Director: J. J. Abrams.
Main Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana.
Writers: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Gene Roddenberry.
My Rating: 9/10.

To start, I think I need to make the statement that I’m not a “trekkie”. But, I went to watch the last star trek movie and as a micro review.. I liked it pretty much! Yeah. It was funny, full of action and very eye catching. Now, let’s go on with the serious stuff. First of all, I didn’t go to see the movie in a normal situation, but through an invitation for a preview. I found strange that they didn’t have a ticket or a brochure to bring as a souvenir. Second, I was surrounded by security guys, and I felt like some kind of criminal, but the highest point was when I reached the door to the movie room, and with a metal detector I was asked to show my mobile phone. As I have a Nokia N95, they said I had to leave the phone with the security central. I found it kind of weird, but in fact, if there’s any phone that can do a quality rip, is a phone like mine. Apart from being weird, the procedure worked really well, as they stored the phone in a sealed plastic bag with a code and gave me a little ticket with the code, to claim the phone after the movie. After entering the room and finding a good spot in front of the screen, I saw that in spite of being in a movie room with a bunch of normal people, I was surrounded by a geek family in my right side, with the father talking about Kirk and aliens, a mother talking about voyager and warp speeds and the whole family with an eager smile, like they were going to watch some kind of heavenly movie. Then, I turned my head slowly to the left and there were some geeky guys, with old fashioned glasses, a bunch of tech magazines in their hands, like T3, Stuff and Computer Magazines, wearing Simpsons T-shirts. To be sincere, I felt a little weird, but found it funny after all. The lights went out and the trailer exhibitions started. I got curious with Angels and Demons but I definitely have to see Night at the Museum 2! Trailers shown and the movie started, as it is supposed to.

In the beginning, I thought that the scenes were awesome, with some stunning images to watch, but… I think that the beginning was a bit boring. It happens that it makes sense to be like this, as the first part of the movie places you in the plot and tells you the background history. You get to know that there is a Romulan bad guy named Nero that comes from the future to hunt Spock, as he didn’t save his planet. Kirk happens to be a rebellious kid and Spock is the result of a Vulcan father and Human mother relationship, and in spite of being very intelligent and smart, denies entering the Vulcan council, because he prefers to make it to the Starfleet Academy than to be humiliated for having a human mother. Then, the movie starts to get more interesting. There are some action fights, some nice chicks, some really funny stuff and the Star Trek action begins to rumble. In this parts of the movie, I loved Kirk’s cockiness, the fact that Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy has a space phobia and what he does with Kirk to get him on the Enterprise, by giving him a vaccine with some hilarious reactions, the complications related to Pavel Chekov’s accent, and some more stuff, like Hikaru Sulu being heavily trained in skilled one-on-one combat, more specifically… in fencing. It was also a nice surprise to see Leonard Nimoy appearing as Senior Citizen Spock. Well, by the end of the movie, I was a happy and satisfied person, for watching a science-fiction movie with some nice action and funny scenes, although I didn’t ended up saluting everyone with Spock’s split-finger salute, while saying the famous phrase “Live long and prosper”.

I found the graphics awesome, and in a final thought, I had just watched a very entertaining movie. One final thing that caught my attention was that in the posters and advertising stuff, Winona Rider was always portrayed as being on the main cast, looking like she was more important that some of the other main characters. Only then, after thinking a while, was that I realized that she was in fact Spock’s mother!

Star Trek: Movie Trailer.

Director: Ridley Scott.

Main Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah, William Sanderson, Brion James, Joe Turkel, Joanna Cassidy.

Writers: Hampton Fancher, David Webb Peoples, Philip K. Dick.

My Rating: 9/10.

“Blade Runner” is a science fiction movie, directed by Ridley Scott in 1982 and based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, 1968, “Do androids Dream of Electric Sheep.” Is undoubtedly a work very ahead of its time, that can now be considered a cult film, because upon its realization, it covered topics too little in vogue, as the theme of the humanoids, the evolution of technology, the past and future of civilization, and all its surrounding themes.

The film begins with an apocalyptic vision of Los Angeles in 2019, with huge skyscrapers and a very dark scenario. It is here that rolls the action of the film, which provides a uniform view of the vision of it, adding some mystery and bringing us to use our imagination.

In this beginning we are given an introduction about the Nexus 6 Replicants (Developed by Tyrel Corporation, a company of Genetic Engineer Dr. Eldon Tyrell), made following the image of man, but almost indistinguishable, even to exceed men in strength and agility, and matching them in intelligence. It is also explained their use as slaves for humans in dangerous tasks, and the definition of the special police officers “Blade Runner’s”. It is also emphasized the fact that removing a Replicant, is not defined as to kill him but to send him to “retirement” thus eliminating the assimilation of life among humans and Replicants, putting an ethical label to the extermination of the machine.

Then, we are placed on the plot of the movie, where Harrison Ford embodies the role of Rick Deckard, a Blade Runner seconded to retire 6 Replicants who fled to earth, in a kind of rebellion, led by a Nexus 6, Roy Batty. The purpose of this rebellion is the search for the origin of their identity, and an attempt to prolong their life, because even though in some subjects, they were beyond the man, the Replicants only had 4 years of life, a measure imposed by the Tyrell Corporation in order to limit and control their action.

During the film, we also realize that to control the Replicants, beyond their limit of existence, they were given pictures and experiences of an imaginary past, therefore they could have bases to build a conscience and develop it. The Nexus 6 Replicants were awarded with that past and a series of photographs, so they could do associations and remember the images that have been impregnated, giving the process some sustainability and veracity. With this, we noticed that throughout the film is given great importance to the visual sense, as in fact, part of the images were associated with memories. It is also given importance to the eye itself, perhaps to emphasize the symbolism of visual memories, because the film begins with what we see through the reflection of an eye, the Replicants make a visit to Chew, an eye creator, which “guides” them to J. F. Sebastian, and the use of eyes in the Voight-Kampff test, a test used to distinguish between men and Replicants through involuntary expressions of empathy.

This also leaves us in the reluctance on the true identity of Deckard and the question if he is human or a Replicant, throughout the movie we see some compromising situations, such as the fact that Deckard had a collection of photographs as the Replicants, the police officer that followed him knew about the existence of his memories about an unicorn (shown by the origami that he left him) and even his passion for Rachel, a Replicant so advanced that was almost impossible to distinguish, who was capable to show feelings, affection and concern to Deckard. However, when Rachel asks Deckard whether he had already been subjected to the Voight-Kampff test, he hesitated and ended up not responding.

This same advanced demonstration of learning and character building is shown in the final parts of the movie, by the Replicant Roy, at the time of the final persecution, because we see that despite of the conflict, he ultimately saves Deckard, while giving him a morality lesson, proffering the words: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those … moments will be lost in time, like tears… in rain. Time to die.”

All of this, leads us to a path, with messages such as the problem of destruction of the environment and ecosystem, the possible consequences of policies such as capitalism and consumerism practiced today, which could lead to disproportionate enterprise power, the lack of freedom and an almost ubiquitous police presence to try to impose control in the population, the future and potential problems of genetic engineering, migration to foreign colonies as a way to start a new life (which can in some way remind the migration to the United States of America at the time of its colonization and occupation), all in a dark, mysterious, vague and distant environment.

Such an involvement created by the scenario and this whole mystery, leads us to reflect, and note that although the messages that are transmitted, the biggest mysteries are related to messages that are subliminally given during the film. What is an human being? What defines us as humans? What is reality? And who determines what reality is? What’s the limit of our perception? Undoubtedly an amalgam of philosophical questions that are gently released to our minds, making us reflect. As well as reflecting about the fact of living, quietly or with fear, with uncertainty of our origin, of where we came from and when will be our deadline.

Blade Runner is certainly a movie far ahead of its time, in large part by the speculation and questions that it raises, with a philosophical touch, which makes us even doubt of our own reality. In case you are a fan, or just plain curious about the movie after reading this analysis, view the trailer bellow or buy some Blade Runner related stuff like DVD’s, original sound track, T-Shirts, collectibles and so on!

Blade Runner: Movie Trailer.

(Final Cut version)

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Director: Zack Snyder.
Main Cast: Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup.
Writers: David Hayter, Alex Tse, Alan Moore.
Rating: 8/10.

Yesterday I went to the cinema to watch a movie which I think I kind of empathized because of it’s trailer, and yes, it was Watchmen. First of all, try to get that Watchmen is not your average super hero movie. It is based on a graphic novel by Allan Moore, being the only graphic novel to appear on Time’s 2005 “All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels” list. It is not the kind of movie where you see superheros with great powers doing some nasty crazy stuff, with everyone happy and a happy ending, with lots of love and kisses… NOT.

This is a kind of movie that has some philosophical message attached to it, lots of blood and guts, and some explicit naked scenes or even a rape attempt, and yes, you are reading well. Because of this, I believe that lots of people will be upset after watching the movie, because it was not what they expected. It was not my case. Since I went to a midnight session in the middle of the week, the movie room was almost empty, allowing me to appreciate the movie in a peaceful and concentrated way. In fact, I had some luck, as the sound was pretty loud, since you could not only see, but feel the explosions! eheheh.. About the movie itself, I think that it had a marvelous atmosphere attached to it, as I found the color exposition of the images just awesome.

There were also some other things that I found quite different from the usual, like the 3 minute opening credits, depicting some events that marked world history, like the Kennedy assassination, the flower in a gun barrel accident, the Vietnam war, the burning Vietnamese monk, all of this while listening to the iconic protest song The times They Are-A Changin’ by Bob Dylan. Come one, if you’ve been around this world with interest of all important things that happened in recent history, this opening scene would certainly put a smile on your face. This being said, it is obvious that I took attention to the music along the movie, and I could spot some nice surprises, like Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, or Jimmy Hendrix’s verion of All along the Watchtower. Believe me, I really enjoyed the Music in the Movie.

I found the interpretation of the actors pretty well done, specially the representation done by Jackie Earle Haley which impersonates Rorschach/Walter Kovacs, who narrates the movie in voice-off, like if it all was his Personal Diary. In general, if you are perceptive, the story goes very well, and you get the idea that the director, the cast and all the others did a good job to represent such a complex graphic novel into the movie world. My final opinion? If you disliked Spider Man because it looked like a movie for kids, go watch it, and think about the motto that is given: They watch for us… but who watches for watchmen?

WATCHMEN: Movie Trailer.