RageLite review - Star Trek Into Darkness

You may remember just under a year ago I covered the first of the Star Trek reboot films. And now we move onto the second with Star Trek Into Darkness.

Although the original reboot film was released in 2009, it wouldn’t be until 2013 until the sequel was released. Far as I can tell the major issue was the script, which underwent several revisions, then having it line up with the schedules of the actors, and J J Abrams who’s stepping in as director again.

Alex Kutzman and Roberto Orci return for the second film, the two have almost identical filmographies, and have written films featured on Rage4Media (mostly Guilty Pleasures) such as: The Now You See Me films, the Amazing Spider-man 2, Cowboys vs Aliens and Mission Impossible III. Joining them is Damon Lindelof, who was a producer for the original reboot, and had written with them before on Cowboys vs Aliens. He also helped write Prometheus but you can’t win them all.

The film was financially successful, making $467m on its $185m budget, although that said once marketing and theatre cuts are taken into account, the total profit wound up being about $30m, not exactly the take you’d hope for. The movie was praised critically at time with an 84% Critic Rating and 89% Audience Rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with average scores of 7.46/10 and 4.23/5 respectively. That said, this film has some level of infamy among fans, so what do I think?

Netflix Retrospective - Voltron Legendary Defender Season 6 Episodes 1-4

Season 6 of Voltron came a few months after season 5. I don’t know why they stopped splitting the seasons at this point, I guess the animation was nearing completion and there wasn’t much point stalling it. It’s also the last season where I don’t have to address controversy. I guess I’ll get to it when I get to it. But onto season 6. We’ll cover the first 4 episodes in this one, because ep 3 is kinda filler and I want to leave this retrospective on a more exciting note.

Pixar Playlist #5 - Finding Nemo

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

And we’re reaching the end of my Pixar Nostalgia now. Finding Nemo was released in 2003 and seemed to be the brainchild of Andrew Stanton, who used various experiences of his own, including visiting the dentist and enjoying the fish in the fish tank, and realising that he’d become an overprotective father.

I don’t have any technical innovations that came directly from this film (don’t worry, we will get to some with the Incredibles) but if you want another example of the dedication Pixar had to their craft, the artists behind this film took lessons in scuba diving so they could see the coral reef for themselves. Later, the animators would take crash-courses in marine biology to make the movements of the fish right. That is really impressive, and immediately this is superior to Shark Tale.

This movie hit it big for Pixar, making its biggest box office at the time at $940m on its $94m budget. And it has a highly impressive 99% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

But where does it rank in Pixar’s lineup, let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective: Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 2 Episodes 10-13

Praise4Media #55 - Speed Racer

What can I say, we’re back to the Wachowskis and this one is weird…

Speed Racer began as an animated Japanese series called Mach GoGoGo, it’s from the late 60s, when animation budgets were basically non-existent and you can tell, the animation is cheaply done, shots are reused verbatim and dialogue often takes place on a rolling background to give a sense of movement without actually needing to animate the background beyond a few frames.

The show followed the racing adventures of Gô Mifune, they needed a simpler name for the character in the US, so for reasons I’m still scratching my head on, they decided to call him, and the show Speed Racer. I’ve got all the jokes for that, but I’ll save it for the actual review.

Speed Racer (the show) was weird, it had cheap animation as previously mentioned but the season finale had him driving vehicles like planes, submarines and, most unbelievably of all, row-boats. I swear the villains only lost because they were stopping every 5 minutes to set up traps. The show lasted 52 episodes, a respectable run.

What’s weirder is that to tie in with this movie, I think, they created an animated show called Speed Racer: The Next Generation, starring the son of Speed Racer who, for reasons I cannot fathom for the life of me, is also called Speed Racer. This was released in 2008! I’ll say the animation’s better, but that’s practically a given but the show is still weird, I think this one had races that ventured into space.

But to the movie, several major actors including Johnny Depp and Vince Vaughn were attached to the project, but it wasn’t until the hiring of the Wachowskis that this film really made it off the ground. 

Now, this is based on animation from the 1960s, they must’ve known this was a niche project, so why a $120m budget? It was never going to make that money back and it didn’t, it made only $96m at the box office, making it a box office bomb, and floundered with critics, with a 40% Rotten Tomatoes Rating.

So, why am I inspecting it with my new Praise4Media monacle? Well, strap yourselves in, because this is going to be a very bumpy ride.

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 2 Episodes 7-9

 

#71 - Jurassic World - Fallen Kingdom (Jurassic Parkathon)

Jurassic World was one of the better Jurassic Park films. It created a visual spectacle using up to date visual effects technology, and created a new tale of man vs Dinosaur in a way we hadn’t seen before. Is it highly flawed? Absolutely but it was a step in the right direction for the franchise, unfortunately it’s the wrong lessons that were learned from it, as we nosedive into the inferior sequel: Fallen Kingdom

Fallen Kingdom had only 2 of the original 4 writers of Jurassic World: Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow. Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa are currently doing the writing for the live action Mulan movie, and Avatar 3. Good luck to them, I guess

Colin Trevorrow stood down from directing this time with duties instead coming to J A Boyena… He’s not massively experienced but he did A Monster Calls which I really, really like, so it’s a good choice in principle.

The movie made a mint at the box office, $1.3bn on a budget of less than $200m, but received a mixed response from both critics and audiences with 48 and 49% Rotten Tomatoes ratings respectively and average scores of 5.46/10 and 3.2/5. You can guess I’m firmly in the not liking it category, but here’s a rundown of the plot to explain my reasons why.

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 2 Episodes 4-6

Jurassic Parkathon - Jurassic World

Welcome to the Jurassic Parkathon

2015 saw the return of the Jurassic Park series for a whole new trilogy with a new cast and… mostly the same dinosaurs. Once again, we have no book to base it on and we have a new face in the director’s chair, Colin Trevorrow. Before this film, the only film he’d directed is Safety Not Guaranteed, which was an insanely low budget picture

It came back big, making over $1.6bn on a $150m budget. That’s the highest box office of any Jurassic Park movie (it’ll beat the sequel too, but we’ll get to that)

The reception with audience and critics seemed to positive again, with a 72% Rotten Tomatoes Rating, with an average 6.66/10 and an audience score of 78% with an average 3.9/5.