Tag Archives: J.J. Abrams

Movie News & Opinions

Trekking Before An Unexpected Journey: 9 Minutes of Footage from New Star Trek before the Hobbit

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Our friends at Geek Exchange report that before moviegoers return to the Shire in the upcoming The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, they’ll get a glimpse into darkness, as in a 9 minute preview of Star Trek: Into Darkness. This is only available, however, during the IMAX viewing of The Hobbit releasing December 14th. The rest of the world will have to wait the official release, or for someone to bootleg it onto YouTube later that day. If you’re not springing for the IMAX show (which, based on preliminary speculation, will probably be amazing) you can still catch a glimpse of Kirk, Spock and crew in the trailer attached to the movie.

As a fan of nearly all things Trek (except for IV, that was really bad…and Voyager was hit or miss at best) and virtually everything JJ Abrams touches, I’m extremely excited to see his latest foray into the Trek-verse. Let’s just hope he cuts down on the lens flares a bit this time around.

Personally, I liked Abrams treatment of the reboot and the tweaks on the original storyline. Though there were clearly some divergences from the Trek that many of us know and love, it was a refreshing take on the saga. Spock and Uhura hooking up were an especially unexpected (but pleasant) surprise, as it was nice to see Kirk out of sorts when it came to the ladies. I’m hoping that  the relationship, as well as the rivalry/camaraderie between Kirk and Spock will be explored in greater detail, giving us some insight into how they became such incredible friends over the years.

Also, let’s hope that the villains this time are more calculating and conniving, as Nero seemed to be a bit less of a formidable foe than I would have hoped. Will we see Klingons? Or maybe a young Khan Noonien Singh in this version? Rumors abound, but nothing is set in stone. Keep your eyes on the G-Bomb and we’ll update as we learn more.

CLICK TO ENLARGE KLINGON

Are you excited for the new “Trek”? What do you want to see in the next iteration of Trek? Sound off in the comments below!

Movie News & Opinions

Benedict Cumberbatch is Bigger Than Jesus: Attached to Play the 5th Beatle.

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Fans of the hit show Sherlock, the good one not the crappy American version Elementary, should be overjoyed at the recent Hollywood Reporter announcement that Benedict Cumberbatch and Paul McGuigan are teaming up to bring the story of The Beatles manager Brian Epstein to the big screen. Cumberbatch will play Epstein in the yet untitled film, and McGuigan, who has directed several episodes of Sherlock, is attached to direct. Like any good story to come out of Hollywood there is also another Brian Epstein biopic in the works based on Vivek J Tiwary’s graphic novel titled The Fifth Beatle, Epstein’s oft used nickname. McGuigan and Cumberbatch do have the advantage of having Tom Hanks in their producing corner however, so hopefully that will bring some extra credibility to the project.

The story is reported to focus more on the personal life of Epstein than that of The Beatles, and little as I know about Brian Epstein he is described as a “closet homosexual with drug and gambling problems” so it seems like there is a lot of material to draw from other than him being the manager of the biggest band in the world.

For his part Cumberbatch has become quite the hot commodity of late, lending his talents to the much-anticipated The Hobbit, working with Brad Pitt in Twelve Years a Slave, and taking on the role of a young Khan (rumored) in J.J. Abrams world of Star Trek. One would think that the familiarity between Cumberbatch and McGuigan will help raise the acting level of the project and as pictured above, at least on looks and accent, it seems like they have the right man for the part.

Movie News & Opinions

Star Trek 2 Gets New Title: Into Darkness.

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Star Trek is a thing that is near and dear to my heart. Granted, there was a time, when I was young and foolish, and didn’t get it. I remember seeing my Mom watch the movies, liking the ships, but not understanding the story and thinking it was boring, especially compared to Star Wars. Only as I got older, and found myself appreciating the original series, did I REALLY start getting into it. I even started catching episodes of The Next Generation from time to time, following the story when I could, in between bouts of Goldeneye 64 matches, or Wrestlemania 2000. I even got into the movies, and, found that the original series movies were way more awesome than I remembered, and First Contact was probably the best space/cyborg/zombie film of all time. So unlike a lot of people, I wasn’t born a Trekkie, I slowly became one. Bit by bit, won over by its charm, writing, characterization, and social commentary.

Jonathan Frakes’ gorgeous beard helped as well.

I have a feeling that that’s how a lot of the populace felt in 2009, after JJ.Abrams took the concepts and characters of Star Trek, and made them accessible to a new audience, not pre-conditioned to Sci-Fi fandom. Despite the film having some plot holes, inconsistencies, and weird “What’s canon? What’s a reboot? What’s ret-conned?” issues, managed to be massively entertaining to an entire new generation of fans, who might have never given Star Trek a chance otherwise. Factor in the advent of Netflix bringing all 5 live action series being readily available, and it seemed like the dawn of a new era of fandom for Star Trek. I personally know several people who only are fans of the movies, or are fans of the shows, or both, or one particular show and not another, and multiple combinations of all. Star Trek is unique in that it really does have something for everybody, and the newer fans from 2009 have been waiting for a sequel pretty patiently for 3 years now, along with all the other die-hard Trekkies.

So after 3 years, with only set photos, and the occasionally purposely leaked screenshot, we’ve gotten yet another tasty morsel of information from the project, and this time, it’s the alleged  confirmed title of the film:

Star Trek Into Darkness

My first thoughts on the title? I’m not really impressed. It’s actually kind of corny, and borders on almost being a pun. But, I suppose the attempt to make a title that’s memorable has succeeded, because everyone expected the typical STAR TREK 2 COLON SUBTITLE style of title instead. In that way, it goes along with the previous movie’s intentions to subvert our expectations and help keep things new and fresh. Will the second sequel continue in this fashion? Star Trek Where No Man Has Gone Before? Actually, holy shit, they could totally use that for the next movie if they wanted. This whole title sets up a precedent. Here, I’ll come up with some more for them.

Potential future Star Trek Titles:

Star Trek Where No Man Has Gone Before

Star Trek Across The Universe

Star Trek Back Home

Star Trekkin’

Star Trekkin’ AGAIN

Star Trek to Electric Boogaloo

Star Trek Over To Bennigans, I Hear Their Broccoli Bites Are Amazing

All jokes aside, the actual movie does sound pretty awesome. What little we know of its plot, is mostly due to Karl Urban, who plays Doc McCoy. During an interview, he made one revealing comment about Benedict Cumberbatch’s role in the film.

via [SFX]

At a promotional junket for Dredd, Karl Urban looks to have let slip to SFX who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing in the forthcoming Star Trek sequel. When asked what it was like having the Sherlock actor on set, Urban said:

“He’s awesome, he’s a great addition, and I think his Gary Mitchell is going to be exemplary.”

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Gary Mitchell was a pretty big deal back in The Original Series. Basically he was an officer who came into contact with an energy barrier, and it gave him godlike psionic abilities.

Bad ass silver eyes too!

He started using them in increasingly dangerous ways, until he was stopped by Kirk and Company, as is to be expected. What was fascinating about the episode, was seeing an everyday man, transcend past humanity, into figurative Godhood, into believing he was actually above all of humanity entirely. It’s one of the best episodes from the original series, and I always thought that his character was intriguing. Hopefully, we’ll get to see an interpretation of his character, now with a much larger budget, and modern special effects crew to really demonstrate what a powerful, godlike being he is/became. I know a lot of fans were a bit disappointed we won’t get to see the new continuity’s version of Khan in this movie, but he’s coming. We all know he is, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear a few mentions of the “Eugenics Wars”, or whatnot, in the background of this film. Khan is a role that was pretty solidly Ricardo Montalban’s, and casting that role is just as hard, if not harder than casting the entire crew of the Enterprise. Factor in that Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan is by far the most popular Original Trek film, and I really don’t blame JJ for trying to hold off on that for a while. If I had to cast Khan right now? Benicio Del Toro. The guy has the unique look, voice, and acting skills to make you forget all about Ricardo Montalban’s Khan, and would work tremendously. I have a feeling he’d be a bit too old for the role though, and my back up would be Jason Momoa, known most widely as Khal Drogo, from Game Of Thrones fame.

It goes without saying that I’m stoked for the film to come out already, and I’m really looking forward to seeing JJ Abrams’ new interpretation of all the original series concepts that were so wildly imaginative, but limited 47 years ago by technological and budgetary restraints of the time. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more and more of those ideas re-imagined for the big screen, where they can be appreciated by a wider audience. I’m always supportive of Science Fiction being more readily accepted and viewed by the mainstream public, because in my opinion, it’s the best genre out there, and Star Trek, is, has been, and always will be the best example of it around.

…Except for this news that Worf is getting his own series. Worf was the worst Lieutenant ever.

Ever.

Movie News & Opinions

Screenshot of Klingon from ‘Star Trek 2’!

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2009’s Star Trek did what many considered impossible, and that was to make Star Trek hip, fun and exciting for a general public. Now most nerds like me, (and the millions and millions of Trekkies out there), have always found Star Trek fun and exciting, but JJ Abrams shot some lifeblood into a series that was admittedly getting stale. Nemesis anyone? Yeah. So after the movie came out, was a huge hit critically and financially, we all expected a sequel, because Star Trek and sequels is just a given. And we waited. And waited. We bought the blu-ray, the crossover/tie-in comics, and we waited more, and nearly 4 years later, we’ve finally been given a small glimmer of the hope that we had from the first film the moment we popped in that DVD and fired up the deleted scenes.

Klingons.

To explain, the original cut of 2009’s Star Trek, had a scene where the villain, Nero, spends some time in a Klingon jail, and broods for years thinking of his revenge on Spock, because what else is an angry Romulan to do? It was a tease of a scene though, and we only got a glimpse of some of the Klingon helmets, which were evidently suited to accommodate their large forehead ridges.

Let’s just not mention the whole ridges/no ridges continuity/new continuity debacle ok?

So during the MTV Movie Awards, JJ Abrams was in some kind of skit, about something having to do with MTV, and I’m not sure what it was because I don’t watch MTV because I’m not a 14-22 year old brainless girl. Enterprisingly enough, (I know, I hate my puns too), JJ took it as an opportunity to hide in it a still of a Klingon from the NEW Star Trek movie, that is finally being developed. Here’s the skit, but you can skip to the still itself below, and nobody will judge you.

Hopefully we don’t have to wait much longer for more firm details on the movie, as right now everything is a guessing game, other than the presence of Klingons. Personally, I’m hoping for some sweet Gorn on Gorn action…

That’s what I’m talking about.

Also, if you missed them, we have a couple of set photos from the movie HERE. 

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Alcatraz: Season 1, Episode 4 – “Cal Sweeney” Review

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In this episode of Alcatraz we follow the events surrounding Cal Sweeney (Eric Johnson), a suave bank robber known for his theft of safety deposit box items. He is not a violent criminal unless things don’t go his way.

With episode 4, after our characterization of Dr. Soto (Jorge Garcia), we get back to the same feel that the first two episodes had. This episode had both the feel of a procedural cop drama and a mystery.

Spoilers Ahead>>>>>

Continue reading Alcatraz: Season 1, Episode 4 – “Cal Sweeney” Review →

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Alcatraz: Season 1, Episode 3 – “Kit Nelson” Review

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I was really looking forward to watching another episode of Alcatraz ever since the end of episode 2 last week. Shows that revolve around a big mystery, like this one, always seem to leave me wanting more and episode 3 falls in line perfectly.

Episode 3 is about a child killer, who would kidnap his victims and return their bodies home 2 days later, reappears from the past, spurring a manhunt. However that’s only part of the story. Much of episode 3 is used to give some much needed characterization to Dr. Diego “Doc” Soto (Jorge Garcia).

Spoilers Ahead>>>> 

In last weeks review I said that I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of Doc as Rebecca’s (Sarah Jones) sidekick and that remains true, but only because he spends so much time in the field. I totally understand his role in the show but I feel like the writers may be taking things too far by allowing him to run around and get shot at so much.

I can’t complain too much though because I’m a huge fan of Castle. At least he has a vest.

Kit Nelsons (Michael Eklund) confession to the warden about killing his brother was incredibly creepy. His facial expressions alone while describing what he did were just crazy and they took the show to a much darker place than I expected.

I’m also left wondering what role Thomas “Tommy” Madsen (David Hoflin) plays in the conspiracy. The way he is shown interacting with all the inmates leads me to believe he has something more to do with what’s going on.

I’m glad the writers spent an episode on the topic of Doc not fitting in. His character needed a little more fleshing out so he wasn’t just a cardboard cutout representation of a nerd who knows too much.

As I predicted each episode is leaving the viewer with more questions than answers, but it is managing to do it in an entertaining way. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the upcoming episodes.

4/5 Bears

In case you missed it, here is a look at Episode 4!