Movie Review - Up!

It's been 14 years since we were first introduced to the wonderful Pixar Studios' production of "Toy Story". I remember seeing that movie and thinking that animated movies would never be the same. I also remember thinking that "Toy Story" would be tough to top. I was so naive.

Since that summer of 1995, Pixar has treated us with spectacular movie experiences just about every year or two. This is a production company that has never known failure. Ever. Every movie they have thrown up onto the big screen has been wildly successful, and that is no accident. The biggest thing Pixar movies have going for them is the sheer breadth of their appeal. The movies, from Toy Story on, have made a concerted effort to not target any specific group; age, ethnic or otherwise. These movies are, quite literally, for everyone from age 3 to 103. Every single production gives you something to enjoy, no matter your demographic. The visuals appeal to both very young and very old alike... the stories are most often both child-like in their innocence, yet mature in their message. The characters are well developed and likable... even the villains. They are cast well, and the animators have an uncanny knack for representing accuracy in delivery: the characters so often just look like the actors playing them even if they don't really look like them. For example, Mr. Incredible looks nothing like Craig T. Nelson, and yet he so much does... it's an uncanny talent that is unique in animated films to Pixar movies, as far as I am concerned.

However, despite all the praise and acclaim I've just heaped upon the folks at Pixar, I've also noticed another peculiar phenomenon concerning their movies. For whatever reason, immediately following "Toy Story 2", each time I would hear of an upcoming Pixar release, I would treat it with relative disinterest. I had loved every movie they had produced up to that point, but the new movies, as they would be teased, just never seemed to capture my attention. Even the wonderful "Finding Nemo", which I think is the high-water mark for Pixar movies to date, was greeted with a barely registering "Eh..." when I first saw the trailer. And that stayed with me right up until the release of the movie. I was blown away when I saw "Nemo", of course. And that movie served to solidify Pixar movies as "must-see" movie events, for me anyhow.

And yet, when "The Incredibles" was released, again I was struck with a weird sense of disinterest. I saw it and loved it, too. The same pattern has continued with each subsequent release up to "Ratatouille". Once I saw that movie, I vowed that whatever it was inside me that wanted to undersell Pixar movies, I was going to bury it deep down and be damn-well excited when the next movie came out. I was wary with "Wall-E", but remained excited... and I was rewarded with one of the best movie's I've seen in years.

So along came the teasers for the latest Pixar production: "Up". And I have to admit... based on the title and the few teasers and trailers I saw, I was once again, struck with a sense of being underwhelmed. This movie just looked boring to me. Clearly I had learned nothing from the prior success of Pixar's films. Pixar has made a habit of being understated with the promotion of its movies, and I think it has served to make the experience all that much more enjoyable when you see them. The same is exactly true for "Up". Before I get to reviewing the movie, for those that have not seen it, I can't recommend it highly enough. Take your kids, your significant other, or your grandmother. Each of them will be rewarded with a wonderful movie experience, and all for different, yet similar reasons. Ok, so on to the review.

SPOILER ALERT!

From this point on, I will likely talk about parts of the movie that might give away the story or plot. Don't read any further if you haven't seen the movie or don't want to spoil it.

As has been Pixar's way over the last few of its films, this movie opens with a quiet, fairly dialog-free scene that is meant to set the stage for the rest of the movie. This has been a recipe for success for many of Pixar's movies... only in "Up", it's the quintessential scene of the entire movie. "Up" starts right off by pulling at your heart strings, and telling a beautiful story without ever saying a word. We learn all about our main character in the first few minutes of the film in a profound and meaningful way... and the man never speaks a word.

"Up", despite its complete lack of a love interest throughout most of the movie, is in fact a love story. It's a love story in the abstract... one in which a quiet man feels the meaning in his life disappear with the passing of the love of his life. He has seemingly had a good, long life with his beloved, and yet now, near the end of his days, feels the weight of a promise made, heretofore unfulfilled. The promise made between two young adventurers to someday visit the lost world of their long-gone childhood hero.

And the audience is immediately invested in the story. So much so that once Carl Fredricksen (voice by Ed Asner) decides it's time to fulfil that promise to his deceased wife, no-one really questions the outrageous method he uses to get to South America: by using enough helium filled balloons attached to andirons in his fire-place to lift his entire house off its foundation and fly the air currents south. It's preposterous. And completely ok. It is sweet and naive and fun and it would be heinous of a movie-goer to even question the probability of it. If that's your reaction then this movie probably isn't for you. In fact you should probably avoid Pixar movies altogether, as talking cars and monsters in the closet probably would make you just as irritable.

This movie of course has several interesting and well thought-out subplots. A young boy, Russel, looking to acquire badges for his scout sash becomes an unwitting stowaway on the flying home. Russel is an innocent, naive, but good hearted little boy who comes from an apparently broken home and is in desperate need of a father-figure. Carl, being single-minded in his purpose of getting his house, who he has now personified as his late wife,Ellie, to the lost world in South America, sees Russel as an inconvenience and an annoyance. And it is here that the movie begins to shape its message.

The rest of the movie is framed around forming relationships and letting those relationships take you in places you never expected. Carl, poor soul, feels incomplete since his wife passed away. He feels that he is missing something, and he believes with every fiber of his being that he has but one last task to complete to make his life complete. He made a promise to Ellie, and he meant to keep it, or risk living out his life feeling like he had disappointed her.

But it is during the very adventure of trying to fulfil this promise that he learns that his life was full and wonderful, and what he was missing now was not the fulfillment of a promise made in his youth, but the living of a life the way he had lived it before Ellie died... with hope and love and kinship towards someone who means something special to you. Carl needed Russel in his life (and Doug, of course... the dog they find along the way), and similarly Russel needed Carl. And in her wisdom, Ellie knew this all along. And in the "adventure book" she had kept, a book that Carl had not looked through since they were kids, Ellie left her own legacy to Carl, with pictures and mementos of the real adventure she had lived. She had long since given up the childhood fantasies she once carried in favor of an adventure far more meaningful and satisfying, and now she was urging Carl to do the same. And in becoming a part of Russel's life, he did just that, and in that way, did fulfil his promise.

In typical Pixar fashion, "Up" is ripe with humor, from the comically tense early interactions between Carl and Russel, to the strange dogs that live on the lost plateau in South America that wear collars that allow them to speak their thoughts (the funniest bit in the movie involves the "alpha dog" and the effect of a somewhat broken collar). Pixar knows how to push all the right buttons, and "Up" is no exception. I found myself at various times equally amused, entertained, and thought-provoked.

So once again, Pixar has managed to give us a portrait of life, to be enjoyed and cherished, in a 90 minute snapshot. Enjoy it and embrace it, as I did... and hope, as I do, that the next Pixar offering lives up to the impossibly high standards they continue to set for themselves.

Movie Review: Star Trek - Part 2

For part one of this review, please scroll down to the previous entry.

When word started to come out that the latest in the Star Trek line of movies was going to be a redux of the original crew, re-cast with up and coming young actors, I have to admit I was both intrigued and skeptical.  This was a clear gamble by Paramount... as I discussed in my prior post, breathing new life into the original series crew and the stories that surround them had unlimited potential.  On the flip side, a poorly written plot, or poor casting could doom the franchise permanently. The casting part in particular was crucial.  This isn't your run-of-the-mill re-make... this is Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scott, Bones... these are cultural icons and larger than life personalities. Leonard Nimoy became so synonymous with his Spock character that he found it nearly impossible to find work as an actor outside of that role, and had an identity crisis that stayed with him most of his life, to the point that he wrote a best-selling book about it.  Getting the characters for the original crew cast properly was critical. And to their credit, J.J Abrams and his crew did an outstanding job of casting the roles.  

Eschewing larger name actors for the major roles, Abrams pegged the young and fairly unknown Chris Pine for the role of Kirk, while casting 'Heroes' uber-villain Zachary Quinto as a convincing Spock. In what may have been the most controversial casting move, Abrams picked the super-sexy Zoe Saldana, another relative unknown, for the part of Uhura, and then gave that character a more interesting and dynamic role than I think anyone would have imagined.

Warning!  From this point, there may be some spoilers... not so much on the plot or the film's conclusion, but on some of the more important plot points of the movie and character interactions.  

The movie starts out jumping right into the plot, with Jim Kirk's father, George, serving aboard the USS Kelvin.  The plot immediately deviates from the traditional "Trek" lore when George is killed during an attack on the Kelvin.  It is during this attack James T. Kirk is born (and we also learn the origin of his middle name, 'Tiberius') as his mother is ushered off of the badly damaged Kelvin.  This initial scene, and how it deviates from the original 'Star Trek' lore concerning Jim Kirk's father, is actually critical to the plot as the movie develops.  In fact, while it is not immediately clear to the movie-goer at the time, this one encounter is a space-time event, and completely re-shapes the lives of the original Enterprise crew, and from that point forward, all original 'Trek' lore is completely wiped away as a new 'Trek' universe is created.

I'd like to spend a moment talking about that aspect of the movie.  There are several aspects of this movie that are what I would consider HUGE gambles for the 'Trek' franchise.  But from my vantage-point, I consider them all brilliant moves.  First off, killing off Kirk's father early in the movie (an even that never took place in the original 'Trek' lore) adds an entirely new element to Kirk's personality and motivation.  This is a theme that is touched upon several times in the movie.  In fact, in one of the best lines of the movie, Captain Pike (who served with Kirk's father aboard the Kelvin) reminds Kirk that his father "served as Captain for exactly 12 minutes, and saved 800 lives... I dare you to do better".  So again, here we have an entirely new aspect to Kirk's psyche to explore that did not exist in the prior Trek world.

In another stunning plot twist, as a result of the same "space-time" event that destroys the Kelvin, the entire planet Vulcan is destroyed... turned into a quantum singularity (one of Star Trek's favorite plot devices over the years) by something called "Red matter".  Only a small fragment of the Vulcan population survives.  Later it is revealed that the person, however indirectly, responsible for all the chaos is none other than a much older Spock (reprised, of course, by Leonard Nimoy) in a time several hundred years into the future.  

At this point it is clear that what the writers are doing here is not only creating an exciting and interesting set of plot devices, but in doing so, completely wiping the slate clean on the entire Star Trek universe.  This, I imagine, is done with the foresight of introducing a new series or movie sequels, using the original crew, but unbound by any of the lore or story-lines of the prior series.  In essence, the original crew of the Enterprise is re-born, and is starting over from day one.  

This concept is the essential launching point for the rest of the movie.  The events that lead up to the 'alternate' universe for Kirk and the rest of the crew, and the events that follow during the movie, almost feel secondary to the characters and their interactions in this new world.  And I think this is a good thing.  It's not that the story is all that terrible, it's just not all that important once the major plot points are laid out early on. As a Trek fan and a viewer, I was far more drawn in by the back stories surrounding the crew members... especially Kirk and Spock.  In fact, I could have watched, with great interest, an entire movie devoted to Kirk's character and his development, with more focus on his time at Star Fleet Academy.  And similarly, I would loved to have spent two hours with Spock's character and his development.

And it's at this point that I think the movie hits a home run:  the interplay between Kirk and Spock.  One of the things that I never liked about the original series was that Kirk and Spock were such complete polar opposites, yet had such admiration and respect for each other and were ultimately the best of friends.  I know, I know... that was supposed to be the juxtaposition, but the fact is that even if they ended up as friends, they NEVER would have started out that way.  In fact, they likely would have started out hating each other.  And in this film, that's exactly the dynamic that Abrams explores. Kirk and Spock spend most of the film as direct, fierce adversaries, and it is in this dynamic that we learn the most about their respective characters. Those two should have hated one another, especially in their youthful, developmental days. Kirk and Spock share a contempt for each of the other's reputed strongest qualities: Spock finds Kirk's impulsiveness and neglect of basic protocol wreckless and dangerous, and Kirk finds Spock's adherence to regulation and logic cold and calculating. This leads to a palpable tension between the two, and a clear dislike. In one rare adherence to 'Trek' lore we are shown Kirk's solution to the 'Kobayashi Maru' (no-win scenario) test at Starfleet Academy.  This event really did have to be explored in this film, as it is a central construct to Kirk's personality (he famously declares 'I don't believe in no-win scenarios').  However, the writers put an interesting spin on the incident, making Spock the person who programmed the test, as well as the primary accuser during Kirk's hearing on the incident.  Thus the initial animosity is born.

Speaking of Spock, I really thought Abrams and his writers did a great job of putting more focus on Spock's youthful character, and highlighting how it would have differed from the Spock he would become later in his life as part of the original crew in the original series.  Being half-human, no doubt the young Spock would have been filled with conflict regarding his place, and would have struggled restraining his more 'human' impulses.  Abrams explores these aspects wonderfully, albeit briefly.  This lends Spock's character, in this movie, to be far more flawed than ever would have been allowed with the original Spock character.  Additionally, it allowed the writers to introduce another key element that would serve to heighten the tension between Spock and Kirk:  Spock's intimate relationship with Uhura (again, a plot twist that never would have been accepted with the original characters, but within the constructs of this movie, it is perfectly acceptable), whom Kirk has been hitting on since early in the movie.

The rest of the characters are well cast by Abrams. 'Bones' McCoy is played admirably, if not a little over the top, by action movie regular Karl Urban (of Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Riddick fame).  Anton Yelchin takes on the role of Chekov, and does a pretty good job, despite the over-play of the humor in his Russian accent.  The 'Asian ubiquitous' John Cho plays an excellent Sulu, and Scottish comedian Simon Pegg reprises the role of Scottie with great humor, along with a much more believable Scottish accent and mannerisms.  In an interesting twist, the more famous actors that appear in this film play more bit roles, with the exception of Eric Bana, who makes a wonderfully understated primary villain.  Other big names making bit appearances:  Winona Ryder as Spock's mother, Ben Cross as Spock's father, Jennifer Morrison (House's Dr. Cameron) as Kirk's mother, and of course Nimoy as the "future Spock".

As I said, the most engaging aspects of this film have little to do with the plot.  The plot is there to set up the bigger parts of the story, and then to sort of act as an agent to force the interaction of the primary characters, and not get in the way... and in this way it works wonderfully.  Some would call the plot weak and contrived.  I'm not sure about contrived, but it might be a little weak.  However I see this as a good thing in this case.  A half-hour into the film, I couldn't care less about Nero and the Narada and who they were going to attack next... I wanted to see Kirk and Spock interact... I wanted to see Uhura and Spock explore their relationship... I wanted to see the integration of the other characters, and enjoy the interplay off of one another, and I got that in spades.  

As with most 'Trek' movies and many episodes, the whole 'space-time' rip meme gets old and confusing, and while I understand why it was needed to set up the events that would define the movie, I still hate it.  It's never well explained, you are always just supposed to 'accept it' without question. And for the sake of the rest of the movie, I will... but I'm warning you, 'Trek' producers, we're all getting sick of how easy it is to screw with space-time.  It's just too convenient and easy a plot device to do whatever you want.  Just ask the audience of "Generations".  

Beyond that minor nit-pick, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this film.  It gave me everything I wanted as a 'Trek' fan, while inserting elements I never expected, and can't wait to explore further.  As I said above, the whole film feels like a set-up for more movies or even a series.  If it is written and acted as well as this movie, it can't come soon enough.

Grade: A

Movie Review: Star Trek - PART 1

This is going to be a bit of a long post, so I'm going to break it into two parts.  The first will be a reflection of Star Trek over the years leading up to the release of the latest Star Trek production, and the second will be a review of the movie itself... Enjoy!

OK... I admit it... I'm a Trek fan.  I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a "Trekkie", as I've never attended a Trek convention or dressed up in any Trek costumes, but I started watching the

show regularly when "The Next Generation" came out in the 80's and I was hooked.  After that I went back and caught all the old episodes from the original series.  Campy, cheesy, sci-fi goodness.  The Trek universe evolved, and we were given "Deep Space 9", which, while not as acclaimed as either the original or 'TNG', was under-rated.  DS9 allowed for deeper character development and a more meaningful ongoing plot as opposed to the episode-by-episode plots that had to exist by the very nature of the "explorer starship" theme.  

Things began to go a little south for the Trek productions after the final episode of 'TNG' was aired.It was clear the Trek world had more to offer, and fans were clamoring for more. But production executives worried that the 'Enterprise' label was getting stale. So 

instead of re-treading the Enterprise for 

more exploratory voyages in the section of the galaxy Trek fans were already familiar with, they instead came up with the concept of a completely new ship getting accidentally flung to the farthest quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy, and thus was born "Voyager".  Voyager had many issues that turned core Trek fans off.  First, I always felt the

 casting was weak.  Second, they spent far too many episodes on story lines that revolved around the ship perhaps finding a

 shortcut home.  Well, viewers all knew before the episode was 10 minutes old that this wasn't going to happen or the show would be done.  It was sort of like Gilligan's island in that way.  

Not that 'Voyager' was all bad.  It had its moments, but overall it did not have the hook that the prior Trek series' had.  It often seemed stale and contrived, and the regular influx of new species and cultures was difficult to keep up with.

In the meantime, Paramount kept cranking out Trek movies with the 'TNG' cast, and they were all far more successful at the box office than the viewership of 'Voyager' would make one think.  And that was when producers realized that part of the appeal to the current generation of Trek fans was the familiarity with the original Trek world.  The original Trek world was well defined, with cultures that were well known and well liked.  Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans, Cardacians and the Borg.  It became clear to producers that what Trek fans really wanted was more of the original Trek world, and so they gave them 'Enterprise'.

'Enterprise' was a chance to build an entire new platform of stories in a completely different world than any other Trek series prior, while at the same time doing so within the already well known and well established Trek paradigm.  This was a really brilliant idea, and the show itself was excellent.  Well produced, written, and acted, the fatal flaw with 'Enterprise' was not with the show itself, but with the distribution and marketing.  By not marketing the show hard enough to one of the major networks (or frankly by not putting the show directly into syndication as was done with 'TNG' and 'DS9') and placing the show on UPN, with its small viewership, 'Enterprise' was doomed from the start.  The show was cancelled after 4 seasons.

However, on the big screen side of things, the 'TNG' crew had pretty much run its course.  "Generations", while it did well at the box office, was received fairly mildly by most fans.  In stark contrast, "First Contact" was hailed as  one of the best in the big screen Trek series.  It was followed up by the forgettable "Insurrection" and lastly by the nearly unwatchable "Nemesis".  It was pretty clear that ideas for the 'TNG' crew were pretty much run out.  "Nemesis" flopped badly, and it was thought that might be the death knell for the Trek series.

However, Trek producers knew they had stumbled on to something with 'Enterprise'... the premise of the show occurring before any of the other Trek series', but in the same familiar world, allowed for completely new plot devices to be constructed on already familiar stories.  What if, they asked, they could pull the same stunt with the original Star Trek crew in a time before fans got to know them?  When the original show aired, the characters and their relationships were already pretty well established.  The development of those relationships was secondary to the episode-to-episode plots.  

In recent years, going 'back to the beginning' has become a familiar plot device, especially in sci-fi.  For example, in the short-lived but highly acclaimed 'Firefly' series, the show starts out in the middle, where the characters already know one another well and inter-personal relationships have pretty much been long established.  However, one of the most beloved episodes in that series involves Capt. Reynolds reminiscing about how he first met each of the crew members. This same sort of thing could work for the crew of the Enterprise, surely!  And so the plot for the newest Star Trek movie was hatched.  And indeed, once details of the movie began to surface: that it would be a movie exploring the initial meetings and interactions of the original series crew, albeit with new cast members, the Trek world was abuzz.  It was a fresh start, a breath of new life into one of the most beloved sci-fi series of all time.  And I, for one, couldn't wait to see it.