The story of a bored individual...

I've been listening to the soundtrack on Spotify almost on a loop, and every time I think this is my favourite song, the next one starts and I change my mind. So yeah, if you like musicals and haven't seen this yet, go see it! Heck, go see it anyway, it's worth the trip to the cinema.

J.J. Abrams took it upon himself to bring the original Star Trek crew back to the big screen. Not being to familiar with the original franchise I was curious if this movie would pull me in and introduce the characters to me in a way that would be satisfactory to a non-Trekkie.
 

From the get-go there are a few clichés, but one can forgive this as the story is well put together and you’re taken on a fun ride. It servers up a good story, with humour and intrigue. Abrams manages to introduce us to the main players in a good way, but I couldn’t help feeling it wasn’t enough. We follow Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) from childhood, and the rest of the crew are introduces as the story progresses. Personally I wanted to know a little more about the characters, but there simply wasn’t enough time to do this and keep the story moving.

The back-story of the main villain, the Romulan Nero (Eric Bana), is explained, but I also felt that some more screen time, maybe showing more of his struggle would have been helpful. What happened to him and his motivations for what he’s doing are understandable. However you never get the sense of who he really is, you never quite reach that slight feeling of pity for what he’s been through.

The movie does suffer from the Jason Bourne camera work during fight sequences, it is at times hard to follow who is hitting whom, but this is not the most sever case of quick editing and shaky camera work that I’ve seen, so I’m willing to forgive it.

Having said all this it is a well rounded movie, and if my main complaint is that I wanted a little longer run time to flesh out some things, and a few shaky camera moves, it ain’t half bad.

While I think the whole cast did a really good job and I loved Simon Pegg as Scotty and Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy I gotta say that Zachary Quinto’s portrayal of Spock stole the spotlight. For a character that is for the most part devoid of emotion, Quinto managed to use his eyes and mannerisms to convey the cracks in the Vulcan’s mask. Very well done indeed.

To sum up the movie has its faults, but it is a fun ride. J.J. Abrams has managed to create something new here, and has opened the door for completely new adventures for the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise. I have no doubt a sequel will soon follow.

I was among the lucky ones to have X-Men Origins: Wolverine open in theatres last night. So here's the review.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is hitting cinemas around the globe, but will it live up to the standard set by Bryan Singer, or end up in the dumps with Brett Ratner’s X3?
 

Being a fan of the franchise I was really looking forward to another film, but after X-Men 3: The Last Stand I’ve learned to keep my expectations as low as possible, and I actually managed to enter the cinema without any big expectations.

I am surprised by the amount of negativity for this film, but I think the level of expectations has a lot to do with that; personally I just went to see a movie. And I had fun. There were a few small things that bothered me, some interactions, and maybe not enough time with one or two characters, and one scene featuring a sink that seems to have been put in for cheap laughs; they really could have left that scene out of the film.

There were worries about the inclusion of so many characters in the film, but I never felt that took anything away from the story, there’s really only one or two characters I felt got pushed aside. It was actually nice to see some new faces and learn something new about the familiar characters. This is helped a lot by the strong cast, the inclusion of so many characters could have easily have been overwhelming or just plain bad if the actors didn’t put their all into the few scenes they had. I found everyone’s effort to be top notch, and many new characters endeared themselves to me despite their short screen-time

Any continuity worries I had with regards to the X-Men films were snuffed out, save maybe one or two, but that’s nothing another movie or your imagination won’t take care off.

If nothing else you’re getting a good action kick, but I can’t help but hope that there would be an unrated, slightly bloodier, version when it comes out on DVD and BluRay, as some of the more violent scenes reminded you this is a PG-13 movie.
It’s hard to compare it to the previous films in the franchise, but one thing I can say for sure, it’s much better than X3. Considering all the aspects I will say that X2 still holds the top spot, but where Wolverine lands in comparison to the first X-Men movie is hard to say, go see it and make up your own mind.

The true story about Max Manus, one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II, and his work with the Norwegian Independent Company through the outbreak of World War II in Norway until peacetime in 1945. 

You know, when I go to see a Norwegian film my expectations are always low. I’m not saying we make bad movies, I’m just saying the really good ones are rare. Max Manus is the only one where the trailer made me sit up and take notice, where by the end I knew this was something I would have to see in the cinema.
 

The movie is not set for release here until January, but they had a pre-screening last weekend. So I was happy to see it early.