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Showing posts with label robert wise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robert wise. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
James T. Kirk is an admiral in Starfleet, and when an anomaly that appears to be very dangerous is headed toward Earth he convinces the brass to let him take control of the Enterprise back so that he can intercept the alien force. Along the way Kirk manages to pull Spock and McCoy back into service as well. Once they catch up with the anomaly they become trapped and begin to learn about the entity now known as V-ger. As V-ger gets closer to Earth Kirk and crew must figure out how to stop it before it kills every living being on the planet.
Star Trek: the Motion Picture did give birth to the Star Trek franchise, so it does deserve some credit. However, there is a reason that the nickname for this movie is Star Trek: the Motionless Picture. NOTHING happens in this entire movie. They talk, they philosophize, they look at one another, they watch things, they listen to reports from eye witnesses…and that is it. Even the climax is just them walking into the center of V-ger and talking about what they discovered. Seriously.
I think Robert Wise is amazing, but if I had to see one more shot of the Enterprise flying through space something was going to die.
The worst part of this film is that everything is drawn out ten times longer than it should be. An example? Kirk is being shuttled back to the Enterprise by Scotty. They board the little ship and you see space, then they exchange a few lines of dialogue and Scotty starts the journey, now we have a shot of the Enterprise, then a shot of the shuttle flying, then a shot of Kirk looking, next another shot of the Enterprise, and another shot of earth and maybe the shuttle, then back to Kirk looking, then the Enterprise; after about three to five minutes of this the shuttle finally docks, Kirk & Scotty exchange another few lines of dialogue and then we are into the ship. If you cut out the shots of the ship flying through space you may have a thirty minute movie.
I am a big lover of the original series Star Trek movies because I grew up with them. But if I ever have to watch Star Trek: the Motion Picture again it will be too soon. Personally, I find it amazing that they were able to get Wrath of Khan off the ground.
Director: Robert Wise
Writer: Harold Livingston
Kirk: William Shatner
Spokc: Leonard Nimoy
Bones: DeForest Kelley
Scotty: James Doohan
Sulu: George Takei
Checkov: Walter Koenig
Uhura: Nichelle Nichols
Decker: Stephen Collins
Bones: Well Jim... I hear Chapel's an M.D. now. Well I'm gonna need a top nurse... not a doctor who'll argue every little diagnosis with me. And they probably redesigned the whole sickbay, too! I know engineers, they LOVE to change things.
Star Trek: the Motion Picture did give birth to the Star Trek franchise, so it does deserve some credit. However, there is a reason that the nickname for this movie is Star Trek: the Motionless Picture. NOTHING happens in this entire movie. They talk, they philosophize, they look at one another, they watch things, they listen to reports from eye witnesses…and that is it. Even the climax is just them walking into the center of V-ger and talking about what they discovered. Seriously.
I think Robert Wise is amazing, but if I had to see one more shot of the Enterprise flying through space something was going to die.
The worst part of this film is that everything is drawn out ten times longer than it should be. An example? Kirk is being shuttled back to the Enterprise by Scotty. They board the little ship and you see space, then they exchange a few lines of dialogue and Scotty starts the journey, now we have a shot of the Enterprise, then a shot of the shuttle flying, then a shot of Kirk looking, next another shot of the Enterprise, and another shot of earth and maybe the shuttle, then back to Kirk looking, then the Enterprise; after about three to five minutes of this the shuttle finally docks, Kirk & Scotty exchange another few lines of dialogue and then we are into the ship. If you cut out the shots of the ship flying through space you may have a thirty minute movie.
I am a big lover of the original series Star Trek movies because I grew up with them. But if I ever have to watch Star Trek: the Motion Picture again it will be too soon. Personally, I find it amazing that they were able to get Wrath of Khan off the ground.
Director: Robert Wise
Writer: Harold Livingston
Kirk: William Shatner
Spokc: Leonard Nimoy
Bones: DeForest Kelley
Scotty: James Doohan
Sulu: George Takei
Checkov: Walter Koenig
Uhura: Nichelle Nichols
Decker: Stephen Collins
Bones: Well Jim... I hear Chapel's an M.D. now. Well I'm gonna need a top nurse... not a doctor who'll argue every little diagnosis with me. And they probably redesigned the whole sickbay, too! I know engineers, they LOVE to change things.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a science fiction classic. I have been trying to see it for years and only successfully saw it when I got it from my Netflix queue a few days ago.
On principle I shouldn’t like The Day the Earth Stood Still because it is a message movie, but I do; the message in this movie is give up your nuclear arms and wars or you’ll pay the consequences. This is the entire message Klaatu braved hundreds of thousands of miles in space to deliver. This all makes sense for the film when you realize that it is a cold war film and people across the globe were afraid of the bomb.
Despite being a message movie at its core The Day the Earth Stood Still is quite entertaining; the characters are fully developed, all the relationships make sense and the plot moves at a nice speed that unfolds information for the audience as they need it not before.
I think that Klaatu is a great member of the annals of film aliens. While he represents a different view of the otherworldly outsider than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull did this year, it is a view of the alien type that probably influenced Spielberg when creating his earlier science fiction works like E.T.. There is both a fear of the outsider and a curiosity about what they can bring to us.
However, I do have to say that my single favorite thing in The Day the Earth Stood Still was Gort. A giant (mind you eight foot tall was big for special effects at the time) robot that was capable of destroying everything in its sight and who only Klaatu could control – that’s my kind of cold war paranoia. Gort is not only a protector of Klaatu but you find out that the robot is some sort of intergalactic peace officer created by Klaatu’s people.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a highly enjoyable film even if it has slightly suffered from being so era specific; however, seeing the original has me highly excited to see the remake when it comes out next month. Just imagine Gort with modern cgi.
Director: Robert Wise
Writer: Edmund H. Noth
Klaatu: Michael Rennie
Helen Benson: Patricia Neal
Tom Stevens: Hugh Marlowe
Professor Barnhardt: Sam Jaffe
Bobby Benson: Billy Gray
Gort: Lock Martin
On principle I shouldn’t like The Day the Earth Stood Still because it is a message movie, but I do; the message in this movie is give up your nuclear arms and wars or you’ll pay the consequences. This is the entire message Klaatu braved hundreds of thousands of miles in space to deliver. This all makes sense for the film when you realize that it is a cold war film and people across the globe were afraid of the bomb.
Despite being a message movie at its core The Day the Earth Stood Still is quite entertaining; the characters are fully developed, all the relationships make sense and the plot moves at a nice speed that unfolds information for the audience as they need it not before.
I think that Klaatu is a great member of the annals of film aliens. While he represents a different view of the otherworldly outsider than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull did this year, it is a view of the alien type that probably influenced Spielberg when creating his earlier science fiction works like E.T.. There is both a fear of the outsider and a curiosity about what they can bring to us.
However, I do have to say that my single favorite thing in The Day the Earth Stood Still was Gort. A giant (mind you eight foot tall was big for special effects at the time) robot that was capable of destroying everything in its sight and who only Klaatu could control – that’s my kind of cold war paranoia. Gort is not only a protector of Klaatu but you find out that the robot is some sort of intergalactic peace officer created by Klaatu’s people.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a highly enjoyable film even if it has slightly suffered from being so era specific; however, seeing the original has me highly excited to see the remake when it comes out next month. Just imagine Gort with modern cgi.
Director: Robert Wise
Writer: Edmund H. Noth
Klaatu: Michael Rennie
Helen Benson: Patricia Neal
Tom Stevens: Hugh Marlowe
Professor Barnhardt: Sam Jaffe
Bobby Benson: Billy Gray
Gort: Lock Martin
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