Star Trek Into Darkness

If we ignore talent and the ability to write a coherent sentence without grammatical errors one of my greatest weaknesses as a blogger is my inconsistent rating system.  I rate my films based on my mood at the time of writing rather than being objective – it means that more often than not bad films score ridiculously high and great films score a lot lower than deserved. 

Prior to writing this blog I went back and read my review of Star Trek and was shocked to find that I had given it 10/10.  This has thrown me completely as I have never considered watching the film since I viewed it in the cinema.

 

Despite my apparent love for Star Trek I had little interest in Star Trek Into Darkness.  I was always going to see it in the cinema but it is more out of loyalty to Summer Season than the Starship Enterprise.

 

PLOT:  After an attack on Starship Command Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) is sent to the Klingon world of Kronos to track down John Harrison aka Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) the terrorist responsible.  Khan is brought on board the Enterprise however when Admiral Wallace (Peter Weller) arrives in the USS Vengeance it becomes clear that both Khan and the Admiral are keeping secrets.  END PLOT

 

I have no knowledge of Star Trek but my ignorance of this particular world is my greatest ally as I have nothing to compare this film to. 

Once Star Trek Into Darkness settles down the plot unexpectedly plays out like a thriller with Kirk trying to work out whether he should trust Khan or the Admiral.  It flows well but despite the 130min (IMDB) it felt like nothing much actually happened.

There was nothing in Star Trek Into Darkness that wasn’t urgent – whether it be capturing Khan, feeling from the Admiral or saving the Enterprise.  The vast majority of the film was spent running away from an ever present threat of danger but Star Trek Into Darkness had no tension whatsoever.  I am not green enough to believe that the Enterprise would crash or Captain Kirk was in danger.  The drama was there; unfortunately it was handled in the most predictable ways possible.

 

The strongest aspect of Star Trek Into Darkness is the cast.  Chris Pine is excellent as Captain Kirk and is matched by Zachary Quinto as Spock.  The two lead the film with ease and have an obvious chemistry. 

Simon Pegg’s fame is still growing which accounts for his extra screen time.  Pegg is good fun as Scotty and provides most of the comic relief but he was in danger of becoming irritating.

The supporting cast are fine but Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin and John Cho feel very underused.

 

There was much internet excitement over the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain.  I wish I could say I felt the same but I have never watched Sherlock although he did make an excellent William Pitt.  Cumberbatch the best thing in the entire film and he really commits to his grandiose performance.

Star Trek Into Darkness had an enormous budget of $185million (IMDB) but the action and effects felt very average.  There were a few decent fights between Khan, Kirk and Spock but the jaw dropping set pieces you expect from such a large budget were not there. 

I knew that Star Trek Into Darkness would be hard to review as I realised before the halfway point of the film that I just didn’t care.  Star Trek Into Darkness isn’t a bad film but it offers nothing new to the casual viewer with no pre-existing affection for the franchise.  It gets 5/10.  

Priest

There are some actors who are forced upon regular frequenters of the cinema and no matter how hard you try you cannot escape their constant presence. In contrast there are actors at the other end of the scale - those who don’t appear in many films per year but exert enough class to warrant excitement whenever they do give us a weekend off from the latest blah starring blah blah blah.

In case it wasn’t clear from the above - today I went to see Paul Bettany in Priest.

PLOT: The age old battle between humans and vampires is still going strong in the dusty future. Due to what I presume were budgetary issues within the Roman Catholic Church they embark on a major internal restructure in which Priests are reassigned and retrained as warriors with slight superhuman powers. There is no mention of the army. The head priest aptly named Priest (Paul Bettany) fought gallantly in the war with the only black spot being the apparent death of Black Hat (Karl Urban). Priest starts using the word “Familiar” to describe human vampire supporters and this reminds me of Blade 2 which in turn reminds me of Norman Reedus and once again thoughts wander onto crossbows and general badassery (not that I am obsessed or anything).

Anyway………..

Black Hat kidnaps Priest’s daughter and teams up with sidekick Hicks and Female Unrequited Love Priest (Maggie Q) in order to stop the vampires which are headed by the 2nd most attractive Familiar in existence. There are hints that the Catholic church may or may not be corrupt. Paul Bettany has the most American accent in American History. There are no sinister ministers here but knife wielding warriors. Karl Urban has about three lines but conveys emotion through moving his black hat in a sexy manner.

Priests 1 vs. Vampires 0 vs. Catholic Church -1 END PLOT

Humans vs. Vampires isn’t an original concept but there are times when execution trumps originality. This wasn’t one of them.

Priest is very much run of the mill - the only original aspect of the plot is that it is completely devoid of originality.

The cinema was only showing Priest in 3D so we had no choice but to fork out the extra £2.00 for our viewing pleasure. The 3D experience allowed us to watch the Captain America trailer in 3D and to see some falling ash in Priest. If you have the choice 2D is the way to go although the clever choice would be to skip this film altogether.

Other than the non existent 3D Priest looked exactly how you would expect a post apocalyptic film to look - dusty, old fashioned and futuristic. The woman wear old fashioned dresses, denim no longer exists, baddies ride dirt bikes and goodies ride pimped up nitro fuelled super future bikes.

Black Hat is the only human vampire as the rest are dodgy CGI which made the vampires in I Am Legend seem lifelike. His name was never mentioned in the film so I had to go to IMDB in order to figure this out - first time I have ever researched a blog.

Everything about Priest looked cheap, basic and outdated. The effects were basic - too basic for the cinema

Priest is the second film Paul Bettany and the director Scott Stewart have made together and I hope it is the last. Bettany is too good an actor to be slumming it with an inferior filmmaker - the sooner he gets over the notion that he is an action star the better.

Bettany was fine as Priest although the American accent didn’t work as it sounded completely unnatural and he gave off the impression that he was concentrating a little too hard on his lines.

Karl Urban is becoming an actor to watch out for and in Priest he was very good with the little he was given to do. He had the act of slowly lifting his hat wearing head in a sinister fashion down to a fine art. He does look good in cowboyish clothing and with that stubble he may make a very good John Marston if they ever made a Red Dead Redemption film.

The rest of the cast headed by Maggie Q were all okay. The film was so short no one really got a moment to shine.

There are some films which start great and fade towards the end, there are some films which are okay but waste so much potential and there are some films which are just bad.

Priest is in the final category - it was a way to kill 88mins but this is a bad film. Its only saving grace is that the CGI vampires didn’t sparkle. Priest gets a 4/10.

If Guillermo del Toro made Priest is would have been awesome although it may have been another Blade 2 which was the weakest spot in a career of greatness although it did have Norman Reedus..........…….crossbows.................distraction.........