Star Trek (2009) by J. J. Abrams

While I don't want to spent much time discussing SUNSHINE (1997) as this is a thread about STAR TREK (2008), but I did want to point out to some readers that underneath the visual beauty of SUNSHINE, the storyline and characters aren't as compellingly superlative as the look of the movie, its more image over substance - it's more like superior version of EVENT HORIZON (1997). While a good movie, it has its problems. For those who enjoy an eerie sci fi storyline with decent atmospherics, I recommend instead FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS (1962). At the time, this was one of the few serious efforts at hardcore sci fi, though it also tied in with the Cold War era of the times. For more of my opinion regarding SUNSHINE you can access it on this website at http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...light=Sunshine

Since we are discussing obscure science fiction films in reference to Star Trek (2009), then I suggest you rent "Silent Running" starring Bruce Dern. While many science fiction films show their age, this film holds up surprisingly well in storyline and special effects. When sci-fi fans who are well acquainted with the genre vote, they often chose this gem on their top ten lists.

Every cast member and many of the crew watched many if not all of the original 79 episodic "Star Trek" television series to prepare for their roles despite the admonishments in their interviews (according to producer J J Abrams).

A friend of mine swears that Forbidden Planet and Robinson Crusoe on Mars are the best sci-fi films ever made.

The latter has Adam West, and he swears by that movie as one of the greatest ever made. I haven't seen either one of them but I've decided to buy both DVD's sight unseen, his passion is so serious.

He says Forbidden Planet was the 2001 of it's day.

And I just found out the Crusoe is a Criterion release!
How's that!

"Forbidden Planet" is often touted as brilliant. However the strange animated film was the "Midnight Movie" at revival theaters across the country in the 1970's. It frequently played on a double bill with "2001" as a stoner's paradise, the reason being for the strangeness in both films. During the light show toward the end of "2001" was often referred to as the "light up" period of the film. Curls of marijuana smoke filled movie theaters then. "Forbidden Planet" had the same mystique about it. While the animation is very crude by today's standards (and even back then) the story holds some interest. However, I find that "Silent Running" is a much better science fiction film.

"Robinson Crusoe on Mars" is a very strange movie. Most of the film is dominated by the performance of Paul Mantee (name three of his films!) who struggles to keep our interest. I do not agree with many people that this is a science fiction classic. However, thinking of that film made me recall another really good movie about being stranded on a strange planet...

"Enemy Mine" is a brilliant little film about an astronaut stranded on a planet with his mortal enemy. The harshness of the world force the two beings to survive together. Brilliantly acted by Louis Gosset Jr and Dennis Quaid (some of his best work), I found this work is often overlooked and under appreciated by fans of the genre. The special effects are good but the score by Maurice Jarre (Dr. Zhivago) is outstanding. I cannot watch the very end without crying every time. This movie explores how war often reduces racism to "those people." After the final scene, listen to the score all the way through to the end of the credits. Jarre created one hell of a good suite for this film. If you love big orchestrations, this one is bigger than "Star Wars."

Between "Enemy Mine" and "Silent Running" science fiction fans can't go wrong.

Have you heard of "La Planete Sauvage"? From 1973?

I haven't seen it but that one was also recommended to me as a strange sci-fi movie.

I know about Silent Running because it's one of Ray Manzarek's favorite movies but also, I haven't seen that one either.

But I have seen Logan's Run, which I loved, but it is a little cheesy. I heard that some major studio was going to make a remake.

There's animation in Forbidden Planet?
Are we talking about the same movie?

And we can't forget Space:1999, with Martin Landau.
I've seen a few episodes and I liked it a lot.

And Enemy Mine is great. Thanks for bringing it up.
Saw that in a theatre when I was a kid. Good times.
And "THE ICE PIRATES" with Robert Urich.
So cheesy but so good...

And my favorite "space" movie is 1980's FLASH GORDON with Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless. Blew my mind as a kid.

Don't forget THE BLACK HOLE!
Another great movie from my childhood.

Holy shit!

I just looked up Logan's Run on the imdb and there is news of Bryan Singer directing. He wants to do that project instead of the Superman sequel, which has been offered to James McTiegue and the Wachowski's, who are "looking at their options".

Here's a plug from me, Warner Brothers: Let those three do whatever the hell they want with Superman. Just give them the OK to go absolutely nuts on it.

They could bring some insano glory to the Superman mythos.
Bullet time?
CGI from heaven?
The Man of Steel?

Great God Almighty Make it So!

I saw SILENT RUNNING when it first came out and the ending has a definite emotional kick to it! The question is why I haven't put the movie on my most favorite movie list. And I don't really have an answer to it so it's good that this movie has come up again. FORBIDDEN PLANET is a 50's classic sci fi movie, dated, but the last part of the movie is truly amazing and the special effects still hold up quite well. LA PLANETE SAUVAGE uses its animation is a fantastic vehicule to capture the very essence of strange and eerie sci fi in its purist form - one of the best examples of hard core sci fi - bringing the audience into a world beyond imagination. As for THE BLACK HOLE (1979) version, it wasn't my favorite, in fact, it was one of disappointment, being stereotypical and under-performed characterization, yet even as I attempt to recall it, the ending did have a special resonance to it.

SILENT RUNNING is a good one and worth mentioning on this thread. It also relates to SUNSHINE'S theme of life support. You all really know much more about obscure sci-fi movies than I do, but I've seen a few. Geof Murphy's THE QUIET EARTH for instance, which impressed me. Murphy's UTU (1983) was a little known but admirable Maori drama.

Enemy Mine and Silent Running certainly more to my liking than Sunshine and Robinson Crusoe on Mars. But the last two have some gorgeous visuals.

I made a little faux pas. I was thinking of "Fantastic Planet." I always get those confused. "Forbidden Planet" is the silly thing with Robbie the robot and Walter Pidgeon - very dated and very uncomfortable for me to watch (being a writer of science fiction).

I actually met Earl Holliman in 1977 through a friend of mine who worked on the Hollywood Reporter, a local trade paper in Los Angeles. Holliman came to my house with my friend in attendance. I fixed dinner for us. We spoke for nearly two hours. He was gracious but seemed distracted, as if he had better things to do than discuss his film career with me (a non-person). I asked him about working with John Wayne when he did the "Sons of Katie Elder." Holliman is still alive though he has not worked in nearly a decade. He turned eighty last year. At the time we met, he had just started a co-starring role with Angie Dickinson on "Police Woman."

Funny, I was a fan of "Forbidden Planet" at the time. (I have since recanted those feelings.) I didn't think to ask him about his whiskey scene with the robot. He always played a kind of whiner. I thought of him as shallow as most actors I met in Hollywood. If you are not talking about them, they just as soon move on. He did have a few funny stories to tell about various actors he knew through the years. He was in a good mood after a few glasses of beer and dished the dirt on several people. My friend, being a reporter, looked the other way. When I asked him later why he didn't want to print any of the rumors or at least investigate them, he told me, "If you want to survive in this town, you have to learn when to keep your mouth shut."

My friend survived a lot longer in LA than I did. I moved away two years later and never looked back.

What is wrong with "Forbidden Planet?" I could state my case in several ways... the stiff acting style, the predictable plot, the silly dialogue ("Hey, get a load of the dame...") or the corny sometimes cheese special effects, such as the rocket sled in miniature pulled through the set by a visible wire... or the flying saucer also held up by visible wires, etc.

Instead, I would like to mention one more overlooked science fiction film, "The man who fell to Earth." While the plot is convoluted and difficult to follow at times, it has a wonderful soul to it. Also check out, "Solaris" (1972 Russia) and a very obscure film called, "Journey to the seventh planet" (1962).

If you go to my website, I have an entire list of science fiction novels that I highly recommend for reading starting with Ursula LeGuinn's "The left hand of darkness." I consider this novel to be the greatest work in science fiction. She is the only author to receive both the Nebula and Hugo awards for two novels back to back, the other being her incredible work, "The Dispossessed."

I mentioned THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH in an earlier post just after the reviews when we started talking about sci-fi movies in general:

Quote:

---

Don't think one can really say one is "not a fan" of sci-fi, because it is too important and central an approach to "reality." How could one dismiss Alphaville, La Jetee, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Brazil, The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy), 28 Days Later, the even better and more pointedly political 28 Weeks Later; Soylant Green, Glade Runner, Gattaca, 1984; the list goes on and on. The quality varies but the significance is so often there. Significace is rarely reached through special effects of the explosion kind we find a lot of the new Star Trek, but production values like Kubrick's can greatly enhance the sense of another reality, which somebody really clever like Roeg can accomplish that with very simple means.

---

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH works both through the very personal style of Nicolas Roeg and because of the other-worldly quality and cool presence of David Bowie, who in his Ziggy Stardust phase seemed very much like an alien to begin with. This is a very interesting film because it dramatizes the exponential longing and loneliness a being from another planet would feel when separated at length from his (or its) whole species and galaxy.

Could we have a link to your website and the list, please?

I agree with cinemabon's comments about FORBIDDEN PLANET but even with these problems, I continue to feel that it remains a 1950s sci fi classic because of its core sci fi storyline and its imaginative eerie horror genre and psychobabble climax along with a fantastic special effects drenched last third of the movie that rivals for me anything I've seen since.

I also believe that THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH was a much more serious and emotionally ripping sci fi classic. I recently watched SOLARIS (1972) again earlier this year and continue to feel that it doesn't hold up as well as a sci fi classic for me personally. I still enjoyed the narrowly crafted and relational focus of the remake starring George Clooney (2002) more than the original. Jeremy Davis had a great performance in the movie. I could never get over the long, long, long car ride towards the beginning of the original movie and Donatas Banionis as Kris Kelvin never seemed to be a compelling character...there was so much of the distant, overly layered foreign density to this movie that oozed and dripped of supposed artistic depth and superiority and heavy characterization and sophisticated dialogue but it just came across as pretentious to me.



Ursula LeGuinn is a heavy weight among science fiction writers.

I thought the Soderbergh remake suffered from boring stretches but maybe I didn't give it enough attention.

I haven't see THE JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET (1972), but the writer Ray Bradbury wrote THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES (1950) which contained a great scene regarding a eerie mental creation of reality that was later scripted into a movie version (1980).

It would be a mistake to attempt to compare both Solaris movies to each other because they focus on different issues and Soderbergh's version is really more of a love story with a fantasy twist than a science fiction movie and to compare the remake to the novel would be really stretching it.

I can completely understand how there could be long boring stretches in Soderbergh's movie for many people especially if one is used to more action and activity in the wonderful world of science fiction movie. But I didn't go into this remake expecting such an exciting experience and I became even more entranced by the whole love story angle as such type of movies touch me personally because of my life experiences (oh now I'm beginning to sound like a recently nominated U.S. Supreme Court appointee). I don't think that paying more attention to this movie would provide an answer to whether or not this movie was truly good or not, this movie would be boring for those who expects the excitement of the alien mysterious storyline plot, this isn't it. For some, this is just a sci fi movie with a number of boring scenes. It would be like me having to watch golf on television until later in life when I came to appreciate not the relatively slow action but what went into the action.

Correction to my post about Bryan Singer and Logan's Run.
Apparently that is really old news.

He turned down Logan's Run in order to make Valkyrie.
The Superman sequel is in limbo right now.
The Wachowski's have nothing on their imdb listing indicating anything about Superman.

Singer wanted Jude Law to play General Zod (which I think is an awesome idea- Law could really show us a side of himself that would prove he can act like a badass) but apparently that too went nowhere.

Warner Brothers could make Superman into a more sucessful franchise than Nolan's Batman. Genius and greatness is just waiting to be unleashed. I've said it before: Superman is a character tailor-made for the movies. TAILOR MADE.

It has the potential to be the greatest series of action/adventure films ever made. Why they aren't marshalling supreme talent to lift this mythology into the cinematic pantheon I have no idea.
Every single element is there. It's just a matter of assembling all the creative forces to bring it to life. Superman Returns was fantastic. But I know the potential is there to really go majestically nova with it. Superman is a GOD. He is an amazing super-hero. An amazing concept. That icon deserves a movie that just blows people's heads off with it's coolness. Warners did it for Batman, there's no reason and no excuse why they can't deliver something absolutely insane with the Superman character.
I'm following how they produce the next movie like a HAWK.

My last year in Hollywood turned out to be 1979. My buddy on the Hollywood Reporter knew of my penchant for science fiction. He called me one morning and invited me to the 70mm premiere of a new film at The Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. When I got there, the place was a mob of people, press and movie stars. He held a place in line for me and we were the first to enter. The entrance to the Egyptian sits back from the road. We had to walk through this field of "eggs" that had dry ice fog running through it. We went through "mother" and emerged on the other side to a gigantic sculpture of something that looked pure alien. It had an enormous end that shot up at a 45 degree angle with some sort of alien resting in a chair. Its chest had a hole in it. I had no idea what the movie was about. I only knew would see the first showing of a 70mm print.

Instead of the thundering Fox opening, strange music emitted from the speakers. One word formed across the top that huge screen, "Alien." The movie started with a huge mother ship called the Nostromo moving over us. The whole thing delighted me since this was clearly a departure from "Star Wars" still playing up the street held over since 1977! About five minutes into the film, we watched with horror as the print jumped the sprockets and got stuck in the projector. Instantly the print began to burn before our eyes. People screamed. Panic broke out. A spokesperson for the theater asked everyone to be calm. Ridley Scott was there. He was furious.

My buddy pulled me to one side. "Let's go to Westwood," he suggested. "It's showing there in about an hour!"

"What about the 70mm print?" I asked.

"It's showing in 70mm in Westwood!" he told me.

We didn't even wait for a refund. Off we flew in someone's car and arrived to find we were at the back of the line. My friend went to the front of the line and then came back to find me.

"Just follow me and don't ask any questions, "he said.

I followed him to a side door and someone let us in. We had perfect in the middle of the middle seats. My friend asked me if I wanted to meet the person who let us in. I said yes. George Maharis (star of Route 66 and many other television shows) turned around.

"I'm that person," he said with a grin.

"Alien" turned out to be a classic from day one. I would say it is one of the finest science fiction films ever made. All cheers to Ridley Scott for that and the first sequel. The rest are/is crap.

Revealing my website then reveals my persona on this site. I have remained anonymous for so many years. This will also reveal my name to anyone else who reads this site. However, I would like you to read my novel... so here goes.

http://www.williamstolley.com/

link off the main page on my website to the synopsis. From there you can link to my list. If you ever consider reading a science fiction novel, you may not be interested in my work, but at least read something from that list. I am nothing without them. They speak with a far more profound voice that I ever could. I can only stand in their giant shadow.

This thread has gone beyond STAR TREK literally, but what the heck!

Cinemabon's comment regarding ALIEN has stirred me to reflect on my fifth best movie of all time 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, a sci fi classic and my tenth best movie of all time ALIEN (BLADERUNNER incidently sits in twelve place on my list). Oops, Cinemabon's stated that ALIEN was "one of the finest science fiction films ever made" well nevertheless, Cinemabon's comment still made me wonder about why 2001 ranks higher than ALIEN for me. What was stellar with both movies was the realism and authenticity that both movies present to the audience, minus ALIEN'S engine sounds in space - the acting was spot on. 2001 incorporates a larger cosmic embrace of science fiction while ALIEN focuses on an intimate personal horror experiential experience, including a feminine/masculine quality in Ripley that denotes a balance between aggression and compassion. 2001 has the larger, universal message with greater impact while ALIEN, for me, went inwards into the human psyche of what is best in humanity.

However, it is this inner spirit from ALIEN as well as the fascinating alien/human fusion in a sequel that compels me to recognize the strengths and insights found in ALIEN RESURRECTION (1997) which I thought had solid merits as a quality sci fi movie, if not classic movie which I felt it didn't achieve.

In the age of Facebook have we any place to hide?

Good story. I wonder what happened at the Egpytian Theater after the film burned. When you said George Maharis I confused him with George Chakiris, of West Side Story. But Maharis sounds familiar too. He seems to have been in so many, many things, mainly on TV, that we've all heard of him. He was in Logan's Run, but only one episode. He was 50 when this happened.

Cinemabon revealed his sci fi literature preferences on his website - while this is probably a topic better suited to a book forum, it still overlaps topic-wise with an alternative sci fi media format. I used to be a rapid sci fi reader, but later fizzled out when I became an adult having to work and struggling just to live in the real world. Nevertheless, Cinemabon's list brings back memories.


10. Fredrick Pohl's "Gateway" I probably read this book, but I can't remember it at all.

9. Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" Instant classic with dazzling vignettes of personable intimate stories (like a sci fi twilight zone).

8. John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar" A classic that is considered one of the best immersion into an alien culture.

7. Larry Niven's "Ringworld" One of the best adventure sci fi novels in the traditional captivating journey/voyage mold.

6. Arthur C. Clark's "A Childhood's End" A wonderful almost epic novel, that if I recall correctly extends a lifetime.

5. Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" Missed this one.

4. Issac Asimov's "The Foundation Trilogy" Voted the best sci fi series of all time. It's possible, never to be overtaken.

3. Frank Herbert's "Dune" An epic novel with some of the most densely, richly alien dynastic vision in sci fi literature.

2. Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a strange land." Considered the most enthralling alien perspective.

1. Ursula K. LeGuin's "The left hand of darkness" Oh, my. Read it, can't remember it - forgive me.


"The Lord of the Rings" by J R R Tolkien. This classic was bested later by Stephen R. Donaldson in his six novel series THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT

"Nine Princes in Amber" by Roger Zelazny. Never read.

"The Dispossessed" by LeGuin. Never read.

"War of the Worlds" by H G Wells. Never read.

"Ender's Game" by Orson Card. Read, but can't recall much, but it was my home state author's brilliant sci fi outing.

"Downbelow Station" by C J Cherryh. Never read, but the authori is considered among the serious sci fi authors.

"20,000 Leagues under the sea" by Jules Verne. Never read.

"A Spell for Chameleon" by Piers Anthony. Read it, but there were a number of great novels he wrote, it's hard to choice among his many books.

"The Book of Skulls" by Robert Silverberg. Never read this novel, but definitely one of the classic sci fi authors.

"Contact" by Carl Sagan. Never read.

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller Never read.

"Dragonflight" by Anne McCaffrey. Wonderful - fantasy world along with the rest of her books.

"The Sword of Shannara" by Terry Brooks. Never read, but came on the scene later than many of these authors.

What a trip down memory lane. Maybe when I retire. Reading books is so different from watching and experiencing films. Some of my best memories.

Dune is a work that is just stunning.
I only read the first book and was so weighed down by it that I just can't read the others. I'd become a totally immersed Dune-Nerd and I just can't have that!

It's like Lord of the Rings. In space.

I think I read somewhere that Ridley Scott was inspired by 2001 and the "dirtiness" of the ships in Star Wars. He thought that the ships looked "used" and thought that was great.
When I watched Alien for the first time (about 7 months ago! yikes) I noticed that it had really inspired shots. Shots that were trying to evoke Kubrick. I'll have to get myself a DVD copy. I think the first 2 Alien movies are outstanding. I've only seen each of them once. But the more I think about them the more I know they're classics.

DUNE by Frank Herbert was the only book that I read that I couldn't read. It is the one book where I'd get reading it and then I'd get 25, 50 pages into and stop. It took me about five attempts when I was young to eventually get to a point where I just ended up reading the whole book. I never did get to the rest of the series.

As the storyteller, I have one for 2001....

It premiered at the Cinestage in Chicago in 70mm with "Reserved seating only!" So my cousin and I reserved some seats and made a date to see this film. It was August 1968 in Chicago... ring any bells yet?

We got off the "El" train (nicknamed for being elevated) from Oak Park to downtown (back then they bragged, "downtown is only nine minutes away!" Ha! More like ninety!) So we met some of my cousin's friends. They had tickets, too. We started up this street when this truck pulled up and about two dozen soldiers got out. Some had machine guns. They told us that the street was being blocked off. So we backtracked and made our way to the cinema from a different route. We noticed increased street traffic and pedestrians for a weekday.

The film in 70mm was just the most outstanding film experience I ever had... at least of what I can remember from the first showing. You see, we were all very stoned at the time. I did see it several times after that, but on this first occassion we were all very toasty. When the film ended, we went to the front of the theater to leave and they had the doors chained shut! Outside on the sidewalk we could see soldiers with guns that had bayonets on them. The street was packed with young people, long hair, blue jeans, they were marching up the street. They were also waving an enormous flag.

"What country is that?" I asked one of the people next to us.

"North Vietnam," someone commented.

They herded us out the back of the theater. I practically ran over Roger Mudd who was standing on a street corner shooting material for a report on CBS. We decided to stay downtown as what was happening around us seemed more interesting than the film.

Of course later that night...

"The whole world is watching... the whole world is watching... the world is watching..." in Grant Park.

I was there. My cousin and I barely escaped. We did not go to jail that night.... a night burned in my memory forever. Yes, I love 2001. I believe it is the greatest science fiction film of all time. But oh the baggage I carry with that day.

Star Trek


Finally saw Star Trek and it gets a big thumbs up from me.
What I liked:

- the costumes. Number 1 reason is the costumes. They went back to the original costumes, albeit with a slight tweaking.
I even like the cadet costumes from the Starfleet Academy.
They seem slightly military to me, formal.
Humanitarian explorers yes, but they have a code of conduct...
Those primary colors are eye-pleasing.
I noticed the insignias on some of the badges were different than others. Maybe cinemabon can explain that one.

- the special effects. They've obviously been mentioned and trumpeted here and everywhere else because of their really high quality. Amazing sfx wizards worked on this film. Of particular note for me was the camera (dolly? no way!) shot where the camera reverses from the Enterprise bridge window and the image just tilts and tilts until you see that *MONSTER* Romulan ship. That was pure cinema right there. Pure glorious spectacle.
The black hole was very awesome as well, not to mention the sequence where Kirk and Sulu and that other dumb dude skyrocket in their flightsuits. That was really really great CGI.
All around the special effects are just Oscar-worthy.
They make this movie. That's it, that's all.

-Spock. The actor playing this young Spock is spot-on. I had no trouble believing him as the great Vulcan. All of the others replacing the classic crew members irked me one way or another.
They *basically* got it right, but it's just not the same.
The guy playing McCoy had the perfect voice. Voice was dead-on.
But when you look at him it's like, "that's Bones?!"
Sulu doesn't look anything like George Takei and neither does the woman playing Uhura. I thought it was Jada Pinkett!!
Kirk is actually not bad. He's obviously no William Shatner, but if you're gonna get a guy to play James T., he's it.


Things that bugged me:

- the bridge.
It doesn't bother me in the sense that that is how a bridge of a high-tech Starship should look, but when I think of the old set from the TV show, WOWZA. The difference is staggering.
Those transparent techie screens, the sleekness, the chairs- man, this is quite an upgrade from that old TV show! It just shocked me how off-the-charts futuristic it was when the original set was so.....basic.

- the rapid-fire lines. Can't get a handle on all that jargon, man.
They rattle this shit off like a bat out of hell- especially during the space wars: "Influx decapitators at 56%!!" "Double up on your gamma liquidating molecules Mr. Sulu!!" "Eradicate First-Force-Thrust Dildoinators- shields down!!"
It's crazy, that dialogue.
I'd fail Starfleet Academy. No question.

-the villains. Eric Bana is great as a baddie, but these are your stock "enemies" in Star Trek. They brood, they make threats, they have disturbing visages, they utter ultimatums, they scuffle with the good guys... Man, why can't they get some villains who're more than one-dimensional?
I want Galactus!
I want Magneto!



Great movie overall.
I'm glad that Star Trek films now have some serious juice to them. Cinematically, it's suceeded in spades.
And that's all you can ask for.

Thanks for all the additional detail. Delivered like a true Trekkie, which I'm not. As I can say is that among summer blockbusters 2009, this stands out as well done and enjoyable.

Of all the characters from STAR TREK (2009), Chris Pine's performance as Captain Kirk was the singular performance I had the most problem with. I don't know if it was the script, Pine's acting, the continuity with the original William Shatner character, but something just didn't feel right all the way through the movie almost. The other characters fit right in for me.

I on the other hand who am not a Trekkie and never watched the original shows all the way through ever, loved Chris Pine and thought he was a good character, and from what people have told me the character in mature form is full of spunk like Pine. But if you don't like Pine that would ruin the show. Too bad, because it's better than the other summer action blockbusters so far.

Yes, this Star Trek is the best summer blockbuster so far.
(I saw Transformers last night and while I personally loved it, after comparing the two in my head, Star Trek edges it out).

I bought my tix for Les Vampires yesterday.
$40 for the whole ten episodes. On the big screen, the way it was meant to be seen. It's the first film I'll see at the Ontario Cinematheque and it seems quite appropriate. Live musical accompaniment too...there is a God.
I'll post about it in the classic film section.

I was planning to see Transformers but I'm not encouraged by Manohla Dargis of the NYTimes calling it "cretinous." Variety predicts big Box Office bucks and says it has an "enhanced arsenal of special effects, which helmer Michael Bay deploys like a general launching his very own shock-and-awe campaign on the senses." Variety is much less condescending than Ms. Dargis but notes the new Transformers features"machines that are impressively more lifelike, and characters that are more and more like machines."