To Not So Boldly Go …

Okay. I broke down and took the family to see Star Trek last week. I was prepared to love it and hate it, and I wasn’t disappointed.

First the good. It was nice to see Paramount finally put real effort into special effects for a Star Trek movie. And it was also nice to see the classic characters as youngsters. It was excellent to see Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov get some real action. The huge advantage of all the “Next Generation” Star Trek series is that they were true ensemble casts. The acting levels after STNG we more uneven than ever before, but they tried. The script, plot, and direction were all good–better than expected.

A few small nods. Great to see the bowels of the Enterprise–truly where no one has gone before. Nice to see continuity on small stuff, like McCoy’s divorce, Spock serving on Pike’s Enterprise, Sulu’s swordplay, Pike in a wheelchair, and even Uhura channeling Hoshi as a linguist. Of course, instead of being Pike’s female Number One, Majel just does computer voice-overs.

Now the rest. Nice going, Mr Abrams for blowing up not just a planet with six billion people, but hundreds of tv episodes and the ten movies where we have gone before. Sure, sure, some neo-Trek apologist will say it’s all in good fun, and it’s just an alternate history they can rejigger Bobby Ewing style if they don’t like where it’s heading … at the box office.

My wife and I had a long talk about alternate universes on the way home.

“You realize that Tuvok’s grandparents were sucked into a black hole tonight, don’t you?” I asked.

“No, they got the bad guy and they saved everything, right?” she said.

“To save Vulcan, they would need to go back in time and defeat Nero.”

“So they didn’t save Vulcan?”

“They saved the Earth. Remember Spock’s crack about being an endangered species?”

“Grandpa and Grandma Tuvok might have been saved though.”

“I calculate the odds of survival of any Vulcan individual at one in 600,000. For all of Tuvok’s four progenitors to have been saved, the odds are one in one-hundred twenty-nine sextillion, six-hundred quintillion.”

And the young miss started giggling in the back seat.

Okay,  I didn’t have the 129.6 sextillion figure at hand when I was driving home. But you get the drift. Tuvok won’t be around to save Janeway’s butt in the Delta Quadrant in the 24th century. Heck, he won’t even get to infiltrate the Maquis and make nice with Chakotay. One series blown up before it gets off the ground. Maybe it was by design.

I sure hope Kirk pays more attention to Khan when he bumps into him in the Abrams universe, because if Spock croaks while saving the Enterprise in the Mutara Nebula, there’s no going back to Mount Selaya to sort out his soul when it’s all done.

My biggest complaint is the sheer unwillingness of the franchise to live up to its billing, Boldly Going where None Have Gone Before. After classic Trek, arguably the only great move was shooting ahead eighty years to a “next generation.” After that, the three series concepts were meek and tame.

“Hey guys, if a ship exploring the galaxy is so great, let’s nail down a whole series to a space station with a mall.”

“Okay, the station idea wasn’t so hot. Let’s strand a woman captain on the other end of the galaxy for no decent reason.”

“Let’s go back in time and see how all the cool stuff like phasers, shields, warp 7 and miniskirts got invented.”

And now we have a movie that got the special effects right, the banter right, and the casting nailed picture perfect. The only problem is they didn’t set it in the 27th century. Where we truly haven’t gone before.

I’ll be the first to admit that Kirk and Spock sell this movie, even if they are kids and even if they are different actors. (Bill Shatner take note.) And the franchise was indeed desperate for new life after previous errors of not going far enough. It just seems like a cheap way to do it, rewriting history. When I look for good science fiction, I usually look to the future.

 

Bella Gaia

This will be way cool when it hits theaters and planetaria. Check out the Bella Gaia site. The sample above features input from various satellites and space probes employing timelapse effects and image enhancements to point out amazing things like air traffic, the Earth’s magnetosphere, the shift of snow and melt in California’s mountains, just to name a few. Source: the always-informative Universe Today site.

 

Viewing

With the young miss away at camp this week, my wife and I have been viewing some films together that aren’t exactly kiddie fare.

She likes mysteries, so we saw the frenetic-paced and gory Angels and Demons Tuesday night. I pretty much ignored the Catholic criticism–what little of it there was–and focused on the gaffes in the science. What is it with filmmakers dressing scientists in lab coats? It’s like women religious appearing in habits. I think my wife was disappointed. She expected a more thoughtful mystery like Code, which I still haven’t seen. I had the film figured out, and I haven’t even read the book. The young priest was just too creepy.

Tonight we watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I liked almost as much as I thought I would. About an hour in, I figured out the first fifteen minutes of the film, but it was still fairly enjoyable. Jim Carrey not playing a maniac: what a concept. Kate Winslet is pretty divine in just about every movie she’s in, so no surprises there.

I haven’t completely given up on the small screen just yet, either. I’ve been hoping there would be another tv show that would catch my interest. That hasn’t happened since Firefly, but I caught on to that show two years after it died. So I’ve watched the four episodes of Warehouse 13 this month. It’s still derivative of other successful programs, even enjoyable ones, so maybe the chimera will work. I wish the sf-pretender network would get real writers. A few things I will say about W13: I like the steampunk touches. I care about the characters. I’m not turned off yet, but then again, I never saw an episode of Moonlighting. So everything’s cool.

 

Movie Life

The women of the house opted for an opening-day viewing of the new Harry Potter movie. We had out-of-town friends in the night before, and went to see Up. Two movies in two nights is a bit of a luxury. My wife went back to see Half-Blood Prince today on her own.

An interesting contrast of filmmaking. I hadn’t heard of the first movie, but I thought it was easily one of the best I’ve ever seen. I hate to give homage to the Disney corporate masters, but this Pixar stuff is generally excellent from the animation to the storyline and direction of these movies. I saw Wall-E last month on dvd. I’m still convinced The Incredibles was one of the top-five films of the 90′s, and Toy Story wasn’t far behind. Good thing for live-action films the Academy included an animation category, or the rest of Hollywood would continue to swim in hypocrisy. A bad Pixar movie seems to be merely pretty good.

As for the young wizard, his movie was long, like the book. The young miss assessed that it had its slow moments, but the snarky dialogue made up for it. It’s been a number of years since I’ve read the Potter books, but I think the movie was a reasonable adaptation. I have no idea what a Hogwarts neophyte would say to it. But it wasn’t the best movie I’ve seen this week.

 

Kit Is Cool

The young miss picked up some items at the library recently, including the dvd of Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. I was really impressed with this film: well-scripted, a talented and very deep cast, a nicely plotted story and just an overall good message on a lot of fronts.

I often surf to check out details about a movie we watch at home–it beats watching most of the “bonus” material. This quote was offered on the wikipedia site for the movie:

Even if young fans can’t relate the struggles in the movie to their own life, Kit still offers more than the shows and movies typically aimed at the tween girl market. Besides the simple educational value of giving them a picture to connect with their history lessons, the film also focuses on more significant themes than the materialism and prettiness championed in the Hannah Montana ghetto. (Megan Basham, World Magazine)

This is the “American Girl” series based on the historical dolls, right? I guess I don’t mind terribly the connection of acquiring dolls and watching a movie like this. I suppose it’s no different from novels or tv shows heading to the big screen.

I’m happy to report that as the young miss lives her last three days of tweenhood (Heaven help me; on Thursday I begin seven years of parenting a teenager.) the HM phase seems to have faded somewhat. Some interest in the movie, but not much, really. Not like the attempt to get tickets for the KC concert a while back.

Heard on the way home from yesterday’s wedding: an interesting pair of songs paired on one of those “anything goes” radio stations. Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Let The Good Times Roll” by the Cars. The latter’s not really an awful song, but the comparison of Kit and Hannah struck me. There are better themes to consider than good times, rock music, materialsm and prettiness, aren’t there?

 

Good Things To Watch

The new Star Trek movie comes out to mass audiences tomorrow. I’m not terribly optimistic, although I do hear that a big budget for effects has been engaged. Do the producers behind this effort realize a good story will bring people to enjoy their product? Good science fiction filmmaking doesn’t absolve the creators from things like plot, character development, good acting, effective directing, and the lot. In a way, it can be more demanding because a certain consistency in science and logic is required.

Filmmakers adapt award-winning books. They also nab best-sellers when they feel timid. Why are so few award-winning sf stories and novels made for big screen or small?

What science fiction and fantasy books would make good movies or television series? It’s a question the world’s moviemakers and tv networks don’t seem to want to touch. I’m sure movie rights are owned and toughly negotiated by some authors. So I make this list completely independently of the legal issues of authors and their estates. I’ll concede that some great stories won’t work for television because the effects budget would be too darn high. Off the top of my head, here’s what I’d consider good to excellent possibilities, in no particular order:

Greg Bear’s Eon already has this trailer and others for an imaginary movie. It would make a great tv series, I think. The trilogy of novels based on an asteroid 300 kilometers long on the outside, but infinite on the inside, that has lots of potential for additional stories.

I’ve said before that either of two stories from Tolkien’s Silmarillion epic (please, not the whole thing!), the tales of Turin or of Beren and Luthien, would make outstanding movies. But not both together. It’s a mystery to me why a serious filmmaker would turn to the Hobbit before these two great tales.

I enjoy David Brin’s Uplift universe. The special effects needed for convincing dolphins, chimps, and gorillas would be a challenge, and I don’t see the point of filming an Uplift novel without them. That said, Startide Rising is well-plotted and contains one very cool space battle. It would be interesting to have a tv series based on the Uplift universe, perhaps based on the explorations of Helene Alvarez and her ship–that would be early in the Uplift sequence as published by Brin, in between books one and two.

I like Jack McDevitt‘s novels which are only getting better as they move along. Ditto the military sf series by Elizabeth Moon focused on Ky Vatta, which has five nice novels with good characters and action.

Isaac Asimov is possibly the most-recognized name within and outside of sf fandom, and though his books do get pretty wordy, I always thought a series based on his 48th century detective Elijah Baley (left) and robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw would be cool.

The libertarians among us might enjoy something of Robert Heinlein’s a little deeper that squashing bugs, something like The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

Short stories and novellas would be better fare for possible film, mainly because it’s easier to expand a good concept to film length than trim down a good story satisfactorily.

I’m not sure if I’m going to see the new movie. I’m reading another one of Greg Bear’s good books right now, and I’m enjoying it more than any fiction read I’ve had in the past year. Why see a movie when my imagination can click in so vividly at home. Or follow the exploits of present-day space explorers.

 

Wrong Way Film Criticism

I notice the usual Catholic bloggers are falling over themselves to tell you a horrid movie is coming out soon. More so, the criticisms of Dan Brown seem to have been exhausted, so they need to tell us the director’s a sop. Or is it sob? I get those two confused reading the blogosphere sometimes.

I have caught a few bits of the first movie on cable tv, but never all the way through. I looked at one of Dan Brown’s books, but decided it wasn’t worth my time. I’m sure our corporate masters at Hollywood were pleased to see Catholics generate so much cash for them the last time around. There’s something less than that in 2009–which is good, imo. Still, the tack that we shouldn’t go see a film version of a work of fiction because it plays with the truth, it casts the Church in a bad light, and besides, the main players are close to the worst writer, director, and haircut ever–all that seems rather weak. And petty.

 

Bridges

Junior year in my Catholic high school we had a non-Catholic teacher instructing us in German. With most, but not all teachers, we began each class period with prayer. It was usually teacher-led. But not always.

One day, a good bit into the academic year, one of my classmates asked the instructor about leading prayer at the start of class. She volunteered to do it. After a bit of resistance, the teacher permitted it. The next day, the girl read a prayer and just after, in what I thought was something of a sarcastic tone, the teacher asked her, “Are you satisfied?” The message was pretty clear: this was going to be the very last time we were going to pray in this class.

What offended my sensibility the most were the hurt feelings on the part of my classmate, a girl who wasn’t a friend, or really even an acquaintance. My instinct was to thank her for praying and commiserate that our teacher was being petty, immature, and impolite. But I held my tongue.

As I look back, I regret I didn’t say anything. Speaking out would have been an inner urge that would have forced me to step out of myself and how I was used to behaving in those days.

Sometimes present experiences take me back to one of life’s aspects from when I was younger. This month, my family and I enjoyed seeing the 2007 film version of Bridge to Terabithia. We all found it a moving film. I was not familiar with the plot. I had thought it was a fantasy film in the mold of Harry Potter, but that was part of the deceptive advertising accompanying the theatrical release.

It’s a very worthwhile family movie. And it reminded me of the prayer episode in my high school German class. The two lead characters in Bridge are misfits, opting to indulge their talents for art (the boy) and writing (the girl) and putting up with the barbs and bullying of their peers and his family. Together the boy and girl invest themselves in a special friendship that includes a shared life of fantasy in a forest where they escape from life’s adolescent trials. In the film, this is a healthy escape, as it strengthens each of them in their dealings with others and in growing up to a degree.

The “bridge” in the title is a rope swing that gives the characters access to the forest. At the end of the movie, the boy builds an actual bridge and invites his younger sister to share the experience.

When I spoke with my spiritual director Monday, he helped me to see this theme of bridges in my own life. For the past six years, I had worked in a very divided and embittered parish. There was a gulf wider and deeper than a parking lot between church and school. In my family of origin, some siblings and my mother do not speak to each other. My dad, before he passed away in ’95, once remarked I was the only person in the family he could always talk to. It also seems I’ve been the only person everybody else talks to. So often in ministry, I find myself in the role of bringing people together, facilitating connections. The bridges are all over the place.

 

Life on tv

Since my return to the realm of television in 1993 (I hadn’t owned one and watched little since the mid-70′s), I’ve been an admirer of David Attenborough‘s documentaries. I first saw The Private Life of Plants around the time I got married and I’ve watched old VCR tapes of it several times. Last year, I used a gift card to pick up this marvelous series* on dvd. The other day, we picked up The Life of Mammals from the public library. That has been a treat the past few days as I’ve been recovering from a bout with the flu.

It strikes me someone should write, produce, and film a series on astronomy that goes into sixty-plus hour  depth that Attenborough’s on life. If it involved travel, I’d like to sign up, of course. If it was to be truly comprehensive, meaning with someone like the inimitable Sir David narrating on-site, I think we have a few centuries to wait.

* Why, do you suppose, my daughter objects to watching it during or near mealtime?

 

Recent Films

We’ve been watching a lot of movies at home lately. It’s been interesting to branch out from Ebert thumbs-up flicks at the theater.

In no particular order …

We watched The Wedding Date, which I liked a little bit better than I thought I would. Didn’t understand the sex scene; it just didn’t seem to fit. Maybe the screenwriter or the studio thought it needed to be included. I came in about fifteen minutes into the dvd. My wife was watching while I was blogging. She gave me the run-down about a woman who hires a prostitute to escort her to a family wedding overseas.

Wrong! I thought. I can’t suspend belief that much. No woman as attractive as Debra Messing needs to pay someone to accompany her, I said to my wife. Anita replied that her family had beaten down her self-esteem so much she didn’t see herself as attractive. Okay, maybe my belief is suspended after all. Too many women get pounded down like that.

There was a gruesome revelation about recent family history, and the “escort” rescues the rich young lady from emotional meltdown. A few twists on Pretty Woman, and the premise may not be so bad. The dialogue was pretty good, but some of the scenes (and not just the sex one) were just in the way. Some of the deleted scenes we viewed might have made the movie a better narrative experience. Could’ve been a lot better, I thought.

We also watched License to Wed, which was totally unbelievable. Robin Williams, as a non-Catholic priest, has a wedding prep program that guarantees a successful marriage. It involves the engaged couple refraining from sex, but it also includes his close monitoring of couples–two years’ worth of weddings. How the heck a priest is going to keep close tabs on 104 engaged pairs from bugs his assistant has planted in apartments is beyond me. But as I’ve been spending hours re-doing our parish wedding policy book, it was a fluffy diversion from reality.

The Family Stone was a step up from these. Nice dysfunctional family at Christmas. Adventures in the liberal-conservative divide. Can’t beat that.

Did I mention we saw Enchanted on the blog? I should have. It was great. Amy Adams: a good actress who can really sing. What’s not to like? My wife and daughter enjoyed it even more than I did.

I picked up Wordplay from the library the other week. Great work. Fascinating film on crosswords: puzzle makers, puzzle solvers, and tournament organizers.

Last night I caught How The Earth Was Made on the History Channel. It’s one of the better science documentaries I’ve seen on cable. It’s certainly the best I’ve seen since … well, the last century. Science tv has really gone into the tank since the explosion of crime tv in the late 90′s. I learned some things and I had the chance to impress my wife when I got to the various punchlines: stromatolites, Snowball Earth, the Cambrian explosion and the union of the Americas before the narrator. Though the narrator did beat me to the punch on the Burgess Shale. I knew it was in the Canadian Rockies, but I couldn’t get it out of my mouth in time.

We also saw a lot of fluffy Christmas romance movies. You know: Hallmark, Lifetime, the usual suspects. I can’t remember any of them really, except that they were entertaining while the tv was on and I pretty much forgot about them the next day, if not the next minute. But Anita likes them and I keep up a running commentary about how 70% of soap opera or romance tv is based on poor communication. If only couples in love would attend Engaged Encounter, we could have more science on tv because so many stupid plot ideas would dry up.

Anyway, those are some of the movies we’ve been watching. Anita wants to see Juno. Brittany has revived her interest in Star Trek: Voyager. We’re just starting season 4. I don’t think there’s anything out right now I want to see. Any readers with recommendations?

 

From The Earth To The Moon

Over the Christmas holidays I finally had the chance to view the whole mini-series From The Earth To The Moon. Anita and Brittany gave it to me for my birthday last month. Several years ago I saw four or five episodes in syndication. It was nice to see the whole thing.

I enjoyed the variety of approaches from the different writers and directors. It was interesting to see so many of Tom Hanks’ acting colleagues in the different episodes.

My favorite episode was probably part 10, Galileo Was Right, which depicted how astronaut Jack Schmitt upgraded the science training of the Apollo astronauts by recruiting his college professor Lee Silver. The producers took liberties with reality, but the excitement over the science was stirring–almost made me regret leaving geology and astronomy for church ministry.

This is a wonderful series: great viewing for the family.

 

Twelfth Night

Last night is when it was. We were busy eating homemade pizza and watching football (one of the cat teams versus our friend Tom’s Steelers). I was thinking this morning about the great movie adaptation of one of my favorite Shakespeare comedies. We’ve been watching lots of movies over the vacation, sometimes on their appropriate days.
The current generation will remember Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, but she does a good Edwardian turn in this film. Most of the rest of the cast does a better acting turn than HBC, but the whole feel of the film is great.

I believe Anita got it for me on video last birthday or Christmas. Now if I can just find it in this mess …

We also have a tape of a PBS production with Helen Hunt. Again, somewhere, probably on an unmarked video cassette. That was good, too, but I really like this film version. Now that I have it in my head, I must see it.

Update: the Trevor Nunn adaptation includes two characters from Order of the Phoenix. My daughter picked them both out right away, starting with the actor who plays Umbridge.

 

Harry Forbes Defends, Plus Compass Fallout

The Catholic News Hub links to the Diocese of Bridgeport’s piece on the USCCB reviewer whom many Catholics felt was not foam-mouthed enough about that movie.

Forbes is right on many points, including one: many of his attackers did not read his review. As for the supposed tanking of that movie at the box office, Gregg Kilday, of The Hollywood Reporter had a few thoughts:

And while the movie has been treated as a potential franchise, a la Lord of the Rings, in some ways, it was never fated to be like that. The Pullman trilogy isn’t as well known, and this is a fantasy built around a young girl.

… in reaching out to younger females, it obviously ran up against Enchanted.

Interesting. Hollywood seems to be conceding that backlash from religious groups contributed somewhat to a box office performance about 30 to 40 percent under expectations. It’s also interesting that one Hollywood insider thinks there’s a limited market for more than one female-driven fantasy at a time.

I read one opinion that attached opposition to that movie to strong women characters–religious people don’t like that, the thought goes.

More likely, it’s a failure of imagination. If more excellent movies were out there, people would go to them. If Hollywood thinks geeky guys don’t want to see beautiful and strong women in film, and young girls have limited budgets for moviegoing, I don’t have anything constructive to say to them. Hollywood doesn’t have a clue with sf and fantasy. Lots of good stuff was made in spite of studio execs. Lots of studio execs stumbled into good stories paired with good filmmakers. And often when they get them together, greed and ego still get in the way.

 

Compass: Golden or Moral?

I was a bit surprised to find a post on Vox Nova going beyond just criticism of the forthcoming film The Golden Compass.

Anyone who (orders Bill Donohue’s booklet) will be armed with all the ammo they need to convince friends and family members that there is nothing innocent about Pullman’s agenda. Though the movie promises to be fairly non-controversial, it may very well act as an inducement to buy Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials. And remember, his twin goals are to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity. TO KIDS. Our school is pulling any reading books, picture books, activity books, stickers or promo materials for The Golden Compass that Scholastic sends our way. I want our school to discontinue ANY sales in partnership with Scholastic but that is not to be quite yet.

A few things to ponder here. First, you don’t want to go to Bill Donohue’s corner in the culture wars. You just don’t. Second, while I’ve not read Pullman’s books, I understand they have a certain attractiveness in that they’re well-written and they appeal to a sense of fantasy and adventure.

I noticed an ad for the film on tv today. The movie is rated PG-13. While I’m aware that studios don’t mind when underage kids patronize their restricted-rating films, this is a matter in which parents hold the control. My eleven-year-old doesn’t watch PG-13 movies unless they’ve really been screened. In other words, nothing unless my wife or I have watched it and discussed it first.

As for a teen watching a movie with elements of anti-Christianity or God-killing, I don’t see a problem with that in principle. I’d be more concerned about the “stellar” example of athletes and owners, young actors, or even Bush administration appointees. Lying, cheating, substance abuse, abuse of power, fraud, and going to jail: if that stuff’s not boycott-worthy I can’t see the case for Scholastic.

The talk of boycotting sponsors and even Scholastic Books is missing the point. We don’t need Donohue’s “ammo.” We don’t need another booklet telling us parents what to do, especially considering the source.

 

Upcoming Flicks

Crystal blogged on the second National Treasure movie coming up for release in a few weeks. My wife (the history buff) and daughter actually wore out the videotape of the first film. We now have it on an oft-viewed dvd, and I’ve warmed up to more than just the voice and sight of Diane Kruger. I appreciate a movie that inspires my offspring to want to be a treasure-hunter. I told her I’d tag along on her adventures.

There’s much anticipation in the household on this movie, naturally.

When I got home from work tonight, they were watching the BBC version of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. We have the dvd set of the first four Narnia books, which doesn’t have the special effects chops of the 2005 release, but is quite enjoyable nonetheless. My sister the Narnia nut didn’t even know they were in existence. Big screen Prince Caspian is set for a May 2008 release.