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Reviews
Star Trek (2009)
Well done J J Adams and crew!
Blimey, this was good. On the strength of this film I consider it a pity that J J Abrams wasn't given The Lord of the Rings to bring to the screen. I've been with Star Trek from the beginning, through all its incarnations, and can only rejoice in what's been done in this movie. After the terrible let-down that was Brian Jackson's interpretation of Tolkien's much loved trilogy (and here let me say that I love most of his other work), I was expecting the worst from a re-worked Star Trek, especially since I have been supremely unimpressed by Abrams' other work. Quite simply, I was blown away by this film. Chris Pine is incredibly accurate in his portrayal of a James T Kirk who came through a different, obviously more troubled, childhood and adolescence, from the Kirk portrayed by William Shatner. Zachary Quinto is almost more like Spock than Spock himself. McCoy took a few scenes to convince me, as did Chekov and Sulu, but having reviewed the original series, I'm completely won over by their portrayals; the actors picked out characteristics that were there all the time in the original, but that I'd overlooked. The only disappointment for me was Simon Pegg's Scotty. I thought at first I didn't take to him because he didn't live up to the expectation generated by early reviewers, who rated him the best thing in the movie. But, having watched it several more times, I still cannot see why people rate his portrayal so highly. I find it somewhat light-weight, and not that amusing. The new Uhura is interesting – different from the original, but probably necessarily so, given that the way women and their roles are viewed has evolved considerably since the sixties. It's a nice tweak to have Spock in a romantic relationship; in the original series several women fell for him, but rarely did he respond in kind, and only under some outside influence. One review I read on here despaired that the new Spock lost control when taunted. In the original series, given the right circumstances, he certainly became violent on occasion, and it was Kirk who knew which buttons to press. In addition, in this movie it is the elder Spock himself who points out how to provoke his younger self. In my humble opinion this is a great movie. Can't wait for the sequel.
Merlin (2008)
disappointing
Well, it didn't get better. Why call it Merlin? Why not call it something else, and say it's based loosely around Arthurian legends? Perhaps then expectation would not be disappointed. Myths and legends had a purpose
one or two main themes intended to inspire their audience. That's why it's not a good idea to play around with them, unless a clear new message or inspiration emerges from the tangle. Maybe I'm growing cynical in my dotage, but I saw nothing inspirational in this series. Am now giving up on it. Pity, because there is some acting talent in there, although I'm not naming names as I don't presume to be any kind of expert. Personally, I found the scripts amateurish, but again, each to his own. Story lines were unoriginal and poorly researched, I felt. And I'm beginning to tire of the constant use of magic in so many recent productions
it can lead to laziness in plotting. Most younger members of my family gave up on this series long ago, much as they have with both Robin Hood and Doctor Who. Maybe a return to quality over gimmickry is in order.
Doctor Who (2005)
Disappointing
Over the last couple of years I have tried, tried, and tried again to get into this new Doctor Who manifestation. I have held out the hope over the last couple of years or so that it might improve. It turned out to be a vain hope. Much of what I feel has already been posted in the 'hated it' section, so I'll just register my vote and say that I'm really disappointed. The acting is not good, the story lines and scripting are, with one or two exceptions, pretty poor, the effects are neither brilliant nor endearingly bad. Such a shame; I have fond memories of Doctor Who from years gone by. I have to write more, I've been informed, so I'll just say that the worst thing about the first season was Billie Piper. I was really rooting for her to do well, but grew more and more apathetic towards her performance as the series progressed.
Dead Like Me (2003)
Disappointing
I hired out the first DVD on the strength of the glowing reviews here. Unfortunately, despite trying really hard to like it, I found it quite boring. I thought maybe the problem was with me, so I asked one of my sons to view it. He fell asleep half way through the pilot. We agreed that part of the problem was the narration. Somehow it seemed to dilute the action. My son was not impressed by the acting, but I didn't think it was too bad. The writing could have been tighter, but again wasn't that bad. It's an interesting premise, but maybe there was too much explanation too soon. Difficult to say exactly why, but it just didn't work at all for me.
Now Voyager (1985)
Something refreshingly different
Innovative and entertaining, I would expect no less from the talented Barry Gibb. While his acting is never going to set the world on fire, what he achieves is more than adequate for this collection of music videos connected by an offbeat storyline. There are enough fine actors involved to take up the slack. And, of course, he's always easy on the eye. Mr Gibb's music is as accomplished as ever, and his performances are polished and supremely professional. I find it hard to believe that I've never heard of this gem, or indeed any of the songs, in the fifteen or so years since its making. Fortunately, I stumbled across it on my DVD rental shop's lists. Although all the songs are worthy, stand-outs are Stay Alone and Shine Shine, both accompanied by attractive cameos. Not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but it passed a very pleasant hour or so for me and left a few haunting images and tunes in my mind.