• A Look Back,  Inside Entertainment

    A Look Back: Star Trek – The Motion Picture

    Before looking back at Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), I have to go back even further for context. The original pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 – 69), “The Cage” didn’t sell because it was considered too cerebral. Out went Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) as the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise 1701, and in came Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) for the new pilot as the series became a little more action-oriented. The struggles of The Original Series – including the letter-writing campaign that resurrected it after it had been axed following season two – have been well documented. But it lasted only one…

  • Inside Entertainment,  Reviews

    JJ’s Wonky World Builds: Number 2

    It always astonishes me when people defend these world-builds. I understand the appreciation of any art is subjective. We don’t always like the same thing. There are movies I hate that others adore, and vice versa. And I’m truly fine with all that. The difference here is that JJ’s world building is just dumb. It’ll fool you with its sweet visuals if you let it. JJ’s awesome at that. But if you pause to offer any scrutiny, it doesn’t take much to realise how moronic his storytelling is. And that’s not subjective. That’s just a reality. It doesn’t get any stupider than Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), the second Star…