Atticus

....and his superpower is the ability to sense a damn fine cup of coffee?

I've no idea. I presumed he had a hand in it, given how much it plays with your expectations.

As far as the IMAX "sweet spot" is concerned, I've usually been lucky in booking seats opposite the centre of the screen except for DKR when I was left of centre. Still didn't have any problems though.

I would strongly recommend the IMAX 3D version. Best use of 3D I've seen so far.

Dey do do dat, don't dey dough?

Now, you kids have fun in the big city tonight, but be careful. Don't talk to any strangers, don't take drinks from anyone you don't know, and if you get lost ask a policeman.

Now run along and have fun, and be back in time for bed.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a film I have been waiting on since I walked out of the midnight showing of the Star Trek on opening day 4 years ago. That’s a looooong wait, and I have not been disappointed.

First of all, I’ll assure you that I am not going to spoil this film in any way. I’m not talking merely about plot points or anything like that; there are a few moments of glorious fanservice that will make any Trek geek go “squee!” when they happen upon them, and I wouldn’t want to ruin them. There’s enough going on to please the most hard-core Trekkie, but nothing hinges on having even a cursory knowledge of previous continuity. All I would say is that JJ Abrams, besides being a Dark Lord of Lens Flare, knows how to edit a trailer.

So what can we talk about? Well, as my first experience of 3D on an IMAX screen, I can say the film looks great. Action scenes manage to put you right in the middle of things in a way I’ve never seen before, and in the more personal scenes it doesn’t seem forced. Shots from above and below have incredible depth; the jump to warp, particularly, looks great at that size in 3D, with the warp nacelles stretching back out of the screen towards the audience before leaving you in a trail of twinkling warp-dust. The sound was crisp and clear too – no concerns here like Bale & Hardy in DKR – and I could feel my seat (and my internal organs) trembling nicely when that bass kicks in for a starship’s engine. Some great touches in the presentation of subtitles too, with a distinctive typeface that is raised ever so slightly off the screen.

Set-wise, we finally get to see the warp core that goes along with that brilliantly industrial engine room in the last movie, and it does not disappoint. The future London, particularly, looks great. We’re used to seeing places like Starfleet HQ in San Francisco use the visual touchstones of the Golden Gate Bridge to provide a contrast with the architecture of the future, but that is a relatively modern city with enough space to show wide cityscapes. London here has St Paul’s cathedral dwarfed on all sides by towering skyscrapers (stick that in your sacred viewing corridors, Westminster Planning Dept!!), the tight grain of London’s streets developed upwards in shining steel stalagmites. Didn’t notice how The Shard measured up to them all though.

Performances & roles. Some brilliant Kirk / Spock scenes – both Pine and Quinto are comfortable bringing their own versions of the characters to the screen, and enrich the roles they begun 4 years ago. I would say though, that I have a slight gripe about the voices: Pine still sometimes sounds like a whiny wee brat, and Qunito lacks the deep tones of Nimoy. While we’re talking about gripes, I still think Bones is under-used but they’ve obviously at least tried to increase his screen time, giving him a scene with Alice Eve that allows Urban to stretch the good doctor’s character, and is reminiscent of those back-lot desert scenes so frequent in TOS, but this time looking real. Without this he would’ve been reduced to being the voice making snarky comments from the sidelines. Could’ve still done more with him – I’m still not getting that classic Kirk-Spock-McCoy triangle.

Scotty is given considerably more to do this time round, and Soldana continues to beef up Uhura’s role to more than glorified switchboard operator (I say “beef up” but that woman always looks like she hasn’t seen a decent meal in weeks. Give her a cheeseburger or something, quick). Sulu and Chekov both get taken out of their comfort zone, Sulu particularly getting a chance to reinforce his position as “mild-mannered guy who is secretly a bad-ass”. Through Abrams’ direction and Kurtzman & Orci’s script, Yelchin & Cho manage to give their characters more depth than Takei & Koenig were allowed to do in 3 series (or 2 in Koenig’s case, pedants). Alice Eve is well-used, her role actually having real significance in the story apart from providing an opportunity for the gratuitous underwear shot.

Cumberbatch as Harrison is great as the villain & terrorist, and gives us sight of Starfleet’s dark underbelly, a concept missing entirely from TOS. The ‘Batch manages to combine real menace with intelligence and manipulation to fill the sort of well-rounded role lacking in Eric Bana’s Nero of the last film. Bruce Greenwood & Peter Weller bring maturity and wise old heads to the cast, as well as being reflections of the two sides of Starfleet’s nature: Greenwood is the explorer, while Weller is the soldier. Starfleet itself, as seen from the abundance of dress uniforms in the trailers, shows more of its military side and while this might not sit well with the original “Wagon Train To The Stars” premise it is satisfactorily explained as a development of the first film. Rest assured, the original concept is not abandoned either.

The plot has just the right amount of depth for the running time. It doesn’t lag or seem rushed at any point, nor is it shallow. A great cold-opening scene throws us into the middle of the action, which leads us nicely into the opening credits and that already iconic new theme music. A breather as Harrison is introduced, and then back to Starfleet HQ sets the stage for the rest of the movie. The story unfolds in a steady and unforced fashion (I’m sure there will be plot holes that become evident on further viewing, but now’s not the time for that) and while anyone genre-savvy will see some things happening a mile off there are still plenty of surprises to keep you gripped.

The script doesn’t talk down to the audience, and there is a minimum of explanatory dialogue for the slow readers. However, neither is it so obscure and ambiguous that you’re left thinking “how did they end up at that conclusion?” It’s well-explained, but not spoon-fed. Admittedly, a plot point or two are dangled and then left hanging, unresolved, but I can forgive this as deliberate mis-direction.

The film’s final act takes a route to the climax that perhaps you wouldn’t expect from a Star Trek movie, and is all the more satisfying for it. Some may think the final dénouement is a bit rushed, as I did while watching, but by the time I was walking to my car I realised it was actually paced just right: we didn’t need to have the glaringly obvious shown to us up there on the screen, and it’s a testament to Abrams’ confidence as a director that he went the way he did.

The comedy is still there at appropriate times, and when anything starts to feel over-the-top it is suitably lamp-shaded to bring us back into the film’s internal logic. When the funnies do come, they are well-timed and sharp. From the Kirk/Spock “it’ll fit!” exchange shown in the trailer, to more personal scenes between Kirk & Pike, the Spock/Uhura relationship and Scotty’s principled rant, there are enough naturally humorous moments to offset the fantastic story we’re seeing on the screen, giving the whole film a human scale.

The language did surprise me, I have to say. A lot more uses of “shit” and “bastard” than I would’ve expected to hear. Not a complaint as such – I have no objection to foul language when the situation calls for it – but I won’t be letting my kids see it anytime soon.

So, overall, I’d say definitely better than the 2009 re-boot, which was still brilliantly enjoyable but I do find myself skipping through the a couple of scenes on DVD (Kirk landing on the ice planet, Kirk chasing Scotty round the engine room tubes).

Better than “Wrath of Khan”, the benchmark against which all Trek movies should be judged? I honestly don’t know for sure, only further viewings will tell. But it’s a serious contender.

Full marks, 10/10.

Oh, who am I trying to kid?

IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!

Non-spoilery review tomorrow.

Well, that was pretty shit.

I WAS YOUNG ONCE!!!!

I was too. It was a Thursday I think.

That Scooby Doo/Batman cross-over was just plain genius. The monsters were Joker, Penguin, and Riddler? What a surprise!

I particularly like the way that, due to poor colourists probably not being aware of the source material, Batman is coloured naked from the waist down in a couple of scenes.

(that was one of my kids' favourite DVDs for a long while, hence my over-familiarity with it)

Ceud mìle fàilte, always nice to have some new faces here. Stick around and join in!

According to last month's Empire magazine there's a lot of lens flare in the new one too. JJ loves lens flare.

Can't say it bothers me in the slightest. 31 hrs til I see it

BBC1 tonight sees the start of a new series of The Apprentice. Lord Sugar's annual search for who can best rock a pencil skirt and heels.

I know it's become a parody of itself, but I just never get tired of seeing mouthy, arrogant wankers with an inflated sense of importance and a ridiculous dose of delusion get cut down to size, hoisted on a petard of their own bullshit.

I just want to stare at that house longer than they let you in the trailer.

 

You should see the house it was based on - called The Razor, it's in California and sold recently for $14m. It's gorgeous, but for that sort of money I'd want more than 4 bedrooms!

http://www.hurwitzjamesco.com/razor/detail.htm

That link says $32m but obviously the recession has hit since it was originally sold.

Oh, it'll probably be on Twitter.

So, I thought Animal Man #20 was pretty good. A bit of a breather from the trauma of Cliif's death and burial. It was particularly brave of Lemire to use all but 2 pages to show one of Buddy's films, but it tied in well to Buddy's current situation. The artwork from John Paul Leon was gorgeous, and the ending (of the comic) was a real surprise to me. Great stuff, and good to see something fresh from DC.

Suicide Risk #1 is a comic I've been waiting to come out since I read about it. I thought the concept sounded great - a sort of Gotham Central on steroids - and Mike Carey's name on the cover reassured me that this would be done well. Upon reading I was impressed by how well Carey manages to flesh out this new world without resorting to lengthy and clumsy exposition. The lead character Leo is described well, complete with family and friends, and you could really get a sense of the difficulties - emotional and practical -of a police officer's life when up against super villains day in, day out.

That said, the way it went from this to

was a bit disappointing, but overall there was far more to like than dislike. Lots of questions popping up (where are the powers coming from? why are all the good guys turning bad?) and enough to certainly keep me on board for a few months to see how it develops.

That's easy: Hawkeye.

Or Zatanna again.

True.

I don't think hipsters watch TV, except in an ironic fashion. They're probably all out at an installation in a loft somewhere.

First reviews in for Star Trek: Into Darkness here. All seem positive and spoiler free as far as I can see but I haven't read them all fully.

Apparently, that was when the boogie started to exploded and I heard somebody say "burn, baby burn, disco inferno"

Still getting that handsome male model to do all your photos for you Greg, eh? It's wearing a bit thin now bud. :wink:

I enjoyed it even though it was a bit jumbled and thin. It does raise the question of why the Doctor doesn't more often nip back into his own timeline to pass on pearls of wisdom that will help solve the Problem Of The Week, but I don't mind that because I like to see stories where they actually use time travel to resolve issue rather than just a device for getting them to where they need to go.

On a slightly connected note, after talking to my brother about his theory of Clara being a future version of the Doctor (his view strengthened after the Doctor's nipping back to his own timeline in this episode) I began wondering about the past and future incarnations of the Doctor jumping across the whole of time & space. Even if they rarely cross personally, surely there must be worlds he visits that have had encounters with a future him.

Has there ever been a DW story where the villain of the week is someone who has had a grudge against, and knowledge of, a future version of the Doctor? Or the Doctor dealing with the consequences of something a future him has done?

I know River Song was in a similar situation, but that was dragged out for 3 series' worth of stories. I was thinking of something that doesn't involve a 3 series long arc.

Anyway, I look to the more Who-literate of the forum to enlighten me.

Batman probably invented it first and then sent back in time to AGFFA.

Oh, tosh. If he got into any difficulty Bats would hit Vader with a mini EMP, then drop kick his frazzled electronic arse to the Degoba system, and still be back on the streets of Gotham before dusk.

Nah, Vader's too reliant on ancient weapons and hokey religions. Batman's mind is too strong to be affected and Vader doesn't strike me as being in Batman's league when it comes to hand to hand combat.