Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

"Space. The Final Frontier". Never has four words been so iconic, the second these words have finished someone will continue with that speech. Then again Star Trek is one of the most famous franchises out there. As we all know the franchise got rebooted...sort of, with the successful 2009 film and now comes the sequel.

The Federation comes under attack from a rogue agent, John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Fleet Admiral Marcus (Peter Welles) orders Kirk (Chris Pine) to take his crew on the USS Enterprise to chase him down.

That's probably all I can say with spoiling it.

As the title suggests the film is a lot darker than it's predecessor. It explores love, lost, sacrifice, deception, consequences, courage, it blends all of this into a fantastic piece of storytelling, as well as putting in some humour, some brilliant action scenes and some unexpected surprises. It successfully grabs your attention, it draws you in.

The characters are all still exceptional, in particular Harrison who is a much more tragic villain than he is originally made out to be. But that doesn't stop him from being one of the most cold and calculating villains to ever grace the silver screen. That's actually what I love to see more in villains, not that they're strong, cruel, sadistic, but their intelligence.

Meanwhile we see a more vulnerable Spock (Zachary Quinto), a more developed role for Scotty (Simon Pegg), and a more vengeful Kirk. In all honesty I felt Uhura (Zoe Saldana) was underused, and I'm not particularly a big fan of Saldana's. Don't get me wrong, I think she's good, not great. In fact now that I think about it we see a...trying to think of the right word here, a more desperate side of all the characters, and even from minor supporting characters.

But that's really all down to the acting. Saldana, as I said, I think she's more good than great, but in her role as Uhura I actually like her, it's just a shame she isn't really that developed. Everyone else though is superb, particularly Quinto towards the end and, of course, Cumberbatch who, at times, dominated the scenes. As mentioned even supporting cast members were brilliant, like Peter Welles, Bruce Greenwood as Admiral Pike, and Alice Eve as Doctor Sexy. I mean, as Carol Marcus.

The effects are superb, from space battles to on foot battles to the ships themselves. You know how I feel about CGI, so, like I mentioned in my 'Avengers' review, if I actually loved CGI effects then they are more than perfect. In fact I'd probably say that the effects in '...Into Darkness' are better than those in the 'Avengers'. Hell, the landscapes look spectacular. Every single effect looks physically real, it looks genuine, it looks superb. And then there's the make-up which was astounding, especially concerning alien races.

Let's just get down to it, this film is awesome. The acting is terrific, it has a storytelling masterpiece, the effects are outstanding, it's basically an awesome movie, and is a top contender for best film of 2013. If you haven't seen it yet, go and do so.

The Simpsons Movie (2007)

Ah the Simpsons. Probably the first thing to introduce me to America. Or at least one of the earliest. No-one can deny the impact it had on our lives. It has witty, satire, clever humour, it has some of the most memorable and fascinating characters, and the episodes generally had a point. They were unique, they were interesting, they had a message. And it won't go away. There's also no denying that the newer episodes, for me it was...season eleven onwards that it started to waver. We're now on season 24, and I think another season has been commissioned.

Anyway, the movie. After finding Lake Springfield is highly polluted, Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) badgers the town into cleaning it up. However Homer (Dan Castellaneta) dumps an overflowing silo (of feces) into the lake, causing the head of the Environmental Protection Agency Russ Cargill (A. Brooks) to trap the town in a giant dome to contain the pollution. Can the Simpsons save Springfield?

Yes, it's a Lisa-centric story. Sort of. It follows the Simpsons as a whole, but the plot is Lisa shoving the environmental message down our throats. I'll say this now, Lisa is my least favourite Simpsons character. Oh, her episodes have the moral teachings, which are important, it's the way Lisa portrays that message. She continuously preaches the messages, she attacks anyone who disagrees with her, the best example was her BBQ rampage in 'Lisa the Vegetarian', she basically forces everyone to say she's right.

But this time it wasn't just Lisa shoving the environmental message down our throats, the message has been shoved down our throats long before 'The Simpsons Movie' came out, what with global warming and the carbon footprint. It was already a dated issue. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a cleaner environment, but continuously telling us to do this and to do that over and over and over and over again, it pisses people off. Not only that, we once again get the strained relationship between Bart (Nancy Cartwright) and Homer.The film doesn't explore anything new, it doesn't challenge itself, it just goes over issues raised multiple times in the television show; including Lisa the Tree Hugger, 'The Wife Aquatic', 'Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish', 'The Old Man and the Lisa', and 'Brawl in the Family'.

Along with that, once again, Simpsons history has been re-written. In the past we were able to shrug off minor changes, but after what must be the fifth, I repeat, FIFTH different wedding for Homer and Marge, we just know that the writers don't give a crap about consistency or history anymore.

That being said, this film is a prime example of the new age Simpsons; the comedy, it's not really that good. It doesn't even start off that well with Homer literally telling the audience they're "a giant sucker". And, I don't care if it's animated or real, I don't want to see a ten year old's penis. They are some funny bits and some memorable things, one involving a pig and the ceiling (Which may or may not have become annoying), another involving Cargill's view on having power, and the other involving multiple jabs. I recently re-watch the 'South Park' movie, and pretty much every joke in that is still hilarious, the jokes in 'The Simpsons Movie' will be hard to remember a day or two later.

The animation is a lot sharper than pre-movie episodes, which, can be a good thing the characters flow a lot better. Hair flows in the air better, characters interact with objects a lot better, there's a lot more emotion in the animation. But, in a way I prefer the old animation style, it's a personal thing really, I'm probably more used to the old style. It's also an indicator that it's the modern Simpsons rather than the old (and better) episodes. The voice acting, I have to say, is virtually the same from the TV series, which, I suppose is still good. There are some moments which seem off, particularly with Lisa in the motel; I think it's more the animation doesn't match up.

The majority of the characters who appeared in the show also appear in the film. And that's actually a bad thing. It feels like they're trying to squeeze in as many characters, even those who only appeared in one or two episodes. And a majority of them don't even have a line, so they're just there, not really doing much. They don't really add any funny moments either, nor are they as good as they were in the TV series.

There are three new characters though, Russ Cargill, President Schwarzenegger (Hank Azaria), and Colin (Tress McNeille). Cargill is the best character, he's a lot of fun to follow, he's interesting, he's memorable, and has some of the best lines in the film. He also reminds us (A lot, mainly the same voice actor) of Hank Scorpio from You Only Move Twice.

The original family though are mere shadows of themselves from ten years ago. Homer was, we'll admit, not the brightest tool in the shed, but he was caring, he knew the difference between right and wrong, Marge (Julie Kavner) was extremely passionate about protecting her family, Lisa was the voice of reason, Bart was the bad boy who knew when enough was enough, and Maggie...was Maggie. She's a baby. Homer is now a complete idiot who does things for his own selfish needs with no thought of the consequences, Marge consistently nags believing she is right and everyone else is wrong, Lisa wants everyone to succumb to her will, and Bart has thrown bad boy out the window and gone into attempted murder(!) but is "misunderstood", and Maggie...is pretty much the only smart one left.

President Schwarzenegger is also a laugh, obviously because the character is spoofing then-Senator Arnold Schwarzenegger. But since he sounds an awful lot like Rainier Wolfcastle, it would have been more satirical to have him as President. Colin though, is a bland character. He serves as Lisa's love interest. Or rather crush interest, he's never mentioned outside the film again. He's basically a male Lisa, but the character fails because he sounds so boring. Any jokes that involve him fall flat; one of the jokes was that he says his father is Bono, simply because he's an Irish musician, I've no idea why that would be funny. He doesn't add anything to the film, if you took him out literally nothing will have changed. Oh, and Medicine Woman (Tress McNeille), whose only joke is that she has big boobs.

'The Simpsons Movie' isn't all that great. Overall it just feels like an extended or multipart episode than an actual movie. It feels like the plot is plodding along rather than flowing. On top of that the creators didn't push the boundaries, it feels dated, in particular the jokes, which weren't really that funny to begin with. Again it's got some funny moments, but a lot of dull ones, kind of the reverse of the older episodes. It's one of those films which you'll like less and less each time you watch it. My advice, watch it once, then never again.