Sunday, May 10, 2009

More Fun with Scifi

I just saw the new Start Trek movie, and I have to say I liked it. It's long, but it's a fun movie in that cheesy, melodramatic Star Trek way. And that's all you can ask for in the end.

Some time ago, I did a list of unintentional comedies and Star Trek 2 was on it. This may seem to some as mockery, like other movies in the list. The truth is, I enjoy the occasional cheesy scifi movie and Star Trek movies are easy to enjoy. You can laugh, and in many cases just enjoy the ride. Unless they're giving punks the vulcan nerve pinch and looking for whales. What was up with that, anyway?

My theory is ST 4 was co written by Herman Melville and a cranky old neighbor fed up with those pesky kids and their music. Not the best combination, by the way.

All this to say, ST 2 was unintentionally funny, but it's also a fun movie to watch, and it had some nice touches of character development. The new movie's jokes are a lot more intentional (including middle name jokes) but the cheesy fun is still there. There's even an appearance by the original Spock, who may have just plain forgotten he was Leonard Nemoy in his old age. It works, though.

The new trend in scifi is to try to make the most ridiculous situations look as good as possible with CGI. We can still see the strings most of the time, but they're more impressive. With this new movie, you're aware of how impossible much of it is, but for once, you don't care. It's that much fun.

The back stories on Kirk and Spock are also noteworthy and worth adding time to the movie.

Cheesy fun, check. Character development, check. Senile Leonard Nemoy, check. If this list sounds good to you, go see Star Trek: Beginnings. You won't be disappointed.*

*Disclaimer: There is no money-back guarantee or guarantee of any kind attached to this promise. Movie may or may not contain actual vulcans. No ewoks were harmed in the writing of this blog.

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