PAUL'S 2013 MID-YEAR MOVIE RECAP

PAUL'S 2013 MID-YEAR MOVIE RECAP

I alway like to keep a running tally of all of the new movies I have taken in over the year. Whether they are the new 2013 releases, movies from the last few years I'm catching up on, or taking advantage of the old classics, I like to see how my movie watching is growing or decreasing and what the 2013 movie year is shaping up to be like. Let's see how this year has panned out so far:

The Sessions
Promised Land
Broken City
Side Effects
Amour
Take This Waltz
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Oz, The Great and Powerful
Side By Side
A Separation
Wreck-It Ralph
Compliance
Admission
The Silence
The Prodigal Son
Evil Dead
Flashdance
Days of Heavan
Jurassic Park 3D
Double Indemnity
Room 237
To the Wonder
The Place Beyond the Pines
ParaNorman
Iron Man 3
The Paperboy
The Great Gatsby
Bernie
Star Trek Into Darkness
Oblivion
Now You See Me
All Good Things
End of Watch
Lars and the Real Girl
The Way Way Back
Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil
Behind the Candelabra
Man of Steel
Beautiful Creatures
Stoker
Not Fade Away
Identity Thief
Mama

That's a total of 45 movies. Only three down from the 48 movies I saw at this point in 2012 Here's the 2012 list. In my opinion, 2013 has been kind of a dud regarding the quality of films released this year. During the springs months, there seemed to be flop after flop opening each weekend, and I just did not feel moved to waste money on a movie that did not look good just for the sake of seeing a new movie. I recently got married and went on a honeymoon, so my theater going was also put on the back burner throughout most of this past year. I turned to Netflix Streaming to catch up on some of the classics or other movies I may have missed in the past years.

Back to the films of 2013. There were some definite standouts, but overall I found myself disappointed in many movies. Evil Dead and Oz, The Great and Powerful should have been great, but I left just appauled about how bad they were. I wanted to love The Great Gatsby, but left disappointed. What's worse, a movie that is bad because it's bad or a movie that is bad when it had the potential to be oh so good?  We still have the rest of the summer blockbuster season and the fall movie calendar looks to have some great selections, so I will be curious to see if 2013 redeems itself.

Best of the 2013 Releases So Far...

The Way Way Back
Side Effects
The Place Beyond the Pines
Star Trek Into Darkness

Worst of the 2013 Releases So Far...

Evil Dead
Oz, The Great and Powerful
**Boo on Sam Raimi for BOTH of these choices

I'd love to hear your thoughts!  What are your picks for best and worst of 2013?

Movie Review: STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
Director: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Alice Eve


Trekkies might have been on edge back in 2009 when J.J.Abrams was going to reboot the beloved Star Trek films with a younger cast playing all the old familiar characters from the original series. I am sure there are some purists out there that turn their head in disgust, but Abrams successfully brought back a series that made the Star Trek universe cool again. Old fans rejoiced and new fans came in droves to check out the reboot. If these new fans were like me, they went back to the original source material to gain a whole new knowledge and appreciation for this series.

Abrams is back in the director’s chair and has re-teamed with his writing crew of Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof for another dangerous adventure for the members of the USS Enterprise. Captain James T. Kirk (Pine), Bones (Urban), and Spock (Quinto) are observing civilization on the vastly red planet of Nibiru. As Spock’s life becomes in jeopardy when he is stuck in an active volcano, Kirk disobeys Federation protocol and exposes the Enterprise in order to rescue him. Back at the Starfleet Headquarters, Kirk is punished and demoted to first officer and Admiral Pike (Greenwood) resumes position as Captain. There is an emergency meeting after a bombing occurs at a secret location in London. The bombing has been traced back to one of their own Starfleet agents, John Harrison (Cumberbatch). The meeting comes to an abrupt end has Harrison flies in and opens fire. He escapes but one of Starfleet’s member’s lives has been compromised sending Kirk out for revenge. Harrison flees to the Klingon world of Kronos and Kirk, Spock, Uhura (Saldana) and the rest of the crew set out to capture him.

Rest assured that Abrams and his cast come back to deliver a sequel that is one high-octane ride to say the least. The special effects are top-notch and don’t ever have that phony CGI feel to them. Some may claim the film feels more like an action movie than a true sci-fi movie with the constant explosions and chase scenes. I can understand this feeling, but I was never bothered by this choice. The idea of terrorism and rebellion from within an organization grounds the story in a more realistic society than some of the other films in the canon have dealt with as themes. In order to take this approach and still have fun, you need to have a kick-ass villain played to perfection. Benedict Cumberbatch completely blows it out of the ballpark and becomes one of the best villains seen on screen since Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. He has found the right voice and physicality to make him this larger-the-life maniacal villain while keeping him grounded and realistic. He never falls into campy bad guy territory.

The screenplay provides great material for the actors to play with no matter what role they inhabit on the Enterprise team. It is by no means the Kirk and Spock Show. The idea of working on a team that operates like family really resonated with me. They may all have different opinions and ways of operating but they all have the same goal of looking out for each other. Pine and Quinto have really grown into playing Kirk and Spock, respectively. They keep in line with the previous actors that played them but give them their own breath of fresh air and unique personalities without ever giving into to doing cheap Shatner impressions. Their brotherly love plays a key factor in the story. Kirk will always do what he thinks is right versus what should be done by the book which is how the non-emotional Spock operates. This difference of opinion comes to blow during the opening sequence. In addition, Simon Pegg's Scotty is hysterical and always full of energy. I would expect nothing less from Simon Pegg.

Abrams knows how to make a great summer blockbuster that is more than just your standard popcorn fare. Like Christopher Nolan, he can take a series and completely re-invent it while staying true to the source material but also opening it up to a broader audience base. The filmmakers intentionally made a stand-alone film so you do not need any knowledge of previous plotlines or characters in order to understand this movie. However, there are plenty of little snippets and nods to the Star Trek universe to make it still feel inclusive to the history. He blends genres and themes to give it a universal approach and feel. If he has done his job correctly, it will hopefully cause the new fans to go back and invest into the world Gene Rodenberry created and gain an appreciation for the older Shatner/Nimoy movies or even binge watching the original TV show.

RATING: **** (4 out of 5 stars)