Star Trek: Beyond (2016) ... and beyond ST Beyond

There's not much to be said about "Star Trek: Beyond" ... not much of good. Even the poster is bad. There's been quite some time since I've been so disappointed by a Star Trek. Question: What do you do if you need to write a story for a Star Trek and you don't have an idea? Answer: Recycling. What's making this worse than normal is doing it so poorly right after the previous movie where we've seen an original and stylish re-inventing of a classic villain (Khan). What we have in "Beyond" is more or less the original background of Khan (well .. somehow they managed not using it in the previous movie), attached to a different villain in what turns in the end to be a simple shallow revenge story ...

In the intro we have Enterprise crashing in pieces on a far away planet as result of an attack from an apparently unknown race, lead by a guy with typical "evil alien" looks who wants a weapon incidentally present on board of the ship. The context: long ago another Federation ship got wrecked on the same lost planet, that remained lost for a while, sufficiently enough that the captain to develop a mutation extending his life as well as his revenge wish for being forgotten. Spoiler: who's the "evil alien"? ... if it's not obvious, you'll probably get it early when you see the old shipwreck for the first time in the movie. However, there's a bunch of other stuff hard to get. Not because they're not so obvious, but because they don't make any sense ... Starting with why the guy didn't leave the planet, considering he's in command of an entire army capable at least to reach the nearest inhabited outpost (his target in the movie actually) ... And that's only one. Honestly, I'm to lazy to start enumerating others ...

Well .. but in a movie - especially a SciFi - you can overlook some things that you can't explain. The problem is when pretty much everything else sucks. The direction is like a "Fast & Furious ... in space" (no joke, there is the same director as latest F&F actually). The editing and the camera work is horrible, as pretty much everything on the technical part for a ST in the year 2016. Tricky question: what's worse than a poorly used kinetic camera ... Answer: a poorly used kinetic camera in 3D.

Without other comments ...
Rating: 2 out of 5 (objectively ... subjectively: 1.5)

Now, beyond ST Beyond ... If you really like "Star Trek" my recommendation is to stay far from this one. Skip it. Go see Tarzan instead. Or something else. I don't know ...
If you've never watched a "Star Trek" until now, don't ruin your impression with Beyond. Incidentally, in a different context, I've recently written a summary of what's worth seeing out of the "cinema episodes". Any of the following is way beyond Beyond (in the positive direction)...

The old generation - Kirk & co.

• ST II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - I think this is old, but probably has the largest hardcore fan base. That's why it happens often to have any sort of references more or less obvious to this movie and key scenes in it. 
• ST IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - Again, it's old, but it probably has the most funny subject: time travel to take a whale into the future when the species got extinct (no other spoilers); 
• ST VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) - I've watched this very long ago and I don't remember much besides I liked it the most from what's in the "old generation" series + it's the one which "aged" the best being the most recent. 

The next generation - Picard & co.

• ST VII: Generations (1994) - Nice for nostalgic people. Makes the transition between the old generations with a meeting between Picard and the old Kirk. Lots of people say this "episode" is not so good, but I think it's acceptable. The villain has a solid build, the movie has a bit of life philosophy, indeed it has some lengths, so not the best but overall works. 
• ST VIII: First Contact (1996) - Must see. My #1. Borg + time travel + first alien contact for humanity = probably the best story of all.
• ST X: Nemesis (2002) - Must see. I think it's the most underrated Star Trek. The critics unfairly bashed it. It has one of the best villains, the story's sufficiently original (including a side story) and is also probably the most alert in this series (= doesn't bore).

The new generation - Kirk & co.

• ST XI: Star Trek (2009) - Must see. A return to the original crew with a very nice time travel story. Maybe a bit cheesy, but within decent limits. My #3.;
• ST XII: Into Darkness (2013) - Must see. Probably the most "romantic" ST (referring to the current, not about romances) = strong revenge story, a different Khan is back = lots of references to ST II very cleverly inserted and probably the best soundtrack. My #2.

Time Lapse (2014)

Since a while ago, I'm trying to stay away from time travel movies considering that I want when I'll have time to write a short story on this subject, and I'd like to keep myself out of much external influence. So, I had some doubts about "Time Lapse", but eventually I gave up. Unfortunate decision, I have to partially rethink again my own subject. What I want to say is that I've watched one of the few cases of approaching the theme that's developing a less used idea (maybe the least used idea): time travel without ... actual time travel. Why would you need time travel when you could send a message in time? You just have to take care that the recipient (maybe you) to get it ...

Another title that comes to my mind now is "Deja Vu" that partially uses the same concept. Unlike "Deja Vu", "Time Lapse" is a small budget indie, where 3 actors carry pretty much all of the movie that's shot mostly in an apartment. Also unlike "Deja Vu", "Time Lapse" holds on the idea - we don't have a Denzel Washington who must personally get into the time machine eventually to "save the day". Because we don't have a time machine. What we have in "Time Lapse" is a gigantic camera, found by three people in a complex apartment just across their own, which camera takes a shot each evening at 20:00 of their living room. But not the current one, the one 24 hours after - a sort of light "Early Edition" to give another reference :) . However, here the 3 guys get somehow to the conclusion that they don't have to change the future, but on the contrary, they must act so that it happens. I think this is one of the drawbacks that generates probably the biggest plot holes. Somehow though, the movie develops like a sort of puzzle, where probably in the end if you take all the pieces and look over them you'll get some explanation ( and also other plot holes :) ). I didn't have time for this + as usual, no spoilers ;)

The idea is nice, but moving a bit onto the cinema part, you can find many issues due to the low budget the production has. Probably the worse are related to the script, where you can notice easily that another pass for cleaning stupid lines would've helped .. but there are others too - production level related and even actors. Overall, not bad but could've been much better ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

"The Windup Girl"

Since a while I'm having trouble writing at the "standard" frequency of one entry/week, fixed as target when I started this blog. But I'm counting ... I have a delay of 6 entries up to now for 2016, which I'm fooling myself that I'll catch back this summer. The problem is that I don't really get to see anymore at least one movie every week, including the one that just ended. However, I've just managed somehow to finish my "travel book" = a novel that I'm reading between long breaks while I'm waiting in airports or when I'm flying, I'm in a train, etc. Let's just say that I noticed at some point that I don't work well while I'm in transit and since the rest of the time I don't have time to read anything else than scientific stuff, I decided that fiction gets total priority for travel time. So, moving back, lucky me ... I don't have a movie for this week, but I have a book: "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi - Hugo & Nebula winner in 2010.

If I remember well, the prizes were a part of the reason why I bought the book. Quite disappointing I would say compared to other Hugo winners, but let's delve a bit into the subject first. The action is set in a future where few countries still have their own natural production of food, the market being dominated by various companies activating in creating artificial species and in gene hacking (including also live beings). The situation is a follow-up of several epidemics propagated through food infestation, which apparently killed lots of the world's population. Not so many in Thailand though, the place where the novel is set, where the Ministry of Environment is a sort of armed force managing the country stability on this matters, and relying on a secret seed bank - point of interest for many foreign enterprises. From here an entire political intrigue gets built up, having on the opposite side the Ministry of Trade, an entry point in the country for various shady deals. Somewhere lost in the middle of all this we have "the windup girl" - Emiko, an artificial being, created to serve as a secretary (made in Japan), a forbidden product on the import market, which somehow ended up from her initial role to being the property of a brothel owner. Initially she's a minor character, but as I think it's written also somewhere on the book cover, she will have a decisive impact in the destiny of the kingdom ...

This happens, however, after many many many chapters, out of the total of 50. Without spoilers, I think it's the novel with the longest intrigue I've ever read. I could say it's spanning up to after half of its length. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but the development of the action up to a key point when "the windup girl" finally advances to being more of a main character, just seemed to serve as construction for what follows. The novel is highly descriptive and very visual, which adds some lengths that sometimes I found a bit exaggerated. Actually, the author's writing style relies on this - you have for quite some time a slow advancing pace after which you get hit with a shock scene, most often an unannounced death a la Game-of-Thrones, to keep you following. Besides the twists that evaporate shortly, the only part that's more consistent is a constant dialogue with a ghost, or you could say it's with the inner self, of a member in the armed forces of the Ministry of Environment, one of the characters that's getting "upgraded" from secondary to main character status until the ending. Which ending leaves open some questions ... but I said I'll withhold from spoilers ...

The verdict: I think it's one of the few cases where a screen version has serious chances of being better than the written material. I don't know if there's anything planned, but the novel is relatively recent. That's pretty much all for now, back next time with hopefully a good movie ...

Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot (2015)

"Jeeg Robot" is part of a "super-hero" niche of movies that gains ground slow but steady lately, and I can say I like it more than the mainstream = Marvel + DC. To clarify, more stuff we have in this set: "Defendor", "Kick-Ass" (the first) and most probably others that I can't think of right now. Essential traits = the "super-hero" doesn't necessarily have super powers - or these are quite simple (no Ant-Man here), and is often more of an anti-hero until finds "the true call of doing good, saving the world, etc, and the rest" ... if he finds it. That's pretty much what we have here. Enzo Ceccotti doesn't like his life a lot, doesn't have friends, and he gains his daily dose of yogurt as a small crook. One day, being chased by some guys apparently worse than him, after taking a bath with some unknown potentially radioactive waste in the Tiber, he gets to be ... unbreakable and gains some extra strength in arms. Following that, we have some conflicts with the local gangs, a super-villain enters the scene, bombs, romance, drama, and others. The movie's funny, consistent, I'd say even touching here and there. The actors play their parts perfectly. Even the production design is surprisingly good for an indie. Something seems still missing, though ... But that's definitely not the Marvel logo in the intro :) ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

Swiss Army Man (2016)

Given that I don't have much time left to write I'm gonna try (at least for a while) a short and focused, and hopefully more often entries approach. "Swiss Army Man" is the kind of movie that you'd want to like, but somehow it makes its best not to. It's clearly an experiment of the two guys directing and writing, and it should be considered as such. The context is extremely simple: the classic case of the stranded island survivor who sooner or later goes nuts, passing through the "standard" phases: suicidal thoughts, life introspection, finding a "live" partner of survival whichever who might be ... This movie develops the last of these, but unlike "Cast Away" here we don't have a Wilson ball, but an actually human "friend", in the form of a zombified corpse. Actually that's the whole story - the interaction between the two actors: the cast away (Paul Dano) and his partner in "solitude" (Daniel Radcliffe), varying constantly from drama to comic. Where drama with minor exception is quite decent, and the comic with minor exceptions is indecent. I don't really have a problem with the latter, but associating it with the first part turns into a pretty weird result. Towards the end I thought at some point that I'm watching indeed a small jewel of a movie where all the crazy stuff gets some sense based on what the viewer can actually "see" there ... but no, the experiment decides to turn the ending back into a cheap "funny" conclusion where (spoiler) you should lose any doubt about the actual existence of "live" zombies.

Rating: 3 out of 5