So, first up, (was) the new Star Trek movie this past weekend. In a nutshell – Very good!

Likes:
– Villain, (Benedict Cumberbatch, the next Alan Rickman);
– special effects (the new ‘warp’ light effect is very cool);
– the interplay between the main characters;
– Spock (simply kicks a**)
– Karl Urban as McCoy
– definitely good to see Peter Weller in anything, it’s been too long!

Nerdy Nits to pick:
– The need to turn every stressful scene into The Poseidon Adventure;
– The underlying, unstated (but must exist?) competition between Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams to one-up each other with these movies (See my Avengers commentary from last summer, and of course now that JJ Abrams is doing at least one (likely more) Star Wars movie, the gamesmanship may never end;
– a few plot holes I won’t spoil for you (we can argue about them over beer later)
– the lack of much for McCoy to do in this one vs. the last one
– Transwarp beaming? It was bulls*** in the last one, still a plot dodge bigger than a galaxy full of Holodecks (thankfully not in either movie);
– Chris Pine still looks too young to be Captain Kirk, although he does a great job in the role generally – maybe some Dippity-Do in the hair area would make him look older?

Go see it! Next up, Oblivion, Iron Man 3, Elysium, Pacific Rim, and several others…exxxxxxxxxxcellent!

candybowl

for another season of Parks & Rec next fall, hooray! In the meantime, here’s a Pyramid of Greatness to tide you over (besides reruns :)) – click image for a bigger version!

candybowl