Category: Movies

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Shmee Travels Beyond With Star Trek!

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I think fans of Star Trek can start to breath a little easier, Star Trek Beyond is very much a Star Trek movie, and a good one at that.  It has its problems, but it feels like the people at Paramount and the producing team at Bad Robot took fans complaints to heart.  Without the action that was injected in to this movie it could have been an episode of the titular series.

Things have gotten a little slow for Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and his crew.  They have been in deep space three years and the routine is starting to get to them.  They are starting to wonder if life aboard a ship is right for them.  In the middle of these personal quandaries they will come up against one of the toughest fights they have ever had to deal with in Krall (Idris Elba) a Federation hating alien bent on its destruction.

While Idris plays Krall menacingly enough, Krall is the worst part of this picture.  You never really understand why he wants to destroy the Federation that much.  They kind of explain it, and they have some ideological differences, but mostly he is just a threat that Kirk and Co have to deal with, and he does pose quite the threat.

The cast, as always, is the best part of this film.  They work so well in there respective roles, and I like that Star Trek Beyond split them in to smaller groups to let them play off of each other a little more.  The Star Trek series was known for this, so it was nice of Star Trek Beyond to return to that.  After three movies it is good to get a little character building.

Star Trek Beyond is not perfect, but it was a good course correction after Star Trek Into Darkness.  The nods and throwbacks in this movie were fun and well used instead of unearned and movie breaking.  In other words Star Trek Beyond is the kind of movie that fans have been wanting, and I hope that future movies follow its lead.

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This Futurama Fan Film Looks Fantastic!

I love that the people at Cinema Relics decided to go completely live action with this Futurama Fan Film.  It looks like the movies they used to make in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  I hope that Fox lets them complete the longer version because I can’t wait to see it!

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What Exactly Are The Scorch Trials?

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The Maze Runner was a surprise mid-level hit for Fox in 2014, so it was not surprise that a sequel based on the second Maze Runner book, The Scorch Trials, was green-lit.  What was surprising is how different Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was from the previous film.  It is pretty much a straight up zombie movie.  It is mildly entertaining, and there is some fun to be had, but it doesn’t go deeper than that.

Now that the Gladers have escaped the maze and WCKD’s clutches they find themselves ‘rescued’ by a new group.  Can this ‘rebel band’ be trusted?  Of course not, so they soon escape only to be chased by zombies in the desert while looking for a real group of rebels to take them in.

I just wrote three short sentences about the plot of The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, and I think I may have given away too much.  There really isn’t that much to this movie.  They just run a lot getting chased by either WCKD or zombies (known as Cranks).  They do offer a little more info about what WCKD is up to, but nothing that interesting, and I still have no idea what the title of the film is referring to.  There are no ‘trials’ as far as I could tell.  Tribulations perhaps.  Also after looking at the plot synopsis of the book, don’t expect this movie to be anything like the source material.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a completely passible way to send a couple of hours.  There is nothing wrong with a family friendly zombie movie, but after the intriguing first movie it is a bit of a let down.  Still it was good enough that I will probably watch the third movie whenever it comes out.  At least they are not splitting Maze Runner: The Death Cure up in two movies like every other YA series’ last book adaptation.