Mini Gandalf-related rant will follow..

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Not too shabby!

So I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness today (2D only, not too fond of headaches and nausea whilst trying to keep track of a plot), and boy was it everything I could hope for. 

Okay there were flaws, I've yet to see a movie with nothing wrong with it, the pacing didn't quite zip along like the first movie. It felt at times like a looong television episode of the series (with better effects, better acting)- which isn't necessarily a criticism, more of an observation. 

Also the overall plot. It felt like a messy mix of some of the Original Series movies (If you're a fan of the originals and see this movie you'll see what I mean). The first movie worked so hard to be an "introduction" to this universe, this one seems to want to rely on prior knowledge. Good for me, speaking as a longterm fan of Star Trek, not quite so good for the average movie-goer. Although the movie does work to rectify this throughout, providing plenty of information as you go. It's also fairly clear towards the end that.. 

(MAJOR SPOILER) 

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(NO SERIOUSLY)

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.. When Kirk enters the warp core, he's going to get out alive. Although his "death" scene is one of the most poignant moments in the film- proving that, by this point Chris Pine is most definitely Kirk and that his crew are almost crippled without him.

Ahh Chris Pine.. His performance in this has more of a balance then the previous movie. Many people have commented that by the end, they felt Kirk hadn't matured or grown much more than he had by the end of the previous film. I wouldn't like to make a definite statement yes or no to that, as it would require a sequel to this film to really see how events might of changed him. But there is character growth, and the fans have to remember that this Kirk is very much younger than the one in the original series, has only had a handful of fairly low key missions in between movies it seems and is only just venturing on his five year mission by the end of your movie experience. Time will have to tell on this.
(And for the female fans- Pine's eyes POP in this film at certain points. I'd imagine even more so in a IMAX theatre).

Zachary Quinto as Spock is (still) the clone of Leonard Nimoy. And the interplay between Kirk and Spock is much closer (if not any friendlier to start with) to the final friendship that we've grown to love. Again Spock plays the martyr, during Pike's death performing a mind-meld that seems like self-flagellation, as if Spock feels *;p* deficient in some way...

Zoe Saldana is beautiful and tempestuous, but her relationship with Spock has always left me a little cold. The Original Series showed some minor flirtation, but something always seems to be missing between them. And while I'm glad her character has gotten more to do then in feature films past (and the fact that there are time constraints. 133 minutes can't do everyone justice.) I still wish that there was more character development across the board.

That's not to say that the others were completely short shifted. Simon Pegg's Scotty gets a major ship-saving moment, just when it looks like the Enterprise is done for, and even Kirk has given up hope. So it was worth him going through the hurt of being sacked/quitting. Sulu was always a character with Captaincy potential and in this movie John Cho gets a turn in the chair, and fortunately doesn't start an intersteller war (that happened earlier), so he's already got one up on Kirk.

Karl Urban is brilliant. I'm a little biased though but he does get some nice moments with Carol Marcus (I like Alice Eve, but her role- as noted even during the film, is somewhat superfluous. Her presence doesn't even help deter the main bad guy from trying to destroy the Enterprise). Poor Pavel Chekov, when Kirk orders him to put on a red shirt and head to engineering to replace Scotty he almost gets this look on his face. Like he's been sentenced to the gallows. Thankfully he survives the experience, his role as "official catcher of people who are falling or about to fall" firmly in place. After racing through the ship to get to engineering Kirk and Scotty find themselves on a catwalk with the power out and the ship in freefall above earth. What this means is that they end up clinging on for dear life- Scotty to Kirk and Kirk to a railing that he is losing his grip on. Which is where our little Russian saves the day, braced on the railing above. The following sequence following Chekov as he races to reset ships systems is one of the more entertaining ones. He ends up skidding on his arse a lot.

And Benedict Cumberbatch. That is one hell of a man, and his character exudes evil, and is yet quite a sympathetic character. He is going to desperate lengths to save his family- which is the theme for this outing- and his vengence is both misplaced and understandable. Though what he does to London and San Francisco is utterly unforgivable and horrific in terms of the latter. (Alcatraz gets TOTALED. I'm not sure if that's a reference to the unsuccessful series from J.J. Abrams or they just needed to destroy a famous landmark and thought the Golden Gate bridge was too obvious..?).

I would dearly love to see Star Trek return to the small screen. I'd love it even more if you could convince the films actors to reprise their roles on a more permanent basis (pipe dream huh?). And whilst this movie went off on a tangent in places, this is no dud of a movie.

I would gladly go back for seconds.

TV worth staying in for?

So I am really looking forward to this show. J.J. Abrams is up there with Joss Whedon for me in terms of creating stuff I want to watch (Trekkers moan that his movies are nothing like the original, all flash and no bang- but look at the state of the Trek franchise before he took the reigns, it was over-bloated with techno babble and weighted down with a history that no one writer seemed to get a handle on. Abrams and co. stripped Trek back to its essentials and injected a bit of Star Wars fizz and made it something that drew an audience not just a cult following).

Anyhoo back to Almost Human. It has Karl Urban in it. And if that doesn't grab ya then nothing will.

It's obviously too early to comment on the details. But considering its forebears were Lost and Fringe I have a good feeling about it.

Teen Wolf season three.

It is so rare for a television show to get past two seasons it seems nowadays. SFX Magazine described TW as "the little show that could." and did. There are a few reasons, I feel, for this. The first being MTV's unlikely status as a drama production studio. Like Doctor Who for the BBC, Teen Wolf has become something of a flag-ship show for MTV. And the ratings and reviews are high (comparatively) enough that the studio doesn't mind throwing a few thousand more dollars at it. 

Admittedly it had a slow start. But (and here we have the second reason) it came at a time where the fervour for Twilight was strong. Adult audiences have their True Blood's and The Vampire Diaries but there was nothing aimed at the teen's and young adults. And now that the Twilight movies have finished the target demographic could undoubtedly grow!

And, I'm going to be a bit biased here, the cast are a great, fun bunch who don't just look good but actually make you like them. Kudos in particular for me has to go to Dylan O'Brien (pictured above). Most of the rest of the cast have at least three or four previous credits to their names (seriously Colton Haynes has an impressive profile on IMdB), but O'Brien had an independent film and a series of YouTube videos and not a lot else. And yet he always catches my attention with his performance. SFX called it "stand-out". This magazine knows its stuff, if a performance is poor it will call it out. And O'Brien originally read for the lead role, but felt Stiles was a better fit for him. And this season he will be contributing to the writing team. So it's not just the audience he's impressed with his performance.

Ahh Defiance. Thanks to SyFy's sloppy scheduling I missed the pilot (I missed the Goddamn spaceships!) BUT I haven't missed it since. I was a little slow to warm up to it, but I blame the above mentioned scheduling because by the third episode I was hooked! Jaime Murray's performance is fantastic! She is the true wielder of power in the Castithan encampment, Tony Curran is vicious as Datak Tarr but as his wife, Murray is deadly and smart. She knows how to play the other characters and she does it like a pro!

Grant Bowler (above middle) and Stephanie Leonidas (above left) also have an interesting relationship. He is the Marine who saved her from a horrendous death as a Irathient child sacrifice and adopted her as his daughter. She is also his Deputy (he having inherited the Sheriff-hood of Defiance), and that causes friction between them on a personal AND professional level, as they both have very different ideas on how to keep the peace amongst so many disparate species. 

It's really these four characters and the relationships they share that have really caught my eye. But they are by no means the only reason to watch the show. The effects are neat- someone has clearly been given both creative freedom and money to make the not-quite-the-earth-we-know look, and it works for the most part. Except you do get the feeling you've seen the landscape before in the Stargate series'.(You have. It's filmed in Canada).

So there you have it. Shows I'm staying in for. 

North Devon Coast

Mum, Dad and myself near Lynton/Lynmouth. See the sun does shine!

Happy Birthday Parental Units!

COOLEST MUSIC VIDEO EVER.

Ha! So true.

A mock-up of the movie's poster but still.. DYLAN AS THE LEAD!! Very exciting :D

Look at the size of this creature!

I cannot believe how magnificent this creature is- I've seen the fossilised remains of its ancestor and I gotta say, this thing is pretty damn close in size!

What a privilege to have been on the beach with it.

Dylan on New Girl!

via dylan-obrien.org

Hello handsome!