Star Trek

Star Trek has a heart beat again! The series was on life support and nearly gone forever but this re-boot has breathed new life into the series. This eleventh iteration directed by J.J Abrams has the original crew back but this time we're starting at the beginning and with new actors. HOO-RAY

Before I review the movie I want to give you a little background to the story. There were four comics released before the movie came out and luckily for you I read them all. The comics start off twenty eight years after the events of the last movie Nemesis. Spock is the ambassador to Romulus and for the past few years he has been trying to convince the Romulan senate that their sun is going to supernova. Spock believes he has the solution to repair the sun by using a substance called red matter but the Romulans don’t completely trust Spock.

Meanwhile off-planet, Nero, the commander of the mining ship Narada has been experiencing the sun's unusual effects first hand. He returns to the planet to warn the senate but sadly the information he provides falls on deaf ears. This is where Spock and Nero first meet. Spock informs Nero that they must return to Vulcan and convince the Vulcan high command to part with their red matter therefore taking matters into their own hands. Nero agrees to help Spock but by doing so he becomes a traitor and an outcast.

When they arrive at Vulcan they have to deal with more bad news; the Vulcans will not part with their red matter. After months of negotiations, time has expired and the Romulan sun has gone supernova. Its explosion has destroyed Romulas, Remas, and is now threatening the entire quadrant. This has Nero pissed off beyond belief. He has lost his family (wife and unborn child) and his home planet Romulus. Revenge is the only thing on his mind and he wants it served up cold!

Nero leaves Vulcan and connects with a secret Romulan facility to enhance his ship. Once the Borg upgrades have been applied to his ship he begins his search for Spock. Once he finds Spock a colossal battle begins which causes a temporal rift in space sucking both ships in and ending the comic book series.

The movie starts off with Nero traveling back in time on accident and causing an alternate time line. This is something I appreciate very much; they can change the cannon of Star Trek with out upsetting a lot of Star Trek Fan boys. The Battle that occurs when Nero arrives will take your breath away and bring tears to your eyes. Fifteen minutes into the movie and there’s already a lot of character development.

The remainder of the movie shows Kirk teaming up with the original enterprise crew and regaining his position as captain of the USS Enterprise (not even a alternate time line can prevent him from becoming Captain). There were a ton of enjoyable moments and several Easter eggs (I noticed about 10 in the three times I watched the movie). The special effects are among the best I have seen in any movie. Something that this movie was missing was the chemistry that the original Star Trek actors had (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley) and I am not sure it could ever be duplicated or perfected but we’ll see what the next movie brings.

Rating: 9/10

District 9

Wow where do you start on a movie like this. Does a movie like this
even exist? Kudos to director Neill Blomkamp, and producer Peter
Jackson for their uniqueness. This movie takes place in Johannesburg
South Africa, a refreshing change from the New York, or San Francisco
invasions we're all accustomed to. This sci-fi film starts as a
documentary and later turns into an action/thriller. Aliens (called pawns
because they look like insect versions of.. well prawns) arrive at
earth and no one knows why, apparently not even the aliens. They are
segregated for logical reasons, but quickly those reasons become ugly,
and the prawn's environment is converted into to slums and concentration
camps. Our star Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), who works for
MNU, is sent to serve eviction notices to prawns, moving them to a
less desirable more remote "safer" location. Wikus has a great
attitude about his job, and is incredibly insensitive and destructive
to the prawns. It's comical at first but then it quickly turns deranged as
it becomes apparent that he and his team enjoy the suffering of the
prawns.

As the story unfolds there are obvious disturbing parallels showing
that man hasn't learned from his selfish past, and it seems that
history will repeat itself once again. Humans want nothing more than the
military advantage provided by the alien technology, and MNU will go to any
length to get it. The scariest part is that I could see
humans handling an invasion exactly this way.

Wikus starts seeing from the prawn's vantage point after a freak
accident, and the film becomes a thrill ride of technology and action.
Wikus, for selfish reasons at first, becomes the salvation of one
prawn family, while trying to get his own family, life and soul back.
This movie is funny, disturbing, action packed and most of the other
adjectives. The CGI is the best that I've seen, and the uniqueness
made this movie a must see. There are several unanswered questions
which usually would deteriorate my enthusiasm, but with this film I didn't
feel the need to over analyze. I had zero expectations and found
myself pleasantly surprised! I even liked this movie enough that I
think I'll pay to see it again while it's in the theaters.

Rating: 8