Quite good movie, but mostly because of Travolta (who does way better villains than heros) and Washington (a bit miscast, cause he plays the diplomat so often, he didn’t seem out of place, but still great acting). The script was predictable, the negotiation gave nothing new and the final showdown could’ve used a better/deeper dialogue. But aside that, a well made flick that I enjoyed.

Links: IMDB

If this sound’s a bit strange to you, that’s okay. You’re in good company. “A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.” So they say. In fact, with this movie they throw over several facts that already exist due other movies and the series. Sometimes it makes you wonder if J.J. Abrams was just fast-forwarding through some Star Trek DVDs, picking up a few ideas, but since he didn’t understand them, turned them into something different. (And I’m not talking about the fact that new shows of the elder stuff look more enhanced. That’s strange, but okay, since today’s stuff looks even better than in TOS.) Of course, some things can be explained by the time travel stuff, but some other stuff just makes you think “someone” pulled the ideas out of a monkey’s rectum. Overall they try to explain that all this fits well into the established timeline, but let’s just stick to “no”. And with a chronicle of the early days of some characters, you would expect some character development. But actually they just throw the bunch together, give them one or two signature lines and that’s it. Quite shallow. Even Kirk is far from having an interesting development. The acting itself could be generally better. Another thing are the settings. While the bridge, the transporter room and the hallways are well made, most of the lower decks, where the infrastructure like the engine room resides, are just shots made in huge factories and storages. I.e. they all look like a big waste of space and far from being a realistic starship interior, especially in the clean Star Trek universe. This makes the settings inconsistent and unrealistic. The special effects are good, as expected, and the space combats look more interesting and dynamic than most others of the Star Trek franchise. There are some fun scenes as well, so overall I did somewhat enjoy the flick. I don’t mind changes to a certain degree, change is good and telling the same story again and again doesn’t make it better. But with this movie they try to tell a new story and fit it into an old story, which leads to some big logic bugs. So, from a semi-neutral point of view, the movie kinda sucks, even if you think of it  as a reboot, like some people call it. J.J. Abrams is know for being mysterious about his projects, hyping them and f*cking them up in the end. For me, he’s just proceeding as usual.

Links: Movie at IMDB, Movie Homepage

But iirc, they stated to do this movie old style, with only a minimum of CGI. So, why do I see so much that came out of a computer? Heck, the first thing they showed wasn’t real (and if it was, give PETA a call). Sure, it’s not as bad as with many other movies. But one shouldn’t brag about something they won’t do.
Just my two cents. Not that I care, as long as I enjoy the flick.

Now, a funny thing came along afterwards. Some Russian Communist Party members want to ban the movie, ’cause it’s anti-Soviet propaganda that distorts history. They are afraid that the teenagers, who are not aware of what happened in 1957, might believe the Soviets were chasing after crystal skulls. So they not only think that their kids missed a few history lessons, but also imply that the modern russian teenager is just frickin’ stupid and can’t distinguish obvious fiction from fact. Better tell them that the world did not get run over by aliens, like in various movies. Hey, we Germans should sue Hollywood as well, since our youth might believe Nazi Germany has been hunting down whip-wielding archeologists in search for a golden box filled with dust or the ancient goblet of a mere carpenter. And better call New-Delhi and give them a hint where they can find the Sankara Stones, which help them solve all problems.

And as a final related thing, I got myself a fedora. Not the wool-made official one, which isn’t more than a non-authentic gimmik, but a real fur fedora. I wonder why all the other movie-goers were eyeing me at the preview. Anyway, I’m considering to become a regular hat wearer. If it just weren’t ruining my hairdo…

The story was okay, but it wasn’t that appealing and on top of it very predictable, especially the end. It wasn’t frightening at all to me, not even shocking. A lot of what happened felt unmotivated and made no sense. At other times something started to happen… and that’s it. But the movie can be counted as an interesting study of human behaviour in extreme situations, which is at the same time one of the difficulties. The problem is, that the story is very dependent on a large set of different characters. But most characters and actors were just about decent. Stupid stereotypes and dull played. Even David Drayton, the leading role played by Thomas Jane, didn’t do it for me, he just went along and I couldn’t see a reason why he was chosen by the others to be their leader. Though, I think the role of Mrs. Carmody was written very well and played outstanding by Marcia Gay Harden. The whole cinema felt about the same way towards her, from annoyance to hatred. Most heroes and villains don’t manage to get that kind of reaction from the complete audience. After that follows Toby Jones as Ollie Weeks and then a long nothing. The CGI is so so. While the creatures are interesting designed, they’re implemented badly into the movie. As long as they are out in the mist, you won’t notice. But when coming into a clear area and even in contact with real objects and people, it’s too obvious that they are fake. Regarding the directing and the work of the rest of the team, I find nothing more worth mentioning, so let’s stay with that.

Concluding I’d say the movie isn’t all bad, despite my dissing. It was okay as a time killer and if you enjoyed other adaptions of Stephen King, you might enjoy this one as well. You could place it somewhere between Dreamcatcher and The Shining, but far away from The Shawshank Redemption (which is still one of my favourite movies).

» Official Homepage
» “The Mist” on IMDb

But I still go to the previews and still like to write, so I’ll start reviewing again, even if it’ll be just a few words. Most of the time, they will be written in English. (As I need the experience.) Except when it comes to German movies, that surely won’t be screened internationally. (As I need to warn my fellow countrymen without the language barrier.) And you probably won’t care about the reviews anyway, since you might’ve seen the flick already yourself (movies are screened later in Germany). But hey, I won’t care about that as well, so we’re cool.

So stay tuned or not for reviews to come.