Star Trek Into Darkness: Spoiler Review

Okay, if you haven't seen Star Trek Into Darkness, please do not under any circumstances read this particular review of the film as it will be full of big spoilers.

Alright, so in my non-spoiler review of the film I said two things: The first being that while the first two thirds of the film were very good, the last third was not for reasons I couldn't go into then and as a result, the film boldly went where it had already gone before.

The second was also whether Benedict Cumberbatch would be playing the iconic Trek villain Khan and that director JJ Abrams and co were keeping that under wraps until the film's release, something that I did not mention in my review was that this was the one big fear I had going into this movie and as a result, it kept me from being more excited for it than I was.

Well, sadly Benedict did indeed play Khan in the film and that John Harrison the name his character has is merely a false name, needless to say when I heard him say "My Name is Khan" in the movie, my head and my heart both sank as it was seeing my worst fear about the film being confirmed right in front of me.

As a result of that, I kept asking myself when I came out of the movie "Why did Benedict have to play Khan, I mean Ricardo Montalban did a brilliant job with the role and if you're going to hire someone like Cumberbatch, give him his own character"

The other feeling I had coming out of the film was "Every Single Star Trek villain since Khan has been weak with the exception being Christopher Plummer's Chang in Star Trek VI and so to rectify that they've retread Khan again"

And not only retread Khan as a character but a large chunk of the third act also retreads great sequences from the Wrath of Khan which is probably the only Star Trek film to really transcend the genre to become a great Sci-Fi film in its own right.

I mean you have:

- The replay of the ship's warp drive being out of action with a big disaster about to happen, in Khan it was the Genesis device being detonated, in this film its the Enterprise about to crash down to Earth and so Kirk has to do what Spock did in that film and realign the warp core and risk his life to do it.

- The replay of the death scene which in Wrath of Khan is beautifully handled and very touching (the film's director Nicholas Meyer has stated that when they were filming it the crew and cinematographer were crying) whereas in this film it comes across as very heavy handed and has none of the heart and gravitas of the Spock version mainly because this time Kirk lives.

- You also have Zachary Quinto saying "KHHHAAAAANNNNNN" which in this movie just made me cringe whereas in the Wrath of Khan it's a great moment and well delivered by Bill Shatner.

- And lastly you have the near pointless addition of Carol Marcus played here by Alice Eve who isn't too bad but just made me think of Patsy Kensit in Lethal Weapon 2 in that the film is less interesting when she's on screen and frankly, she only seems there to stick her chest out and spill the beans, what a waste of a great character from a Sci-Fi classic.

Now in my non spoiler review I didn't go a lot into why I gave it a 1.5 out of 5 as it was hard to say why that was the case due to spoiler reasons, hopefully this review will rectify that somewhat and will give readers a feeling of why I felt that rating was justified in a much better way than I was able to put in my initial review of the film.

Film Review - Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Star Trek Into Darkness is the second Star Trek film to be directed by JJ Abrams and again stars Chris Pine as Captain Kirk of the Enterprise, this time facing an attack from one of his own, John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) who has fled to the home of an old enemy but Kirk will find a lot more when it comes to this mysterious fugitive.

It would be fair to say that I went into this film with some fairly keen expectations, the previews for the film made it look exciting and Cumberbatch was a good addition despite my big fear about the film regarding if he would be playing the iconic Khan and that Abrams was keeping it under wraps until the film's release, with that did this beam up the goods?

Well, it does up to a point, quite simply the first two thirds of this film are amazing, Abrams's direction is excellent building on his experience on Super 8 two years ago, his editing is much more fluid, the action is terrific and really grabs you by the throat, the cast are much more comfortable in their roles and I really liked seeing Peter Weller again in a film.

But sadly (and it is very sad to say this) the film loses its way in the third act big time by returning to some tried and true tropes that helped to befell the Trek series in the past, it was such a sad shame to see this happen as I was really loving this film up to that point.

I also thought Cumberbatch was something of a disappointment in that section of the film despite doing good work up to that point, it's a sad shame that with all the resources that exist now where anything our heart desires we can put up on the big screen and instead we get this tired rerun for the climax but then again the film was partially written by Damon Lindelof who also wrote last year's Prometheus and like that film he probably did this because "It will be Cool" well it wasn't and it ruins what was a very fun sci-fi adventure.

So all in all, Star Trek Into Darkness tries to boldly go where no man has gone before but instead boldly goes where us audiences have gone before and that is a sad shame, seek out The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country instead of seeing this film, especially as this gave me a very bad feeling about Abrams's handling of that other big Sci-Fi series in a few years time, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Iron Man 3 (2013)

Iron Man 3 sees Robert Downey Jr. return as Tony Stark and this time Shane Black his director from Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang takes up directing duties, the story here concerns Stark unable to sleep following the events of the Avengers and in the meantime the world being terrorized by an unseen threat called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) as well as a rival business man (Guy Pearce) who Stark will eventually have to confront.

It is fair to say I went into Iron Man 3 with very uncertain expectations as while I really enjoyed the first Iron Man film I had an intense dislike of the second, it was a complete mess and made me think of Highlander II in terms of being a pathetic follow up to a first film I really loved so as a result there was uncertainty over this third film, did it return the series to Iron form or continue the small signs of rust seen in the last film.

Well the truth of the matter lies somewhere in the middle for I have very mixed feelings in regards to this film, it certainly isn't bad let's be honest but it is also very problematic but before I delve into those I'll start with the positives.

The first positive is the use of the events of the Avengers as a key story point in the film as it shows that Marvel are creating a big cinematic universe for their characters that makes events from the other films have a sense of weight to them whereas in other franchises its mainly ignored, happily that isn't here.

The second positive I have is the use of Tony Stark outside of the suit for much of the film, the early scenes of the first film were a nice use of his intellect and that is again on show here and Downey seems to be enjoying himself most in those scenes.

And finally the last positive is the final battle sequence involving Iron Man and it is a fantastic sequence with a real flow to it as well as a sense of scale and excitement, heck at times I was saying to myself "Concentrate all Fire on that Super Star Destroyer" as it did feel like the Space Battle in Return of the Jedi as it was going on, it's really terrific and well worth the wait.

But sadly for those two key strengths it also has some key weaknesses that are very hard to ignore, at least for me.

The first is sadly, the film's villains, yes I know what you're saying "You always have this problem" and that is true for I fundamentally believe that an action film like this one needs a strong villain in order to have a strong film, something Black is very familiar with given that his two Lethal Weapon films had excellent villains in Mr. Joshua and General McAllister in the first film and Arjen Rudd in the second, that said though this isn't his fault per se as a fault of Marvel who come up short in the villain department when compared with their rivals at DC who have a good resource of villains to fall back on for their superhero characters.

That said though Pearce isn't too bad but his character isn't that much different to Sam Rockwell's in the last film and only a little more interesting as well, a pity as Pearce is a good actor but it left me wanting more.

The second problem I had with the film is that much of the film plays out like Tony Stark as Martin Riggs, no surprise given that Black also created that character in the Lethal Weapon series, it was okay but it was also something that got on my nerves after a while, especially when you see him and Rhodie (Don Cheadle playing the role better than he did in 2) sneaking around a cargo ship port in a scene that is right out of Lethal Weapon 2 and those two definitely having the Riggs/Murtaugh style to them, heck you could easily put those characters into that part of the film and you wouldn't miss a thing.

The last problem I have is that film does run on a little too long for its own good and the middle act could've easily seen a good 10 minutes chopped from its run time to spice up that section of the film which it could've done with.

And so in closing, Iron Man 3 is a marginal improvement on the first one but it still doesn't come close to beating the first film as my favourite of the trilogy which had a nice clean feel to its storytelling that its successors have lacked, it is fair to say that there are some signs of rust on this series starting to grow and while the film is not a disappointment for me, a film divided cannot stand for me, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Clear and Present Danger (1994)

Clear and Present Danger is the 3rd Jack Ryan film and the 2nd to star Harrison Ford in the role, the story this time concerns the US government wanting to disrupt the drug trade in Colombia and this time Dr. Ryan has to try and sort out the mess in front of him.

Clear and Present Danger pretty much continues the steady downward decline of this series since the success of the Hunt for Red October, seriously it makes Patriot Games look like that film quite easily for two key reasons:

The first is that there is no stakes in this film, Red October concerned the Russians developing a silent drive system with their newest sub and how in the wrong hands could strike the US with very little warning, here it's some boring fight on drugs that's been done so many times before and it has no impact on the story.

And the second is that the film's script is such a convoluted mess you just sit there wondering what on Earth is going on and what its even all about and by the time you get to the big fight and confrontation at the end you just stop caring and sit there waiting for the film to end.

And frankly, this film is not worth recommending and when I was watching it I thought to myself "this makes Patriot Games look good" and I hated that one as well, ugh rent Red October instead of this one or the one that came before and after it, you'll feel happier and get your money's worth, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Patriot Games (1992)

Patriot Games is the 2nd Jack Ryan film in the series and this time Harrison Ford takes on the role of Dr. Ryan from Alec Baldwin who played the role in "The Hunt for Red October", the story here concerns an IRA attack on the Royal Family which Ryan prevents but kills the brother of Sean Miller (Sean Bean) and now Miller wants revenge.

Patriot Games is for me, a complete failure of an action picture, this feeling driven primarily by my love of Red October plus having read Clancy's original book but there are two big reasons why I think this film fails in the way it does:

The first is that the story strays too far from the original novel, Red October managed to adapt its story very well into film in a way that not only captured the essence of the novel but managed to find its own way to work as a film, here it feels like a rewrite of the story so that it takes place after the events of Red October whereas the novel took place before the events of Red October and as a result, it doesn't work.

The second is the change of actor in the role of Dr. Ryan, Baldwin was a perfect choice for the part and nailed it in Red October, sadly other events saw him bow out and Ford took his place and he doesn't fit the role at all, now Ford has done some terrific action roles before this film and would do one a year later in The Fugitive but he just does not fit this part and whenever he was on screen I was wishing I was watching Baldwin doing the role as the story would have had a lot more impact had he come back to play the part.

What makes this feel worse is that the story to me is the Jack Ryan equivalent of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in that it's a personal story about your lead character that has a big emotional impact when you've worked hard to establish the character with readers/viewers beforehand and sadly the full impact of the story in the film is diluted by having a new actor in the role instead of the previous one and in both cases it's a sad shame.

Hopefully Paramount doesn't make the same mistake twice in regards to Chris Pine's tenure in the part as I do think he is a good choice for the role (it's the only nice thing I can say about his role in This Means War) and if he is embraced in the part in the same way that Baldwin was in 1990 that Paramount will snap him up for a future film if it does well enough at the box office.

Now I'm sure some of you are thinking "what about if you haven't read the book" well if you haven't then it's a decent Harrison Ford action film with good direction, performances and villain even if it is a little average and somewhat forgettable in the long run.

And so with that out of the way, I can't recommend Patriot Games to fans of Clancy's book but I could somewhat to those wanting a good Harrison Ford action film as it works better if you haven't read the book, if you have then it's a failure on nearly every level, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Pitch Perfect (2012)

Pitch Perfect stars Anna Kendrick as Becka, a young girl who is entering college on advice from her father who hopes that it will help her live a little before heading to LA to try and become a DJ, she then joins a college group called the Bellas who are determined to make up for their disastrous performance at Lincoln Centre in New York the year before.

Pitch Perfect is a lot of fun and at times Aca-funny, especially Rebel Wilson who delivers some great comic timing though the standout performer for me here is Kendrick, she is simply wonderful in this film in terms of creating a character that for me really felt like a girl you might come across in this big wide world of ours rather than a cliched film character that feels more like the creation of a male Hollywood screenwriter and would most likely be another borderline sexist stereotype that we sadly see far too often.

The film also has a very good soundtrack that has a nice mix of old and new songs in it and the climax is also very well staged though I did have a couple of complaints about the film:

The first is that the film does run a little too long for a comedy, it could've been trimmed by a good 10-15 minutes and the other is that outside of Kendrick and Wilson to a lesser extent the other characters aren't that interesting and do resemble the stereotypes we've seen before and that part of the film did bore me somewhat though when the film was over it didn't bother me that much.

So all in all, Pitch Perfect is an Aca-fun college comedy very much in the style of Bring it On from 2000 and like that film is a fun surprise, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Oblivion (2013)

Oblivion stars Tom Cruise as Jack, a drone repair man in what's left of the Earth following a war that destroyed it but one day he sees a ship crash down to the planet with a very familiar face that has been haunting him in his very dreams.

Oblivion is sadly a film of two halves for me, the first half I thought was kind of interesting with its wide visuals, sparse soundtrack and little dialogue calling the shots and giving you everything that you needed to know.

But sadly the film's second half kills it stone dead by turning into a pastiche of most major Sci-Fi films like 2001, Predator, Mad Max, Star Wars and The Terminator to name as examples and as a result the film lost me in a big way to the point where I just switched off from the whole thing and stopped caring about what happened to Cruise's character.

And as for Cruise himself, he's actually not that bad here but he also didn't really grab me either, he just seemed to sit in the middle throughout the film and playing it safe as he has done many times before and as a result you don't really want to get invested in his character or what might happen to him as the film goes on towards its very dull finish.

And so, Oblivion is not a terrible film by any stretch of the imagination but it is also not that good and frankly plays it too safe, its saddens me that in a world where the biggest film of all time "Avatar" is a Sci-Fi flick and yet this is all we get in the aftermath of its enormous success, the fans of this genre myself included deserve much better than films like this, guess you could chalk this one up as my first disappointment of the year folks, 1.5 out of 5.