Summer Begins.

I know absolutely nothing about Star Trek. I have never seen an episode at any point during the different series of the show. All I knew were names of characters and that they were in this ship called the Enterprise.

To anybody out there who wants to make a great movie, this is how you do it. To put it as simply as I can, what makes this movie great is the story. The story is simple, how it plays out is not. As I mentioned before, I am not a Star Trek person, however, I am a LOST person. That being said, J.J. Abrams' influence from LOST was very apparent in Star Trek, and it only helped to keep my interest.

Many Sci-Fi films struggle with the necessity of explaining gadgetry and technology that only exists in the universe of the film. Star Trek brilliantly cuts out all the unnecessary technical jargon and is very straight forward. The acting is excellent. Hats off to Mr. Quinto as Spock, he was perfectly cast and plays the role extremely well. Every single character had an arc no matter how great or how small.

This is by far the best film of the year, so far. The graphics and cinematography were unbelievable. This movie pays great homage to the incredible epic that is Star Wars, but does so with grace and brings it's own ingredients to the formula.

I will note that Star Trek's tagline 'The Future Begins' was straight up jacked from Terminator Salvation. The first poster for TS had that as it's tagline which has now since been updated to 'The End Begins.' Anyway Star Trek = Amazing. See it. No matter who you are, this one's for you.

Best Sci Fi movie of all time?

No. George Lucas will always carry that trophy in his back pocket. But is Star Trek the greatest Sci Fi picture in the past 25 years? Arguably, yes. Abrams has created a middle ground where trekkies, Star Wars fans, and even new-to-sci-fi movie fans can come together and experience all the same emotions while watching this film. Star Trek has and will do what Casino Royale did for the Bond franchise, but it did it much, much better. Further it's much more likely that it's sequel will be much, much better than Quantum of Solace.

We're seeing a trend here. Remakes of good movies/stories and making them great. Two cases in point: Casino Royale and Batman Begins, but to a much more relevant and successful standpoint, The Dark Knight. Film makers are seeing these not to be taken seriously movies, watching crazy Koreans stealing diamonds to keep the sun shining all the time or hearing "Ice to see you!" and saying,"I could do better than that." And they do. They start from scratch, scrap all the bad, bring in more of the good, making fans of the series and new viewers alike very, very satisfied. Abrams hopped onto this wagon and truly breathed life into a dying genre.

Star Trek has everything; eye reddening action sequences, ear wax melting sound, ab hurting comedy and even an inter-species dorm room hook up sesh with a green chick. Additionally, all the actors do a fantastic job, most of them in roles that don't fit their MO. I won't go into detail here, but each actor plays their role so well that traces of characters they've played in the past are completely unapparent. The graphics and special effects in Star Trek are the best to ever grace the silver screen. The sleek futuristic beauty of the Enterprise and the dark terror of the Romulan's ship combined with the eery stillness of space bring to mind a similar achievement Kubrick made with 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Boldy go see this movie, and see it on IMAX. You'll be happy you did. Star Trek is by far the most entertaining and awe inspiring film of 2009 and has set the bar for all later films. The tag line get's it right: The Future Begins.


9.8/10

Jimmy Logan

X-Men Origins: Wolverine explains quite a bit: the origin of Wolverine, how Three Mile Island really blew up, and that prequels/sequels don't require skilled writing.

The cinematography and action in XMO:W are incredible, far more eye-catching and enthralling than any other this year so far. It's clear that director Gavin Hood planned each claw swipe, back flip, sword swipe, and teleport in a way that makes each sequence look raw, rough, and even sexy at times. Here's the problem: rough and sexy is all it is. XMO:W is plagued with scenes that have absolutely zero purpose other than generating an audience reaction of "Hmm, that was cool." Further, characters were introduced with large potential for development only to be roped after a few scenes. Beyond this, the dialogue was eye-rolling worthy, a giant cheese fest of velveeta covered filth. Almost as if the screenwriter (who wrote Rendition!?) gave a nod to Storm's line in X:Men "Do you know what happens to a toad when it get's struck by lightning? Same thing that happens to everything else." Ugghhhhh.

On the plus side, we get to see (a completely useless) appearance by Gambit, an (almost useless) introduction of Cyclops, a bald (strange cameo of) Ryan Reynolds, Liev Shreiber gettin' some on an M-60 Full Metal Jacket style, and of course, the origin of Wolverine, even if it's quick enough to be fit into a You Tube video.

XMO:W is like Superman ice cream. It looks cool, but once you realize it's really just vanilla it's a let down. XMO:Wolverine is very entertaining, but it leaves too many loose ends that could only be tied up in a sequel... to a prequel. A second 'origin' doesn't really make much sense, but it looks like it'll happen. Who knows, maybe this'll be another trilogy. Check it out, perhaps you'll agree.

6.5/10