Movie Update 9

A couple William Wyler classics and a couple by favorite directors.

Ben-Hur


This was pretty damn good for what is essentially Bible fan fiction, and I liked it more than I expected. Ben-Hur is pretty much the definition of an epic, lasting well over three hours even without its extended overture and intermission, and telling the story of a man whose life has parallels to and intersects with that of Jesus. He butts heads with Rome, he spends years rowing on a galley, and he becomes a successful chariot racer. I'm not sure how I felt about the religious stuff, but it's generally secondary to the film itself, which moves along well despite the length and has a few really good scenes. The chariot race in particular is outstanding. There are obvious moments where the motion is sped up, but it's still a thrilling sequence over fifty years later.

The Best Years of Our Lives


Another Best Picture winner directed by William Wyler. The Best Years of Our Lives is sort of the quintessential inspirational movie. It was made very shortly after World War II, and shows the return of three soldiers to a town in central America; one missing his hands and worried how his family and high school sweetheart will take his new hook prostheses, one concerned that he won't be able to support his wife with no job to come back to, and one older with two kids who has concerns about his bank is treating GIs. They all go through some foibles before it all works out in the end. The important part is the journey, and there are a lot of good scenes in there, with everything from humor to betrayal and budding romance. It seems pretty honest for the time period, and it's a well-acted film in general.

Mean Streets

Martin Scorsese's first collaboration with Robert De Niro was originally conceived as a sequel to Who's That Knocking at My Door? and there are definite similarities. Harvey Keitel plays a similarly self-conscious street tough who balances hanging out with his criminal friends with a troubled romantic relationship, and there's a familiar sort of aimlessness to it. The film is as much about the experience of being in Little Italy as it is about the simple, flimsy plot, and while that may have worked for some, I found it a bit dull a lot of the time. Scorsese just wasn't quite the virtuoso he'd go on to be yet. Still, there's good bits here and there, particularly De Niro's unhinged performance which helped make his career and the ending, which is trademark Scorsese violence in full effect.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights


You know a director has lost his touch when one of his parodies makes Spaceballs look inspired. I don't want to be too harsh on Men in Tights, but the fact is it's not particularly funny, and on top of that it's fairly unoriginal. Pretty much every joke is either something being referenced that didn't actually exist in the film's time period, or just kind of silly. The musical numbers seem awkwardly stitched in, and the entire romantic subplot is basically exactly the same as the one in Spaceballs. The cast is solid, and about the only thing that keeps the movie decently enjoyable instead of completely boring. Cary Elwes basically plays Westley again as Robin Hood, Dave Chappelle is one of his wacky sidekicks, Richard Lewis plays the mildly villainous Prince John, and Patrick Stewart has a solid cameo. Dom Deluise also does a pretty good Brando in The Godfather impression for no real reason. I don't know, I chucked a fair number of times, but I still recognized the movie has highly lacking compared to most of Brooks' earlier work. I wish he had made more movies back when he still had ideas.

Star Trek: Nemesis

There's at least one thing Nemesis has over Insurrection - a sense of danger and excitement that at least makes it seem more like a science fiction movie than two hours of nothing. A lot of what it does is pretty dumb on further reflection, but it's got that being-a-movie thing down pretty well. It's a pretty slick movie too, benefiting from the relatively modern technology a fair bit. Like the recent Trek film, it features Romulans heavily, although they aren't exactly the bad guys this time, though in a way they're responsible for the villain. For some reason they're the least capable slave drivers of all time, having forced an entire species called the Remans to work their mines for them, but when a clone of Picard that they abandon plans for manages to start an uprising, they're able to create one of the most advanced starships I've ever seen in the Trek universe, built to stand up to the Enterprise with ease. Not sure how they managed that in captivity, but they forcibly take over and pursue Picard, needing his DNA to save bad-Picard from a degenerative condition.

And I mean, that's the movie I guess. There's some stuff with Data, and he becomes pretty important to the movie's resolution, mostly because Brent Spiner and his buddy wrote the movie. There's some solid action, including big standoffs in space and a number of phaser battles, although they seemed to take a fair bit from the Star Wars films, especially the Remans' inability to hid the broad side of a barn. Ron Perlman plays the bad guy's second in command, recognizable only by his gruff voice under all that alien makeup, and I enjoyed his role despite the pointlessness of it in the last third of the film. There's a fair amount of ripping off of the second Trek movie, and it doesn't really do anything as well as that movie did. I'd love to say the ending affected me, but it honestly didn't for some reason. Maybe it's because the tiniest bit of planning would have prevented the tragedy of some of the events, maybe it's because nothing the movie does to set up its grand moments is actually justified by the story in any way. I don't know. It's a stupid movie, made at least a little watchable by its flashier elements.

Star Trek: Insurrection

All of these movies based on The Next Generation's cast have their issues, but Insurrection's fatal flaw is the most egregious - it's totally boring. I'd say the only thing stopping it from being a mediocre two part episode of the show is the budget, but frankly, even that isn't apparent when you're watching it. There's almost no scope at all to the story, and in fact the plot is cribbed pretty directly from one of the episodes, with the difference being Picard completely flips his ethics because he wants to get some immortal alien strange. At least that was the only difference I saw. Starfleet has teamed up with some aliens on a mission to relocate some non-native people called Ba'ku who are living on a planet whose rings could be harvested for their healing and anti-aging effects, but which would leave the world uninhabitable. Picard believes this is against the prime directive of non-interference with cultures not advanced enough to have discovered warp drive yet, except that the Ba'ku already are capable of that technology and in fact used it to reach this planet, they've just chosen to live without it. So really he has no ground to stand on and starts a rebellion for no good reason. I mean yeah, the antagonist is a murderous jerk and should be stopped. But the movie just kind of glosses over the fact that he commits treason without cause.

Anyway, all this sounds like it could lead to something interesting at leach, but the actual "insurrection" of the movie doesn't have a lot going on. They basically run around some hills, hide in a cave, and shoot down some drones that chase after them with transporter dart things. Action! Adventure! Intrigue! Why was so much effort taken anyway to keep the mission a secret? Very unlike Starfleet. The movie's just poorly considered and not entertaining to watch. They try to have a bit of fun with the rejuvenating effects of the rings, fixing Geordi's eyes, putting Worf through puberty, having Deanna talk about how her boobs have gotten firmer, but none of it is as funny or interesting as the lighter character stuff on the show. Also Data learning how to play from some dumb kid was pretty excruciating. Some of the stuff with Riker fending off enemy ships with the Enterprise was okay, and I enjoyed a switcheroo pulled near the end, but that's about it for fun. Even the stunt work in this movie is garbage, not convincing at all. The best thing I can say about Insurrection is that it's better than the one Shatner directed, but that's the definition of faint praise.

Star Trek: First Contact

So this is the best of the four films by reputation, and I do have to say I'd agree. It's still not one of the best movies in the whole franchise, and really just a pretty competent action movie. It features Picard's greatest foes, the Borg, attempting to rewrite the history of humanity. After facing defeat in a large space battle, they propel themselves back in time to the week when Zefram Cochrane makes first contact with Vulcans and thus inserts humanity into the galactic picture. Their goal is to prevent this from happening and at the same time assimilate the planet before the people know how to defend themselves. Luckily for the Enterprise, they are able to follow them into the past and attempt to stop them. Apparently, the Borg lack the same grip on the logic of time travel that Picard did in the last movie, which is that it would be easier to prevent something from happening if you went back farther than a few minutes beforehand. Skynet figured it out, why couldn't they? Time travel has a tendency to mess up good storytelling, especially when the characters simply don't think it through.

Besides these and some other issues, it's a pretty entertaining movie. There's a good variety of solid action scenes. James Cromwell shows up as Cochrane, and the depiction of one of the most important humans in history as a grizzled drunk just trying to make some money is kinda funny. It is weird how they picked someone who looks nothing like the guy from the original series, but it can be forgiven I guess. And it's fun to see Picard act with vengeance and fury, even if it means he's wildly different from the person he was for seven years on television. One of the reasons I started this whole thing was to see him shoot up a nightclub with a machine gun, and it was pretty glorious. I'm not sure I liked the addition of a queen into the whole Borg ecosystem, but she's probably the most successfully menacing villain in any of these movies, so I'll give it a pass too. Not much to say about the rest of the cast - Data has a somewhat interesting subplot if one that I'm a bit tired of hearing about, and by this point Deanna seems like a completely different person, as if Marina Sirtis is the only one who didn't bother to remember what her character was like. Not a great movie, but not bad either.

Star Trek: Generations

We're finally drawing to the end of my planned exploration of the Star Trek franchise. Before it's over though, I have to get through the last four films, which range in fan opinion from pretty good to downright awful. I've seen all of them, and while I didn't hate any, I didn't think any were particularly great either. We start things off in thoroughly mediocre fashion with Generations, the only film to feature both James Kirk (and the only original cast members willing to slum it with him) and Jean-Luc Picard. Unfortunately, they don't do a whole lot with the opportunity, with Kirk relegated to an ignominious death scene at the beginning and a shoehorned role in the plot's climactic (by default) moment. Most of the film is just an average TNG episode stretched out to feature length without a whole lot justifying it. It wasn't too bad really, as I spent most of the time mildly bored instead of really bothered by anything. "Not terrible" isn't really the best endorsement, though.

There were a few things I enjoyed. Data's experiment with an emotions chip was pretty funny for a while, until the plot really got going and it had shockingly little importance to any of the significant events. That was just sort of weird. Malcolm McDowell is a fun actor, and he does a solid job as the movie's villain at the same time that Picard and his crew fail miserably to counter him in a well reasoned way. To be honest, I'm struggling with finding good things about the movie... as I said, it's not egregiously poor, but there's so little about it that was memorable or interesting that it's hard to be even neutral on it after the fact. At least Picard acted like Picard the whole time, which becomes a huge issue in the sequels. They destroy the Enterprise to add some drama in an overly long crash scene and also to give an excuse for a rebuilt ship in future films that accommodates the wider aspect ratio, at the same time Picard is entering a strange alternate reality where the two captains finally meet. As I said though, it's not the most exciting result ever, as the big action finale is a few old dudes beating each other up. They pretty much dropped the ball, which honestly describes all these movies pretty well. Well, no matter. It's hard to be too disappointed by it when the last Trek film was so awesome.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 7

Well here we are, at the end of the road. I still have the movies to watch (people have told me not to, but that was half the point of doing this), but I have finished watching The Next Generation. The final season wasn't the greatest, but it had a few good episodes, including the finale, which was pretty fantastic. It ties back in to the very first episode and has Picard saving humanity across three different timelines. A suitable conclusion to a show that made some missteps but ultimately provided a heck of a lot of solid science fiction. There was some weird stuff going on in this go around, I have to say. Deanna and Worf? Really? Among all possible pairings, that one seems especially unlikely. And Wesley deciding Starfleet isn't for him after all, when he spent the entire series aspiring to do great there? Well if you insist. And really... there weren't too many good episodes beyond the finale. I liked the one where Worf keeps shifting between parallel universes. And the one with Data's nightmares was an interesting exploration of that topic. But yeah, the first time the show definitely stepped down in quality since it reached its plateau years earlier. I'd say something about the characters if there weren't four films to send them off with. I guess the question is whether seeing these 178 episodes was worth it, and I can't say I regret much of it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 6

The Next Generation's penultimate season seemed a bit Riker-heavy to me in places. Almost like he was the main character instead of Picard. Which is absurd, because Stewart acts Frakes' face off. There were quite a few two-part stories in this run, of course the conclusion of last year's cliffhanger and the creation of another to be resolved in season seven, plus two more, yet another focusing on Worf and his family (can someone else on this show get a long-term arc? Too late I guess), and one that makes one of the best arguments against torture I've seen. And other stuff happens too I guess. Scotty is the third actor from the original series to make an appearance, after being stuck ageless in a transporter beam for years. I wonder how that's going to play into his appearance in the next movie, which I know wasn't originally written with him in mind. Luckily there's no Wesley at all, and making up for his absence last time Q actually shows up twice. I uh... what else do you want from me? I'm watching it all right? Why do I have to say anything? I don't owe anybody. Jeez, man! Star Trek. Stuff's going on with Data, man. That robot ain't right. The cowboy episode with him was good. Not as good as the one from the original, though.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 5

Well, here we are again. It's a couple weeks later and I've seen 26 more episodes of this show. If I'm being honest, I'm watching it more to be able to say I did it than because I want to see it all. I'm still enjoying it, but it is a bit chore-like. I'm pretty sure I said this all last time. The funny thing is the original series was easier, because despite being less interesting, it was also less than half as long. I passed the original's episode count in The Next Generation almost two seasons ago, but I still have over 50 left to see. We're getting there, though. The final resolution of Worf's issues with the Klingons was nice. There's a good two-parter featuring Leonard Nimoy as Spock, although it sort of felt like one episode stretched to double length rather than a genuine two part thing. I'd have to say Geordi wasn't quite as lame this go around, and I didn't even despise seeing Wesley again, although seeing him mess up big time was funny. The episode where they get stuck in a loop is a good one, subverting the frustration of seeing the same things happen over again one too many times by throwing a kink into the works that makes a lot of sense. This season's finale cliffhanger was a clear influence on the Roswell episode of Futurama, a sure sign that it's a good one. And hey, no Q episode! I can't say I don't enjoy elements of his episodes, but a break from his antics was definitely welcome. How come I didn't realize until now that Majel Barrett, who was married to Gene Roddenberry and played Nurse Chapel in the original series, plays not only the voice of the ship computer in The Next Generation, but also Troi's annoying, wacky mother? Weird. Anyway. Star Trek is Star Trek.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 4

Another couple weeks, another season of Star Trek. It sort of feels like work at this point, although I am enjoying it more than the original series still. The problem is more with my expectations from a series than the show itself. I'm used to the modern style of serialized storylines, whether they're integral to the show or just affecting character development in the background. Even Castle, which off the top of my head might be the most episodic thing I watch, makes it feel like some things are changing and moving forward. The Next Generation has the smallest hints of continuing stories, with the closest thing the show has to a genuine arc so far being Worf's false dishonor with the Klingons, which gets revisited a couple times including the season finale, which is once again the first part of a two part story that suggests a big change for the crew but will undoubtedly result in the status quo being restored in the season five premiere.

As usual, there's some good and bad. Wesley is finally gone, after being made a full ensign by Picard he at last went off to Starfleet Academy, only to reappear occasionally for the rest of the show. I have to say I've been disappointed by Geordi quite a bit. I was hoping for more from the host of Reading Rainbow, but for the most part he's every awkward, dorky TV character thrown into outer space, an expert at maintaining the Enterprise but hopeless at personal interaction, especially with the ladies.

It's okay though, because exactly 100 episodes in, I can say with confidence that Picard is a better captain than Kirk, and while I'll still take the original show's top three over Riker and Data, I'll also still say I prefer the main cast of The Next Generation as a whole. I could have declared the Picard preference earlier I guess, but I'm definitely sure of it now. Stewart's a way better actor than Shatner, and he's simply a more competent commander, more concerned with running the ship properly than exploring strange new vaginas. And I kind of like him more as just a dude, too. His scenes of levity are a more likable self deprecating sort than Kirk making fun of Spock because hahahahaha he's a Vulcan. I have 78 episodes to go, and I'm still trucking.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 3

This was supposed to be the season where the show really got good... and it did, I guess. It at least seemed more consistent in having watchable episodes instead of embarrassing ones. And there are some pretty good stories in here, I'm just having trouble remembering what they are. Oh yeah, the one with Data creating an AI "daughter" was good. Seems like he's in a lot of the best episodes. The alternate reality/time travel one that brought back Yar for a little while was interesting. Worf continued to grow into a more intriguing character than just being the token alien on the crew, although some of his best moments are just using his badassness for comedy instead of actual badass things. And you have to give them credit for ending the season the way they did, in the middle of the first two-part story since the pilot, with the crew in disarray. Sure, I know it's going to be resolved by the end of the season four premiere, but it's still a brave way to do things for a show that lives on the one-plot-per-week system. I've still got more than half the series to go, but I do have to say I've been enjoying it more than the original.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2

A few things happened this season. Riker grew a beard. Doctor Crusher disappeared while another woman took her place temporarily. Her son continued to be an annoying punk. Worf got his groove on. Data constantly pondered the mysteries of being a human. Some things made Deanna pretty upset. Geordi continued to wait for his moment to shine. Picard kept on running the ship the way he wanted to. There were finally some pretty darn good episodes, like the trial deciding whether Data could be considered a life form or not. Some good stuff on the holodeck. They had the gall to end the season with a clip show, which is nigh inexcusable. I've found that I tend to enjoy the little moments between characters that reveal some small details more than the main plots of episodes, which are usually fine but not too exciting. For example, there's a scene where Riker cooks a meal for a few other officers, and thanks to the odd ingredients Worf is the only one who ends up liking it. So far at least, the show is at its best when it's just considering life a few hundred years in the future. They introduced the Borg this season, which are an interesting new foe but yet to be fully explored. Since the next season is the general consensus of when the show actually got good, I'm fairly excited to continue watching.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1

So I've heard from multiple Trek fans that this show doesn't really get good until the third season. Of course, me being me, I couldn't just skip 48 episodes, so I started at the beginning as usual. And it was... fine. Seemed like normal Star Trek to me. I'm pretty sure I like the cast more than the original series. I mean, I'm still undecided on Kirk versus Picard, and Wesley is pretty annoying. But while it's hard to beat the original's trio of Kirk, Spock, and Bones, the overall main crew of The Next Generation is broader and more interesting. And when a regular departs, they don't just mysteriously stop showing up on the bridge, they get a proper send off.

I'm not saying bad The Next Generation is as good as the best of the original series, because in this first season there really aren't any standout episodes like Kirk and company had. There's just a baseline level of quality - watchable but easy to lose your attention. If I didn't have other stuff to do while it was on, I might get tired of it. But if I just have some episodic science fiction that doesn't require a huge investment on while I'm working on something, The Next Generation works out pretty nicely. I'll keep watching it for now, even if it will be another while before it starts setting my world on fire.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I named Oblivion my favorite game of 2006 over a year ago, but I never got around to writing a full review, as that's something I didn't start doing until after I had been into it for a while and I wasn't sure at what point I should do so. Now's as good a time as any, as I've probably come as close as I ever will to seeing all there is to see, and I'm about to start playing the prequel, which I'm going to make a new blog for.

Oblivion really isn't like other games for me. I usually play focused single-player games until I complete the story, and then I move on. I might unlock some bonus stuff or eventually replay the game if I like it a lot, but I don't have enough time to give everything the attention it deserves. This is definitely not how I play Oblivion. All told, I've spent nearly two hundred hours exploring Cyrodiil, the Shivering Isles, and Mehrunes Dagon's Deadlands. Even after I get sick of it, it's only a matter of time before I come back, although the chances of that happening again diminish as I complete more quests, reducing the ones I haven't tackled to a very small number. I've split time between four different characters, and really immersed myself in the world.

The closer game designers get to creating a believable place, the easier it is for little things to break the suspension of disbelief, and that happens quite a bit, with the new AI system failing to prevent many awkward situations, although it's still cool how people can move from place to place, attack you if you've wronged them, and even get killed. The fact that all of their dialogue is voiced is also impressive, since there's so much of it, although it gets annoying when you hear the same voice over and over or the actor changes for a character based on the line they're saying. The music and sound effects are also quite good, with a score that's more atmospheric than memorable and appropriate magic and battle sounds. The graphics are pretty good, although it's hard to find a face using the character creation system that isn't pretty ugly and I wish the outdoor areas ran a little better on my system. The game crashes far too often, although the nice Autosave prevents it from being too much of a hassle.

Gameplay wise, the strength of the series has always been the variety. You can focus on pure combat, stealth, magic, or a combination. The ability to customize your own class instead of picking one from a list and improve any skill just by using it gives you a ton of flexibility in creating a fun, unique, and powerful character. The melee fighting isn't great if you're looking for a normal action experience, but it's pretty robust and strategic. Sneaking around, avoiding enemies and picking locks is way more fun than I expected it to be, and my favorite character ended up basically being a ninja master almost able to walk right by someone's face without them noticing, as long as there wasn't a light source in my face. I didn't explore the different schools of magic as much as I could have, but the different spells were also fun to play with, and I ended up collecting a lot of ingredients and making potions, useful when adventuring or just to sell for profit. A couple complains I can see are the simplification of the skill system, which didn't really bother me, and the level system, which does have some flaws. You improve your abilities through repeated use, but to improve your fundamental characteristics, you have to rest and level up. This would be fine, but every enemy in the game, except for a couple quest-specific ones, levels up with you, so you're never too over or under-powered. I'm mixed on this. On the one hand, the ability to go anywhere and do anything, knowing that you will be fairly challenged, is nice. On the other, it takes away the fun of becoming a very powerful character and being able to stomp certain enemies when you think you should be able. It doesn't make sense that goblins living in the sewers under the capital city become badasses just because I'm around. Taking away that progression is disappointing, although it ultimately doesn't hurt the game that much.

What's great about the game is that you can just wander around, and something interesting will always pop up, whether it's a clever side quest or just an enemy encounter you didn't expect. And when you're bored of that, there's the main quest and different factions to play through if you want some structure. The storylines that weave their way through the various paths you can take range from mildly interesting to brilliant, and they're all worth playing through. Not every line of dialogue is a winner, but it's an entertaining game with a really deep background, full of lore and history. I haven't been engrossed more by another RPG.