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Garrie Fletcher

~ writing and all that

Garrie Fletcher

Category Archives: Film

Star Trek: Beyond

24 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by fletcherski in Film, Review, writing

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Chris Pine, Film Review, Idris Alba, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Star Trek, Star Trek: Beyond, The Beastie Boys, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana

We’ve just watched this in a chilly, Birmingham cinema, and even an over-eager air conditioner couldn’t put the freeze on this hot picture. The boy and I loved this phaser fest despite there being a couple of plot holes you could drive the Enterprise through at Warp 9. The 2 hours flew by in a blur of hand to hand combat, dizzying space battles, and pithy one-liners. There’s enough here for even the harshest Trek critics.

Star Trek poster

Spoiler alert.

Chris Pine continues to shine in the role of Kirk, a man with a natural ability to lead and a distinct inability to follow protocol, and the opening scene shows him completely out of his depth. Kirk tries to negotiate a peace treaty between two aggressive races and offers one a gift from the other. His inability to play the role of ambassador leads to him being attacked by hundreds of imp-like aliens and he has to rely on his crew, and in particular, Scotty, to get him out of the mess he’s created. Afterwards, we find him reflecting upon the Enterprises five year mission into the unknown and coming to the conclusion that he’s bored – well not for long.

The York Town Star Base is pretty damn impressive. It’s a huge sealed globe of twisted gravity, conflicting angles, and skyscrapers, on the edge of Federation space. It’s here that Spock learns of Spock’s death (that’s Spock from the original timeline as played by Leonard Nimoy) that leads him to question his role on board the Enterprise. Both characters are now left with internal conflicts to resolve, and both consider leaving the Enterprise; Spock considers taking up the other Spock’s role upon New Vulcan and Kirk applies to become an assistant admiral? (God only knows how he thinks that’ll work out.) These decisions are put on hold when a distressed alien arrives, in dramatic fashion, to ask for their help. My immersion into the Trek universe was slightly rattled here when they buy her story wholesale without even a cursory check of the facts. Even more worrying was their failure to act (clap her in irons, interrogate her, etc.) when upon arrival at the planet where she claims her crew is trapped, the Enterprise is torn apart in a matter of minutes. At no point does anyone turn upon her and exclaim, ‘Trap!’ This, I must admit was pretty hard to swallow. A rather vertiginous space battle ensues and the Enterprise is well and truly whooped with chunks of it flying off left, right and center.

 

Phew! Only a few minutes in and everything is trashed. The main trunk of the film is then a case of Kirk and co regrouping, liberating and escaping in the rather impressive, and obsolete, U.S.S. Franklin. The Franklin is a retro joy to behold and even in its shabby, unkempt old age you can see nods towards the original TV show. However, here lies another hole in the plot. The rather wonderful, Jaylah, lives in the deserted craft – Jaylah is an escapee from the clutches of Krull, (played by Idris Alba.) She has hidden out here for years and has taught herself English and developed a fondness for really loud 90’s hip-hop. To keep her from getting caught she has set up an optical shield for the craft and rendered it invisible. However, as we later discover, Krull, is the presumed dead captain of the Franklin and surely he’d have known exactly where the ship was!

I digress.

The action tumbles along at a satisfying pace and leads us to a nausea-inducing fight between Kirk and Krull in the center of York Town where gravity is more of an option rather than an absolute. Krull needs to get his ancient, ultimate weapon into the air recycling system for Yorktown station to kill everyone there. There are fisticuffs galore and an inability to say which way is up. Kirk has to eject Krull and the weapon into space without getting himself sucked out with them. It’s a shame that there isn’t a way of doing that. You know some way of moving matter instantaneously. You know, like a TRANSPORTER BEAM! But of course, if they did that there’s be no need for a fight above the skyscrapers.

These gripes aside, Star Trek: Beyond is a very enjoyable romp that pushes all the right buttons and left me feeling entertained rather than cheated. Chris Pike continues to fill Shatner’s boots with a confident swagger and Zachary Quinto is suitably Vulcan – there is the ubiquitous nod back to the past when Spock looks through some of the Nimoy Spock’s possessions and finds a picture of the original Star Trek crew in their Wrath of Khan outfits. Zoe Saldana puts in a fine performance as Uhura, but doesn’t get enough screen time for my liking; she’s merely Spock’s kick ass girlfriend. Anton Yelchin will be hugely missed from any following films; they’ll find it hard to find another actor with such a fun Russian accent and youthful charm. Simon Pegg’s Scotty continues to amuse, but why have Idris Alba in and then obscure his features? A lot of Alba’s emotion was lost underneath the makeup and his voice distorted by his comical dentures. For me, the standout performance comes from Karl Urban. He continues to delight as the permanently dour Dr. McCoy and steals scene after scene. If you love Trek, you’ll love this and if you just want to switch off for two hours and watch the galaxy teeter on the brink of destruction you leave feeling hard done by.

Now treat yourself to the Beastie Boys at their finest. Watch the film and you’ll know why.

 

 

Suits You Sir.

12 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by fletcherski in Comics, Film, Review, Uncategorized

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Colin Firth, Great movie, Kingsman, Mark Hamill, Mark Millar, Mark Strong, Matthew Vaughn, Michael Caine, Must see film, Samuel L. Jackson, Secret Service, Sophia Boutella

Kingsman

Do you pine for the days of the classic spy movie, for the suave Bond who dispatched enemies with grace and a witty aside? Or the megalomaniac villains with their jaw dropping bases carved out of the hearts of mountains and their singular vision of world dominance and destruction? Do you miss the sophisticated gadgets, the bullet proof umbrellas or the poisonous ink and yearn for the femme fatale with their killer smiles and razor blade feet? Then Kingsman is the film for you.

Rollicking fun.

Rollicking fun.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson, Kingsman is adapted from Mark Millar’s and Dave Gibbons’ comic book of the same name and whilst I enjoyed the book the film is far superior.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot as I think this is a film that you all should see. It’s visceral, sharp, clever and just the right side of bloody: exploding heads anyone? Elements of the book have been tinkered with slightly, but these only add to the drama and a female Gazelle -played by the stunning Sofia Boutella- is far more graceful than the original black man in the comic book. Samuel L. Jackson is sublime as the lisping genius Valentine, a man who’s mission is to save the planet by killing most of its inhabitants. Firth is gloriously assured as the arse kicking Galahad -a member of the secret Kingsman organisation that spies on the spies bringing impartial justice to the world- and I can only imagine the Bond producers punching themselves repeatedly in the nuts having overlooked him for that role.

Valentine, Gazelle, Galahad, 'Eggsy' and Arthur.

Valentine, Gazelle, Galahad, ‘Eggsy’ and Arthur.

I wanted to take my son to see this, but he was less than enthusiastic at the time and I missed it at the cinema. I wont be making that mistake again, it really shouldn’t take sitting through Jurassic World to realise that a twelve-year-old is not the best judge when it comes to film, this is the lad who raved about After Earth and that was less interesting than watching flies crawl over dog shit.

There’s a lot of humour and warmth in this film and fun, tons of fun. It’s not a high-brow soul beater, far from it, but it’s everything a movie should be -I love films that make me think, but this is not a film, it’s a movie, there is a difference. I’d be interested to know how it did in the States as it’s a very British film with run down boozers and Millwall scarves. Matthew Vaughn has said that it’s his hymnal to the stuff he watched growing up: Bond, The Avengers, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. etc. and the inclusion of the umbrella had me pining for the days of Steed and Emma Peel.

Bespoke tailors or spy HQ?

Bespoke tailors or spy HQ?

The original idea was that this first film would be the start of a trilogy and I can only hope that that happens and that the writing and directing stays as razor-sharp as this. Mark Strong, who plays Merlin -Kingsman’s answer to Bond’s Q- has said that, “This [movie] will be to Bond what Kick-Ass (2010) is to superhero movies” and I can’t help but agree with him.

Check it out and let me know what you think and see if you can spot Mark Hamill.

Age of Ultron

26 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by fletcherski in Film

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Age of Ultron, Avengers, Black Widow, Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, James Spader, Josh Whedon, Marvel, Thor

*Spoiler alert*

*No, really. I give stuff away from the off*

The gang's all here.

The gang’s all here.

Hmmm. Not sure about this one. Don’t get me wrong, it was bold, brash and brutal, especially in the fight scenes. There’s a smattering of pithy one-liners and more testosterone than you can shake an Asgardian staff at. There are stunning set pieces: the Slovakian city ripped from the Earth, Stark’s Hulk Buster and the Hulk, punching chunks out of an unnamed South African city and the opening battle against a Hydra stronghold. There are clashes between Avengers, the death of Jarvis, the birth of the Vision, the Black Widow *cough* and yet…..

It felt a bit flat to me.

There are some fine moments: Stark and Thor trying to out cock each other, Stan Lee getting pissed and exclaiming, Excelsior! and James Spader, as Ultron, is inspired casting indeed and yet…

It felt a bit too big, a bit too cumbersome. I’d have thought that if anyone could pull off an ensemble piece like this it’d be Joss Whedon, but maybe that’s my problem? Whedon did such an incredible job with Avengers Assemble. It was full of heart, wit and power, a film that took the garish, lycra stretched, ridiculousness of a comic book and turned it into a believable world of power, passion and character and maybe that’s where Age of Ultron lost me.

Apart from an almost sickly sweet scene where we discover Hawkeye not only has a girlfriend, but he has two kids and another on the way and some creepy excerpts from the Natasha Ramanoff life story, there’s very little in the way of character development. With the Thor, Captain America and Iron Man movies we know pretty much all there is to know about these guys. Ha! you laugh, what do you expect from a superhero movie? Well, thanks to the first one being so bloody good, a bit more than this.

This isn’t a bad film. It’s just not as good as I was expecting.

I watched it in 3D, not through choice, it was just the most convenient showing and found that, surprise, surprise, there was absolutely no need for it. If anything, I found it irritating, not enhancing.

I think I may have to go and see it again, just to make sure…

Be still my beating heart.

Be still my beating heart.

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