Star Trek Into Darkness

Rating: 4.5 Shurikens

Star Trek Into Darkness is the sequel to the first Star Trek movie based on the original Star Trek television series. It was directed by J.J. Abrams, whose previous work includes Super 8, Cloverfield, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and of course the aforementioned Star Trek.

Chris Pine is Captain James T. Kirk, Spock is played by Zachary Quinto, and McCoy is played by Karl Urban, who played Black Hat in the movie Priest, and also Dredd in the 2011 version of Judge Dredd. The entire crew from the first movie in what promises to be a series of several returns to its places on the Enterprise. Simon Pegg, of Shaun of the Dead fame plays Scotty, Zoe Saldana is the beautiful Uhura, John Cho plays Sulu and Chekov is played by Anton Yelchin, who played a major role in Terminator Salvation. John Cho played in several Harold and Kumar movies, prior to becoming Sulu on Star Trek, most of which were pretty stupid, although quite popular.

The movie begins with Kirk and McCoy running from the inhabitants of a planet which they are trying to save from volcanic destruction. In violation of the Prime Directive, they risk making themselves known to the natives. Spock is actually in a volcano, with a device that will freeze it and save the planet. In spite of some difficulties, they manage to save the planet, but the natives see the Enterprise, which means that the Prime Directive actually is violated.

When they get back to Star Fleet Headquarters in San Francisco, Earth, Kirk is debriefing with Admiral Pike, played by Bruce Greenwood, a veteran actor with many credits. Greenwood's resume includes parts in Super 8, I, Robot, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Kirk glosses over the earlier events, but finds out that Spock has followed the rules and reported completely and honestly. Kirk ends up relieved of his command, and Spock is reassigned to another ship.

The scene shifts to a different Star Fleet Location, the Archives, in London, Earth. There, a Star Fleet officer, Thomas Harewood, played by Noel Clarke, is visiting a very sick child in the hospital with his wife. Clarke was on the Doctor Who series from 2005, for some fifteen episodes, as Mickey Smith, one of The Doctor's traveling companions. Anyway, the child has a debilitating illness, and is in a persistent coma. The officer and his wife are sad about their poor child, and a strange man offers them a cure in exchange for some action on the part of the officer. The strange man is a rogue Star Fleet officer named John Harrison, and is played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch plays the Necromancer in The Hobbit trilogy.

What Harewood does is carry an explosive into the archives, and then sets it off, causing a high crisis in Star Fleet. An emergency meeting of Star Fleet Command is ordered, and so Admiral Pike, who has assumed command of the Enterprise, and Kirk, now his First Officer are present. The meeting is proceeding with the highest ranking officer, Admiral Marcus, revealing some details about the man who caused the explosion in the first place. The meeting is interrupted by an attack on the meeting place, which is in a high floor of a skyscraper. The attacker flies a helicopter-like vehicle, and shoots up the place, killing several people. Needless to say, Kirk plays an important role in stopping the attack.

Admiral Marcus is played by Peter Weller, who was lead in Robocop and Robocop 2. Weller also played in the Star Trek: Enterprise television series. He survives the attack, and restores Kirk and Spock to the command of the Enterprise. Then he sends them on a secret mission to Chronos, the Klingon homeworld, to catch Harrison. The rest of the movie does depend a lot on what happens on the Klingon planet, so I can't really say any more after this point. You have to see it yourself.

Someone commented somewhere that this movie is limited in plot, seeming like just a series of events leading to the end. I think whoever said that was not a real Trekkie. The story is a retelling of at least one original episode of the TV series, with elements of at least one of the first Star Trek the Motion Picture sequels. I don't even want to name the antagonist, who by this time everybody knows. There is also a reference to someone with the middle name of Noonian which I think reaches into Next Generation territory. There are lots of references to Star Trek lore, although some are not exactly as seen originally.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a fun, action-filled and thrilling movie. It has a lot of good acting, and as I said, a lot of Star Trek history wrapped up in it. It is good and long, as I like movies to be. To me, Quinto does a really good Spock, although I wish he had more bass in his voice. Pine is adequate as Kirk, nowhere near as entertaining as William Shatner. It is tough to follow Shatner in the role of Kirk. My favorite is Urban, who really does an amazing Dr. McCoy. He nails it.

As far as the villain, I am underwhelmed by the acting of Benedict Cumberbatch. He does too much enunciating and his mouth movements seem strange as a result. Also, the Russian accent of Anton Yelchin is contrived, at best, and sometimes sounds like he is doing a French accent. I cringed a couple of times when he was speaking.

Another negative, in my opinion, was the part where Kirk was flying through the debris field in his spacesuit. It was exciting, but the amount of debris present at that location in space was not explained by events leading up to them arriving there. The Enterprise had sustained substantial damage, but there was way more stuff floating around than could have been part of the Enterprise, or of the ship it was in battle with at the time.

So, three little flaws. But overall, the movie was a good investment in terms of a ticket and the time in the theater, and the popcorn and drink. I enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend seeing it to anyone with an interest in sci fi in general, and Star Trek in particular. J.J. Abrams is a talent to be admired, and rarely fails. He is so good, that he is slated to work on the Star Wars third trilogy.

I give Star Trek Into Darkness 4.5 Shurikens for a great story, really good effects, and weaving the lore of the Star Trek into a complete experience. The few flaws are the only things to keep it from being a full 5 Shurikens. I  am looking forward to future episodes in this continuity.

Iron Man 3

Rating: 4.5 Shurikens

I waited a long time for this movie. Robert Downey, Jr. reprises his role from two previous Iron Man movies and The Avengers. He plays the role of Tony Stark, the man inside the armor, with an incredible familiarity. At this point, Tony Stark IS Robert Downy, Jr. He practically owns the character. Tony Stark is the hero much more than Iron Man, much like a James Bond movie.

Gwineth Paltrow returns as Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's girlfriend and confidant, pretty much the female lead from all Iron man, Iron Man 2, and The Avengers. Don Cheadle is Colonel Rhodes, Stark's liaison with the Military, which is a big customer of Stark Industries. Rhodes is also the Goverment's own version of Iron Man, the Iron Patriot, formerly known as War Machine. Cheadle was in Iron Man 2 as the replacement for Cuba Gooding, Jr, who was Colonel Rhodes in the the first Iron Man.

A few new characters are introduced, such as The Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley. This Mandarin is really not the one that was in the comic books that I used to read as a kid. In this movie, he is a terrorist leader who really has nothing to do with China, while the original comic book version of The Mandarin was a Chinese villain working for the Communists back in the days of the Cold War. I was glad that Kingsley was cast in the role, as I am a pretty big admirer of his previous works, most of which have nothing to do with comics or sci-fi.

The story begins at New Years of 2000, with a girl that Tony Stark meets at a New Year's party of 2000, in a city in Switzerland. This girl is Maya Hansen, played by Rebecca Hall, an actress with some screen experience, but not one that I have ever seen before. She is a scientist who has developed a technique for regenerating plant tissues. Tony has a bodyguard, Happy Hogan, who is played by John Favreau. Favreau is the director of the movie, and also has played Happy Hogan in the previous Iron Man movies. He also was the director of both previous Iron Man films, and also Cowboys and Aliens, and he played Foggy Nelson in Daredevil.

That same evening, Tony meets another man in the elevator, Aldrich Killian, played by Guy Pearce, who was last seen in Prometheus, and starred in a few other notable movies, like The Road, the dark post-apocalyptic film from a few years back, and the 2002 version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, which he starred in. Aldrich has some ideas, and is starting a company called Advanced Idea Mechanics, AIM, which is based on a classic Marvel Comics brand, featured in several early Marvel titles like S.H.I.E.L.D. and of course the Iron Man comic book. Aldrich wants to discuss them with Tony, and Tony promises to meet with him, but Tony leaves him hanging because he is otherwise occupied with the lovely Maya.

The story jumps to the present day, when the Mandarin is in charge of a terrorist organization, and manages to hijack the television signals of the entire world to promulgate threats and warnings of terrorist attacks, based on suicide bombings. Meanwhile, Aldrich Killian appears at Stark Industries HQ, to meet with Pepper Potts, who apparently shares some history with him. He is accompanied by an employee, a very malevolent-looking character named Savin, played by James Badge Dale. Happy Hogan notices Savin, and follows him to a Chinese theater. There, he experiences a suicide bomber, but it isn't what you expect.

After Happy is injured in an explosion, Tony challenges the Mandarin on TV, and the Mandarin retaliates by destroying Tony's mansion on the coast. Tony escapes in his latest suit, but is presumed dead. Interestingly, the attack on Tony's house is coordinated by Savin, who is seen in one of the helicopters, revealing a sinister connection between Killian, AIM and the Mandarin.

Most of the movie takes place during December, right around Christmas. This is kind of odd for a movie that is released to theaters in May. I blame marketing for this. I predict that the video will be made available during the waning days of November, along with a whole bunch of new Iron Man Merchandise. Kids who watch Iron Man 3 on Christmas Morning will get to play with all of their nice new Iron Man Toys, while wearing their snappy new Iron Man PJ's. I don't object too much, because I want comic book movies to make lots of money so that they will keep being made. I buy Iron Man and Thor toys myself. But I digress...

Iron Man 3 is long, at 2 hours, 10 minutes but it never gets laborious, and manages to entertain the whole way through. The climax of the movie features a lot of action, almost to the point of excess. One of the poorest comic book movies I have ever seen was Spider Man 3. They threw everything in there at once: Sandman, Venom,

I have a few complaints, but I don't do spoilers, so I will keep them to myself, for the most part. One thing I will say is that the Mandarin character is completely wasted for this particular continuity, although it probably doesn't matter, since there will likely not be any more Iron Man movies past the next Avengers. Another thing is that the armor has become something more like the Transformers than I would like to see. This was actually evident in the first couple of movies, where the armor unfolds itself way too much for the apparent mass and volume that it fills beforehand. I basically overlook all of these factors while watching the movie, and I fully enjoyed this movie. The little nagging things don't come for a day or two afterwards.

Tony Stark is a very likable guy, and it is fun to watch him in action. A lot of this movie is about Tony Stark, and he spends a lot of time outside of his armor. Ben Kingsley is a heck of an actor, and the way he unfolds his character is quite enjoyable. Even though The Mandarin is not what you expect him to be, it is very entertaining to watch. There is quite a bit of humor in the movie, and some really good laughs at that. The humor is wound into the story, but not in such a way as to make it seem campy. This is a comic book movie after all, and the word comic once referred to humor.

I definitely recommend seeing this in the theater.The experience is way too big to wait for the first time to be on a small screen. I don't mean to disparage home theater systems, but there is a distinct advantage to seeing this in a theater. I give it 4.5 Shurikens, for action, humor and long-lasting entertainment, not quite 5 because of some of the elements of the later parts of the movie which you will have to see for yourself.