'Star Trek'
Grade-wise, I give it an A-. The 'A' indicates that I, for the most part, enjoyed the movie. It had a very coherent story-line and was put together very nicely - and not being cheesy is a huge plus. That pesky minus sign is really stuck there though. Yes, the movie was very good and deserving of all of the praise it's getting - and Chris Pine does give Captain Kirk, a personality. What the movie was really lacking was a good villain.
I'm not asking for a Ledgeresque Joker-villain to steal the show. I'm asking for there to not be some disgruntled future deep space miner who, for reasons unexplained, has the materials to destroy planets. I liked the tattoos and the spear though.
Zachary Quinto really stole the show as Spock. I say this as praise for Quinto because some people say I look like him - props to him, and because he had that kickass haircut that all 5-year-old boys once had. Those points and the fact that he masterfully portrayed a character who was always trying to conceal and suppress his emotions - he's like a space-Snape!
See it if you haven't, it's fun.
'Terminator: Salvation'
Much better than I thought it would be! This isn't just some other film for Christian Bale to change his voice (like in 'Batman') or where he gets to yell at the help. Unlike his role in 'The Dark Knight,' there is no doubt that the civilians in 'Terminator' truly have respect for John Connor, and Bale portrays Connor as a leader who understands what's at stake, yet is immensely stressed by the state of the world.
Like 'The Dark Knight,' Bale isn't the head of the show. Instead it is Sam Worthington, who plays Marcus Wright, that gives the audience the much more interesting character. Wright is a man who was given the death sentence and who agrees to donate his body to science. Years later he wakes up in the strange new world where machines are exterminating human beings. His 'rebirth' reminded me of Frankenstein's monster who had to learn all about the world for himself, and who existed to question what it means to be human.
(Funny side note, some boys were criticizing the film right after we got out of the theater and one of them said 'He was some half human half cyborg thing.' The word cyborg means part human part machine, so he essentially said that they man was either 3/4 human OR if you're half a cyborg, there is 1/4 human, 1/4 machine in you. Your guess is as good as mine as to what the other 1/2 would be. What you don't know could write a book!)
Downsides to the film include some sorry nods to the previous 'Terminator' films - including a 'cameo' of Arnold as a terminator machine.
But, there's good acting and lots of explosions. It was worth the money.
What do both of these films have in common? Anton Yelchin. In 'Star Trek,' he played the character with a Russian accent - which he rightfully pulls of well seeing as how he was born there. And in 'Terminator' he plays Kyle Reese, a character that the film said was important, and you understood why, you just didn't see it. Either way this actor is showing up in a lot of big films and it seems like he's pulling on Shia's coattails. Although we'll see what happens when the next 'Transformers' comes out.
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