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Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Pharos Joins the 21st Century
Taking a page out of the Chloe O'Brian playbook (anybody? anybody?), The Pharos is going high-tech this summer. Follow us here at our blog, or check out our Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/wvwcpharos or join our Facebook page at facebook.com.
Friday, May 22, 2009
I Admire Your Pictures Very Much
A Review of Star Trek
By Jeff Webb
The new Star Trek film, directed by J.J. Abrams, is perfect entertainment for the summer movie season. Full of action, adventure, romance, and special effects, Star Trek has all the elements and spectacle of a big-budget blockbuster. Though lacking some in thematic depth, the film more than makes up for it in other arenas, its dialogue and acting and directing firing on all cylinders. It is an amazingly consistent and absorbing film.
The film begins with an epic space battle that is both suspenseful and sad. From there, viewers meet a young James T. Kirk, not yet a legendary Starfleet captain but rather just an arrogant and thrill-seeking adolescent rebelling against all forms of establishment. However, after a conversation with Captain Pike, played by the underrated Bruce Greenwood, Kirk’s fate begins to take shape. He joins Starfleet, and from there the Star Trek characters audiences know and love are introduced. Spock, Bones, Sulu, Scotty, Chekhov, Uhura. They’re all there, albeit a bit younger than their 1960s counterparts.
The film’s casting is near perfect. As Kirk, Chris Pine is perfect, emoting a playboy charm but also a melancholy depth. He is a reluctant hero, carefree and sarcastic, someone who wants to live life for himself and no one else, but that all changes. In many ways, Star Trek is a coming-of-age story for Kirk as much as it is a story about time travel and space exploration.
Likewise, Zachary Quinto as Spock is wonderfully cast. He brings a coldness to the character, yet also a desperateness to succeed. His human side forever in conflict with his Vulcan side, Spock is a complex character, torn between two ways of life, between reason and passion.
Abrams just might be a great director someday. Almost with the ease of Spielberg, though not quite, Abrams understands the balance between commercialism and depth. He has a sense for cinematography and a sense for atmosphere, yet there is also an undeniable sense of fun running throughout the film. Star Trek is, if nothing else, a great adventure story.
The heart of the film, though, is the relationship of Kirk and Spock. It is a film about friendship, about the discovery of that friendship. For audiences, the film is nostalgic, a rediscovery of the friendships we all had with these characters, and perhaps a rediscovery of the humanity within us all. Star Trek is full of diverse personalities, from whites to blacks to Asians to alien creatures all working together for the common good. It is an optimistic thought, an inspiring thought, that maybe, someday, in the 23rd century perhaps, all peoples and creatures can come together and boldly go, together, to where no one has gone before.
By Jeff Webb
The new Star Trek film, directed by J.J. Abrams, is perfect entertainment for the summer movie season. Full of action, adventure, romance, and special effects, Star Trek has all the elements and spectacle of a big-budget blockbuster. Though lacking some in thematic depth, the film more than makes up for it in other arenas, its dialogue and acting and directing firing on all cylinders. It is an amazingly consistent and absorbing film.
The film begins with an epic space battle that is both suspenseful and sad. From there, viewers meet a young James T. Kirk, not yet a legendary Starfleet captain but rather just an arrogant and thrill-seeking adolescent rebelling against all forms of establishment. However, after a conversation with Captain Pike, played by the underrated Bruce Greenwood, Kirk’s fate begins to take shape. He joins Starfleet, and from there the Star Trek characters audiences know and love are introduced. Spock, Bones, Sulu, Scotty, Chekhov, Uhura. They’re all there, albeit a bit younger than their 1960s counterparts.
The film’s casting is near perfect. As Kirk, Chris Pine is perfect, emoting a playboy charm but also a melancholy depth. He is a reluctant hero, carefree and sarcastic, someone who wants to live life for himself and no one else, but that all changes. In many ways, Star Trek is a coming-of-age story for Kirk as much as it is a story about time travel and space exploration.
Likewise, Zachary Quinto as Spock is wonderfully cast. He brings a coldness to the character, yet also a desperateness to succeed. His human side forever in conflict with his Vulcan side, Spock is a complex character, torn between two ways of life, between reason and passion.
Abrams just might be a great director someday. Almost with the ease of Spielberg, though not quite, Abrams understands the balance between commercialism and depth. He has a sense for cinematography and a sense for atmosphere, yet there is also an undeniable sense of fun running throughout the film. Star Trek is, if nothing else, a great adventure story.
The heart of the film, though, is the relationship of Kirk and Spock. It is a film about friendship, about the discovery of that friendship. For audiences, the film is nostalgic, a rediscovery of the friendships we all had with these characters, and perhaps a rediscovery of the humanity within us all. Star Trek is full of diverse personalities, from whites to blacks to Asians to alien creatures all working together for the common good. It is an optimistic thought, an inspiring thought, that maybe, someday, in the 23rd century perhaps, all peoples and creatures can come together and boldly go, together, to where no one has gone before.
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