Friday, January 17, 2025

Enterprise Flashback: Rogue Planet

Star Trek is known for putting its own science fiction on enduring stereotypes of storytelling. But rarely is it so literal as when Enterprise took on the (gendered) stereotype of the "damsel in distress," with the episode "Rogue Planet."

Enterprise comes upon an unusual planet of perpetual night, drifting between star systems. They also meet the aliens who journey there for a ritual hunt. But there seems to be more to the planet than any of them knows, when Archer is certain he spies an elusive woman in a nightgown that no one else can see.

Let's start with the "good" here. The titular rogue planet of this episode is a cool concept. While the science of it is probably complete bullshit, it's cloaked in just enough fiction to work for the story. It also leads to a completely new visual environment, and after decades of Star Trek, there simply aren't many of those left. The effects of the planet in space look cool, and the typical "garden center" planet set takes on an entirely new look.

Having watched as much science fiction as I have, I also got a tiny thrill spotting "that guy" actor Keith Szarabajka in this episode. You may not know him by his face, but may well recognize his distinct, raspy voice -- which has brought gravitas in everything from Angel to Supernatural to Star Wars: Rebels, to name only a few. (If you've played Skyrim, you definitely know his voice.)

That's about all I can slot under "good." The rest of this episode feels like a rejected script from the original series, with a hasty "find/replace" performed on the character names. Archer gets his most Kirk-like story to date, finding a literal blonde in a blue nightgown on an alien planet. Sure, the idea is that a partly telepathic life form, appealing to Archer for help, has chosen to appear in a way he'll be more receptive to. But how about appearing to Archer as a member of his own crew in need of help? Or as his father? Does it have to be a woman in a nightgown? T'Pol calls out that he'd be less likely to pursue a scantily-clad man, but I don't think hanging a lantern on the issue helps anything.

Other characters don't come off looking much better. When Reed is learning tactics from the alien hunters, he's impressed that their night vision goggles can detect infrared. Can Starfleet ones not? Isn't that literally what night vision goggles are made to see? And as for those aliens -- they totally know, the entire time, that the prey they hunt is capable of causing visual hallucinations. Yet none of them think to mention this when Archer talks about the incongruous woman he thinks he's seen?

Other observations:

  • At the start of this episode, Trip is trying to take a holographic photo of Archer in the captain's chair. The camera he uses probably seemed futuristic at the time the episode was made, but it seems quite bulky today.
  • When the landing party encounters a steam vent at one point, Archer puts his hand on a rock right next to it. He ought to be horribly burned.

The wonder of this episode's compelling setting is seriously undermined by the story the writers choose to tell in it. I give "Rogue Planet" a C-. It's easily Enterprise's worst episode to this point.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Make No Bones About It

This week, the finale of the new Star Wars: Skeleton Crew dropped on Disney+. From the widely-circulated industry stories about the low viewership of the series, that's likely to be its only season. Once the show got rolling, I did enjoy it -- and if what I'm about to write winds up being a "eulogy" in the grand scheme of things, so be it.

Skeleton Crew is the story of four kids growing up on an isolated planet, who discover a spaceship and accidentally wind up lost in space. As they struggle to find their way back home, they fall in with an eccentric droid and a mysterious man who may be a Jedi... but who is most certainly hiding things from them.

Through all its highs and lows, I really love the idea of Skeleton Crew. Like Star Trek, Star Wars is in a franchise with multiple running television series, and each one needs its own distinct niche to earn its keep. Skeleton Crew is the type of Star Wars show that really should exist in some form: a show that's aimed at the young audience that made the franchise a cultural phenomenon in the first place.

There have been plenty of kids in Star Wars over the years, from Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace to "baby Yoda." But in Skeleton Crew, kids are the stars of the story... on their own adventure that feels like something real-life 80s kids dreamed up with their action figures. This is Star Wars going back to its absolutely foundational roots, not just in who the story is for, but what the story is: a kid (or here, kids) from nowhere whisked away into a grand space adventure.

Much of the early commentary on Skeleton Crew (not always intended as "criticism") likened the show to the movie The Goonies. So while I'm not adding much to the conversation to point that out, I feel like it needs saying just how much the show is like the Goonies. As you get to know the characters in the opening episodes, you can easily map each one of them to a specific Goonie. When a mid-season episode sees them venturing into a literal booby-trapped cave in search of treasure, it's impossible for anyone who has seen The Goonies not to think of One-Eyed Willy.

Where Skeleton Crew most differs, and is much better for it, is the inclusion of Jude Law. Going back to the idea of 80s kids dreaming up their own adventure, Law plays a character who feels part Luke Skywalker, part Han Solo. And his performance bobs and weaves between charming charisma and unsettling darkness. Just how dark will he go is a question that hangs over each episode.

But Law appears only briefly in the first two episodes. His full arrival in the story doesn't really happen until episode 3. And until then? Sorry to say it, but Skeleton Crew is hard -- almost painful -- to watch. Our four young heroes have a heroes' journey ahead of them, meaning they have much to learn, and start out in an incredibly naive place. One in particular, Wim, seems to be the main character at this point, and he's insufferable: whiny, impulsive, and constantly causing trouble. (In a later episode, when a character actually calls Wim "the worst," I became the "Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at his TV" meme.)

Yes, I acknowledge, Wim is being a kid, and doing it in the Star Wars show for kids. Wim is not "for me." But he's so not for me that I almost didn't make it past episode 2. Yet two episodes was how Disney+ launched this show, meaning that quite a few viewers got only this impression of the show, and promptly tuned out. (Part of what I alluded to earlier about its poor ratings performance.)

I'm here to say: it's really worth getting over that hump. Once Jude Law is fully on the scene, each episode becomes a playful adventure with just the right touch of menace. The four kids do begin the journey of growth, and most of them become quite likeable. Overall, Skeleton Crew becomes fun, if you've given it the chance. (And quick shout-out to composer Mick Giacchino, whose great score really contributes to that fun. Sure, he probably just got the job in a "nepo baby" way, being son of Rogue One composer Michael Giacchino. But Mick really has one foot in each of the two worlds of this story -- sweeping John Williams-style grandeur, and jaunty pirate-inflected shanties.)

One other thing I appreciated about Skeleton Crew: they really "leave it all on the field." Without giving too much spoilery detail, the concluding episode 8 brings irrevocable change to the characters and their corner of the Star Wars universe. It's hard to say what a season 2 of this show would even look like, other than "completely different." But if it works out that the show's poor performance means this is all there will ever be, narratively that works out fine -- we got a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end.

Overall, I think I'd give Star Wars: Skeleton Crew a B. Mind you, if I ever actually sat down to watch it again and had to endure those first two episodes, I might decide I'm being too generous. But after finding its "sea legs," the series is worth the time.

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

A Thematically Appropriate In-Flight Movie

On the return flight from my trip last month to Banff, I opted for an in-flight movie. Steering clear of any action or prestige movie -- likely to suffer for presentation on an airplane seat back -- I opted for a documentary, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. This is ordinarily the part of a review where I might insert a quick synopsis of the movie I'm here to talk about. But in this case, the title tells you exactly what you're getting: a look at the life of many fans' favorite ever Superman actor, Christopher Reeve.

Where many biography movies would proceed chronologically, or perhaps open with the subject's greatest triumph, this film leads immediately with the horse accident that left Reeve paralyzed. It's an unusual choice, but one that's possible for a filmmaker whose subject is literally Superman. There's no need to build up the greatness of a person when the audience likely comes with that expectation baked in.

The choice seems less unusual the more the movie unfolds. It's clear the aim here is not to mythologize Christopher Reeve, but show a more complete picture of the man he was. Now by no means is this a "hit piece." (Indeed, all of Reeve's children are involved in the movie.) A great deal of time is rightfully spent on his charitable and political lobbying efforts in the years after his accident. And of course, there are glowing interviews with Reeve's movie co-stars, gushing about why he was the perfect performer to make you "believe a man could fly."

But neither does the movie shy away from more complicated parts of Reeve's life. He is shown to have within him the insecurities of the starving artist, with the accompanying desires surrounding reputation and creative fulfillment. Reeve clearly understood what it meant to be perceived as a hero -- and sometimes struggled to balance that with the deep personal needs that so often is part of the makeup of the typical actor.

Indeed, if the movie seeks to make out anyone as an unvarnished hero, it's Reeve's wife Dana, who is shown to be a caring, uplifting person both before and after her husband's accident. I appreciated how much time the movie devoted to a truly amazing person I didn't know nearly as much about as the principal subject.

I was never too deeply into comics as a kid -- not generally, or Superman specifically. Still, I was often moved by this documentary of "my generation's" Superman. I give Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story a B.

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Enterprise Flashback: Fusion

An often-cited shortcoming of Star Trek is that it portrays alien cultures as monolothic, despite it being obvious from human culture that such uniformity -- even in a utopian future -- is unlikely. One Enterprise episode that breaks from this norm is "Fusion."

Enterprise encounters a ship crewed by a Vulcan splinter group who embrace and express emotion. While T'Pol initially regards their beliefs as dangerous, she is ultimately persuaded by one Vulcan, Tolaris, to explore her own emotions. But Tolaris is soon revealed to be every bit as dangerous as Vulcan orthodoxy might suggest.

Episodes like "Fusion" are generally conceived to tell a story more than "world build," but it is interesting to see a different kind of Vulcan here. Their captain -- played by actor Robert Pine (father of eventual Captain Kirk actor Chris Pine) is a fun introduction to the differences: a smiling, personable Vulcan who actually wins Archer over and then comes over for dinner (to eat meat!). Yet he's actually a surprisingly minor character in this installment.

The episode is more focused on the unlikely friendship between Trip and Kov. Kov is an odd character, a bit of a Vulcan nerd (and yes, when you see this guy, you'll feel they aren't all nerds) who -- because he's on Enterprise, of course -- is rather obsessed with sex. Fortunately, the story doesn't dwell on these aspects for long; ultimately, this subplot is about regret and the other strong emotions surrounding estrangement from a parent, and the death of the parent. It's surprisingly weighty stuff, starting out from such a light place, but it's actually a nice little story, in large part thanks to guest actor John Harrington Bland.

The main storyline of the episode surrounds T'Pol's relationship with Tolaris. For a while, it seems like we're watching the Vulcan version of a rom-com, complete with a flirtatious meet-cute and T'Pol trying to reckon with the unfamiliar feelings she's experiencing. Then, it seems like we're getting an episode about Vulcan abilities that Trek fans take for granted: T'Pol (and most Vulcans), we learn, does not know how to "mind meld." Tolaris is the Vulcan hippie, of a sort, who can teach her.

Yet just as the Kov storyline starts light and turns heavier, the Tolaris/T'Pol storyline is headed to a darker place too -- a mental assault on T'Pol that is clearly coded as a sexual assault. The Next Generation made an episode with similar content, but Enterprise's take (to my surprise) feels more sophisticated. We see every step of Tolaris winning -- and then abusing -- T'Pol's trust. She lets herself be vulnerable in a way she rarely allows, and unfortunately pays this horrible price. But the story does not "victim blame"; we're always with T'Pol, and the episode is ultimately crystal clear in painting Tolaris as a monster.

Still, this is relatively early in the run of Enterprise, and Jolene Blalock has a long way to go as an actress. She's certainly not as nuanced as Leonard Nimoy -- or even as Tim Russ -- in playing a Vulcan. While this script is stronger than other recent Enterprise episodes, I think Blalock is not yet up to the task of carrying an episode mostly on her shoulders. (Or, at least, not one this heavy.) I appreciate the emotional weight of this story more than I truly feel it.

Other observations:

  • Much is made of Archer's childhood astronomy book in the opening of this episode, including a custom prop shown prominently on screen. The book's author, Laura Danly, was named for the curator of the Griffith Observatory at the time.
  • Trip mentions at one point that one-third of the crew of Enteprise are women. Really? Only a third?

The proverbial reach of "Fusion" might exceed its grasp a little, but I'd still call it a decent episode. I give it a B.

Monday, January 13, 2025

Inside This Movie Are Two Wolfs

Apple TV+ is not just in the business of hosting some of the best television series on streaming; they're also in the movie business. (They won the first Best Picture Oscar for a movie released on a streaming platform, much to Netflix's annoyance.) Not all their movies are plays for prestige, though. Sometimes, they're just there to have fun... as was very much the case with Wolfs.

The "fixer" is a staple of crime films -- the nameless, no-nonsense operative who sweeps in at a desperate moment to make a problem go away. When a man dies in a district attorney's hotel room, the D.A. calls such a man to help her... without knowing the hotel owner has also called a fixer to the scene. The two "wolfs" must work together, much to their mutual annoyance, to deal with a problem that turns out to be a good deal more complex than thought.

That's the summary of the plot of Wolfs, but it's not the best way to summarize the movie. That would be this: did you like Ocean's Eleven? Want to see George Clooney and Brad Pitt banter with each other for another couple of hours, playing similar characters? Wolfs is for you.

There is no new ground being broken in this movie. This is another entry in the subgenre of "bickering rivals forced to work together" -- a subgenre so full that no one person could ever watch them all. But such movies are much like a rom-com -- they ultimately live or die by the chemistry of the two leads, and whether audiences want to see them together. Sign me up for the mini Ocean's Eleven reunion, please.

The movie isn't totally devoid of surprise. (And you might find it has even more surprises if you avoid the trailer.) You get plenty of action too, from chases to shoot-outs. Writer-director Jon Watts, who's behind all the MCU Spider-Man movies, knows a thing or two about making a crowd-pleasing confection of an action movie, and while he may not be at the top of his game here, I'd say he still pulls out a win.

But, at the risk of repeating myself, Clooney and Pitt are The Reason to watch the movie. I find the two (separately, and as a duo) to have vastly more personality than other A-listers who might anchor a movie like this. They infuse the dialogue with an energetic pop. And the fact that they're probably getting too old for a movie like this is a topic explored in the movie itself.

If you don't like them? (Again, separately, or as a duo.) Then I guarantee this movie is NOT for you. It won me over, though -- enough for a B+, and a slot in my Top 10 Movies of 2024 list. (Albeit in the lower half, that section of the list where it's probably more a matter of me not having seen the right movies yet rather than having truly found one of the best of the year.) Wolfs is a movie that delivers exactly what it promises.

Friday, January 10, 2025

Ridge Over Troubled Waters

I haven't even managed to post something about every movie I put on my Top 10 List for 2024. Yet here I am, already revising that list to include literally the first movie I caught up on in calendar year 2025.

Rebel Ridge is an "action-thriller" (though the balance is more weighted to the latter). Set in a small Louisiana town, the story opens with Terry Richmond being harassed by local police. The black former Marine is on his way to the courthouse to post bail for his cousin, and when the police seize his cash, he's put in a very desperate situation. He tries to play by the rules to resolve the matter, but it quickly becomes clear how deep the rot goes in this town, and things escalate.

This movie comes from writer-director Jeremy Saulnier, who got my attention with Green Room and kept it when I backtracked to see Blue Ruin. While not every one of his films wowed me, I feel like I want to check out anything new from him -- and Rebel Ridge rewarded this. Indeed, it's possible this movie played better because I'd seen Green Room; I knew just how far he was willing to take things as a storyteller, which kept me wondering just how far Rebel Ridge would push.

In any case, Rebel Ridge is a wound-up machine, all coiled tension demanding a release. And it makes you wait for that release in the most satisfying way. It serves up a dealer's choice of reasons to back whatever move the protagonist might make -- a cousin he's looking out for, a courthouse clerk who risks her own neck to help, or just how corrupt and disgusting the police are shown to be.

Through it all, star Aaron Pierre portrays his character Terry with impossible calm -- the calm that a black man is forced to adopt in too many situations. But the movie makes clear just how dangerous Terry can be, and makes equally clear that at some point we are going to see that. Pierre is a magnetic presence on camera despite the stillness, and is equally up to starring in the "action movie" that this ultimately becomes.

AnnaSophia Robb plays court clerk Summer, a great foil for our hero who gets to express the emotion that Terry must usually keep bottled up. And Don Johnson plays police chief Sandy Burnne, the most infuriating "good ol' boy" of a villain, who ensures these events will come to a violent end. But the movie has a solid cast throughout, including another strong villainous performance from Emory Cohen, and a potent scene with James Cromwell.

Rebel Ridge is a movie with a lot to say -- about racism, poverty, and the practice of civil forfeiture. But even while making its message abundantly clear, it is foremost a tense thriller and entertaining action film. I give it an A-, and a slot at #4 on my Top Movies of 2024 list.

Thursday, January 09, 2025

Enterprise Flashback: Shuttlepod One

One of the best episodes of the original Star Trek's first season was "The Galileo Seven," a survivalist thriller centered around a shuttlecraft disaster. Decades later, spin-off Enterprise used a similar premise for its own first season episode, "Shuttlepod One."

On a mission away from Enterprise, "Trip" Tucker and Malcolm Reed's shuttlepod is severely damaged. As rescue seems increasingly unlikely, the two resort to more desperate measures to prolong the time they have left, and ultimately come to accept that this might be the end.

Though I invoke "The Galileo Seven" as a touchstone, "Shuttlepod One" is actually a very different kind of episode -- almost a two-hand play for Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating. Indeed, this is apparently the only Star Trek episode (of any series) to feature no guest stars, no background actors, and no stunt performers at any point in the episode. (It's also one of the very few to have no scenes on the bridge / command center of its starship / station.)

What the production saves in excluding all of that, it spends in other ways. To capture the freezing interior of the dead shuttlepod, they actually refrigerated the set. (Nowadays, they'd probably put in all the visible breath using visual effects; here, though, they're all the real thing.) There are also plenty of good visual effects shots of the ship navigating asteroids, coming upon what they mistake as the wreck of Enterprise, drifting in space, and more.

There are nice character details sprinkled throughout the episode. Reed shows some national pride, arguing that Vulcans might have been more helpful to humanity if Zefram Cochrane had been European. He and Trip debate the appeal of reading Ulysses vs. reading comic books. As the situation gets more dire, the two characters are really allowed to bicker with one another, and the two actors make the most of the conflict. The episode becomes not only a successor to "The Galileo Seven," but to the emerging friendship between Bashir and O'Brien on Deep Space Nine -- a situation of people who kind of don't like each other becoming the best of friends.

Still, I think the script has some notably weak elements. We're introduced to a strange zealotry the Vulcans seem to have about science: if they haven't discovered it (microsingularities, in this episode), then it doesn't exist. (This continues to be a thing in future episodes, and it continues to be weird.) Trip and Reed make more than a few dumb decisions to facilitate the story: ignoring malfunctions that turn out to be early warning signs, and abandoning the supposed Enterprise wreck immediately without further investigation. And because Enterprise always has to do something unnecessarily horny, we get Reed's dream about an overtly sexy T'Pol, and a later discussion of her "bum."

I think there are some structural problems too. The episode lets the audience off the hook right away, showing scenes aboard Enterprise immediately after the opening credits. (Sure, we all know Enterprise isn't actually destroyed, but they certainly could have left us wondering how damaged it might be for a lot longer.) Plus, it's hard to take how immediately and thoroughly Reed gives up on all hope of survival. Sure, people can be like that. Hell, I might well be that way myself in such a situation. But we're not used to a main character on a Star Trek series being like this; Trek heroes are ingenious to a fault, always chasing solutions, however unlikely. Reed's attitude here is such a turd in the punch bowl, increasingly annoying to watch as the episode unspools -- especially in contrast to the more Trek-typical Trip.

Other observations:

  • Another element that makes Reed's behavior hard to take is that the character has been given so little personality and so few traits to this point. All we really know about him is his devotion to duty. Yet here, his constant insubordination condtradicts this only thing we know about him (other than "he likes pineapple"). The conflict is good for the episode, but bad for the character.
  • Why does Captain Archer have a bottle of bourbon stashed on the shuttle? Surely his quarters would be a better place to keep it?
  • Connor Trinneer does a credible job of acting drunk. (It's not as easy as you'd think.) Though I think the really late-episode "shivering in the cold" is over the top for both him and Dominic Keating. (Besides, don't you actually become quite still as you get really cold?)

"Shuttlepod One" is a solid production, and I think the two key actors do a good job with the script they're given. Still, I think that script could have used quite a bit more polish. I give the episode a B-.