Film Review - RIDDICK ★★☆☆☆

Riddick finds Vin Diesel reprising his role as the galaxy's favorite bad ass Furyan in round three of the series. The latest film falls far more in line with the trilogy's first installment, the sleeper sci-fi hit Pitch Black, than the bloated and extremely over ambitious follow-up The Chronicles of Riddick, and strips the character down into a back to the basics slow burn action thriller that will appeal mainly to series' in-house fans.

When we last saw Riddick, he had violently assumed the throne of the Necromongers, an evil race of inter dimensional soul predators. It's a complicated scenario from Chronicles and actually has little to do with the latest chapter, so lets move on. We open with our title character buried alive, wounded and stranded on a desolate desert planet teeming with threats from vicious creatures. Even for Riddick, that’s a really bad day.

In the first half hour we learn he's has been betrayed by the Necromongers, taken off world and left for dead. It’s a sci-fi version of Castaway, with very little dialogue from Diesel as he fights to survive in the savage conditions, tends to his wounds, battles terrifying creatures in the wastelands and even manages to find a companion for himself in the form of an alien canine (we know what to ultimately expect when we get attached to a dog in this sort of film).

Act two introduces two mercenary groups landing on the planet who are hell bent on cashing in on the rich bounty for delivering Riddick's head in a box. A ragtag team led by Santana (Jordi Malla) gets settled first and boasts some necessary brawn from Diaz, played Dave Batista. The WWE star is playing Drax the Destroyer in Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, and his supporting turn here should give fans a lot to look forward to. The second more organized merc unit led by Boss Johns (Matt Nable) has BSG fan favorite Katee Sackhoff in tow as Dahl, a no-nonsense eagle eyed sharp shooter. Both groups do their damnedest to track down Riddick and his four legged best friend. In curious move, we find Riddick noticeably absent for a good portion of the film.

Despite his best survival efforts and taking out a few of a pursuant or three, Riddick’s game of cat and mouse goes only so far, and that’s when the film gets its groove on. The third act heavily echoes the formula that made Pitch Black a winner, and easily that is when the film is the most effective. There is a heavy plot throwback to the first film (to bring it all full circle as they say), but I feel the more Riddick keeps to itself as a standalone installment, the better off it is. Plot points from Black just add to the off kilter nature that is prevalent throughout the film. 

The last half hour is when the film delivers all the bad assness that you expect from the character, but it's mostly nothing we haven’t seen before. Riddick the anti-hero is ultimately brutally tested and fights to survive in the darkness, up against seeming impossible odds (how’s about thousands of carnal aliens out to shred you to death with their claws and teeth?) in a solid sci-fi final act.

I was not as taken aback by the Chronicles of Riddick as many other were, by its exponential budget and high concept ascension from Pitch Black. Honestly I found the expansion of the storyline’s scope fascinating, and applauded the necessary balls to take it from A to B. But it was certainly was a complete 360 from the gritty spookiness of the original and managed to leave Riddick lording over an entire race of ancient warrior vampires. Riddick places the Furian back at square one, where only his brutal survival skills can see him through a "bad day," but acknowledges his fall from grace with the Necromongers via a flashback with Karl Urban as Vaako. To further bury the box office dud that was Chronicles, its storyline is briefly addressed and pushed aside swiftly, only to find the call back to Pitch Black intruding more on the new story in both screen time and implied plot importance.

What does it have going for it you ask? Riddick is a bad ass anti-hero to follow and overall director / screenwriter David Twohy takes Riddick a step back into the perceived right direction, despite its uneven storytelling and absence of its star for a healthy portion of the film. Also as a fan of a tight 90 over a crawling 120 minutes, the film could due with excising some of the running time fat. Fans will enjoy Katee Sackhoff on the bog screen, proving her years on the Galactica as Kara Thrace have served her well playing tough a warrior. 

Had Chronicles clicked with audiences, the series would have easily moved forward with the epic Dune-esque scale direction and that would have been that. But that was not the case. Riddick does impress visually given its scaled back budget and makes the most of the extensive CGI backdrops. But Riddick is for Riddick fans, it isn't going to break in a massive new fan following. Although the series is back on track, unfortunately an uber expensive and imaginative middle chapter has been discarded never to be heard from again.

There are more stories to tell, and fans will welcome them. I would be very surprised if the series could not thrive onwards for years on this smaller scale, but hopefully without such an uneven experience in pacing, plot and tone.

Riddick opens in theaters and IMAX on September 6th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★☆☆☆
Director: David Twohy
Starring: Vid Diesel, Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Dave Batista, Jordi Malla, Matt Nable
Screenwriter: David Twohy
Studio: Universal Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 119 minutes

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Film Review - STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS ★ ★ ★☆☆

J.J. Abrams did what may thought was impossible, he made Star Trek cool, slick and damn fun. Rebooting and infusing new blood into the iconic original '60s TV series with a young cast, lavish special effects and a lot of lens flare proved to be the way to go for a franchise that was enjoying a well deserved hiatus following a run of five shows and ten big screen adventures.

2009's Star Trek was a hot box office hit that managed to gain scores of new fans and please conventions of old school Trekkers. Well, most of them anyways. As Spock would say: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." And for my fellow fans that is what it really comes down to for Abrams' take, making Trek movies for the masses, not love letters to old school fans who will dissect the films to pieces regardless.

Bigger means bigger here. Bigger effects. Bigger ships. Bigger explosions. Bigger battles. Big thrills with massive twists and turns. Yes, buckle your seat belts for the said twists and turns you're in store for. Hell, after all this time, even the Enterprise is FINALLY outfitted with much needed seat belts. I'll refrain from stepping deep into any specific spoiler territory here, they already exist aplenty online and are easily within one or two quick clicks of this review. Needless to say, it's only fair to be vague on the story, and a entirely different discussion can be made once one is freed from tiptoeing around the meaty plot details.

That said, this epic well-paced second big screen adventure starts off as it should, right in the thick of the action. We already got the origin story, so thankfully absolutely no precious screen time is wasted on getting reacquainted with our iconic intrepid crew: Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Scotty (Simon Pegg).

What should have been a innocuous mission turns into a major breach of etiquette regarding Starfleet's Prime Directive, which protects primitive cultures from exposure to higher technology than they have developed on their own. Kirk being hotheaded Kirk pays no heed to such things from the rule book in order to save Spock's life on an alien world. Following the thrilling eye opening sequence, James T is stripped of his ship and command as a result of cheating death for his Vulcan friend. Echoes of plot points from the Shanter/Nimoy-era films will not fall on deaf ears to older fans.

Acts of brutal Earth-bound terrorism committed by Benedict Cumberbatch's former Starfleet officer John Harrison sees Kirk and crew sent off on a splinter cell mission to take him out while also leading them into a head to head battle with the Klingons. It's likely that the first half hour of Into Darkness contains more action and gunplay than we've ever seen in any version of Trek. Not only is that is a good thing, but now a staple regarding the more accessible direction the series has taken.

It's from this point on the highly appropriate Into Darkness title really kicks in as friendships are tested and lost, characters show their true colors, and the plot takes you on a rollar coaster ride free for all on what you think you know, and what you actually know. The first film which by including Leonard Nimoy as Spock, directly dealt with, explained and incorporated (but nonetheless rebooted) the original series' timeline. Into Darkness however plays with past ideas on a much more subtle level. It could have easily just moved forward freely on its own path, but fans (with varying degrees) will hear echoes from the rich history to recycle. How you feel about this here depends on your view of whether the series has earned the right to stand all on its own, or should adhere to taking various cues from the past.

Cumberbatch, best know for his acclaimed work on BBC's Sherlock, brings a menacing cold steel elegance to the film's rogue villain. While his role here has been the object of obsessive online speculation since he was cast, Cumberbatch truly tests the mettle of the crew and effortlessly makes his mark among the best of the Trek villains.

Alice Eve joins the cast as Carol Marcus, a familiar character re-booted for the new timeline. While a welcome addition, her necessary role in the plot tips the balance for the ensemble crew and takes away some screen time from Sulu and Chekov. Genre icon Peter Weller turns in a truly memorable performance as her father Admiral Marcus, who proves to be a crucial chess piece to the dynamics of the dense plot filled with heavy political and personal overtones.

For the most part, the film held me firmly on board. I marveled at the intricacies of the screenplay and Abrams' lens flare-adorned spectacle that I am an admitted apologist for. But then came one pivotal point in the third act and it all crashed on me, and the film firmly loses its identity. I have to admit certain subsequent script decisions dropped me hard, real hard. It's easily a debatable point, and I can't really expand on it this early in the film's theatrical run. But it's a firm loud announcement from behind the curtain of "Oh yes, we're really gonna do this" to the audience in the know.

The screenplay takes the rebooted characters their next level, and some of the interplay is exceptional. While perhaps not quite the middle chapter of a trilogy we may have expected, it certainly frees the series up from some necessary building block bullet points (despite how much I knew about the plot ahead of time, I still found myself constantly surprised as the story progressed). Expectations are big, and film makers like Abrams set their own bar sky high.

What works tremendously is the top notch visuals, as if that would be in doubt. If you can hold on for cameras with contant yet precise motion, you're in luck. There is a boatload of glorious CGI magic, it always feels tangible with substantial weight behind it all. The healthy portion of practical sets and effects mixed in should be applauded. The 3D conversion is also quite good, Abrams' directing and framing style thankfully lends itself to the extra layer.

Old fans and newbie fans will take away different things from the experience, and I feel those with less baggage from the past may be better off for it in this case. My reservations lie directly with the script choices made that tested me as an old school fan who sees the blank slate of the alternate timeline a greater freedom to move beyond Trek history, which is not always the case here. If your Trek filmography is comprised solely of the 2009 film, pay no heed to my cavets (which marred, but did not supersede my overall enjoyment of the film).

Is this an event movie well worth the price of admission? Absolutely. Star Trek Into Darkness is a worthy epic experience that delivers heart, relentless action, massive stunning visuals and even finds appropriate spots for humor and deep arcs between the core characters. If you enjoyed the last installment, this is a thinker's amped-up must-see sequel. It expands the new Trek universe and firmly sets the stage to re-explore a welcome familiar path for the crew of the USS Enterprise. Casual fans will walk away happy go lucky, though Trekkers may require discussion groups to vent some issues amongst friends.

Up next for Abrams (in 2015) is nothing less than Star Wars: Episode VII. While I don't want Star Wars to look exactly like this, I sure don't mind knowing it may look a lot like this. 

Star Trek Into Darkness opens in 2D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D on May 16th.

REVIEW RATING: ★ ★ ★☆☆
Directed By: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urba, John Cho
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 132 minutes


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TEASER TRAILER: 'Star Trek Into Darkness'

Two highly anticipated first looks at J.J. Abrams' follow up to his 2009 smash hit reboot of Star Trek have gone viral, a domestic trailer and a Japanese version that contains crucial extra imagery.

As the title assures us (Star Trek Into Darkness), the next outing for the crew of the USS Enterprise appears to be anything but a happy excursion to explore strange new worlds.

Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch joins the cast as a villain whose identity has yet to be revealed. Rampant speculation has ranged from Khan to the Original Series' Gary Mitchell. Though with Cumberbatch wearing a Starfleet uniform and seeing what appears to be an older older federation starship (SS Valiant)  from the water, plot threads from the Mitchell episode, 1966's Where No Man Has Gone Before are clearly present.  In the other hand, Cumberbatch appears to have Khan's genetically enhanced strength and intelligence, and said rising federation starship could be a throwback to the USS Reliant.

But really stands out in the Japanese version is the intentional unmistakable imagery of two hands separated between glass, which takes us straight back to the death of Spock scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. So all bets are off which way this film may take us. Though the issue I have mirroring a Wrath of Khan plot in the new rebooted timeline is that the weight of the iconic arc is lost without the setup provided by the Original Series' Space Seed. That classic episode introduced us to Ricardo Montalban as the villain, and set the stage for the over two decades worth of antagonism between Kirk and Khan that culminated on the big screen in 1982.

Also if the plan includes killing off Spock as well, another nod to Khan, in this timeline Kirk and Spock have not known each other as long as they had in the previous movie time frame. Frankly, the two were antagonists for much of the 2009 reboot. So the death of Quinto's Spock would by all accounts not have the same weight as the death of Leonard Nimoy's Spock, with the duo's friendship here being at its beginning.

But who am I to question Abrams and his screenwriters on any of this? I am confident they had all this logistically mapped out to the tee from the get go.

Japanese Trailer with extra footage:

Announcement Trailer:

Official synopsis:

In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness. 

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. 

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. 

As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

A special nine-minute preview will be attached IMAX 3D screenings of The Hobbit stating on December 14.

Star Trek Into Darkness, directed by J.J. Abrams, is set to hit theaters on May 17, 2013, and stars Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Simon  Pegg (Scotty), Karl Urban (McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), John Cho (Sulu) and Benedict Cumberbatch (as the yet-to-be-named bad guy).

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WEEK IN GEEK: Comic-Con News • 'Firefly' Reunion • 'Wolverine' • 'Skyfall' • 'Thrones' • 'Walking Dead' • 'Fantastic Four'

Firefly had its long awaited reunion at Comic-Con yesterday, much to the delight of the thousands of rabid Browncoats in attendance. Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive photo shoot with the cast and creator Joss Whedon, CinemaBlend posted a great live blog of the panel, and Collider has a nice wrap up and video of the emotional question that had the crowd on their feet cheering, and brought both Joss Whedon on Nathan Fillion to tears. Science Channel was on hand to cover the event and will air a Firefly Reunion Special on November 11th.
(EW, CinemaBlend, Collider)

Although Jessica Biel is reportedly set for the female lead opposite Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine as Viper, she held firm at Comic-Con while promoting Total Recall that "It's a little bit too soon for that kind of an announcement," in an interview with Hitfix.
(Deadline, Hitfix)

Game of Thrones will feature 14 new characters next season, and HBO released a video introduction to all the actors joining the cast, which includes Diana Rigg, most famous for her role as Emma Peel in The Avengers (as in the 1960s British spy television show). Season Three will be based on George R.R. Martin's massive A Storm of Swords novel, an adaptation that will run the course of two entire seasons. The hit show is set to return to HBO on March 31, 2013.

(Entertainment Weekly).

Sony released their first official picture of Ben Whishaw as Q from the upcoming 23rd James Bond film Skyfall starring Daniel Craig. CinemaBlend also has a detailed description of the new IMAX trailer that screened at Comic-Con this week.
(NRS, CinemaBlend)

AMC released a trailer for The Walking Dead 's upcoming third season following its Comic-Con presentation, and has confirmed its season premiere for Sunday, October 14, at 9pm. The sixteen episodes will be split into two parts, with the show returning on February 13, 2013 for the remaining eight episodes
(AMC).

Following his inadvertent loose lips slip last week of the super secret identity of the villain played by Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek 2, Karl Urban revealed to Ain't It Cool News exactly how director J.J. Abrams reprimanded the actor, and what he is is to do if asked anything further regarding the sequel while promoting Dredd at Comic-Con.
(SFX, Ain't It Cool News)

Here is a hot trailers and clips Comic-Con roundup from Oz The Great And Powerful, Frankenweenie, Dexter, and Dredd.
(NerdyRottenScoundrel)

20th Century Fox is fast tracking their reboot of The Fantastic Four, setting both a director and screenwriter this week. Chronicle helmer Josh Trank has been confirmed to direct the reboot of the Marvel Comics super team. The now done deal follows the rumors regarding Trank inheriting the franchise that started hot on the heels of the success of his found footage 'teens with superpowers who go bad' hit for the studio. In addition, Fox has tapped Jeremy Slater to pen the script.
(CinemaBlend, The Hollywood Reporter).

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COMIC-CON THURSDAY TRAILERS - 'Oz,' 'Frankenweenie,' 'Dexter,' 'Dredd'

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