Monday, December 30, 2013

Southland Tales - Directors cut?

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Southland Tales (2006).

Southland Tales seems to becoming new Blade Runner with new different cuts. Blade Runner has been released on three different cuts and there is dvd release, that has all three and one extra one. When I started watching Southland Tales from blu ray, I realized quite quickly, that this cut is quite different from one on my dvd. I have no idea, if this version is director's cut or Cannes cut or something else. Blu ray's covers doesn't say this is different cut. I don't remember my dvd telling, it is anything else than regular version. Wikipedia doesn't say for sure, that director's cut was released. If it was, I am pretty sure, one on my blu ray is director's cut.

Because this wasn't the cut I expected and I bought prequel comics, I will change my plans. Yes, this had prequel comics, that told, what happened before the movie and probably will explain, what happens in movie. I will do several Southland Tales posts in near future. I will go through the comics and version on my blu ray. Southland Tales is one of my favourite movies and I think it deserves that kind of treatment. I might do something similar for Blade Runner in more distant future. Both movies deserve that.

Dvd cut was weird and didn't explain many things. Blu ray cut starts with better explanation of the world and what has happened. I don't remember USIDent explained from dvd cut. They were there, but I don't remember their name. Proposition 69 was probably cut away, because I don't remember that either. I may have forgotten something from dvd cut, because I watched it last time some time ago. But I have watched it few times, so I should remember those things.

Blu ray cut had longer versions of scenes and new scenes. I don't remember anything missing from dvd cut. Now everything made more sense, because concepts were introduced better at the beginning. You could concentrate on what is happening, when you didn't have to figure out what everything is. At the moment I can't say which version is better. Not knowing everything made movie more mysterious. Blu ray cut is still mysterious, when we get to ending. Comics may explain that.

Next thursday will be something different. Next Southland Tales post will come after I have finished comics. I am not sure, if I will do post for every part. Comics are first three parts and movie has last three parts. Sorry for those, who expected Southland Tales explained in this post. Those posts will come later.

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Thursday, December 26, 2013

Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 (1987).

This movie is known for two things. Half of the movie is footage from first movie and this has the garbage day scene. First 38 minutes are mostly footage from first movie, showing every kill and little character building. I missed in first movie, that Ricky was the kid, that was about to shake hand of Santa before police shot Santa at orphanage. This movie may have cut that scene differently to show that. This is Ricky's story, but first 38 minutes focus on Billy. Ricky just tells events of first movie from his point of view.

After that movie becomes interesting. Ricky is in mental hospital telling his story to Doctor Bloom. He got adopted after Billy was killed. He had fears of nuns and red things. When he grew older, he started killing, when he saw red things and someone doing bad things. Ricky started his serial killer career after seeing man trying to rape his girlfriend. Ricky doesn't kill victim. Victim thanks Ricky and both walk away. Dr Bloom start to feel unease, when Ricky tells killings Dr Bloom didn't know about.

Doctor Bloom wants to know about events that led Ricky to mental hospital. Ricky tells about his only true love Jennifer. This is where movie becomes surreal and has it's best scenes. "Garbage day" clip showed what kind of actor Eric Freeman is. Jennifer scenes take advantage of his over acting and make it work for improving the movie. There is movie theatre scene, which is genius. Ricky and Jennifer are in movie theatre watching movie of event of the first movie. They see trailer for extremely violent movie Chaos. We don't see trailer, but based on what we hear about it, someone should make that movie. When Ricky realizes, the movie tells first movie's story, he goes crazy and leaves. There is loud jerk complaining movie. Ricky kills him and comes back to Jennifer. Jennifer wants to leave, but Ricky wants to stay, because he starts to enjoy the movie.

Next scene. Ricky and Jennifer meets Jennifer's ex-boyfriend, who acts like jerk. Ricky loses his mind and kills the ex. When Jennifer is not happy about that, he kills her too and starts killing spree at neighborhood. Police catches him. He tries to kill himself, but doesn't have any bullets left. We come back to mental hospital and see Ricky has killed doctor Bloom. He escapes the hospital and goes after Mother Superior, who he blames for everything.

Eric Freeman's over acting has made this cult classic. First movie was serious movie. With Eric Freeman, this could not be serious. It feels like original plan was to make serious sequel. If you forget over acting, mental hospital scenes were quite serious and interesting. Movie theatre and killing spree were far from serious. Freeman is not only one over acting. There is one debt collector trying to get Eric Freeman's level and Jennifer's ex tries to compete with the master. This movie is worth watching, if you are into unintentional comedy. Script how ever deserved better execution. Hollywood is doing lot of remakes these days. This could be a good movie to do remake. Original is not that good and story could work in serious movie with good actors.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Silent Night Deadly Night (1984)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Silent Night Deadly Night (1984).

This movie is infamous for showing Santa Clause killing people. But that is not real reason, why this is infamous. I think, real reason is this movie showing, how Santa myth combined with really bad timing and streight religious mentality, can make kid go crazy. This became one of my favourite horror movies, because this shows, how killer is made and some blame could go to ones, who made him what he became. Movie is quite hard to find. My copy is dutch version, I bought couple years ago. It was only one I could find. It is shame that this has become obscure movie, when this is one of more though provoking slasher movies. It is not just killer killing people creative ways as most other movies in this genre are.

Billy is a normal kid. It is christmas eve and Billy's family is visiting grandpa at mental hospital. When Billy is alone with grandpa, he tells, how Santa Clause punishes everyone, who hasn't been nice all year. You can't do any naughty things. Billy's family's trip is running late. They are driving past bed time. Being up past bed time on christmas eve is naughty thing. Family is stopped by Santa Clause, how just robber store and killed clerk for 31 bucks. Santa kills Billy's parents in front of his eyes.

Billy and his brother is taken to orphanage run by nuns and Mother Superior. Mother Superior believes punishing for everything and teaches Billy, nothing goes unpunished and punishment is absolute. Christmas times are worst for Billy, because he remember, how Santa killed his parents. Billy can't control his actions and is punished for everything. Mother Superior doesn't listen other nuns, who think her way is not the best possible. In orphanage Billy learns, sex is bad thing and anyone having sex should be punished.

When Billy turns 18, he goes working for toy store. Everything goes well until christmas. Christmas decorations make him remember the night Santa killed his parents. Boss tells Billy, he has to be Santa Clause, because regular Santa injured his knee. Billy's view of Santa is little bit different than others. He tells kids, they have to be nice or Santa will punish them. Parents doesn't see anything strange and people think Billy is good Santa. After toy store is closed, owner and employees are having their christmas party. Drunken owner tells Billy he should be doing what Santa does on christmas eve.

When Billy see one of his co-worker trying to rape other co-worker, he turns into what he thinks Santa is. He hangs raping co-worker with christmas lights. When rape victim freaks out, he kills her too and continue to kill every one at store. This is where movie turns into regular slasher movie. There is one scene I like to mention. Billy has just killed two teens for having sex, when young girl sees him. She thinks he is real Santa. Billy asks her, if she has been nice all year. When she replies she has been, Billy gives bloody knife to her. Girl doesn't know what to think, but Billy feels good for himself, because he has acted like Santa. He has punished bad people and given gifts to good people.

Police knows Billy is the killer and he is going to Orphanage. Police shoots wrong Santa at orphanage in front of the kids. Billy comes there later. Kids let him in, because they think he is Santa. He comes to kill Mother Superior. He is shot before he could do that. Billy's younger brother is among kids. He start to call Mother Superior naughty. I am sure, he will turn out to be good kid after seeing police kill two Santas one day, other one of those being his brother.

I planned to make this movie my christmas tradition. This year I had to watch this early to write this post. Maybe next year. This year I could watch heart warming story of what happened to Billy's brother.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

The 12 Disasters of Christmas (2012)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie The 12 Disasters of Christmas (2012).

This is Syfy original. So it is kind of stupid to complain, how stupid this movies is, because that is kind of their trademark. There is audience for this kind of movies. Popularity of Sharknado showed that. I will do Sharknado as soon as I see it. It is still not available here. This genre makes me kind of sad, because all this money and time of everyone involved could have resulted better movie. Sometimes it feels like they are trying to do serious movie. This is not all stupid. Just majority of it is stupid.

Movie cashes on last year's mayan apocalypse. Still remember that? Jayce is having her 18th birthday on 21.12.2012. I live in Europe, so I use european date format. There have been couple signs of apocalypse and after 12th sign it is end of the world. Jayce's grandma realizes, apocalypse is coming after tap water turns red. She gives ring to Jayce. The ring gives marking to Jayce's arm. Grandma is speared by ice spear before, she can tell anything more. After couple other disasters Jayce and her father seek Grandma's old man Grant, who has told Jayce is chosen one, who can save the world. Grant tells them, they have to find five rings around town and then Jayce will know what to do.

There were 12 disasters:

  1. Heatwave

  2. Bird deaths

  3. Red tap water

  4. Raining ice spears. These killed Grandma and at least one other person

  5. Tornado out of nowhere, which killed Jayce's friend

  6. Dome over town preventing anyone from leaving or entering

  7. Freezing mist that freezes everything it touches. It kills Grant and Kane's brother

  8. Earthquakes

  9. Red mist, that makes humans fall into pieces

  10. Strange electricity on metal objects

  11. Geysers. I am not sure, if this is actually one or part of next one. I count it as one to get all 12.

  12. Volcanos erupting


I mentioned Kane's brother. Kane is big man of town, who has connections and want to build shopping mall or something like that. Jayce's father is against Kane and his plans. Kane start to lose his mind after his brother dies. He start to think they have to kill Jayce to prevent end of the world. Kane is best written character in this movie. Better director and better actor would have made him more memorable character. Writer did good job with him. I guess, he had to add all stupidity, because this is Syfy original and everyone expects that.

Mayor was another well written character. He tried to balance between Kane and Jayce's father. After dome covered town, there was potential for some interesting story telling. Only Kane and Mayor reacted to situation on their own ways. Others continued as nothing had happened.

The dog returning at the end. That is so bad cliché, it makes viewers angry. At that point, we had forgotten the dog. The dog could have been left from the movie. Yes, there was build up for dog returning. We saw dog few second before it run away. Characters even wonder, where did it go. That happened same time as Grandma had dramatic moment with Jayce and right before Grandma was impaled by ice spear. There might be reasons why audience don't remember dog being missing, when it comes back at the end. I don't blame writer. Director didn't use material correctly and buried dog running away in middle of more interesting events. I checked what else writer has done. Is resume contains other Syfy original and he teaches writing. That explains why movie stays together as well as it does.

Maybe this wasn't real christmas movie, but it had christmas decorations all over the place and had one christmas song in center of it. How lyrics of that song were connected to events, were never really explained. This isn't the worst Syfy original. It has some good things, but in the end it is Syfy original.

Monday, December 16, 2013

LEGO Batman: The Movie (2013)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie LEGO Batman: The Movie (2013).

This is 200th post of this blog. It is fitting that this post is about Batman movie. I didn't plan to do Batman movie or anything special for 200th post. I just wanted short movie and later realized this will be 200th post.

I didn't expect much from this movie. I am not sure, if this was supposed to make money or was this just Lego advertisement. This was written by someone, who didn't have much respect for characters and who didn't care, if this story continues. There is little build up for sequel, but I don't think it will be Batman movie.

During this movie, Batman and Robin beats Riddler, Catwoman, Bane, Penguin, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Poison Ivy and few henchmen inside Arkham asylum without breaking sweat. Replace Bane and Poison Ivy with Joker and you get group Batman single handedly beat without breaking sweat. No Lego Batman sequel is planned. Joker and Lex Luthor find and destroy Batcave. No Lego Batman sequel is planned.

Lex Luthor is running for president. When he loses Man of the Year title to Bruce Wayne, he asks Joker for help. Joker needs chemicals for his Joker gas. Because Lex and Joker are criminal, they just can't buy those chemicals. They have to steal them. Probably Lex Corp manufactures those chemical. But no, they have to break into chemical plant and steal those chemicals. I know this was made for kids, but this doesn't have to be stupid.

Because there is Lex Luthor, Superman also has to be there. Superman is guy, who has to always tell how good and great he is and how he always saves the day. That annoys Batman to no end. Batman's only character trait is that he doesn't want any help, especially from Superman. Robin is young boy, who Batman doesn't let do things he want to do.

Movie has too much stuff in it. It is only 70 minutes, but has all the villains I mentioned and whole Justice League. Many of the characters are there only for a little while. Movie doesn't need all these characters. It wastes them. There can't be LEGO Batman movie with only Bane as villain, because this movie made him look so weak. Same goes with most of the villains.

Movie steals lot from other Batman movies. Opening scene is from Tim Burton's Batman. Music is same. Movie also uses legendary Superman theme, which is also elevator music in Lex Luthor's office. There are tons of references to other Batman movies. If you have to watch this for some reason, only entertaining thing to do, is trying to find all of those. Movie tries to be funny. It is funny, if you don't care about Superman or Batman. If Batman and Superman using bus to get to final fight is funny to you, you might find other jokes funny too. Skeleton in chemical plant was kind of funny, but movie didn't have other moments like that.

I don't understand, why this was made and how DC let someone using their characters in this movie. This is such a waste of characters. At beginning of the movie, we see Lex Luthor and Joker killing Batman and Superman. Then we go two days ago and see events leading to this. After movie shows death of Batman and Superman again, we learn that they changed the clothes. Kryptonite didn't kill Batman and Superman wasn't crushed. How Lex Luthor and Joker didn't see that they enemies looked little different from before? That tells everything about the movie. Even characters doesn't know each others.

Scariest thing is that upcoming Superman movie, with Batman and other Justice league members, could be worse than this. At least we will be reading that on message boards, if it is not good enough.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Moon (2009)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Moon (2009). This is one of those movies better seen unspoiled. So, if you like scifi and haven't seen this movie, you should watch it before reading this post.

This is quite extreme example of employer not caring for its employers. They make three year contracts to send workers into solitude of far side of the moon. Worker is there alone to maintain machinery, that collects fuel to be sent to earth. What is even more profitable is to use clones. You don't have to pay clone, if you kill him, when contract ends. No-one will blame you for anything, if no-one knows and no-one knows you are using clones.

Clones are programmed to think they are real people working on three year contract. Their body is planned to fail when three-year contract ends. Then they get into hibernation chamber which kills them. After killing, next clone is waken and he starts his scripted life with Earth. To make everything realistic, they have created wife and daughter storyline based on original person's wife and kid. It is told, that clones have implanted memories. Why give clone memories, where he has wife and kid and make him want to get back home? It is like torture. Why they didn't give him memories, which make him happy to on far side of the moon, cut away from rest of the humanity. Or even better, make him think he is part of different kind of society, where his work is honourable thing and make him proud of what he does.

It is not clear to me, why clone even has to be there. During the movie, he didn't do anything machines couldn't do. There was separate team, that fixed the machines, when they malfunctioned. There was intelligent robot, which could manage the communication. Even if they didn't have to pay the clone, they had to provide him with food and stuff. It is interesting, that intelligent robot is only one that thinks clones more that just usable tool. Robot is capable to make its own decisions, when he helps clones instead of reporting clones know they are clones.

This movie missed opportunity to show, what it does to world's economy, when employers want to do things with as little employees as possible. We are currently seeing that tested in western counties. They outsource their work to cheaper countries. I don't remember seeing scifi movies, which studies that. That is kind of missed opportunity in scifi movie genre as whole.

Movie happens on moon. There are only clones and intelligent robot. We don't see much of outside world. Everything we see, we see on monitors, that show pre-recorded videos. This is mainly Sam Rockwell movie with Kevin Spacey voice acting to support him. Sam Rockwell plays the clones, while Kevin Spacey is monotonic voice of intelligent robot. Everyone else has really small roles and we see them only on monitors or in spacesuits. Intelligent robot doesn't look like human and has only small monitor, which shows robot's emotions as smiley faces.

This post may give too negative picture of the movie. It is because movie is not that rewatchable. You get everything interesting first two times. After that you start to spot missed opportunities. I watched this third time now. First two times this is a great movie. After that only good.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Pumping Iron (1977)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils documentary Pumping Iron (1977).

This is first documentary I have written about. I didn't plan to do this post, but when I watched the movie, I had to write about it. This was shot before Arnold Schwarzenegger became movie star and has gained cult movie status after he starred Terminator (1982) and Conan the Barbarian (1984). Without Arnold's success in movies, this would have been obscure bodybuilding documentary. Another main player in this documentary is Lou Ferrigno, who is best known from 70's Hulk tv-series.

Documentary follows Arnold, Lou and few another bodybuilders as they train and compete in 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe. Arnold has won five Mr. Olympia titles and is going for his sixth title before retiring. Lou is young challenger, who has won Mr. Universe twice and is now going for big price. Arnold is shown as cold calculating guy, who is ready to do anything to win. He brags, how he could give bad advises for his friend and tells, how he didn't let his father's death affect his training. It mattered as much as someone stealing his car would matter. Nothing.

Lou is regular family boy, who is trained by his father. Lou is not that much into mind games. He just trains to be the best and believes that it is enough. If you want to see good vs evil battle here, Lou is the good guy and Arnold is villain. I think this is Arnold's best villain role. Main part of movie is build around Lou and Arnold. But reality didn't co-operate with film makers. Lou and Arnold didn't finnish first and second. During competition we see briefly Serge Nubret, who became second in competition. He also had film career.

Best part of movie is Arnold telling his philosophy. It is something he wouldn't say today. Probably he has changed his philosophy since. Here he is young bodybuilding superstar living in the world, where everyone around him thinks he is greatest thing ever existed. During competition we see how Arnold plays mind games with another competitors. He is mentally above the rest of the competitors. He is biggest bodybuilding star ever and he knows that. And others know that too. That is why he wins this competition.

Movie begins with Mr. Universe competitors. That is not as interesting as parts with Lou and Arnold. This part follows amateur body builder Mike Katz, who becomes fourth in competition. Competition is won by Ken Weller, who movie shows as jerk, who makes pranks to others to make them lose their concentration. Mr. Universe part end into emotional scene in which Mike Katz goes to congratulate Ken, who hide his shirt during the competition. We don't see them meeting. We see Mike waiting  Ken to come from stage. Good guys don't win in this movie, because this is documentary.

This is good documentary, but only reason we still know it, is that Arnold Schwarzenegger is in it.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Solaris (2002)

I bought this movie right after I returned rented version. I watched movie four times during first two days and have watched it many times after that. I own original score soundtrack and it is one of my favourite soundtracks. I have watched movie few times with commentary. So this might be fan boy post.

When I bought this I had more time and often watched movies with commentary on. Lately I haven't done that as much. This movie had one of the best commentaries. Director Steven Soderbergh and producer James Cameron talk about choices Steven did and movie making as whole. It is like lecture about movie making from two big name directors. I recommend to check that out, if you have  dvd.

Big problem is, there is no blu ray version of this movie. Movie is one of the most beautiful movies ever made, but it doesn't have blu ray release. Every shot is carefully planned. You could take any frame of the movie and put it on the wall. Movie moves slowly and have lot of silent moments. It is almost like watching moving painting. Music increases alien otherworldly feeling. This is all about emotion and mood.

"I could tell you what's happening, but I don't know if it would really tell you what's happening." That quote describes this movie perfectly. Movie doesn't give explanations and doesn't tell you, how you should interpret what happened. It begins as mystery of what happened on space station orbiting around mysterious planet Solaris. We see what happened, but we still don't know what actually happened. But what happened doesn't matter at that point. What matter is how our characters react to what happened. Crew of space station acts crazy. When we see what happened to them, their actions doesn't seem so crazy. It is like slow trip into craziness.

Whole story could be told in few sentences. But that would leave so much away. This movie uses so much images and sounds in story telling, that the story is hard to put into words. Movie has two stories. First is mystery of what happened on space station. Second is difficult love story between our hero and his wife. For some there is too much of first. For some there is too much of second. For others this is perfect mix of scifi and drama. You need to be in right state of mind to fully appreciate this movie. It is slow, sad and beautiful. You need to be in mood for that kind of movie.

This is rather another movie adoption of Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, than remake of Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972). I haven't read the book. I like both movies. It is bit strange that Tarkovsky's version has blu ray release and this doesn't have. Tarkovsky's version deserves it, but so does this.

I will revisit this movie later. Then there will be spoilers. That could be anniversary post or celebration of blu ray release. I hope it will be the blu ray. This time I just wanted to tell you this movie exists.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

"Star Trek" (2009) - nitpicking and stuff

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie “Star Trek” (2009).

I wanted to keep original post inside reasonable length. I had to drop lot of random stuff from it, but I wanted to write about that too. So here is more from "Star Trek". This goes more into nerdy territory.

Using shuttles to go to Enterprise didn't make much sense. There is no point using them, when you can transport people from one place to another. They used shuttles in Star Trek The Motion Picture. In that movie, they had real reason to do that. Enterprise's transporters malfunctioned and they didn't have time to fix them. In this movie, there was no reason given, why they used shuttles to go to Enterprise. Shuttles were used for getting similar scene that was in Star Trek The Motion Picture. In Star Trek The Motion Picture Doctor McCoy told how he didn't like transporters. In "Star Trek" Fake McCoy tells how he doesn't like shuttles. Why he doesn't use transport, if he is afraid of shuttles?

Captain Pike was Captain of Enterprise in pilot of original Star Trek. He made return into Star Trek in two-part episode The Menagerie. In that episode he was in wheelchair. At the end of "Star Trek" he is in wheelchair, but movie doesn't give any reasons, why he was in wheelchair. Nero used similar parasites that Khan used in Wrath of Khan. Maybe these parasites hurt victims more, but movie doesn't explain it. So no real explanation was not given why Pike was in wheelchair.

Movie showed how Vulcans didn't think humans as their equals. Fake Spock's human mother being with Vulcan High Council didn't make much sense. Spock's father was part of council. Spock got high council from their cave. I don't remember other high council members having their families with them. So why Spock's mother was with Vulcan High Council?

How Nero knew he killed Fake Kirk's father? He knows Kirk from his future, but there was no reason, why he should know, he killed Fake Kirk's father. Kobayashi Maru scene was told in Wrath of Khan. What this movie added, was to make Kirk look like total jerk. In Wrath of Khan cadet didn't know Kobayashi Maru was no win situation. In this movie every one seem to know it was no win situation. If they didn't know it before, Fake Kirk's hearing made that sure. Knowing that test is no win situation makes the test kind of useless, because you know you are going to lose anyway and don't put too much effort into it.

Monday, December 2, 2013

"Star Trek" (2009)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie "Star Trek" (2009).

I didn't realize, how much Star Wars this movies has first time I saw it. Now it looks more like Star Wars than Star Trek. What is annoying, is that, this is actually good scifi action movie. But this is not Star Trek. This is almost everything, that is not Star Trek and nothing that is Star Trek. J.J. Abrams told, he didn't like original Star Trek and that shows. Movie doesn't get spirit of Star Trek. This is more like application to get to direct Star Wars. As we now know, that worked for J.J. Abrams. He left Star Trek as soon as he got to do Star Wars.

Star Trek is intellectual science fiction. It is not about action. Problems are solved by coming up with good ideas, not with muscles and fire power. Stories show interesting concepts. Original Star Trek, my second favourite tv series, had interesting dynamics between main characters. Doctor McCoy was all about emotion. Spock was for cold logic without emotion. Kirk was somewhere in the middle, using both emotion and logic. McCoy and Spock were friendly rivals. Spock was there to show, how illogical human activities some times are. His role was given to Data in Next Generation and Seven of Nine in Voyager. Those are best characters in Star Trek franchise.

In "Star Trek", Fake Kirk is born, when his mother escapes from spaceship, that his father flies in to enemy ship. Then we see how young Fake Kirk escapes police and destroys sport car in process. Fake Spock in introduced fighting vulcan kids. Then Fake Kirk get into bar fight with four cadets. Fake Spock shows his rebellious side in Vulcan by choosing Star Fleet instead of Vulcan science academy. Fake Kirk is someone, who always gets into trouble and wastes his talent. Fake Spock can't control his temper. Fake McCoy is divorced drunk, who bends rules and use medicine unsafely. Our three heroes aren't same characters, that made them so good in original series. They don't have same chemistry. Now Fake Kirk and Fake Spock are rivals and McCoy is there by Kirk's side. They are rivals because they have different opinions on how they should act in different situations. They don't represent different world views like McCoy and Spock did in original series. If there is main difference between them it is, that Fake Spock wants to go by the rules, when for Fake Kirk end justifies the means.

Story doesn't have any interesting points. It is just angry romulan getting his revenge. He has planet destroying weapon. He uses that to destroy one of main characters home planet. Our heroes barely escape first encounter with villains. There is ice planet, where our heroes have to fight strange monsters. Villains go to destroy another planet. This time our heroes are prepared. Two of them go inside enemy ship. Final battle is fought inside and outside of enemy ship. During final battle Enterprise comes out of nowhere to save one of our heroes' ship, just before villains are destroying it. Enemy ship is destroyed and our hero gets medal for his actions in final battle.

Does that sound familial? Inside enemy ship, there are platforms, that make no sense. Final battle is fought on those platforms. One of main characters uses his sword in fight on platform high above planet. I don't know how to describe Fake Scott's assistant, other than saying he could be in Star Wars and you would not notice anything strange. He would be more at home in Star Wars than in Star Trek. Half of elements are from Star Wars and other half from Star Trek. Designs and names are from Star Trek, story and tone from Star Wars. Every character is made to look stupid at one point and they don't act like they should. There is too much pointless action for action's sake.

Star Trek was thinking man's science fiction. This movie turned it into generic stupid action science fiction. All things good in Star Trek were stripped in this movie.  This was made for average stupid movie goer. Intellectual stuff is over their head. Explosions and action is what sells the tickets. Star Trek is not like that but "Star Trek" is. I wish good science fiction would sell better. Great science fiction movies are still made, but they are hard to find, because these kind of movies get all the publicity.

Why I hate this movie? I hate this, because it took Star Trek away from us, who like intellectual science fiction and made it generic action fantasy. When I say I am a fan of Star Trek, I have to mention that I mean original Star Trek, not this J.J. Abrams version. This is good action movie, but I hate what it does to franchise I like. I haven't seen Star Trek Into Darkness. I don't want to support latest Hollywood trend of using popular titles' names and turning them into something other than original material was. That is why I haven't seen World War Z. I will write about both movies, when I can see them without paying extra to see them.