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Star Trek films - from Worst to Best

September 22nd 2006 11:31
Today I'm going to rank the ten Star Trek films in order of personal preference from worst to best.

10. Final Frontier
Okay, so this one starts good but it all goes to crap the moment they decided a mid-50s Uhura could pass as sexy and had her do some lame-arse nudey feather dance to distract some dudes. From here it's all downhill, right down to the ending with 'God'.

9. Nemesis
I discussed this one just recently on the blog... I think the main problem with Trek films is that they sometimes promise so much and deliver so little. This one is the epitome of this notion.



8. The Motion Picture
So boring!

7. The Search for Spock
I don't remember much of this one so I placed it around the middle. I remember liking it the first time I saw it, and being indifferent to it the second time.

6. Generations
I was so excited when this came out, the ads made it look so good and the beginning was ace. Unfortunately Captain Kirk was really fat and the film took too long to set things up. Malcolm McDowell could've been a great Trek villain but the opportunity was kind of wasted. Overall, not too bad though.

5. Insurrection
I really liked this one. Sometimes it was a bit pedestrian but the idea of the Federation being corrupt was pretty cool, and I liked the alien villains too - they were tough but had a touch of the tragic about them. Plus F. Murray Abraham is tops and he makes a great villain.

4. The Voyage Home
This is the funnest Trek movie for me by far. I'm glad they did this story in the 80s rather than the 70s and the 90s, it just wouldn't have been anywhere near as funny or adventurous to have the Trek crew slumming it in any other decade. One of the few times Trek has done 'fun' successfully.


3. The Undiscovered Country
A good story, great special effects, some good villains... it's a shame the crew are getting a bit too old here, but they still manage to not make it look too silly. Probably the most 'space opera' of the Trek films, and this is probably why I liked it so much.


2. First Contact
The best of the Next Generation Trek films by far and I think most Trek fans would agree with me on this one. The Borg get the big screen treatment, and the story is BIG in a good way. The 'first contact' of the title is a great moment too. The only bad thing about this film is that it's success is probably responsible for the series 'Enterprise'.

1. The Wrath of Khan
Khan is so great. Trek got gritty and learned how to exist in the movie format here. Also, the ending is probably the best ending of any Trek movie and will probably never be topped. Actually, I feel like watching this again now.

Anyway, that's my rankings... anyone else care to comment on how they rank the films?
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The Matrix Revolutions

September 14th 2006 07:35
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)


Expectations are a hard thing to meet. I suspected ‘The Matrix’ might have had some problems in wrapping up one of the most ambitious and complex through-lines to be seen in film so far, at the time of watching 'The Matrix Reloaded' I had complete faith that the bold ideas outlined within that movie would be resolved accordingly here, or that at least it was too hard to judge Part 2 of a trilogy without seeing the final part. Either way, I have to say I'm somewhat disappointed at the overall result.

'The Matrix Revolutions' delivers on it's action quite successfully - perhaps even better than it's predecessors... the robot invasion of Zion would have to be the most full-on and audacious action set piece to be seen in the entire series. Unfortunately, this is where my praise for the film would probably end. The thing about the previous two films is that they built up some really great ideas, the second film increasing the lateral expansion of the series' fictional universe exponentially... this is where I feel 'Revolutions' goes wrong. There are no revelations to be seen here. The big questions and twists posed at the end of 'Reloaded' are resolved somewhat pathetically and limply - there are no more big surprises, not even where they had been hinted at previously. Kudos to the Wachowski brothers for the directions they take their protagonists (although, admittedly, Morpheus seems somewhat useless here), but is it just me or did the ending seem a little too sudden and underdeveloped? And did anyone else other than me not really give a shit about all the secondary human characters in Zion?

Trilogies are a tricky thing. The ending has to really be something special in order to justify three films-worth of hoopla that comes before it. It's obvious to see what the filmmakers were trying to say with the ending here, and it follows somewhat logically and obviously from the messiah parallels first drawn upon in the first film, but has anything really changed? It wasn’t nearly anywhere as resolved as I would have liked to have seen. There are various pointers to a rich undercurrent of philosophical and apocryphal ideas powering the film underneath, perhaps most patently in terms of Neo's gradual distancing from the real world, but for it to remain mostly implied in what should be the last word on the series is almost a sin.

As I said before, none of the other human characters really did much for me. The broad strokes used for characterisation (perhaps, to be fair, just as they had been used for all three films) lend themselves better to a comic-book universe than actors in a film. Hugo Weaving dominates the screen in all his scenes (literally), and it was good to see Bruce Spence (though a little underused), but the five minute appearances of all the other major AIs introduced in 'Reloaded' seemed a little too much of a directorial tick-list.

Anyway, I think I've said enough. 'Revolutions' is by no means a bad film, and the entire trilogy is still worth watching - for it's action, envelope-pushing special effects, and vast tapestry of theoretical implications - at the very least. It's just a shame for the series to have ended so obviously when the other two films promised so much. I really, really don’t know what happened. It sucks because ‘The Matrix trilogy’ isn’t anywhere near as revered as most other trilogies and I think it’s almost entirely the fault of the way it ended.
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The Matrix Reloaded

September 13th 2006 07:09
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)


This was (with the possible exception of 'Lord of the Rings') my most anticipated film for a good four years. That I had to wait four days or so after it came out to finally see it was almost torture. I set about trying to avoid any sort of discussion of the film and refused knowledge of all reviews. I didn't even want to know what other people thought of it (!) until I had seen it myself.

'The Matrix Reloaded' picks up a short while after the first film, I'm unclear on how much time has passed but it's obvious that it's been at least a few months. The film jumps right into the action, setting up much larger and more complex developments unforseen in the first movie. We get to see Zion, the last human city, and we're introduced to a whole array of new characters, both within and outside of the Matrix.
The directors (the Wachowski brothers) had intended to release 'The Matrix Reloaded' two weeks apart from it's follow-up ‘The Matrix Revolutions’, which made it easier for them to make a much bigger story, setting events in motion that they could afford to leave unresolved in this chapter of the 'Matrix' trilogy. Unfortunately, the third film couldn't be released in tandem with 'The Matrix Reloaded' and it was at least a six-month wait until the third and final film in the trilogy came out, which left more than a few people scratching their bonces over the content of this film.

Me? Well, I loved it. It completely smashed all my expectations (which were already pretty high) and it's safe to say that the bar for special-effects and action was risen again. I couldn’t imagine at the time how the Wachowski brothers would raise it again for 'The Matrix Revolutions', but after ‘Reloaded’ I had faith that they'd be able to do it.
There was a lot of disappointment in regards to this movie in some quarters. I imagine this was something to do with the plot of the film, which is complex and highly metaphysical and, as mentioned before, not completely resolved. In response to that, I'd just like to say that anybody who didn't expect 'The Matrix Reloaded' to be as 'intellectual' as it was obviously didn't really watch the first film. I'm not saying it's necessary to follow all the various metaphysical developments in both films - there should be more than enough action and coolness to keep everyone interested - but I think it was logical for the 'sequel' to raise-the-bar philosophically and plot-wise every bit as much as it did action-wise. However, in regards to the film’s lack of resolution, I do sympathise with the naysayers… a film should be able to exist as an entity unto itself, and if ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ had one major failing, then this was it.

The cast is big, and some characters are only introduced and left open for further development in the next film (see above on why this is a no-no! I’m not saying it can’t be done, but how it was done here was inadequate). Hugo Weaving once again steals the screen whenever he appears, and the role of his character is one of the film's central intrigues. The original cast are all up to scratch, and there isn't anyone particularly embarrassing (which is always a good thing). The visuals are amazing, especially Zion, which is set apart from the sterilised world of the Matrix in a great tribal/sexual scene - highlighting the Wachowski brothers' directorial skill as far more than just special-effects and martial arts wizardry.

I don't want to go on about this any longer. When I first saw this I thought it was brilliant, more than just a 'follow-up', and that it went a long way to establishing 'The Matrix Trilogy' as a modern mythology for the 21st century. Obviously, I thought all this without seeing ‘The Matrix Revolutions’…

HIGHLIGHTS: Watch out for some footage of 'evil human history', featuring a glimpse of George W. Bush (!). Also, more Aussies abound - Steve Bastoni, Christine Anu, and that annoying Lee guy from Antonia Kidman's movie-promotion show (who is probably more well-known now for his starring role in ‘Saw’).
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The Matrix

September 12th 2006 10:56
The Matrix (1999)


I've always liked this movie, it took me (and a lot of other people) by surprise when it first came out, and it's stood up to a lot of re-watching, and still does. Anyone unfamiliar with the plot need not know anything more than that this is a science-fiction opus, combining the cyberpunk genre with groundbreaking special-effects, east-meets-west action, shamanistic & judeo-christian mythology and a depth of philosophical understanding seldom matched within mainstream western sci-fi cinema (at least, at the time of it’s release


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Star Trek: Nemesis

September 11th 2006 09:33
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)


I'm not exactly a huge Star Trek fan, but I don't pretend that I never watch it. I've seen quite a fair bit actually, and have enjoyed it for the most part. This movie however... eh


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Howl's Moving Castle

September 7th 2006 08:30
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


A few days ago I finally got around to watching Howl's Moving Castle. There's something about Hiyao Miyazaki's films that ignite the inner child in me... they transport me back to when I was 8 years old and enraptured in Saturday morning cartoons. Back to a time when I could lose myself completely in what I was watching and I didn't have any worries at all in the whole entire world. That's a pretty big feat for a filmmaker to achieve, I'm sure it's not just me that these films have affected... Miyazaki's films (and to a lesser extent, the other Studio Ghibli films) are pretty huge and well loved across the world. I'm kind of glad I didn't see these when I was a kid... it's left me something truly wonderful to discover in my adulthood


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Daredevil

September 1st 2006 13:40
Daredevil (2003)


It seems that we can't go a couple of weeks without a comic-book film being released these days. Not that I'm complaining; some of the most entertaining and fun films I've ever seen have been based on comics. But (oh yes, there's a 'but'), as Daredevil proves, the formula can get tired pretty quickly


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Mission to Mars

August 31st 2006 07:57
Mission to Mars (2000)


I used to love science fiction when I was a kiddo. I would've jumped up and down at seeing a film like this in the weeklies section. These days though, I'm a lot more aware of the falling level of quality in the genre. Science-fiction hasn't seen days as dark as this for quite some time


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Super Troopers

August 29th 2006 08:54
Super Troopers (2001)


A refreshingly funny and original comedy. What else do you need to know


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Boondock Saints

August 25th 2006 04:27
Boondock Saints (1999)


A straight-to-video 'sleeper' hit that seems to have spawned a sequel. I don't know where to start... oh wait, yes I do - it's shit


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Punch-Drunk Love

August 22nd 2006 04:58
punchdrunklove
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)


Director Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to the brilliant 'Boogie Nights' and 'Magnolia' is a very welcome film indeed. And, weighing in at a refreshingly brisk 95 minutes, it's a nice change of pace from the heavy and tense 'Magnolia


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28 Days Later

August 16th 2006 06:25
28 days later


'28 Days Later' was a somewhat updated comeback for the 'zombie' flick. It seems that the horror genre is going through a huge resurgence of popularity and life at the moment, and less teen-focused 'horror' films couldn't have really come at a moment too soon. As an added bonus, '28 Days Later' is directed by one Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, *cough*thebeach*cough*) and features a bigger budget than the subject matter usually gets


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Nurse Betty

August 14th 2006 07:11
nurse betty


I picked this up expecting a quirky small-town drama in the vein of 'Happy, Texas'... that is to say, I didn't expect much. However, Renee Zellweger is so gorgeous she could make an advertisement for life insurance worth watching, so I watched with avid interest


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