cwardley
Joined May 2001
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Reviews10
cwardley's rating
OK this my second review of this movie. The first time I wrote it straight after seeing it at the cinema, then later I watched it again when it was released on DVD. And then I thought what a turkey!
After re-reading my first review I believe I was delusional. I must have hoped that the movie was going to be so good that it at first I had some sort of placebo effect. But seeing a second time I realized it was terrible. Three things make a good movie, the actors, the director, and the script. You can occasionally escape this trio if you get an inept director or a bad actor, but NEVER with a bad script.
The actors were good, they had to be to able translate this wham bang script to a believable level. The director, OK, he too, was good, but frankly he was in charge, couldn't he have looked the script and asked what high school kids were responsible for this.
The script, well it was almost religious text. That is because it was so holy. Plot holes galore.
Previously I used the term Wham Bam. That's what this was, all lights and sound, no content. The plot was ridiculous, every time they wrote themselves into corner they use techno babble to get themselves a freebie and trust me there was a lot of those. See "intergalactic beaming to a starship at warp"
I have looked back on the writers previous efforts. Mediocrity springs to mind.
And finally it is uniquely obvious the writers and director have no idea of plausibility. They create such a plot holes that Nero's Star Ship could fly through.
How can Kirk possibly jump from Cadet to the Captain of Star Fleets newest Starship just because he did a great job. In the movie he was able to jump 6 levels of promotion. Spock who a Commander, 5 levels above the cadet happily handed over command? Why?
Was it just Spock and Pike who were on board the Enterprise above the rank of Lieutenant? I am sure they have other Captains and Commanders in Star Fleet with the experience and seniority available.
I can imagine the scene in the Board of Review. "We have 2 applicants for the new post of Captain. One guy has had 20 years of Service and has had 3 commands OR CADET Kirk with 3 years of recruit school, who has a history of fighting authority, has no experience with handling ships personnel but who, with the help of some other young recruits and a Commander with emotional issues saved Earth."
Gee lets pick Kirk, cause it's a movie.
After re-reading my first review I believe I was delusional. I must have hoped that the movie was going to be so good that it at first I had some sort of placebo effect. But seeing a second time I realized it was terrible. Three things make a good movie, the actors, the director, and the script. You can occasionally escape this trio if you get an inept director or a bad actor, but NEVER with a bad script.
The actors were good, they had to be to able translate this wham bang script to a believable level. The director, OK, he too, was good, but frankly he was in charge, couldn't he have looked the script and asked what high school kids were responsible for this.
The script, well it was almost religious text. That is because it was so holy. Plot holes galore.
Previously I used the term Wham Bam. That's what this was, all lights and sound, no content. The plot was ridiculous, every time they wrote themselves into corner they use techno babble to get themselves a freebie and trust me there was a lot of those. See "intergalactic beaming to a starship at warp"
I have looked back on the writers previous efforts. Mediocrity springs to mind.
And finally it is uniquely obvious the writers and director have no idea of plausibility. They create such a plot holes that Nero's Star Ship could fly through.
How can Kirk possibly jump from Cadet to the Captain of Star Fleets newest Starship just because he did a great job. In the movie he was able to jump 6 levels of promotion. Spock who a Commander, 5 levels above the cadet happily handed over command? Why?
Was it just Spock and Pike who were on board the Enterprise above the rank of Lieutenant? I am sure they have other Captains and Commanders in Star Fleet with the experience and seniority available.
I can imagine the scene in the Board of Review. "We have 2 applicants for the new post of Captain. One guy has had 20 years of Service and has had 3 commands OR CADET Kirk with 3 years of recruit school, who has a history of fighting authority, has no experience with handling ships personnel but who, with the help of some other young recruits and a Commander with emotional issues saved Earth."
Gee lets pick Kirk, cause it's a movie.
OK a few viewers have canned it for its predictable script, one dimensional characters.
But let us be fare, its the Poseidon Adventure in a cave system. Georges Polti claimed there is only 36 dramatic situations that can be written. With the amount of movies people see nowadays, yes there will be similar story lines. I mean look at Avatar, the Last Samurai and Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. As far as predicable, well I knew people were going to die because of the opening sequence and it was about people in a desperate situation with limited resources.
One dimensional characters? Well I found them multidimensional. This was a movie about disaster and individuals facing their mortality and their reactions to that concept. An example of this is the attitude of the 2 main characters. Frank's attitude was "no-ones coming, never give up", while Carl's was, "hopefully someone will come and help, why don't we wait". And watch how the sons hero worship slowly transferred. Now that is multidimensional.
3D also has its critics but as my teenage daughter said, it really lifted the urgency of the movie, like Avatar there was no 50"s tricks it was just there. To me 3D is the same as when movies went from square to wide screen it creates involvement. I have caved dived and let me tell you the vistas in Sanctum are not what I experienced but I wished I had.
At last a movie about people not monsters. No strange man eating creature anywhere, this about the monsters from within, fear and expectable behaviour that may need to be changed to survive or to help a friend.
I recommend this movie to anyone and I will be buying the DVD. I just got to buy the 3D TV and DVD Player.
But let us be fare, its the Poseidon Adventure in a cave system. Georges Polti claimed there is only 36 dramatic situations that can be written. With the amount of movies people see nowadays, yes there will be similar story lines. I mean look at Avatar, the Last Samurai and Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. As far as predicable, well I knew people were going to die because of the opening sequence and it was about people in a desperate situation with limited resources.
One dimensional characters? Well I found them multidimensional. This was a movie about disaster and individuals facing their mortality and their reactions to that concept. An example of this is the attitude of the 2 main characters. Frank's attitude was "no-ones coming, never give up", while Carl's was, "hopefully someone will come and help, why don't we wait". And watch how the sons hero worship slowly transferred. Now that is multidimensional.
3D also has its critics but as my teenage daughter said, it really lifted the urgency of the movie, like Avatar there was no 50"s tricks it was just there. To me 3D is the same as when movies went from square to wide screen it creates involvement. I have caved dived and let me tell you the vistas in Sanctum are not what I experienced but I wished I had.
At last a movie about people not monsters. No strange man eating creature anywhere, this about the monsters from within, fear and expectable behaviour that may need to be changed to survive or to help a friend.
I recommend this movie to anyone and I will be buying the DVD. I just got to buy the 3D TV and DVD Player.
