Star Trek holds a special place in my heart, as it has done for many people for its 50 year history, combining thoughtful science fiction with adventurous derring do, characters we have all come to love and a positive, progressive ethos that spoke of the best of humanity. I reviewed Star Trek Into Darkness here back in 2013 and it was written, like this one, in that initial post-viewing glow. I liked aspects of Into Darkness then, but over time, the frustrations I spoke of during that film deepened. I watched it once more and came to resent it a great deal. I'm still not over it.
Into Darkness made the mistake of infecting Star Trek with a cynicism the show rarely possessed and the way they approached the story, the bizarre retread of Khan and the appropriation of Trek history was such a disappointment that I was ready to outright ignore the Kelvin timeline and await Bryan Fuller's TV series. I speak of this now to provide some context to my emotions going into Star Trek Beyond. I've been deeply reserved throughout the marketing campaign, growing more cautiously optimistic when the early positive buzz started filtering through, but still very hesitant.
It is, therefore, a joy to report that not only did I enjoy Star Trek Beyond, but it has managed to almost entirely renew my faith in the Kelvin timeline; STID means I will never be 100%, but hey, this is one hell of a comeback.
Captain James T. Kirk is three years into his five year mission of discovery and boldly going with the rest of the Enterprise crew. He's a little weary and considering making a promotional step that would take him out of the captain's chair and behind a desk. When a distressed refugee arrives at the Yorktown starbase (a truly phenomenal piece of design) needing help to retrieve her crew, it is, naturally, the Enterprise that is tasked with the rescue mission. They head off into uncharted space and straight into a trap that scatters the crew. Kirk, Bones, Spock et al. are forced to combine their smarts to outwit their rather angry opponent and get the crew of the Enterprise back together again.
What strikes me most about Beyond is that it feels, from the start, like a Trek story. The world around them has a tangible history to it, allowing for subtle callbacks to the Federation's history that fans will understand. Unlike the heavy-handed reference-flinging of its predecessor, Beyond simply allows its world to exist rather than feeling the need to consistently and loudly point it out. Much of this comes for an inherent respect of the property that they're working with, helped enormously by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung's screenplay. The love of Trek practically bursts through the screen on occasion and it's hard not to get swept up in such enthusiasm.
And, like the best Trek tales, Beyond manages to combine its adventurous tone with a thematic weight and properly worked character arcs. The key message here, oft-repeated, is the idea of 'strength in unity,' what the Federation stands for across the galaxy. The bad guy, Krall (an imposing Idris Elba), believes it's all empty rhetoric and that his particular brand of conflicted, battle-scarred individuality is the way to go. It sets up an intriguing opposite to Kirk who acknowledges the need for his crew at all times; he's never the individual hero here, but part of a team.
Justin Lin's direction yields some beautiful moments of sublimity including a gorgeous shot of Kirk surveying recently wrought destruction from a position of powerlessness. But Lin also can't seem to keep still. There are great looping camera movements around characters or through Yorktown, all of which look very pretty, but becomes a little tiresome as the film goes on. The editing during the action sequences falls into one of the common traps of never quite being able to convey what is happening. Some fights are more than a little confusing, which is a shame during some of the higher concept action sequences as there's some inventive choreography going on there.
When it comes to the cast, Chris Pine is one of the major strengths of Beyond, depicting the loneliness of command early in the film before slotting instantly into the leadership role as the narrative demands. He anchors the core conflict of individuality versus community in his performance that, at times, feels Shatner-esque in tone or expression, but without resorting to the parody of the character that the other two films lapsed into on occasion. This Kirk is a product of his father's death and all the anxieties that come with that and it's in the little moments that that comes forth, such as a close up of his hand nervously gripping his chair arm during a battle sequence that feels deeply human. It's not all drama though; the wicked sense of humour gets a chance to shine frequently.
That sense of humour spills into the other characters too, especially Bones and Spock. Karl Urban and Zachary Quinto are the most Bonesy and Spockish they've ever been; their expanded relationship is given the time to explore their respective roles as representatives of the heart and the head. They have a conversation about mortality, a theme of the film that gets a little lost in the action elsewhere, but here feels like a near-perfect microcosm of how they work together as the clash of heart and hea. The Bones-Kirk-Spock trifecta is also seen more and carries a real sense of how the trio's inter-dependence becomes essential to their relationship. It's the closest they've come to matching their Prime timeline counterparts and it bodes well for future instalments.
The other crew members are served well with Sulu and Uhura each getting their turn in the spotlight. The use of Uhura as the audience proxy with Krall is a clever play on her communications role, her conversations with him offering us insight into his history and motivations. The late Anton Yelchin's enthusiastic performance as the adorable Chekov gives the film its bittersweet note and he's a joy once again here, all badly pronounced Vs and gesticulation. Newcomer Sofia Boutella's Jaylah slots in well to the existing line-up and allows for that strength in unity theme to be played out in another format as she learns to work with the crew.
Above all, the message of hope that runs through Beyond feels needed now more than ever. There is no problem here that can't be solved with a little ingenuity, no obstacle that feels insurmountable if everyone is working together. In the current unsettled political climate, it feels particularly timely. The threats are clear and present, the stakes high, but you have faith, just like Kirk, that the crew will find a way out of whatever dilemma they've wandered into because that's exactly what they're good at. It's an enormously positive message and a love letter to the power of a united population. And that, to me, is quintessential Star Trek.
Now if I could just stop thinking about Madness every time I read the title...
- Becky
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It has now been over a week since Detective Chief Inspector John Luther (Idris Elba) graced our television screens for the last time and yes, I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. The finale saw Luther down a partner after Ripley (Warren Brown) was gunned down by the vigilante killer Tom Marwood (Elliot Cowan) and possibly a girlfriend after Marwood goes after Mary Day (Sienna Guillory). He's also still the subject of a rather ham-fisted investigation into his activity by DCU Stark (David O'Hara) and the now rather conflicted DCI Erin Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird). However, as these threads begin to unravel and tie him up in knots, an old friend in the form of psychotic Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) shows up to help out.
I'm still in two minds about this finale because it felt like an episode of two halves. On the one hand, you had the culmination of the Marwood plotline which followed directly on from the previous episode and featured some of the tensest scenes Luther has been involved in. On the other, there was the desire to wrap up Luther's story in a satisfying way to ensure that the fans got the ending that the character deserved. We also had this ongoing investigation into his methods, which by this point was weaving between the two narratives, but is very much a leaden weight to both. It's an odd mix and Neil Cross managed to largely succeed in making both plotlines work, but not necessarily together.
First of all, the Marwood narrative is one of the more interesting ones tackled by Cross; the idea of a vigilante killer in Luther's messed up world poses some intriguing questions for both the audience and Luther, as discussed in last week's review. Yet in his brutal killing of Ripley, an innocent, Marwood crosses a line and in this episode, he crosses that line and then sprints some way into the distance. Thus ensuring that we know he's completely unhinged by kidnapping an innocent woman to persuade her husband into killing the imprisoned murderer of Marwood's wife. Elliot Cowan's performance has been excellent throughout; Marwood's a broken man trying desperately to get some recognition for what he's done.
It's that desperation that Luther latches on to and there is an absolutely brilliant scene in which he and Alice wear Marwood down, filming him with his own camera in order to puncture his vigilante hero reputation. Any scene between Cowan and Elba was a delight, but the extra spark of the excellent Ruth Wilson elevated it above the rest. It was one of two key scenes in Marwood's plot that stood out from the episode, the other being the confrontation on the top of Paragon Tower safe house in which he tried to force Luther to choose between Mary and Alice. The tensions was ramped up the right amount but came more from the fact I didn't really care about Mary but was desperate that Alice survived. Luther's clever decision picking Alice (who would've let Mary die) ensuring that Mary saved her was a good twist and provided a most satisfying ending for Marwood.
And then there was the other plot thread in which Stark's demented investigation continued, but managed to suck any tension out of the proceedings once the odd couple of him and Gray appeared onscreen. Arresting Luther for the murder of Ripley and attempted murder of Mary was just a bit ridiculous on both level of plot and in terms of the characters' decision. Plotwise, it seemed to be there just to continue the parallels to Zoe's death in the first series and to put Luther in an adverse position, which he sort of was already. Granted, it did introduce Alice back into the mix (and what an entrance), but it didn't feel necessary to the proceeding hour.
In fact, the investigation plot didn't feel necessary in these last two episodes full stop. O'Hara's performance became a grizzly one note that wasn't menacing, but irritating and I was curiously indifferent to the moment in which Stark got blasted away. Gray's sudden change of heart just felt like a last minute attempt to redeem the character. It was a plot that was wrapped up in the second episode with the declaration from Ripley in which it provided an interesting dynamic to the fetish killer narrative. Here, however, it was just a dead weight. I would have much rather have spent more time with Marwood's plot and allowed that to breathe more; it was the much more compelling storyline.
The performances in this episode were largely excellent, particularly Cowan as I have mentioned. Yet it is to the two starring roles that we must turn because, when all is said and done, Alice came back. A fascinating character in her own right, Wilson's Alice is so gleefully demented that she provides a great balance to Elba's darker introspection. The actors' chemistry is electric and this episode proved that the third series really missed the banter that passed between them. With rumours of a movie and an Alice spin-off, Luther's ending left it suitably open-ended, but one thing was absolutely clear; Luther and Alice were going off together.
And let's face it, that was the ending we always wanted. He could've kept the coat though...
- Becky
You can read Becky's review of the previous episode here.
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An inter-dimensional breach deep in the Pacific Ocean has led to huge monsters, nicknamed Kaiju, to wreak havoc on the human race. In response, we build Jaegers, giant mechanised warriors operated by two pilots to do battle with the Kaiju. As the attacks keep coming and the situation gets desperate, Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) brings back a disgraced pilot, Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam) to help him with the few remaining Jaegers he has left.
A film from Guillermo del Toro is always going to be visually arresting and right from the first trailer, Pacific Rim has never looked like bucking the trend. The film's excellent viral campaign has been building this world for us for months now and that meticulous attention to detail makes Pacific Rim totally immersive. From small details like pin-up paintings on the side of a Jaeger to city architecture building around Kaiju skeletons, every aspect of this ravaged earth feels authentic with a weight and a history behind it. There is also the multicultural aspect that del Toro has created, blending cultures and people together to create a vision of humanity pulling together against a common enemy.
It is a real shame then that the same level of attention hasn't been paid to achieving some sort of gender balance with the characters seen. Yes, one of the best characters in the film is female (and we'll get to the awesome Mako Mori soon), but there are very little female faces elsewhere. In fact, there is just one other female speaking role and she doesn't really carry any screen time. Many of the other minor roles aren't gender specific and it doesn't really make a lick of sense why, when a fair amount of countries are represented, the same can't be said for the women of this battered earth. It's been a bad year for female characters in blockbusters and sadly, Pacific Rim has done nothing to buck that trend.
It also doesn't help that the characters are thinly drawn and barely extend beyond their particular archetype. Somehow though, this sort of works and it helps that most of the cast lend a certain credibility to the clunkier aspects of the script. Elba brings a gravitas to his role as the impressively monikered Stacker Pentecost and is clearly destined for more roles of the authoritative variety, giving Pentecost a weariness that plays well into the decaying world around him. Even Robert Kazinksy as the Iceman substitute, Chuck, whilst cartoonish, manages to add a little more drama to the human focused scenes and his relationship with father Herc (Max Martini) provides another emotional dimension to the proceedings.
The light relief of Charlie Day and Burn Gorman's exposition characters can get a bit wearing, especially as Day seems to operate on a permanently SHOUTY level, but they have a couple of funny moments between them and allows for a Ron Perlman appearance to boot. Kikuchi meanwhile is the character granted the biggest arc (though that's not saying much) as Mako Mori, an intriguing mix of vengeance and ambition. She's easily the best thing in the film and it's refreshing to see a female character not simply there just to facilitate the hero's development or just strip unexpectedly down to her pants.
Pacific Rim does not, however, have a convincing lead. Charlie Hunnam certainly looks the part and there are plenty of shirtless moments for girls and guys who are so inclined to have a cheeky gape at. But a well defined set of abs does not a leading man make. Lacking in the charisma that is usually mandatory for this kind of disgraced former genius pilot role, Hunnam is seemingly incapable of varying his line delivery and proves to be a bit of a vacuum at the centre of the film when he should have been the heart. It's also a shame that his relationship with Mako is never really developed, especially considering they are supposed to be mentally compatible enough to pilot Gipsy Danger. Nevertheless, the film does just enough to make sure that you care and it's the first film in a long time where they actually feel in genuine peril for at least the final act.
From the moment the first trailer punched its way on to the internet, Pacific Rim promised huge, bone-crunching action and it really delivers. The CGI used to create the Jaegers and the Kaiju is simply fantastic, a real testament to its quality in an age when all special effects are scrutinised heavily. Both adversaries move with a credible weight, making a visible impact on the locations even when they aren't smashing into buildings and bridges. The sequences are frenetic and largely, it's possible to discern what's happening, but there are occasions when the shots are badly lit or the camera moving at such a pace that it's best to just sit back and wait for the audio to let you know what's happening.
Despite these gripes, Pacific Rim is actually just a huge amount of fun from start to finish and for that reason, it gets away with having a less than stellar script, mostly one-note characters and the odd shaky-cam faux pas. It's a film that is just happy to be a loud, live-action cartoon of many a childhood fantasy and as someone who grew up watching Power Rangers, the action sequences here are what those episodes with the Megazord always promised but could never quite deliver. For that alone, I loved it.
****
- Becky
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Just as he finds a little romance and bromance in his life, Luther is faced with a vigilante, a man determined to exact his own justice as publicly as possible and the stakes get personal extremely quickly.
The episode begins in a typically Lutherian brutal fashion; two young people have been out with friends and romantically get together in the car on the way home. The happiness won't last though as the pair are attacked by a gang of hoodies, but a figure appears out of the dark with a sawn-off shotgun and blasts the ringleader away. Said figure is Tom Marwood (Elliot Cowan), a self-proclaimed vigilante killer out to make the criminal world pay for the horrific rape and murder of his wife. Luther (Idris Elba) gets on the case and, now reunited with Ripley (Warren Brown), must track down the killer before he strikes again.
The vigilante aspect of the killer makes for an intriguing change of pace from the previous two episodes in which the fetish killer was all about silence and taking his time in killing and arranging the bodies. In contrast, Marwood is loud, violent and most of all, in the public eye. It produces a different level of discomfort for the audience because the build-up this time isn't about where the killer is, but who he is going after and why. And in a canny use of the internet, Marwood captures his own audience and goes after the most public hate figures he can. It's viral violence, a vigilantism that garners support almost instantly.
Unlike previous killers, in which we automatically know they're completely in the wrong for murdering young women in their beds, the morality surrounding Marwood is immediately a nasty shade of grey. As Luther observes when the pair confront each other, it's not his motive that is wrong, it's his means. But this is also a sympathetic figure; the man lost his wife and was failed by the criminal justice system. He is also a man that will publicly hang people and therefore not to be approved of. The scene between Elba and Cowan was wonderfully constructed, facing each other across the canal bank, forming two sides of the argument with only the disparity of the gun between them.
The episode also takes a big step in the development of Luther as a character; he begins with Mary (Sienna Guillory) in his flat, he introduces Ripley is his friend and everything seems to be going swimmingly. But a happy Luther is not an interesting Luther and it's not long before it all goes to pot. From the minute that they decided it was a good idea to get the victim of a paedophile to plead for her tormentor's life in a live press conference, it was apparent it was all going to go completely wrong and poor, brave Ripley paid for it with his life.
Brown's performance in his final scene was just excellent, calmly refusing to let Cowan go and the moment packed an emotional, though not wholly unexpected punch. Structurally, the moment bore remarkable similarities to the death of Zoe Luther (Indira Varma) in the first series with Luther arriving too late and huddling over the body. It's clear it's going to have a massive impact on the character, losing his only friend to a vigilante who had previously only targeted criminals. It marks a massive shift for Luther over the course of the episode and psychologically speaking, he's never been the most stable. With the promised return of Alice (Ruth Wilson) next week (YAY), I'm hoping for a finale with the same amount of impact and drama as the one from the first series.
The only duff note in an otherwise strong episode is the continuation of the internal investigation into Luther's methods by the impossibly gruff-voiced Stark and the now morally conflicted Erin Gray. Quite why she thought this was a good idea to begin with when Stark is clearly deranged is never broached by the show, nor does it feel as if their inclusion is necessary now Ripley has confirmed that Luther hasn't done anything illegal. Their pursuit of Mary lacked any sort of impact because we don't know the character well enough - my criticism of this stands for the end of the episode too. I was still distraught about Ripley to worry about someone I met a couple of weeks ago. The 'whirlwind' speech was an excellent moment however.
What it does do, albeit in a rather oblique and unsuccessful way, is ask the question of what is going to happen to Luther now Ripley, his moral compass of sorts, is out of the picture. Will he go off the rails? Probably. Will he run off into the night with Alice before returning for the next series? Let's hope so.
- Becky
You can read Becky's review of Episode Two here.
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Following on from last week's nailbiting terror of an episode, Luther (Idris Elba) finds himself investigating the murder of the woman and her husband and attempting to track down the fetish killer before he strikes again. He also had a successful date with Mary Day (Sienna Guillory), though spends most of the episode trying to get back in touch with her. DS Ripley (Warren Brown) is still working with DCI Erin Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and DSU Stark (David O'Hara) to bring down Luther by observing his unorthodox methods and reporting back to the pair of solemn investigators. Ripley is also trying to wrap up the murder of Jared Cass on his own whilst Luther busies himself with the other killer.
Anyone worried that the second episode of Luther couldn't live up to the sheer thriller that was the opening needn't have bothered. The same tension was not present at the beginning of the episode but writer Neil Cross and director Sam Miller kept up the chilling atmosphere throughout before ramping it up to near-unbearable levels once again as we followed the two nurses around their home, knowing that the killer was in there. Miller is an assured hand and let the lengthy POV shots speak for themselves, lingering on the victims and teasing the audience for what seemed like an age before the killer reveal.
The link back to the previous cases proved to be an interesting development and the scenes between the fetish killer and cancer-suffering murderer William Carney (Ned Dennehy) were creepy to say the least. It also leant an interesting development to Paul Ellis, the killer, and rather than being the silent absolute of a serial killer, the audience was granted an insight into his past as well as his current life. Clearly we are never meant to empathise with him (the dependence on murdering women in their homes puts paid to that), but it is always refreshing to find villains presented as multi-dimensional characters too, building into the believability of Luther's already heightened version of reality.
Elba is, as ever, the dependable centre of the show, brings such presence to Luther; he's the strong centre of the show, yet, as evidenced here, that comes with a certain level of self-doubt. His relationship with Ripley has been the one constant throughout the three series and watching it fracture in last week's episode was an odd development, as I discussed previously. However, it seems that my fears were unfounded as Ripley, recorded on a dictaphone, gave an impassioned defence of his boss. Elba's performance in this particular scene was wonderfully understated and his sense of relief is palpable.
Speaking of Ripley, Warren Brown's performance over the last two episodes has been excellent, particularly in this instalment as he faces pressure to wrap up the Jared Cass murder as well as rat on his boss. His scenes with Lucian Msamati as the grieving and now one-handed Mr Barnaby were the calmest moments in the episode, yet imbued with that same sense of dread. It takes someone very special to be able to deliver a line like "your hand is now with our forensics team" and not even blink.
Elsewhere in the episode, we also had the developing romance between Luther and Mary, who thankfully toned down the Manic Pixie Dream Girl aspect of her character this week, just enough for me to start liking her. However, it is also looking likely that she has something to do with the vendetta that is keeping our DCU Stark so dogged on the trail for Luther. The women in Luther's life are always an interesting study, though it seems we've finally escaped the shadow of his deceased wife Zoe. I'm still rooting for Alice to appear though because Mary may be lovely, but there is nothing like the chemistry between Elba and Ruth Wilson.
- Becky
You can read Becky's review of Luther's first episode here.
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Luther returns to our screens, two years after the last series aired, walking out of a burning building dragging a suspect behind him, not even stopping to pause as an explosions rips through the doorway he has just moved away from. Of course he does. It's a great opening for one of the gruffest detectives around and a welcome return for Idris Elba in the role. Neil Cross' series about the titular police man with a dark and tortured past has never been anything but gripping and whilst the change in format for the second series didn't quite match up to the brilliance of the first, it remains here. The current run is four episodes consisting of a pair of two-parters, allowing for some lengthy character development and also, some nasty, nasty crimes.
Heading up the Serious and Serial Crime unit, you always know the criminals in Luther aren't going the of the fluffy bunny variety and so it proves again. Tell me, did you check underneath your bed last night and make sure all the doors and windows were locked? I certainly did, because those two murders in last night's episode were terrifying. A testament to Sam Miller's direction, the first sequence with Emily Hammond was torturously slow and took place in complete silence before some screeching strings that frightened the life out of me as the fetishistic murderer's head popped out from underneath the bed. I already knew he was there thanks to the long, lingering shot of Emily's feet from under the sheet, at which point I was already shouting at the television telling a fictional character to get out of their house (Luther does this to me).
The suspense didn't end there though and the playing with horror conventions worked really well throughout the episode to ramp up the tension to the point of it being almost unbearable. This was particularly effective with the closing murder scenes of the episode, playing like a house invaders narrative, albeit with less build up than something like The Strangers. The murderer again hiding in the house, though this time in plain sight under a dust sheet in the attack. Again, Miller takes his time with the set up, allowing the husband to get perilously close in near silence before the murderer struck loudly and violently. This was another shouting at the television moment, I'm not ashamed to admit.
One aspect that Luther has always handled well is the multiple strands to each story that is presented. Whilst Luther and the ever-dependable Ripley (Warren Brown) were investigating the Hammond murder, they were also given the murder of Jared Cass, an internet troll and now part of a post-mortem graffiti exhibition. This led to one of the finest scenes in the episode as the pair were led to the Barnaby family, whose daughter had been killed and later defiled on the internet by Cass. Lucian Msamati's grieving father was heartbreaking to watch and made even more painful by Luther's decision to warn him obliquely that they knew he was the killer. As the blender was plugged into the wall, I hid behind a cushion and shouting at the television once again. This episode put me through the wringer.
However there was another plot strand that didn't work, or at least wasn't allowed the time to develop that it perhaps should have been. With the antagonising DCI Erin Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird) returning with a big ole grudge for Luther and hiring an unhinged DCU Stark to work the corruption charge she's just been dying to hit Luther with. They do this by recruiting Ripley to their cause. Yes, the same Ripley that risked his career and life back in the first series because he believed that Luther hadn't been the one to kill Zoe. The same Ripley that has been by Luther's side loyally for a huge amount of time. Apparently, all it took to turn him was a bit of casual strangulation.
Now Ripley has always been Luther's moral compass of sorts, tasked with reining him in when the DCI gets a bit violent or unhinged and I can understand that that would take its toll on a person. Yet it was unbelievable in such a short space of time, with little to no development leading into it. It's a character moment that jarred and whilst Brown has performed excellently, I can't help but feel this could be a bit of a bum note in the series, designed to add yet another menace to Luther's progression. On a positive note though, the interaction between Elba and Brown in the scenes where their relationship starts to fracture was deftly handled with just a couple of quick glances to let you know of Luther's suspicion or Ripley's shifty attitude. It just could have done with some more build-up.
Finally, in amongst all this death and tension, there was also a nice bit of light relief as Luther met someone who was labelled 'love interest' from the moment her bumper clashed with our detective's old banger (not a euphemism). Sienna Guillory's Mary Day emerged from her car (told you it wasn't a euphemism) in a slightly Manic Pixie Dream Girl-ish way, but I won't hold that against her just yet as I liked her scenes with Luther. A nice bit of banter between the two about his name, which also provided some neat character analysis, was a welcome break from the episode's darker moments.
I can't be the only who is missing Alice already though right?
- Becky
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