STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Review

J.J. Abrams' sequel to his 2009 "Star Trek" may not be brimming with the originality and awe of his initial creation which worked as a unique and clever pop culture reboot, but "Into Darkness" still makes for fine summer blockbuster fare. Now that Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto have been firmly introduced into their roles of Captain Kirk and Spock filling the shoes of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, Abrams and his screenwriting team (Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof) can settle in and have some fun with the franchise.

The rest of the crew is back, too, and the interplay between all the characters is the best part of the film's writing where a bunch of disparate personalities butt heads. In the frantic opening, Spock is caught in the depths of a volcano, which forces Kirk to break Starfleet regulations to save his life. The half-Vulcan, unable to express full emotion, seems ungrateful for the heroic act instead harping on the rules broken; crewmate and girlfriend Uhura (Zoe Saldana) is equally upset with his lack of reaction. Abrams makes sure to keep us emotionally invested in these characters which work together like a dysfunctional family. Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho), and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) all bicker, joke and really pop with a whole new dynamic and then ultimately join forces on the Enterprise now under Kirk's full command. The volcano incident is a hick-up that gets Kirk temporarily demoted by Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood).

A much larger threat, however, brings immediate attention when an attack on Starfleet from a mysterious rogue agent named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) begins a galactic manhunt. The team flies to the world of the arch enemy Klingons to find the culprit who turns out to be Khan, the story pulling its inspiration from 1982's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." The casting of the British actor mostly known as Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch, has beefed up and is brilliant as he brings a cold, calculated and ruthless unpredictability to the role. What's most exhilarating about this villain is the way, once captured and placed in a cell, he burrows his way into Kirk's mind forcing him to question his every action.

The villainous Khan brings real world implications to 9/11-style terrorism creating a tension-filled morality play. In that effect, Abrams manages to bring "Into Darkness" onto a grander, more menacing scale without sacrificing any brains or brawn. And yet, even with as faultless as Abrams' second outing is, it already feels too familiar. The action sequences are muted and uninteresting save for a harrowing sequence where Kirk and Khan shoot like bullets from one spaceship to another. The mild frustration comes from not escaping the feeling of being a sequel for the sake of a sequel and only occasionally soaring to greatness.

My 4-star review of J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek"

Archive: 'Charlie Bartlett'

Movie Review
Charlie Bartlett (2008)


Believe it or not, "Charlie Bartlett" was originally supposed to be released last August. I'm not sure what was added or taken away throughout all this time, but it certainly didn't add up to anything special. Here's a movie that could've been better than it is but isn't, and therefore, will be looked upon as immediately forgettable by most everybody who sees it and then never mentioned ever again. It's not doing well in theaters, that's for sure. It's hard to even place this movie in a category because it tries to be all things at once. While having the potential of being a smart little indie movie, it has traces of being a stupid teen comedy. And then it could also be a coming-of-age drama. And yet, it is all and none of these things all at once, making for one confused bundle of a movie.

In the first 30 minutes, the view of high school presented will make you wonder where the people who made this movie went to school. I mean, talk about contrived. The stereotypes are obnoxious and unnecessarily embarrassing. Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) finds himself tossed into this scary new environment after getting kicked out of yet another private school. During his first day, he arrives wearing a tie and blazer, catches the eye of a drama girl named Susan (Kat Dennings), and gets beat up by some punk named Murphy (Tyler Hilton).

Back at home, he enjoys quality time with his frivolous and loopy mother, Marilyn (Hope Davis), who turns a blind eye to basically everything Charlie does and feels guilty when anything does go wrong with him, blaming it on herself. She sends Charlie to the family psychiatrist where he complains about his lack of popularity in school. The therapist's suggestion is a low-dose of Ritalin. After trying it out for a few days, Charlie accidentally gets high off it running through his neighborhood in his underwear. And then he decides to sell the Ritalin to his peers. Recruiting Murphy to be his business partner, Charlie holds therapy sessions in the boys' bathroom where he prescribes students whatever medication they need. He acquires all of the medication by simply relaying the students' symptoms back to his own psychiatrists. And there you have it, the perfect recipe for popularity success.

Unfortunately for Charlie, the school's principal, Mr. Gardner (Robert Downey, Jr.), knows something is going on and quickly gets on Charlie's case. He, along with everybody else, knows Charlie's name as his popularity continues to swirl about the school. The trouble is that Charlie's interest in Susan only brings him closer to Mr. Gardner as he's her father. But, as the movie points out, it's not just the kids causing the trouble or in need of the guidance. Mr. Gardner hates his job as principal and is a hard-drinking alcoholic, and there's a pivotal scene involving him, Charlie, a swimming pool, and a gun.

And yet this pivotal scene really isn't as important as it could be. There are actually numerous great scenes here, but none of them ever amount to anything good or memorable. This is a movie that actually tackles a lot of tough subjects such as the price of high school popularity and the use and abuse of prescription medications. But a lot of this stuff ends up getting buried underneath a sour level of everything else just not being so good. It's erratic, unfocused, and scatterbrained. The audience, too, is all wrong. The movie is rated R when the core audience is between the ages of 13 and 17 who really need to be seeing this movie.

Hope Davis and Robert Downey Jr. are enjoyable scene-stealers as the helpless parents who are equal to their kids in terms of things they still have to learn in life. It's funny that Robert Downey, Jr. plays people who drink a lot. "Zodiac," specifically, comes to mind. Anton Yelchin, too, as the much-loved Charlie Bartlett, is great. He's goofy, appealing, charismatic, and one rising young star who's worth watching. He can act; he just needs a better script to work with. As much as "Charlie Bartlett" may be an OK movie, it goes from that to being not so good simply due to an abundance of missed opportunities.