Entertainment Weekly Reviews The Star Trek Movies

[Mudd]

As a young, newly-married type I found movie tickets and popcorn too much of a strain on the budget to spring for printed programs.

 

[RColtrane]

Hey, I want one of those duty jacket!!

 

[Greg Cox]

Have they reviewed KHAN yet?

 

[cardinal biggles]

As of two minutes ago, nope.

 

[DonIago]

How bout now???!!!???

 

[Khan 2.0]

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/06/star-trek-ii-wrath-khan-geekly

 

[Greg Cox]

Thanks for the link. Great article.

 

[DonIago]

I liked the article but it actually didn't discuss a bunch of things I kind of wish it had touched on.

 

[Leto_II]

Yeah...while I get (and enjoy) many of the author's points, in both of these pieces it's also pretty clear that he's sometimes more in love with the splendor of his own snark than in actually digging deeper into some of the various themes.

Still, it's not a bad read by any means.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Very good treatment of TWOK. This one also brought some fresh observations and ideas to the table.

 

[DonIago]

If the review of TSFS doesn't discuss how it inverts the themes of TWOK I'll be sorely disappointed. But yeah, even though the reviews aren't quite hitting all the bases I'd like them to, there's a lot of interesting material to be found and they're quite worth the reading time.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I liked the article but it actually didn't discuss a bunch of things I kind of wish it had touched on.

I liked it. He brought a fresh POV to the movie & made me see some things about it in a new light. Not bad for a film I've seen dozens of times over the last 30 years.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah. If a retrospective review just reiterates the same old points, err, what's the point?

 

[DonIago]

Er, it is possible to discuss things that have been discussed before while also bringing a new perspective or new ideas to them.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I didn't say otherwise.

 

[Shalashaska]

I'm loving these so far. Rather than rehashing old points that have been discussed to death, he's been bringing fresh views and analyses to each film (more so in his review for The Wrath of Khan).

You could study Wrath of Khan as a portrait of different performing styles. Consider William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, and a central paradox of their chemistry. Spock is the alien – a being who strives to rid himself of all emotion – but past a certain point, you notice how Nimoy is a much more natural performer, communicating so much with droll phrasing lilts and micro-gestures. Whereas the human Kirk is played by Shatner, one of Hollywood’s great experts in hyperbole. (Khan is Shatner at his most wide-eyed.) As a young actor, Nimoy learned the Method and idolized Brando; Shatner came up performing energetic Shakespeare. That doesn’t make one better nor one worse – the dissonance is the key – but it adds layers to their pairing. You associate Spock with explicit stiffness – he’s a freakingVulcan – but Nimoy’s acting is maybe more “cinematic,” eye-focused, while Shatner is more “theatrical,” full-bodied. (You may meet more people in your life who remind you of reserved, thoughtful Spock than boisterous, declamatory Kirk; some people think we elected Spock president in 2008.)

Great observation. Nimoy was always the first one to admit that Shatner's performance informed his as Spock. That Spock is more successful when he has Kirk to play off of.

And this gem:

If, for some curious and profoundly unknowable reason, a filmmaker tried to makeWrath of Khan today, that filmmaker might consider this separation of protagonist and antagonist a problem to be fixed – might film lots of scenes with Kirk and Khan together, talking about their motivations, or just punching each other.

I love it.

 

[RAMA]

WoK was the best Trek movie for 27 years. A very good run in my opinion.

I've probably watched it more than any other movie. I very rarely dig it out these days, only when I got the new bluray probably in the last 5-6 years.

 

[Mudd]

Yeah, what makes these reviews worth reading is that they don't rehash the same bullshit that gets repeated over and over.

 

[plynch]

These are very insightful and intelligently composed essays. I can't wait for more.

 

[Mudd]

Star Trek III

This one is brilliant, and yes The Search For Spock is that superficial and bad.