures in individuals end up playing a key role, and I'll leave it at that.  The last 45 minutes though try and throw you off though, playing with some action genre and character conventions that as fans we often take for granted.  It produces one great line (I'm not supposed to die!) and generally keeps the finale on an upward arc, always making you guess what's coming next.  Nothing flashy, but the effort was appreciated. A sequel was in the works early on, but this first movie struggled at the box office so video game afficionados and Doom fans will have to enjoy this one for now.

Doom <---trailer (2005): ***/****

Red

What do action stars do when they're past their prime?  I'm not talking about actors who happen to be in some action movies either.  We're talking rough and ready action stars always willing to mix things up if needed.  Do you age gracefully and take some supporting roles in movies you used to star in?  Do you find another gig out of the action genre?  Bruce Willis is an interesting example of this situation, the 56-year old star not the box office sure thing he used to be, but still a reliable enough star that audiences will come out to see. In 2010's Red, his character is even a variation on that idea, a man slightly past his best days (no offense, Mr. Willis, I'm a big fan) who refuses to move on. 

The first time I saw the trailer for Red, I smiled.  I couldn't help it.  This is some cast for this action-heavy popcorn flick with a dose of comedic value added for good measure.  It reminds me of a lot of movies from the 1960s and 1970s that brought together casts of huge stars that maybe just didn't shine as bright as they used to.  I don't mean any of that as a dig at this cast -- just the opposite -- but it's almost like The Expendables plus 15 or 20 years.  Loosely based on a series of three graphic novels, this movie is just a lot of fun.  Seeing half the cast together would have been worth it, but all together? We're talking can't miss, no matter how much the movie might have struggled in theaters.

A recently retired CIA agent, Frank Moses (Willis) lives in his suburban house outside Cleveland, leading a quiet, orderly, lonely and generally boring life. The one enjoyment he gets out of life is his weekly calls to his pension agent/representative, Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), with whom he clicked with right away. One night though, Frank's house is attacked by a hit squad, but he manages to escape, heading to Kansas City to find Sarah because she'll eventually be tracked down too.  Of all the dangerous jobs he pulled off, why years later is someone gunning for him and all his associates? With some help from those past associates, including crazy conspiracy theorist Marvin (John Malkovich), aging ex-agent Joe (Morgan Freeman), and killer extraordinaire Victoria (Helen Mirren), Frank goes about figuring it out. One of the CIA's top agents, Cooper (Karl Urban) is on the hunt too, trying to figure out exactly what the legendary Moses is up to.

When I see that a movie is based off a graphic novel, I'm usually pretty skeptical.  For every 300, there are a lot of really awful movies to counter with that just didn't translate well to the screen.  This is one of the exceptions.  It's good, mostly because of the cast, but more on that later.  While I liked The Expendables which I watched a few weeks back, it could have been better.  It took itself too seriously.  Not the case here because director Robert Schwentke knows how far to push it and still have fun with it. The tone is both serious while still maintaining a bit of the crazy, off the wall humor that works so well.  It's not quite tongue in cheek, but Red is close without trying too hard to be the end-all classic action comedy.

Okay, I don't care who you are, but if a cast that includes Willis, Mirren, Freeman, Malkovich, Parker and others (keep reading, next paragraph) doesn't get you interested, I don't know what to tell you.  Movies just may not be for you.  Willis plays the steely-eyed former agent to perfection, a variation on many of the action heroes he played over the last 20-plus years.  The sub-plot with Parker is pretty good too, not distracting from the main story but interesting enough it doesn't detract overall. Mirren is dead sexy as Victoria, plain and simple.  She doesn't make an appearance until almost an hour in, but she makes up for lost time. Freeman too isn't in it much, but it's Morgan Freeman.  Come on, that's not a bad thing. Malkovich is hysterical, and the main reason to see Red.  His paranoid agent was dosed LSD once a day for 11 years, and he's clearly a little off his rocker.  Physical comedy, subtle facial reactions, throwaway one-liners, he does it all, his Marvin Boggs the breakout star here.

With an ensemble like that, it's hard to go wrong, but three more supporting parts jumped out at me.  They're the type of parts that could have been thrown away, but with the right actor in the parts, they bring the movie up a notch on their own.  First, Brian Cox as Ivan, a Russian adversary turned ally in Moses' battle against the CIA. He has a past with Mirren's Victoria, but he's that relic from the Cold War who misses the old days.  His one-on-one scene with Willis discussing those days is priceless.  Second, Richard Dreyfuss as Dunning, a black market arms dealer who is involved with the past mission that now has Moses in the CIA's crosshairs.  I've always been a fan, but it's great to see Dreyfuss in full-on, evil bad guy role.  Third, Hollywood legend Ernest Borgnine (still chugging along at 90-plus) as Henry, the CIA's basement records keeper.  In just two quick scenes, he shows what makes him the legend he is.

Why did this movie struggle so badly in theaters late last summer and early fall?  I can't put my finger on it.  It's nothing new when it comes to movies, but how many new movies are particularly unique? I didn't love the movie, but I did really like it.  There are some genuinely funny, laugh out loud moments, including one of my new all-time favorite lines.  Malkovich deadpans after an epic shootout, "How about we get some pancakes?" It's a really good movie that could have been great.  Still, with a cast like this, it's impossible to pass it up.

Red <---trailer (2010): ***/****

Star Trek

Thanks to his work with ABC's Lost, director/producer extraordinaire J,J. Abrams has basically got free reign if you ask me. Anybody who produces a show as good as Lost gets the benefit of the doubt, even if MI:3 was a bit of a disappointment. He seems to have a golden touch with whatever he goes after so when a teaser trailer was released for an updated version of Star Trek, more than a few eyebrows were raised. With a franchise as hugely popular and successful as Star Trek, anyone taking that on has got some guts.

Now other than some pop culture references (for one, George Costanza screaming 'Khan!'), I have no background in the Star Trek universe. Sure, I've heard of Captain Kirk and Spock and the Enterprise and all that good stuff, but I've never seen even a minute of any of the different shows or movies that so many fans swear by. In that way, I'd like to think I'm in the target audience for Abrams' movie, noobs almost completely oblivious to the series and franchise. With a sequel already announced after the huge success Star Trek had this summer -- over $250 million-- the opener in what could be a long series is an entertaining flick that sets the groundwork for fans new and old to the series.

In the year 2233, a Starfleet ship, the U.S.S. Kelvin is destroyed by a monstrous Romulan warship deep in space with first officer George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) ordering an evacuation before sacrificing himself and the ship. One of the people escaping is George's pregnant wife who gives birth to a son, James. Flash forward some 20 years later and James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is all grown up. Meeting a high-ranking Starfleet officer, Capt. Pike (Bruce Greenwood), Kirk is convinced into joining Starfleet where he enters officer training. After three years of study --taken care of quickly with a 'Three Years Later" title card-- Kirk does not get the orders he wanted, a position on the fleet's flagship, the U.S.S. Enterprise.

But with some help from friend and medical officer Bones McCoy (Karl Urban), Kirk gets on board as the flagship takes off leading the fleet on a dangerous mission. Reaching their destination, they find the same Romulan warship that destroyed the Kelvin almost 25 years earlier waiting for them with maniacal leader Nero (Eric Bana) in command. Having heard how his father died, Kirk suspects the fleet is flying into a trap and must do his damnedest to save the fleet, including taking over the Enterprise. There's elements of time travel and changing the future too so brace yourself for a handful of scenes that make your head hurt with some fast-paced conversations.

It's refreshing to see a big budget action movie with lots of style and glitz that is, well, good. Star Trek isn't just good in one aspect, it's a solid movie across the board. There's great action sequences blending CGI and actual stunts on a more personal level to go with believable and interesting interactions among a long list of characters. As the special features documentary mentions, Abrams has the ability to blend both the large and little scales, hitting you with an over the top space fight and then intimate moments after the battle. At just over 2 hours long, you won't even notice as the time flies by.

From what little I know of the franchise, this reboot sticks close to all the versions that came before it. Pine is a strong choice to play Kirk, and thankfully he doesn't do his best Shatner impression. He makes James T. Kirk a cocky but likable character that is easy to root for and get behind. The other key character is of course, Spock Prime, played to perfection by Zachary Quinto. Spock is half-man, half-Vulcan so he blends the characteristics of both species, the logic of a Vulcan and the fire and emotion of a human. The natural rivalry and subsequent bonding between Kirk and Spock is a key one that will almost assuredly be carried into later movies.

As for the rest of the cast, Abrams assembled a strong group of young, up and coming actors who will provide a strong springboard into the series. Urban plays McCoy, the medical officer, Zoe Saldana is Uhura, the linguistics expert, scene-stealing Simon Pegg is Scotty, the engineer, John Cho as Sulu, the Enterprise's pilot, and Anton Yelchin as Checkov, the navigator. Other than Pegg, no one really shines here but most of the group's screentime is setting up who they are and what they do. It will be interesting to see how they develop. Bana is a good villain if a bit underused, but it's the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, that makes a great extended cameo. An all-around solid cast that helps bring the movie up a notch.

A pleasant surprise for another franchise rebooting, which I've got to say is not necessarily a bad thing with Daniel Craig reinvigorating the Bond series, Christian Bale doing the same for Batman, and now Abrams, Pine and Quinto stepping up to the plate with one of the most popular science fiction franchises ever. If you're concerned about not knowing anything about the series, don't be. The movie is a polished, exciting, well-told story. Don't miss it.

Star Trek <----trailer (2009): ***/****