Star Trek Into Darkness

 

Expectations:

If you’ve ever read my blog, it’s likely that you know about my great love for J. J. Abrams. Some may even call it “an obsession.” However, as someone who is often asked for his opinion on entertainment issues, I believe this obsession is healthy! Regardless of my love for Abrams, 2009’s Star Trek was absolutely brilliant, and I believe that most people would agree with me. The recreation of the classic Star Trek characters was done so, so well, and I don’t think it really received the praise that it deserved. Of course, as good as the first film was, my expectations for Star Trek Into Darkness were very high, and I honestly believed that Abrams could pull it off. On top of that, he kept almost every detail of the film secret. There is nothing more exciting to me than a director hiding details! Really, there was not even a small piece of me that thought this film could be bad… AT ALL!

Plot:
Because of the secrecy of the trailers and the news, I will avoid saying too much about the plot of Star Trek Into Darkness. I will lead off by saying that, after watching the film, I don’t really understand the broad title, so don’t try to find answers in the “Into Darkness.” With that being said, I thought the storyline, along with the twists and turns, was great. Abrams managed to fit a lot of happenings into a short (for a blockbuster) two hour run time, and that made me happy, because I was able to go to bed at 2:30 on Wednesday night, after the midnight premiere. I will say that there were a few extremities, with regard to the events of the film, which were a bit over the top. However, the entire Star Trek name encompasses nothing but over-the-top extremities, so it is to be expected.

Characters:
The only real problem that I had with Star Trek Into Darkness was the lack of screen time for some of the main characters. Somehow, in his first Star Trek film, Abrams was able to create a back-story for every single character from the original Star Trek cast and come up with a time-travelling storyline featuring two Spocks (all in just over two hours!). In the sequel, it seemed like situations were created just so the characters would have something to do. In particular, John Cho’s Sulu and Anton Yelchin’s Chekov just didn’t have anything to do, and I like each of those characters, so it was tough for me get over that. Very few of the characters were BAD, but many were a bit underutilized, in my opinion.

Negatives:
The only real negative in this film was the random addition of Peter Weller’s Marcus. While the character was important, I just didn’t like the fact that he became SO important SO quickly.

Positives:
If you've seen 2009's Star Trek, you know just how great the entire cast of this film turned out to be. Honestly, there were no low points in the casting of the first film, which is so so so rare when dealing with a remake of any kind. If you take a great cast and use that entire cast in a sequel, you are most likely going to get success in the category of "characters." That was certainly the case with Into Darkness. Every returning cast member was just fantastic, and I really thought Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto excelled in furthering the relationship between Kirk and Spock. This film leaves you with no doubt that you care about both of these great characters. In addition to the returning cast members, Benedict Cumberbatch's turn as bad-guy John Harrison was brilliant. Filmmakers are getting so good at creating villains, and I'm quite glad.

Conclusion:
Iron Man 3 may have been a good start to the summer movie season, but it's highly unlikely that any other May film will shine quite like Star Trek Into Darkness. A successful cast and storyline usually make for a good film. Throw in the great ending and the graphics, and Into Darkness is a GREAT film! With J. J. Abrams jumping ship to helm the next Star Wars film, the future of the Star Trek film series is in question, but we can all hope that whatever comes next is somewhere close to the greatness that was Star Trek Into Darkness. If you haven't seen 2009's Star Trek, watch it! If you don't really care for science fiction films, watch this one! With the great plot and great characters, you will forget that space is even a part of the equation. I promise!!! I give Star Trek Into Darkness 3.93 out of 5 stars.

The Smurfs

Expectations:
As a kid, I loved the Smurfs. They were magical, small, and funny, just like me! I could not pass up the opportunity to see my little blue friends on the big screen, even as I approach age 20. I didn't really expect much out of the movie, mostly because I do not find Neil Patrick Harris the least bit interesting as an actor. Also, this summer has really been lacking as far as animated films are concerned, which is extremely rare. Usually we can count on animation to save Hollywood, because they don't have to make movies about the same old crap every time. They can create whatever characters and put them in whatever world they choose. So I just pray that animation makes a triumphant rebound next summer!

Plot:
The plot is simple and very childish with no depth whatsoever. I did not feel any emotional connection to Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) or his wife Grace (Jayma Mays). It was like the writers were trying soooo hard to develop some sort of lesson to learn from this movie and utterly failed. Obviously, the Smurfs are trying to avoid being captured by Gargamel (Hank Azaria) and his cat, as they do in the old cartoons. I personally felt like they should have left that as the only real storyline. The addition of the real world and the humans made for some funny events, but I really would have rather seen the Smurfs remain in their own little world. This movie would have been so much better if it were strictly animated.

Characters:
The characters really lacked any depth at all. The only two Smurfs I cared about were Clumsy and Papa. Every other character just seemed awkward to me, mostly because the situation was awkward. As I said, Neil Patrick Harris struggles to interest me in this film as well as everything else. Jayma Mays did alright, so I have nothing bad to say about her. The voices for the Smurfs were pretty good, and I liked that none of the Smurfs fell for Smurfette, because kids don't give a crap about that anyway, and this is definitely a kids movie. I really liked Clumsy (voiced by Anton Yelchin) more than any of the other Smurfs. He actually represented overcoming your troubles to accomplish something great. Something that kids need to see.

Best Character: Azrael, Gargamel's cat, was actually pretty freakin hilarious. He really made Gargamel look like an idiot and brought on many laughs from the kids, which is the most important thing.

Worst Character: Gargamel, played by Hank Azaria, was just not a very threatening villain. If I were still five years old, I would have said that he was just stupid. Obviously you can't remove the villain from The Smurfs movie, but they could have done something different.

Conclusion:
I didn't expect much with The Smurfs nor did I get much from The Smurfs. I really thought the Smurfs were digitalized very well. Ten minutes into the movie, I was ready to adopt one and bring it home with me. There were some awkward parts where Patrick would give them a hug or Grace would pick them up, and it was very very fake looking. Overall I got what I expected, but I thought there were many things that could have been done better. I give The Smurfs 2.03 out of 5 stars and hope the studio stops after one film. I don't want the 21st century to ruin the Smurfs for my future children.