'Bred Crumbs
12.21.02
Lest you think after the two previous entries that I really care that much about a Star Trek movie, let's move on to the movie that matters.
Got to The Two Towers yesterday, and I'm ready to go again. Not that there was really any doubt after The Fellowship of the Ring, but Peter Jackson clearly has full command of The Lord of the Rings. The middle of the trilogy is a little more flawed than the first gem in the crown – what's the point of Éowyn making moony eyes at Aragorn, and can we let go of the dwarf-tossing jokes? – but there's nothing that seriously damages the grandeur. The last two books of Tolkien's saga are definitely more of a challenge than the linear, single-minded first part, and Jackson continues to make wise decisions about how to make the saga work on film, and finds ways to add personal touches in between the breathtaking scenery, stunning effects and massive battles. The acting continues to excel all-around, and what they've done with Gollum is just incredible.
And you know what else is more than cool about the Lord of the Rings movies? There's no damned product placement. No iMacs in Rivendell, no FedEx trucks bringing news from Gondor, no Coke machines in Helm's Deep. For that alone, these movies deserve ten times the huge amounts of praise and money they're getting.
12.18.02
[T]he filmmakers' first glimpse of [Tom] Hardy was a homemade video the actor shot of himself while on location in Morocco. He delivered dialogue from the 'Star Trek: Nemesis' script in the nude.
"I was riveted by it, and Rick (Berman) was too," recalls [Patrick] Stewart.
All I have to say is, that audition tape had better be on the DVD.
12.15.02
The perspective of this movie review is that of one who has never really taken to the post-Kirk Star Trek works and finds its most recent spawn to be utterly wretched. And I have trouble seeing how the intense Trek fans can take so seriously a fictional universe that's so artificial. During Star Trek: Nemesis, while many around me gasped, impressed, as a character detailed how many of various kinds of doodads a Romulan ship was armed with, I was still stuck on, How the fuck are these two distant civilizations named Romulus and Remus, fer cryin' out loud?
So maybe it's faint praise to stay that Star Trek: Nemesis is much better than I expected – flawed, but sufficiently involving.
There are a couple of early missteps, such as the side trip to a sepia-toned planet (either that, or the crew stumbled into one of the Mexico scenes in Traffic). And, really, shouldn't Picard and his clone have had more in common physically than a lack of hair?
But the movie eventually becomes diverting, even surprising. There's a little genuine tension and emotional connection, and I've never found Patrick Stewart's Picard this, pardon the pun, engaging. Quick, transport Stuart Baird (director) and John Logan (screenplay writer) to tend to Enterprise. This sickly old franchise can yet be revived.
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Local radio station Live 105 (broadcasting live from the Metreon, where I saw Nemesis) won lots of points today, simply by coming out of commercial promising "another Creed-free hour."
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