MOVIE REVIEW: Star Trek Into Darkness

9/10 - Phenomenal sequel, worth the admission price.

In my continued series to review movies that are no longer relevant, I saw the new Star Trek Into Darkness in glorious 2D.

First, I want to talk about how impressed I am that this is a sequel. When you take away all the history, and the expectations, this is just an action movie that was successful and spawned a sequel. For me, it's pretty impressive to make a watchable sequel in 2013. Because they are typically garbage (Transformers).

Into Darkness takes the typical movie magic formula and makes it work. The writers rip away everything important and do so in a way that doesn't seem unnecessary or fake. As many sequel writers have said, things have to get more personal the second time around, and they do a great job in this. I may have got a little teary eyed at one moment, but it's totally fine. It's just allergies. Don't look at me. 

It's definitely derivative, and the one thing I do notice over and over again with Damon Lindeloff is that he tends to reinterpret an idea that's just a little bit too familiar. Great story, great atmosphere, but if I took away that stuff the plot would be a story a modern trope. Good or bad, you decide. I still enjoyed the movie and was surprised by the end result.

I'm a little disappointed with how characters well established in the first movie are sort of shelved in the second. I was particularly bothered by two characters, Uhura being marginalized despite remaining a fierce female presence, and Chekov being sent to the boiler room for much of the film.

I am inclined to talk about the role of women particularly because of Dr. Marcus being a fluff piece. Movie goers have likely noticed the decline of gratuitous sexuality in regular films lately and this is probably why. The character of Dr. Marcus is fine but she feels a little one dimensional until she reveals her true plot-device purpose for being on board. Before her character is really tested, she decides to strip for Kirk. No

The Cast of Star Trek 2

one is really sure why. The ironic bit to this comes from the fact that this film is pretty well written, and the beats move so fast, which is why this scene is causing attention. When every scene is written with a purpose and payoff, and all of a sudden you ask the audience to stare at boobies because you like them? That's not going to sit well. This is why we need women in the movie industry who can get editing jobs with red pens and can say "nope, cut it." and make me happy.

I have no doubt that this role has transformed many peoples view of Benedict Cumberbatch aka Sherlock Holmes. He is now an action legend. I will fully admit that I wouldn't have thought he had it in him. He can obviously play brainy, but it takes something special to be a great evil genius. He truly lucked out with the writing because rarely are villains given enough to be terrifying. Not only is "John Harrison" mysterious, he clearly has an intention, and a viable plan. He really could out wit them all and that's invaluable. I think his character is what solely elevates Into Darkness into superb-sequel territory.

Overall, I dig Star Trek 2-ish. It's a great adventure series and it has a lot of great actors. It doles out memorable giggles and genuine emotion. It's probably one of the better movies I have seen this summer. If you want a real edge of your seat action movie, don't miss it.

IMDb - Star Trek Into Darkness (8.2)

Wikipedia - Star Trek Into Darkness

Rotten Tomatoes - Star Trek Into Darkness (87%)
Amazon.ca - Star Trek Into Darkness

REVIEW: Odd Thomas

4/10 – Hey Gang! Let’s all get in the Mystery Machine!

Dear lord I hope they change this poster

A great novel does not mean a great film. The thing that bugged me most about this movie is that it felt like I wasn't in on a big joke. There's clearly something captivating about the novel by Dean Koontz 'Odd Thomas' to warrant a film with a decent budget. I didn't get it. 

The current film summary claims that Odd is a short order cook with extraordinary power! He is a short order cook in one scene, so take the humble beginnings aspect with a grain of salt. Our "hero" also has a built in powers that are never explained, to prevent him from actually having to work hard at anything. He "senses" evil, sees what will happen in his dreams, and can "magnetically" find the bad guys. This kid is the worst detective ever.

The number of “writing rules” that are broken in Odd Thomas fundamentally bothers me. It’s lazy writing. Granted, it’s from a novel so I can’t blame the screenwriter, but maybe blame Koontz a little. It’s just one cliché after another in this universe. Good people are good. Bad people are bad.

Anton Yelchin is a great actor, but Odd as a character is paper thin. Odd is a good guy, who is given the answers to solve crimes, he just has to show up and do it, without any internal struggle or conflict. He is a perfect person who has extra abilities and no flaws. The characters aren't improved with "Stormy" either, she flops on screen. As the second Mary Sue, she is immaculate, brilliant, and the source of all of Odd's happiness. Good people are good. Bad people are bad.

Every character also falls into the "single child with no parents" universe which just doesn't work, especially when trying to develop a small town atmosphere. No one has any relation to one another. I get it; these things work better in a novel. In a film like this it only serves to make those characters even more distant and unrelatable. They are on a pedestal, and I just want to see them get knocked down.

Anton Yelchin as Odd Thomas

The bad guys have the weakest motivation I think I’ve ever witnessed in a movie. Frankly that isn’t new for Stephen Sommers, (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, The Mummy Does More Bad Things, We Ran Out of Mummies, Honey I Shrunk the Mummy) But of course this is going to be a mystery if there is literally no way to solve the crime because it’s entirely spontaneous. They just appear and do bad things because they feel like it. I can’t stress enough how much this movie turns into an episode of Scooby Doo by the end. Odd Thomas runs to the baddie and rips their mask off saying "it was Old Man McGuffin all along" and then everything is right in the world again. Good people are good. Bad people are bad.

I’m making this sound unwatchable. If you want to sit down and watch a movie with some light harmless action and very little detective work by a bunch of detectives, this movie is for you! If you thought Cabin in the Woods was terrible because you didn't bother to think about what was happening, this movie is also for you! It’s not a total fail. It has a mystery element that is genuinely surprising. It also keeps things relatively fast paced because people need to run everywhere, all the time.

Odd Thomas actually does a good job of creating high stakes at the very beginning of the movie, not letting the audience wait around for that to happen. It falters though when they have to maintain those high stakes throughout the rest of the film, because by the end I wasn't very concerned. It also tries so hard to maintain the smart, quick, witty dialogue that it forgets to make the movie smart and witty.

I’d love to hear other people’s opinions on this movie but without a wide release there aren't many reviews up. I have no doubt that a ton of people will think this movie is fantastic. But for me, it should have been a 22 minute cartoon with a doggie sidekick.

IMDB - Odd Thomas (6.6)
Wikipedia - Odd Thomas Movie
Rotten Tomatoes - Odd Thomas (No Reviews)
Amazon.ca - Odd Thomas