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Podcast: Revisiting the Kelvin-verse in ‘Star Trek’ (2009)

In case you’re interested, I was a guest on Luke and Matt’s Sci-Fi Sanctuary podcast, where we talked about the 2009 reboot Star Trek movie, which of course I reviewed here many years ago.

This was my first time doing a podcast, even though podcasts are everywhere and so many people seem to have one. But Matt and Luke were kind enough to invite me on, and we sat down to record a couple weeks ago.

Now, I’ve never done this before, and I don’t have a voice for radio or any sort of polished on-air presentation, which is why I usually stay behind the keyboard. But I thought it might be fun to try something different.

I talk a little bit about the history of Jammer’s Reviews, then we dive into the subject of Trek ’09, discussing things ranging from new actors stepping into iconic roles, Nero’s strange methodology for sending hails, the way black holes (don’t) work, ship and set designs, and how a movie reboots itself in-universe by using time-travel.

Wow, has it really been 13 years since this movie came out? It doesn’t seem like it.

Listen to the podcast here (79 minutes)

Review: ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’

Endings are hard. This we know.

Lost. Battlestar Galactica. Game of Thrones. The Sopranos. The Matrix trilogy. The first Star Wars trilogy. The prequel Star Wars trilogy. The list is endless. The question is always the same: "Can they stick the landing?" Invariably, the reception is mixed, although some receptions are more mixed than others. (Does that even make sense? Who cares?)

The Rise of Skywalker had the pressure to not only resolve a trilogy, but three trilogies. What I’ve learned over the years is when it comes to any long-standing work of pop entertainment, the creators have an almost impossible job, because they can’t please everyone. The reality is that we all find it fun to imagine our version of the final chapter of a movie or TV series. But the creators have the responsibility of having to actually make a choice and do something. They can’t do everything. And their choices will not please everyone.

My long-delayed review of this movie is not likely to please everyone, either. Or maybe anyone. Like my Star Trek Into Darkness review, I feel like I’m alone in the wildnerness by not hating this movie, and actually sort of liking it.

Read the full review here…

Trailer: ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’

The first teaser trailer for Episode IX has dropped. Discuss it here!

Review: ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’

There’s nothing wrong with Solo: A Star Wars Story, except maybe that it comes across as completely and totally routine. It plays everything safe. Nothing really unexpected happens here. This is a competent, entertaining, well-paced and reasonably plotted space adventure. It is not bold or inventive or subversive or anything else. As so-called Star Wars "anthology movies" go (all two of them), this is a step down from Rogue One in terms of vision and ambition, even if it is inherently more fun. This is comfort food, plain and simple.

The original directors of the film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, helmed The Lego Movie, which was inventive and subversive. They were fired well into production of Solo under the catch-all Hollywood headline of "creative differences." Franchise torch-bearer Kathleen Kennedy and writer Lawrence Kasdan — among the most grizzled Star Wars veterans still in the game — apparently did not agree with the style of the young whippersnappers.

Enter Ron Howard, who came in to replace Lord and Miller. Howard delivers a straightforward Star Wars action-adventure that fits right into this universe. He disappears as a hired pro. Aside from the obligatory cameo by his brother Clint, you wouldn’t even know he was there. John Williams is notably absent (aside from lifting key themes from Williams’ past compositions, John Powell’s score doesn’t sound as Williams-esque as Michael Giacchino’s work in Rogue One), but this movie otherwise feels like all the rest.

Read the full review…

Review: ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

I didn’t set out to post my long-delayed review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi on May the Fourth. It actually was a complete coincidence. But I’ll take the coincidence in the spirit of appropriate fun nonetheless.

What is most striking about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, is that it has larger themes and aspirations that venture outside the space opera roots typically explored in this franchise. In that regard, it goes above and beyond perhaps any Star Wars movie to date and, in its very Star Wars way, moves into the thematic realm of — well, Star Trek. And, for that matter, also Battlestar Galactica.

Taken in its broad strokes, this entire film is a series of Star Wars takes on the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario. It’s not clear until the very end of The Last Jedi, but this entire film is actually about what heroes do when faced with a number of limited options that continues to shrink until there are almost no options at all. These scenarios force impossible decisions that are born from utter desperation, huge individual sacrifices for the greater good, and pyrrhic victories that are crucially symbolic — because otherwise, in practicality, they are crushing defeats.

Read the full review…

Star Trek: Tarantino — say what?

So, apparently discussions of Quentin Tarantino directing an R-rated Star Trek movie are underway, which is possibly the most unexpected headline I have seen this week, and that’s in a world where Donald Trump is president.

I don’t know what to say at the moment. Does this actually have a chance of happening? Can Tarantino pull something like this off? And what should we make of the fact he wants to hire a screenwriter, which he never does with his films?

This is very strange, very intriguing, and possibly very impossible. I’ve said that Trek can be many things, but can it really be the product of Tarantino’s style?

‘Rogue One’ prioritizes the war in ‘Star Wars’


As usual, everything happens on my own delayed timetable, and this review, which was mostly written three months ago, got put on the back burner until I could finally get around to finishing it. With it coming out on Blu-ray and DVD this week, it felt like a good time to get it done already.

Rogue One is a highly entertaining example of what might be the true long-term future of Star Wars. A year after a successful rebooting via the first entry in a sequel trilogy that went to painstaking efforts to live and breathe the same sensibilities of Lucas’ original trilogy (to the point that it essentially retold A New Hope), we now have our first “stand-alone” anthology outing — which might serve as the answer to the question of what Star Wars unmoored from the Skywalker family name might actually look like. The answer: It looks and feels exactly like we’re in the Star Wars universe, but it inhabits a noticeably altered take and tone. For the first time, it seems, under director Gareth Edwards, we have a new owner turned loose in the store.

Read the review here.

Donald Trump live-tweets ‘Star Trek Beyond’

Beyond Trump
Below is a transcript of Donald Trump’s Twitter feed as he watched “Star Trek Beyond” at a recent screening.

  • This is going to be one of the all-time best movie reviews. I have the best words.
  • The Bad Robot logo is one of the worst logos in all of Hollywood. Total disaster from JJ Abrams. I always hire the best graphic designers.
  • Stupid Jim Kirk STILL in charge of Enterprise. After what happened 3 yrs ago in San Fran he should’ve been tried for treason! Unbelievable!
  • Kirk went against the military’s brave Admiral Marcus and instead sided with a terrorist and thousands died b/c of it. #LockKirkUp
  • (Read more…)

Review: ‘Star Trek Beyond’ aims to get (sort of) back to basics

Star Trek Beyond
From a storytelling perspective, Star Trek Beyond represents a deliberate attempt to take the reboot film series back to the primary roots of Star Trek. It scales back the self-mirroring franchise-metatext ambitions shown in both the previous J.J. Abrams-helmed films and delivers what might best be described as a super-sized traditional Star Trek episode amped up on current-day filmmaking and visual effects steroids.

I just kind of wish I had liked it more.

Read the entire review.

At long last, my review of ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’

Star Trek Into Darkness
I really don’t have a good reason for why my review for Star Trek Into Darkness took three years to write and post. I could give you the usual reasons, all mostly valid (I have two kids, a family, a job, and still like to keep up with the TV shows I want to watch, I pushed it aside in favor of Star Wars reviews and a website redesign, blah, blah, etc.), but in reality it pretty much comes down to this: After I didn’t manage to get it out after the first three or four months, inertia set in and it only got progressively worse, because at any given point I knew that it didn’t matter if I got it out now or in a few more months. So inertia kept me idle. Then six more months would go by, and six more…

Probably the main reason it’s finally posted now is that I promised myself to meet a deadline and get it posted before I go see Star Trek Beyond tomorrow. And I barely met that deadline. Granted, this review ended up being way longer than I had intended or planned, but that’s just how these things sometimes go, I guess. (Read more…)