Star Trek Beyond was exactly the Star Trek movie I wanted. It suitably made up for all the failings of Into Darkness, even doing some similar scenes but just way better. Not perfect, but there was never a point I wasn't enjoying myself, and I must admit I teared up a bit at one point.
Notable was that nothing in Into Darkness was referenced at any point, and there seemed to be quite a bit of retconning to "fix" some things that lazy script writing had spoiled in that movie.
All this makes me look forward to the non-JJ Abrams Star Wars movies coming up in the next few years. I hope the pattern follows:
The Mission Impossible franchise is in trouble after a a bad movie (MI:II) and JJ Abrams is brought in to revive it. He does a decent job, though it is quite derivative of previous movies. The series is then handed over to other directors who do better things with it, and have more of a unique stylistic approach beyond retreading old ground (Rogue Nation in particular).
The Star Trek franchise is in trouble after a series of bad movies. Abrams is brought in to revive it. He does a decent job, though it is quite derivative of previous movies. He then makes another movie that is even more derivative and retreads even more of the same ground. The series is then handed over to another director who do better things with it, and have more of a unique stylistic approach beyond retreading old ground.
The Star Wars franchise is in trouble after a series of bad movies. Abrams is brought in to revive it. He does a decent job, though it is quite derivative of previous movies...
My exact thoughts. I really liked Simon Pegg's style of writing. It felt like a more mature movie, we see a different Kirk, one that is still hot blooded but is getting wiser with age. The chemistry between all the characters was on point. I am really looking forward to future of Star Trek, it looks like it finally found its own way while respecting the classic show.
Yeah. I've not watched more than a few TV episodes of Star Trek, so I only know Star Trek from the movies. Either way, Beyond felt much more like a Star Trek movie than Into Darkness, even though I spotted WAY more references to old Trek in Into Darkness. Getting the tone right is way more important than "borrowing" scenes and lines and characters from one previous movie in the series.
So maybe someone can answer this, but it seems like a non issue since no one brought it up. But the couple trailers I saw of the new Star Trek seemed to highlight that alien girl who was all about doing Kung fu shit and havin' 'tude. I wasn't sure if her character was actually going to be like that and if the rest of the movie would follow suit of being a group of people who are all "badasses".
She is just a single character who is primarily there to provide exposition and then have a few fight scenes. There aren't any more people like her in the movie, and her individual story isn't really a focus of the plot outside of her own character arc. So no, its not a "let's introduce a race of Avatar-style ninja cat people to be central to the movie" sort of thing.
She's a badass fighter/technician who kicks ass and mends computers and plays beastie boys music. I'm guessing that when Simon Pegg's contract is up, she'll take over as head technician or whatever.
Again, I'm not entirely sure what your question is. Do you want us to say she is a main character? A bad character? An annoying character? One that takes too much focus away from the main cast? Well, no. It's a well written and well constructed movie. You'll either think she is awesome, or not think of her at all.
Ulty already answered my question, and I can't find the trailer that I saw, but the one I remember was a bit shorter and just had her do some kicking and punching then cut to a shot of her putting her legs up like it was no big deal and saying some hokey line. I originally pegged it up to lame marketing but then I saw the director was highlighted as the Fast and Furious director so I was thinking it could just be F&F with a Star Trek skin. I like Simon Peggs writing but he's known for comedy writing.
So yeah I guess I was concerned she would be a major role and that she would be annoying. But watching a longer trailer just now that also doesn't seem to be the case.
/... I like Simon Peggs writing but he's known for comedy writing.
So yeah I guess I was concerned she would be a major role and that she would be annoying. But watching a longer trailer just now that also doesn't seem to be the case.
From my point of view she is a pretty well developed character, and had pretty good chemistry with the cast in general. I liked that she was not written to be the romantic interest for anyone in the movie. Also, most of the comedy on the whole movie was on point.
Don't trust the trailers, in this case the trailers don't make justice to the movie.
I went to see in it in on a normal screen, after watching the movie I will be going to see it in Real IMAX if only because of one specific scene that was pretty spectacular during the first third of the movie.
I would love to see what people think of the antagonist and its motives.
So, just skip Into Darkness? Anything I really should know before jumping from the reboot to the new one?
No. Literally nothing that happened in Into Darkness is referenced in this one at all. None of the character, none of the stories, none of the universe-breaking inventions or events, not even the stated goal of the Enterprise or the Federation. It's like a clean slate. That said, Spock Prime is referenced a few times, so it certainly relies on Star Trek 2009.
I guess I'm the only person who didn't think Star Trek Beyond was that great. I thought the crew interaction was good, and the scenes on the ships were great, but the majority of the film was just generic action sequences. It didn't feel like "Trek" to me. And don't get me started on the almost complete lack of background information. While I can get behind not explaining things in a movie like the newest Mad Max, I expect more from Star Trek. I'd rate it a solid C+ movie. Much better than Into Darkness, but still mostly a generic action movie dressed up in a Star Trek costume.
Nah, it's not a great movie. I thought it was just a solid movie, and a massive step up from Into Darkness.
Bad: The music. Holy fuck, Michael Giacchino is the dullest composer in modern blockbuster movies. What a snore fest. Waaaay too heavy-handed foreshadowing. Inconsistent technology and sciencey stuff. Unexplained plot points. Like, where did all the bad guy soldiers come from? Exactly how many of the drone ships are there? (There seems to be many orders of magnitude more at the end of the movie than the start, and way more than we saw around the base). Some accents are terrible.
I ended up going to see it last night. It was pretty decent. There was a lot less character interaction than I was expecting. And maybe a few too many characters to have any one of them be meaningful. It was enjoyable but it felt like it rushed past a lot of stuff on its way to the climax and conclusion.
We managed to get through Agents of Shield Season 1 episodes 1 to 7, as all the guides told us to do. Then we watched:
Thor: The Dark World
And you know what? I enjoyed this way more this time than I did previously. Or at least, so I thought. But then I've been posting in this thread long enough that I could look up my previous opinion of it. "Thor: Dark World = dumb but fun." (March 2014)
I'm guessing it hit home for me way better this time because I wasn't watching it on a small seat-back screen on a plane. A big screen TV in HD will improve a movie like this no end.
So I was expecting one of the weakest movies in the MCU, but I found it remarkably average, like a solid Iron Man entry. Faster paced than the first Thor, but it had way less backstory and exposition to fit in.
References to other movies: Captain America turns up, as an illusion of Loki. So I guess we have Chris Evans acting like Tom Hiddleston acting like Loki acting like Captain America. And somehow it works great! A bit of The Collector at the end. "I saw you were in New York!"
Seems strange that Shield didn't turn up at all in this one, except by a few name checks. After watching some Agents of Shield, it would seem like they would have picked up Selvig right away, not left him in a loony bin.
Main bad guy: Christopher Eccleston manages to be quite menacing, even with a lot of makeup. Pity his character is pretty forgettable.
Sub bad guy: Loki is excellent. I would love a Loki movie. Not him trying to take over the world or anything, just getting up to no good during Thor's bachelor party or something.
Comments from Juliane: "This is really god fun!" "Greenwich. We've been there!" "Why is Loki so bad? He could be such a cool guy!" "I really thought Jane Foster was going to get super powers from the Aether."
And yes, it's always fun to see a massive action set piece in a place you have visited. We walked around the college where the final battle takes place a few years ago, and took a selfie almost exactly where the space ship touched down. (Also, Greenwich is NOT three stops to Charing Cross on any line.)
Stan Lee cameo: Patient in the mental hospital.
Overall: A mostly solid entry into the MCU, but doesn't do much to move along any story. At least when Thor isn't turning up in movies like Civil War, we know he's having suitably epic adventures elsewhere as an excuse.
Next up: Agents of Shield season 1 episodes 8 to 16 then Captain America Winter Soldier.
Beyond felt much more like a Star Trek movie than Into Darkness, even though I spotted WAY more references to old Trek in Into Darkness.
The meta, self-referential nature of the first two films in the reboot actually made them less Star Trek-y. Boldly going somewhere new made Beyond feel much more like the Star Trek the fans know and love, which made me much more nostalgic than the endless inelegant nods, references, plot re-hashing, and jokes of the first two films.
Watching Full Metal Jacket with my girlfriend's Vietnamese father was kind of horrifying. He was only nine when the Tet Offensive took place, but the amount of "that looks about right" as the movie went on was pretty scary. He said he wants to watch more Vietnam War movies, so tomorrow's Apocalypse Now...yay...
I'm not really sure why there has been so much hate for the Suicide Squad movie. The worst thing I can say about it is that the first 30 minutes or so were paced kind of oddly and had very strange music cues, and I'd probably say the re-shoots were to blame for those issues. Besides that, I really enjoyed it - it did everything that I was expecting it to do. I love ensemble casts and I like seeing B-Team characters get spotlighted in pretty much every form of media, and this hit all of those notes.
It's DCU/WB poor man's version/response to Guardians of The Galaxy. I enjoyed it because I went in with little to no expectations. I understand the serious issues and am annoyed with the over-sexualization of Harley. From what I heard, Robbie got hurt/bruised a lot doing the stunts because she didn't have much padding due to skimpy outfit vs the rest of the squad having padded costumes.
Suicide Squad is just one gigantic "what the hell were you guys smoking?" The editing really cut this movie to ribbons, leaving tons of reintroductions and lots of odd bits of backstory that have no buildup. It works because of the strength of Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and Viola Davis who have done the best acting out of anyone else in the DC Universe. This cut of the movie was done by a trailer-house so that's why it has a music video feel every 5 minutes, I do believe there is a good movie inside this garbage fire. Half the jokes work, but the other half fell super flat.
So many of the characters do nothing and/or are acted terribly. Rick Flag, Cpt. Boomerang, Killer Croc, Slipknot, Enchantess...so unbearably awful. Even Leto's Joker is a very half-assed version of Heath Ledger's. A lot of the fault of this movie is built on the crumbling infrastructure of the DC Universe, so they don't even feel like bad guys killing Melting Puddys from Power Rangers. It's 1/3rd of a DC Movie, 1/3rd a David Ayer Movie, and 1/3rd Sucker Punch. There's no doubt in my mind that this was a movie ripped apart by corporate executives who had no confidence in making a R-Rated Movie.
Just Got back from watching Suicide Squad, my collection of thoughts: 1) I feel like deadshot is about to become 1000% more important to the DC universe, would watch a Deadshot movie
2) It felt like most of Harley Quinn's stage directions read "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" in all caps. Margot Robbie was able to hand in an engaging performance despite this. Kudos to her.
3) Captain Boomerang had the best lines and shit stirring in the movie, Margot Robbie is australian, I feel like we can make this work.
4)Holy shit, the Joker must have Vector on speed dial
If there was a good movie in there, it was Deadshot and Harley go do a thing while Viola Davis threatens them through the situation. Unfortunetly, there isn't much of a situation for them to get into without them touching on the stupid parts of this movie.
My real concern is that if Wonder Woman actually turns out to be good, there won't be enough goodwill left after DoJ and SS set it all on fire.
From the comics side of it, Harley Quinn substituted Catwoman and people who read the comic mostly dropped it because it made no sense but to appease anyone who wanted a hyper sexualised clown. So it sounds like they followed a silly story to begin with and did terrible editing.
I will give this one a skip.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Wow so much fun. Cheesy at the appropriate times and intentionally so. Great humour and fun twists. The sound track is so enjoyable to my years. I've had it on repeat on Google Music for a few days.
I have no issue with Guy Ritchie directing. I feel as if its done really well and trumps many of the recent Bond movies and the last 2 Bourne movies while still being humours and entertaining in and of itself.
Nothing heavy in this movie, some languishing of the plot in the middle third otherwise really great if you want to watch a fun, well composed spy movie set in the cold war period.
The cast are pretty great at fulfilling their character roles.
Also I didn't know it was based on an older TV show, I have no awareness regarding the original.
Yeah, I hear a lot of criticism about suicide squad that boils down to "It was a good movie, Before the chickenshit execs got their hands on it and started fucking with things."
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Wow so much fun. Cheesy at the appropriate times and intentionally so. Great humour and fun twists. The sound track is so enjoyable to my years. I've had it on repeat on Google Music for a few days.
I have no issue with Guy Ritchie directing. I feel as if its done really well and trumps many of the recent Bond movies and the last 2 Bourne movies while still being humours and entertaining in and of itself.
Nothing heavy in this movie, some languishing of the plot in the middle third otherwise really great if you want to watch a fun, well composed spy movie set in the cold war period.
The cast are pretty great at fulfilling their character roles.
Also I didn't know it was based on an older TV show, I have no awareness regarding the original.
I'm in the same boat, really quite liked it. I knew about the TV show, but I'd never seen an episode, or really knew anything else other than it's existence.
I actually really liked Waller and Joker in Suicide Squad. I didn't think the Joker was supposed to be like the one in Dark Knight. He was just kind of weird and silly.
This movie also got me to love Katana. I used to hate her because she kind of replaced the Creeper, one of my favorite DC characters. That scene where she showed weakness and was talking to her husband totally humanized her to me.
I actually really liked Waller and Joker in Suicide Squad. I didn't think the Joker was supposed to be like the one in Dark Knight. He was just kind of weird and silly.
This movie also got me to love Katana. I used to hate her because she kind of replaced the Creeper, one of my favorite DC characters. That scene where she showed weakness and was talking to her husband totally humanized her to me.
Here is the thing about the Joker. He is a sociopath, and an agent of chaos. This movie breaks away from those ideas. What we got, was not the Joker but an antihero instead of a villain. The Suicide Squad was suppose to be full of antiheroes but we got semi-likable villains, that was its main flaw. And the editing, the editing was all over the place.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Also I didn't know it was based on an older TV show, I have no awareness regarding the original.
I'm in the same boat, really quite liked it. I knew about the TV show, but I'd never seen an episode, or really knew anything else other than it's existence.
The original show is mixed bag, it's very '60s hollywood in that you can tell it's mostly shot in California despite how "global" the show is. There were also a lot of "celebrity" guest stars, one early episode guest starred Shatner and Nimoy, another episode had Sonny and Cher. One episode starred the actor that played Dennis the Menace as a teenage super genius. Some of the bad guys even toted around what looked like Megatron in his fully decked out gun mode.
Comments
Again, I'm not entirely sure what your question is. Do you want us to say she is a main character? A bad character? An annoying character? One that takes too much focus away from the main cast? Well, no. It's a well written and well constructed movie. You'll either think she is awesome, or not think of her at all.
So yeah I guess I was concerned she would be a major role and that she would be annoying. But watching a longer trailer just now that also doesn't seem to be the case.
Don't trust the trailers, in this case the trailers don't make justice to the movie.
I went to see in it in on a normal screen, after watching the movie I will be going to see it in Real IMAX if only because of one specific scene that was pretty spectacular during the first third of the movie.
I would love to see what people think of the antagonist and its motives.
Bad:
The music. Holy fuck, Michael Giacchino is the dullest composer in modern blockbuster movies. What a snore fest.
Waaaay too heavy-handed foreshadowing.
Inconsistent technology and sciencey stuff.
Unexplained plot points. Like, where did all the bad guy soldiers come from? Exactly how many of the drone ships are there? (There seems to be many orders of magnitude more at the end of the movie than the start, and way more than we saw around the base).
Some accents are terrible.
We managed to get through Agents of Shield Season 1 episodes 1 to 7, as all the guides told us to do. Then we watched:
Thor: The Dark World
And you know what? I enjoyed this way more this time than I did previously. Or at least, so I thought. But then I've been posting in this thread long enough that I could look up my previous opinion of it. "Thor: Dark World = dumb but fun." (March 2014)
I'm guessing it hit home for me way better this time because I wasn't watching it on a small seat-back screen on a plane. A big screen TV in HD will improve a movie like this no end.
So I was expecting one of the weakest movies in the MCU, but I found it remarkably average, like a solid Iron Man entry. Faster paced than the first Thor, but it had way less backstory and exposition to fit in.
References to other movies:
Captain America turns up, as an illusion of Loki. So I guess we have Chris Evans acting like Tom Hiddleston acting like Loki acting like Captain America. And somehow it works great!
A bit of The Collector at the end.
"I saw you were in New York!"
Seems strange that Shield didn't turn up at all in this one, except by a few name checks. After watching some Agents of Shield, it would seem like they would have picked up Selvig right away, not left him in a loony bin.
Main bad guy:
Christopher Eccleston manages to be quite menacing, even with a lot of makeup. Pity his character is pretty forgettable.
Sub bad guy:
Loki is excellent. I would love a Loki movie. Not him trying to take over the world or anything, just getting up to no good during Thor's bachelor party or something.
Comments from Juliane:
"This is really god fun!"
"Greenwich. We've been there!"
"Why is Loki so bad? He could be such a cool guy!"
"I really thought Jane Foster was going to get super powers from the Aether."
And yes, it's always fun to see a massive action set piece in a place you have visited. We walked around the college where the final battle takes place a few years ago, and took a selfie almost exactly where the space ship touched down. (Also, Greenwich is NOT three stops to Charing Cross on any line.)
Stan Lee cameo:
Patient in the mental hospital.
Overall:
A mostly solid entry into the MCU, but doesn't do much to move along any story. At least when Thor isn't turning up in movies like Civil War, we know he's having suitably epic adventures elsewhere as an excuse.
Next up: Agents of Shield season 1 episodes 8 to 16 then Captain America Winter Soldier.
So many of the characters do nothing and/or are acted terribly. Rick Flag, Cpt. Boomerang, Killer Croc, Slipknot, Enchantess...so unbearably awful. Even Leto's Joker is a very half-assed version of Heath Ledger's. A lot of the fault of this movie is built on the crumbling infrastructure of the DC Universe, so they don't even feel like bad guys killing Melting Puddys from Power Rangers. It's 1/3rd of a DC Movie, 1/3rd a David Ayer Movie, and 1/3rd Sucker Punch. There's no doubt in my mind that this was a movie ripped apart by corporate executives who had no confidence in making a R-Rated Movie.
1) I feel like deadshot is about to become 1000% more important to the DC universe, would watch a Deadshot movie
2) It felt like most of Harley Quinn's stage directions read "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" in all caps. Margot Robbie was able to hand in an engaging performance despite this. Kudos to her.
3) Captain Boomerang had the best lines and shit stirring in the movie, Margot Robbie is australian, I feel like we can make this work.
4)Holy shit, the Joker must have Vector on speed dial
If there was a good movie in there, it was Deadshot and Harley go do a thing while Viola Davis threatens them through the situation. Unfortunetly, there isn't much of a situation for them to get into without them touching on the stupid parts of this movie.
My real concern is that if Wonder Woman actually turns out to be good, there won't be enough goodwill left after DoJ and SS set it all on fire.
So it sounds like they followed a silly story to begin with and did terrible editing.
I will give this one a skip.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Wow so much fun. Cheesy at the appropriate times and intentionally so. Great humour and fun twists. The sound track is so enjoyable to my years. I've had it on repeat on Google Music for a few days.
I have no issue with Guy Ritchie directing. I feel as if its done really well and trumps many of the recent Bond movies and the last 2 Bourne movies while still being humours and entertaining in and of itself.
Nothing heavy in this movie, some languishing of the plot in the middle third otherwise really great if you want to watch a fun, well composed spy movie set in the cold war period.
The cast are pretty great at fulfilling their character roles.
Also I didn't know it was based on an older TV show, I have no awareness regarding the original.
This movie also got me to love Katana. I used to hate her because she kind of replaced the Creeper, one of my favorite DC characters. That scene where she showed weakness and was talking to her husband totally humanized her to me.