Films
Eric San Juan
April 29, 2016
Word of mouth and fan reaction can be a funny thing. Fans know their material more intimately than anyone, Trek fans especially, so when word on the street sets your expectations about a franchise, chances are pretty good they’ll be met. That has been evident throughout this marathon, when this Trek neophyte’s views have fallen almost exactly in line with Trek fandom’s. The one major exception has been with the very first Trek movie. And now the last. Because despite the middling reviews and lukewarm word of mouth, I think Star Trek: Nemesis was pretty outstanding and a fitting end to the Next Generation saga. Admittedly, it starts off rather questionably. Hints of The Undiscovered Country, with the Romulans now in the mood for peace…
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Eric San Juan
April 28, 2016
The danger of relying on your television creative team to craft a major motion picture is that your major motion picture may come across as more suited for the small screen rather than the big. Such is the case with Star Trek: Insurrection, which feels not so much like another Star Trek movie as it does like a two-part episode with a slight (very slight) increase in the special effects budget. Which is to say, it’s a disappointment that often borders on being a bore. The fact that it opens in some throwback village and then immediately descends into Data Has Gone Stark Raving Mad insanity as a way to create intrigue is an early red flag that this movie is going to go astray….
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Eric San Juan
April 27, 2016
The Next Generation crew’s first jump onto the big screen was a capable yet flawed disappointment, but that’s no reflection on the strength of the cast. They may not be icons like the original crew, but with seven successful seasons under their belt they’ve more than earned their place in the Trek canon. It’s welcome to discover, then, that First Contact does them justice where Generations did not. Here we have a movie that mixes together parts of The Wrath of Khan (a relentless returning enemy and some reliance on TV Trek lore) and The Voyage Home (time travel to an earlier Earth and the cheeky humor that results), and blends them together in a new story that manages to mine Trek lore in a…
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Eric San Juan
April 25, 2016
Two words. Often, you’re asked to sum something up in two words. It’s some sort of weird cultural shorthand we have that seems to be a substitute for thinking too hard about something. Regardless, it seems like a good way to begin. And, well, “perfectly adequate” sums up Star Trek: Generations about as well as two words can. Not a train wreck you want to look away from, nor a fantastic jump to the big screen by the Next Generation crew, Generations is merely … fine. In some ways, that makes this movie a failure. As the film that bridges the gap from the original Enterprise crew to the new, it has to carry some major weight for the franchise. The original Trek was not only…
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Eric San Juan
April 22, 2016
There is something compelling about the idea of a franchise that has always been about exploring new frontiers ending its run by exploring a truly undiscovered frontier: peace in our time. It would have been easy (and obvious) to end things with a grand space adventure, with a galactic war or massive alien threat that puts Vygr to shame or with the Enterprise in some far-flung corner of the universe seeing sights we’ve never seen before. Instead, The Undiscovered Country centers around diplomatic missions, peace talks, and political negotiations. When talks go astray, it becomes equal parts prison story and police procedural, with a heaping helping of Hitchcockian spy-movie intrigue to keep the audience guessing until the big climax. This being Star Trek, that sounds…
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