John Berry

5 – 13 - 09

--------Well May certainly is a big month for movies. It opened up with Wolverine, followed by Star Trek, and will close out with a new Terminator movie. How long have we been waiting for a Terminator movie focusing on the post apocalyptic aspect of the story? A long time. On top of that I caught a second viewing of the Watchmen movie.

-------So Star Trek then…OMFG!!! Now the movie looked good from the trailers but holy crap I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be so good. I suspected it would be good. It had all the signs. J.J. Abrams has been on fuego lately. We all watched as the cast was announced, every casting masterfully done. It was looking to be a fun ride, and if things went well a re-launch of the Star Trek franchise. I was hopeful. Lets face it the last good offering was deep space nine. Since then it has gone down hill. Voyager was weaker than Lost In Space, and Enterprise was even less entertaining than that. The only interesting character between the two shows mentioned above was T’pol, and that was only because Jolene Blalock was insanely hot. So the Star Trek franchise was going down hill fast and it seemed like they couldn’t put out a quality show. At the end of the Deep Space Nine series the Star Trek universe was a very interesting place. I wanted to see what was coming next. The Voyager series had already started and it was way the hell out there and wouldn’t address what was going on in the very political Star Trek Universe. So next they do Enterprise and its way back in time before the federation even had access to shields. Again no hope. This is my only regret at the current state of the Star Trek Universe. Seeing how awesome the new movie, cast, and production on the last film were they are probably going to go forward with the new continuity. More on continuity later.

---------Last Friday I took my girl to see the 11:15 AM showing. I had my Super Big Gulp and she had her bottle of water and medium popcorn. We were ready. I never really considered myself a Trekie. I was always a much bigger fan of the Star Wars movies. However I found myself at the 10 AM showing of Star Trek Generations at the front of the line on opening day back in 94. At that point I realized that I was a bit of a Trekie. I still liked Star Wars more, however I love Star Trek to. We don’t have to choose between the two. So here we are, not the first showing but close, ready for some Star Trek. We are both huge Lost fans and were expecting a good show if for no other reason than the J.J. Abrams involvement. The previews rolled and then the movie started. Boom!!! It was on from the start. This movie was the balls! Sure it had good special effect. The action sequences were well done. The actors almost all gave a good performance. Where this movie really excelled in the script department. This movie was straight up well written. Who knew? In my opinion this movie surpassed any Star Wars movie that I have see, and I have seen them all. Take note George Lucas.

-----------Star Wars always had that magical feeling to it that Star Trek was never able to duplicate. Star Wars had the starfighters and the lightsabers. They had the colorful aliens. Star Trek on the other hand was the hard-core science Sci-fi. Both are legitimate however I always found myself more excited about Star Wars. Maybe it was the Rarity of it all. Up until the second trilogy all Star Wars really had was the three movies. Star Trek on the other hand had way more movies and several TV series. Star Wars was the rare treasure whereas there was hundreds of hours of Star Trek to watch. Ill tell you what though, I would love to see a new Star Trek series now. JJ Abrams isn’t above doing a TV series. I don’t think any of the actors would turn their nose up at a TV series. I know we are already a go for a sequel in 2011, but lets do this. Lets do a Star Trek series right.

-----------Over the years I have made so many allowances for cheesy crap in movies. I have forgiven so much in movies because I loved the intellectual property and wanted to enjoy. Off the top of my head films like Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Ghost Rider leap out at me. Why does Hollywood take beloved characters and write cheesy movies about them? There are so many good unknown writers out there that would kill to write a good Fantastic Four movie. Why would the studio execs approve such poorly written scripts? Makes you wonder if the people making the calls have ever actually picked up a comic book.

-----------Lets talk about a comic book movie done right. The year was 1986. DC put out the Watchmen. Now super heroes and the villains that fight them are my favorite genre. So naturally a comic book that looks at the whole genre from a perspective previously never seen before is going to appeal to me. The Watchmen brought a maturity to the genre that was previously non-existent. It was, is, and always will be a masterpiece in every sense of the word. It was a gritty look at super heroes that stands out to this day. I originally read this book in the comic book shop. It wasn’t until a couple years later that I actually owned a copy. That copy was stolen however no library is complete without it so I of course have since purchased another copy. I couldn’t say how many times I have read The Watchmen however I will say this. Every time I read this story I find something new. It is so layered and profound there really is nothing like it.

----------This is a movie I have wanted to see since 1986. I never thought that it could be done. Nobody did. There was simply too much material there. We were wrong. The movie that couldn’t be mad was made and it is awesome. Now I’m not a big crier at movies to be sure. But I would be lying to you if I said a tear did not escape my eye during the opening montage set to “The times they are a changing” by Bob Dylan. The Comedian fight was sweet but it really hit home for me seeing all these scenes from the comic book manifested perfectly on the big screen. I only wish it was playing on an IMAX screen within 40 miles of my house.

---------Of course they were going to have to cut out a lot to make a movie of it. I was cool without the “Under the Hood” and “Tales of the Black Freighter” segments. I hear they are going to pull a Lord of the Rings and release a longer version later this year that will contain the elements. I applaud this as well. It’s a shame that they can,t release a four hour movie straight to the theaters. They say patience is a virtue. I wouldn’t know.

----------I would say just about every super hero movie diverges from the original material to varying degrees. In this case I have no complaints. I feel the changes that were made, squid, only served to improve the storyline. To me this is the greatest super hero movie yet. I know a lot of people think it was The Dark Knight.

----------I am left wanting more of course. I want to see how exactly Moloch proved to be a challenge for Doctor Manhattan. I want to see what the big blue man does after leaving Earth. I want to see the humans he creates. I want to see more. I doubt however that we will. It's too risky. Look what happened to The Dark Knight Returns 2. Now there was a steaming pile.

---------Speaking of Moloch I have got to say what an excellent job of casting. Max Headroom was the perfect fit. Now, as I watch my Lakers play, I think of Moloch every time I see Jordan Farmar and his Moloch-esque ears.

---------Now in closing. Sulu’s sword is no lightsaber, however imagine how much damage it would do in the hands of the Hulk.