Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Ghosts Of Illyria

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A virus makes it aboard the Enterprise which leads to the crew desperately craving light, also there is something about genetic modification.

Did the writers go on strike or something? What was this episode? It felt like barely concealed filler, even in the worst episodes of Doctor Who they could come up with something better than a light crave virus, it is just lame.

Moreover, I am glad to see Rebecca Romijn’s Number One get more fleshed out on screen but this was not the way to do it. I felt like with the genetic modification point they were trying to convey some broader political or philosophical message but if they were it past right by me.

Furthermore, this episode seems afraid to give us any time with Pike, played by Anson Mount, and has him and Spock, played by Ethan Peck, marooned on a planet together, but for the most part just ignores this side plot.

Overall, a lame filler episode by definition.

Pros.

Romijn manages to keep the episode together

Pike and Spock have some fun banter in the short time we see them

Cons.

The main plot feels like it was made on the fly by people just writing down random words

The message and or point is missed

The ending

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Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Children Of The Comet

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A comet threatens to destroy an inhabited world, and as the Enterprise tries to prevent this they are contacted by a race of aliens that worship the comet as a God.

At the time of writing I have only seen the first three episodes of this show and I can easily say this is the best of the bunch. I think the reason for this is because there is a deeper philosophy at work within this episode that raises some interesting questions. Whether, Pike, played by Anson Mount, and co do the right thing is debated and openly questioned in the episode, I appreciated this as it felt nuanced.

However, the episode isn’t all great. A large part of the episode focuses on Uhura, played by Cecilia Rose Gooding, and whether she can cut it as a Starfleet officer, which as far as sub-plots go is incredibly cliched and overly familiar. What I think makes this worse is that compared to other cast members on this show Gooding is a noticeably weaker actor and as such struggles to convey this basic cliched storyline of feeling incapable and like an outsider. Her emotions barely change over the course of the episode and it becomes a noticeable problem as the arc continues.

Overall, I enjoyed the mature philosophical debate it felt like real Star Trek to me, however in some cases the novice cast of actors is continuing to drag the show down.

Pros.

The morality of the mission

The ending

The new alien race

Mount continues to shine as Pike

Cons.

Gooding

The cliched sub-plot

The humming/ singing

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In Time: Not Enough Time To Sit Through This

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

In the future people stop aging on their 25^th birthday with a one year countdown then beginning until their death, however, this death can be averted if someone has the means to find and secure more time; usually through connections or cash.

My, my what an uninspired science fiction tale this is. Throughout the film it feels increasingly like the director is trying to shove a message down your throat, what of is hard to say, maybe something to do with seizing the day or capitalism being bad, but ultimately whatever the film’s message is it just comes across as tired and cliched. This is not deep science fiction despite it really wanting to come across like that.

Moreover, after watching I am left asking the question of if this film could have been better had someone else starred in it. The answer to that question is probably, I have never understood the appeal of Justin Timberlake as an actor as often he struggles with even the simplest of roles, as such if a more skilled actor had taken the lead here who knows maybe it wouldn’t have been so underwhelming.

The pacing of this film is also a major issue, it feels far too drawn out and indulgent. The second act feels like a slog that goes nowhere and only exists to kill time, it ruins any excitement you might have after the opening of the film, which is actually okay.

Overall, a lame science fiction film that was all style and no substance.

Pros.

An interesting idea

A few well put together sequences

Cons.

Timberlake

The pacing

The limp message

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Firestarter: The Remade Stephen King Universe

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A remake of Stephen King’s Firestarter. The plot follows Charlie, played by Ryan Keira Armstrong, a young girl hunted down for her supernatural powers.

A lot of reviewers out there are giving this film very low scores and personally I can’t see why. I don’t know if they were very attached to either King’s original novel or the previous film, but I haven’t read or seen those so I can only judge this film based on its own merits and not compare it to anything else.

I thought for the most part this film was good, the tension was well done and I got vibes of Doctor Sleep in this regard. I thought John Rainbird, played by Michael Greyeyes, was fantastic until the final 10 minutes, he gave off a strong amount of supernatural intrigue as such you constantly wanted to know more about his character but the film didn’t reveal anything which I thought was a smart move. Moreover, Zac Effron also did a great job here further proving his serious acting chops, I thought during the psychic battle sequences he was incredibly.

Another highpoint for me was the score composed by John Carpenter, his son Cody Carpenter and David Davies. It felt like the perfect 80’s call back mixed with just the right amount of excitement and intensity.

However, it wasn’t all roses. I thought the CGI fire effects were poor, to make matters worse whenever Charlie used her powers the camera would cut to a close up of her face with the fires happening off screen which felt cheap and obvious. In addition, there were several moments in this film were it became unintentionally hilarious and made me laugh out loud in the cinema, I don’t think that is what the filmmakers were going for. Finally the ending of Charlie forgiving Rainbird and then going with him despite all the trauma he has inflicted upon her makes no sense and just seems forced in so that the film can have a happy ending.

Overall, above average and certainly with redeemable elements despite not being a great film.

Pros.

The score

Effron

The mystery of Rainbird

The tension

Cons.

The ending

The cheap CGI

It is unintentionally hilarious

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Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Strange New Worlds

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Star Trek finally starts being about exploration again.

I thought this first episode was miles better than anything coming out of either Discovery or Piccard however, it was not entirely perfect.

I thought Anson Mount made for a great lead and really sold the character. I enjoyed the cut aways to his character trying to process knowing his own death that was an interesting side plot that I think can be used to great effect over the course of the season. Moreover, I thought Pike’s relationship with Spock, played by Ethan Peck, was a lot of fun the two have great chemistry together.

The adventure of the episode was ultimately fun, even if the speech Pike gives does seem a little too referential to contemporary politics. I dislike how the other Star Trek shows of the newer generation feel the need to force in ideology at every turn they get as it takes me out of the show and forces me back to reality, hopefully this show can avoid that. One would hope this show could be different to the other new shows as it was made to go back to basics and avoid the criticisms and complaints of those shows.

Another thing that I thought was strange and didn’t notice until someone pointed it out to me, but the entire bridge crew bar Spock, Pike and one guy in the back is made up of women. Now on the surface this seems fairly like a non-issue however, it seems like in a quest for representation the show has over done it a little bit as it seems to be quite obvious. It is noticeable how few men there are on the show in general which again seems like it is being done for the purposes of agenda rather than good storytelling. Again hopefully later episodes can fix this.

Overall, a fine first episode lets hope it is only up from here.

Pros.

Mount

Peck

Romijn

Cons.

A creeping sense of identity politics

The speech took me out of the show and brought me back to reality

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Alex Kurtzman And The Sorry State Of Modern Star Trek

Written by Luke Barnes

In this piece I want to talk about the current state of Star Trek, now I am not claiming to be a major fan or anything of the sort, but I did see the Pine fronted movies as a kid and have tried to get into the series that have come out since, whilst also going back and visiting the older series for a first time. Perhaps comparing the new to the old is not a favourable comparison, perhaps the bar is set too high, however, I really do find that these newer series just can’t hold a candle to the older shows and are noticeably weaker.

Why do I think Discovery and Piccard are so weak well that is an easy question dear reader, the problems of modern Star Trek can be traced back to one bad writer, Alex Kurtzman, the guy who brought you The Amazing Spider-Man sequel and The Mummy with Tom Cruise. Kurtzman is a hack by all accounts and has milked a relationship with J.J Abrams for all it is worth, hence his current position in the Star Trek universe.

Kurtzman doesn’t seem to understand a lot of the projects he is involved in, hence he thought a Silence Of The Lambs sequel series without Hannibal Lecter was a good idea, but nowhere is that more true than with Star Trek. Kurtzman turned Discovery into a platform to spout his political beliefs to anyone who would listen, and yes though the original series had a strong political centre it was handled far better than what Kurtzman did with Discovery, which seems purposefully divisive.

Piccard was a slightly different beast and at first had some promise, however, as the series continued it became clear that it was only created as a means for Kurtzman and co to milk nostalgia and to remind the fans of better times, only to then promptly screw them up. Piccard was less preachy but the issues of Discovery were there.

Discovery and Piccard have had very well published behind the scenes issues and poor ratings hence why Strange New Worlds is playing it safe and going back to basics, and so far I am only one episode deep into that show but it does seem better.

On the movie side of things, Tarantino was supposed to be involved with a Star Trek film for a while and then that got shot down, and now they are trying to get some more milage out of the Pine cast despite those films coming out a while ago now.

Honestly, if I had to give you a quick snap judgment as to the current state of Star Trek, from my perspective at least it seems as though the franchise is battling to stay relevant in the wider cultural and streaming landscape and possibly failing in that aim.

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Halo: Unbound

1/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

One of the worst second episodes to a show I have ever seen. This will be my last time reviewing this show.

Where to begin…. The thing I had the biggest issue with was the fact that this episode let all the air out of the balloon in terms of the momentum the first episode set up and greatly slowed down the pace. I wasn’t expecting all that much from this second episode, especially after the mixed bag that the first episode was, but I was at least expecting it to not be dull, sadly that is too much to hope for.

Moreover, though last week I said I didn’t really care that this show completely ignored the games and the pre-established lore, well things changed here. Midway through the episode I realised that this show has the exact same problem as Netflix’s Witcher series, it takes character names and the franchise name but it makes something unrecognisable out of it. By all intents and purposes, this is just a deeply generic science fiction show with the Halo name slapped over it.

Further in that vein, Master Chief, played by Pablo Schreiber, is taking off his helmet so much here that you forget he even is Chief at times and think you are following a new if entirely forgettable character, but no.

I won’t even start on what they are doing with Cortana, but I will say yikes.

Overall a huge miss for Paramount +.

Pros.

Pablo Schreiber is really trying and deserves far better than this mess.

Cons.

This isn’t Halo

Master Chief constantly taking his helmet off

Cortana

The pacing

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Halo: Contact

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Master Chief, played by Pablo Schreiber, breaks into TV.

This first episode was a mixed bag for me, certainly not as good as I was hoping it would be, but also not as bad as some out there would have you believe, simply by existing this won’t destroy all copies of the games and novels and won’t forever change the Halo universe for the worse.

My main issue with this show was how much like The Mandalorian it felt, straight down to the stoic lead taking on a younger sidekick who then forces them to confront their views on life; doesn’t sound much like Halo does it? In many ways Master Chief is side-lined, with Kwan, played by Yerin Ha, being the real lead, if this continues to be the case throughout the series I doubt I’ll make it till the end.

I also did not like how the show seems more interested in rebellion against the UNSC, then it does with the war against the Covenant, but hey only one can stand in as a thinly vailed comment on real world injustice right? We all know every show that comes out now has to feature it in some way, escapism is dead.

Chief taking off his helmet for quite a long stretch near the end doesn’t really bother me too much, neither does the fact that this show spits all over the series lore as I was not particularly invested in the property before watching this.

The things I did enjoy about it were twofold. Firstly, I appreciated the fact that this series actually looks like it had some money spent on it, yes I am looking at you Cad Bane in The Book Of Boba Fett, by that I mean this series boasts some fairly well done visuals and the effects mostly hold up across this first episode.

Secondly, this opening chapter featured some nice well shot action which I also enjoyed, hopefully as the series goes on we will get more of that.

Overall, a redeemable if troubled start.

Pros.

The action

The effects

Schreiber

Cons.

Side-lining Chief

Copying the Mandalorian

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The Adam Project: Possibly Ryan Reynold’s Best Performance

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Pilot Adam Reed, played by Ryan Reynolds, goes back in time to stop the invention of time travel, along the way he encounters his younger self, played by Walker Scobell.

I thought this was the best Ryan Reynolds performance I have seen in a long time, mainly this was due to the fact that he distances himself from his Deadpool-era quips and plays the role in a mostly straight, earnest way. There is a very believable emotional depth to Reynolds’ performance here that really resonates with you.

In that vein, I think the biggest strength of this film is the fact that it wears its heart on it’s sleeve and focuses on family dynamics and emotions between the characters. There are various different dimensions that the film approaches this from such as father-son relations as well as mother-son relations, which is refreshingly modern and fresh. There is also quite a lot of nuance and complexity to the relationship between the two Adams.

The only area wherein I would criticise this film is that its science fiction narrative feels very generic and uninspired, we have all seen this before and as such it remains unsurprising.

Overall, a very sweet and earnest film that is in some ways held back by its science fiction premise.

Pros.

Reynolds

Garner

Ruffalo

The emotion

Cons.

Pacing issues

The premise is fairly been there, done that.

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Jurassic World: The Heels That Sparked A Conversation Around The World

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Summary

No franchise is ever allowed to end anymore, as such it was only a matter of time before the Jurassic Park franchise got the soft-reboot treatment.

I remember I watched this a few times when it first came out at the cinema, I am by no means a big Jurassic Park fan, but I do find the films to be good popcorn fare. They aren’t challenging, but they never needed to be.

There is always something exciting about watching a CGI dinosaur cause havoc, however, that is offset when you force in human characters that are so bland that you can’t remember their names seconds after the credits roll.

Chris Pratt is just playing his usual cool guy action role and doing nothing even remotely close to acting, and though Bryce Dallas Howard fares slightly better her character is ridiculous in all the wrong ways, the decision to have the character run in heels is still baffling to me.

Overall, it is easier to watch and less objectionable than its sequel but it is never more than forgettable.

Pros.

It is watchable

There is fun to be had

The spectacle

Cons.

The human characters

It is very forgettable

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