Archive for Sci-Fi

I  think that the new Star Trek movie was awesome! It had many excellent aspects and was like the older ones.  Personally, I would give it nine point five out of ten stars.

The movie begins when the U.S.S. Kelvin is sent to investigate a lightning storm in space. Out of the storm emerges the Romulan mining ship, Narada, which attacks the U.S.S. Kelvin, killing much of the crew, including the captain. Thus, George Kirk is put in command.  His pregnant wife is evacuated along with most of the crew.  In the lifeboat, she gives birth to James Kirk, and then the elder Kirk crashes his ship into the Romulan ship.

Next, you see James Kirk as a young, reckless teen. He has stolen his stepfather’s car and is racing along a road at high speeds when a cop attempts to pull him over.  Kirk speeds on, but loses the car off a cliff, so he is arrested.

Next you see him at a bar full of Starfleet sailors.  Kirk gets in a fight with some and afterward is talking to Captain Pike who bets him to join Starfleet. The next day, he arrives on base and becomes a cadet and befriends Leonard McCoy. Later, at the end of training, he is sent in front of a tribunal because he cheated on a test.  Suddenly, command reports that a fleet ship is damaged, and all the cadets are sent to ships.  Kirk is grounded, though, so he can’t come, but McCoy smuggles him in as a patient under his care.

Kirk recognizes the similarities between the Vulcan incident and the encounter that destroyed the Kelvin and warns Pike that the fleet is heading into a trap. The Enterprise arrives late to find the fleet destroyed and the Narada drilling into Vulcan’s core.  Pike is ordered to surrender and come to the Narada, but on the way Pike drops Kirk, Hikaru Sulu, and Engineer Olson into a orbital ski dive to attack the drill. Olson dies, but Sulu and Kirk destroy the drill and allow Spock to save some of the Vulcans.

As they sail away, Pike is captured, so Spock is Captain.  Then Kirk and Spock argue, so Spock maroons him for mutany. . .

I will not share anymore details, so I do not devulge the entire movie’s contents, but I will say it was great!

It may be the dead of winter, but you can look forward to the spring and some new animated movies from Pixar and Dreamworks.

First, Dreamworks’ Monsters vs. Aliens is a seemingly funny movie about alien forces attacking the planet, and the United States government using monsters to take them down. It contains voice talents from Stephen Colbert, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson, and Keifer Sutherland. This movie proves to have some serious star power riding behind it, probably due to the fact that Pixar always manages to win awards with less star power and more art than anything else. However, after watching the trailer 6 or so times, this movie does look like it will be pretty hilarious, at least it better be.

Next is Pixar’s Up a story about a 78 year old man tying balloons to his house so he can travel the world. It has vocal talents from Christopher Plummer, Delroy Lindo, John Ratzenberger, Edward Asner, Paul Eiding, and Jordan Nagai. This movie has more elder statesmen than the previous and will rely on artsy design to reel in moviegoers. This film is directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, both of whom have worked on several Pixar pictures, and probably will feel like a mix of Wall-E and Finding Nemo.

You have to hand it to Pixar: they really know how to pull the punches and make a great piece of art for the masses. Dreamworks is always reliable for a funny piece to be lighthearted and filled with solid messages. Both of these groups rightfully have taken over the summer tradition of the Disney Summer Animated Movie. the question remains: which one will be your favorite? By the time we all thaw out, monsters beat aliens might be appealing after all.

I am no Trekkie, but I have seen almost every Star Trek movie through no fault of my own.  To be honest the last one I watched was Star Trek: Nemesis, I just lost interest after a while.  Actually, I did enjoy watching Star Trek: Enterprise mainly because I thought Patrick Stewart was the man.

In the tradition of new directors remaking movies, JJ Abrams has decided to give his hand to the new Star Trek, rather than just build off the franchise; he’s taking it back to the start.  Which I really can’t understand, the original movie from way back in the day was perfectly fine.  True, it was campy, and that girl was odd with the bald head, but it was a good movie.

I never bothered watching Lost, and, yes, I did see Cloverfield. Based on all of that I’m not really sure how I feel about JJ Abrams making this movie. I mean it could go either way: a really bizarre plot that never gets answered, or a movie done completely in the first person with a weird looking monster. It is a toss up.

I am excited that Simon Pegg signed on to take Scotty, I hope he’s rehearsed his one line, “I just can’t do it captain, I don’t have the power!” I know the buzz has been pretty dark and mysterious, and as much as I want to turn my head, I am pretty intrigued. How will this stack up to the rest? I refused to watch the Superman movie when it was remade, that is just a sacred thing, but Star Trek, on the other hand, is a little different. Without Shatner, this movie has a lot of expectations to live up to, we’ll see. Until then live long and prosper.