Star Trekking: Part 1 of 3
I’m a Trekker. Reruns of Star Trek: The Original Series captured my imagination when I was just a kid in the 1970s. Space, aliens, adventure – what isn’t there to love? The effects are obviously dated now, but the storytelling was paramount. I had an argument with somebody once about Star Trek: The Original Series versus JJ Abrams’s reboot; what the other person highlighted – as an intended detractor from TOS – was the terrible special effects TOS incorporated. But the storytelling itself holds up. While there’s some stories typical of that era, overall the storytelling is logical, causal, and makes sense within its own universe. Even at its worst,…
Rating the Rocky Movies: Part II
Every artform is open to interpretation. We all like different things. So I’m sure there are people who disagree with my bottom four choices. That’s okay. I understand why people love the other Rocky movies; or if they even prefer one of the Creed movies, which are slick and well-made. I look at them from the point of view that I want them to be true to the original universe. Rocky III and Rocky IV feel as if they stray, trading substance for glitz. The Creed movies feel like they’re hitting the same beats but (for me) not generating the same emotion. They play like remakes trying to again capture…