No need to get your rosaries in a bunch...it's only Hollywood

Critics and Catholic leaders alike have panned Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons for defaming the Catholic Church and littering itself with historical inaccuracies. Never fear though. Audiences with even the slightest bit of discernment will understand immediately what they are in for when watching this sequel to 2006’s The Da Vinci Code: pure fiction. What the film does is create a space for believers and agnostics alike: It asks us to respect the mystery of things that are unknown, and portrays the church as sympathetic and pro-science.

It’s a film that works because for what it gets wrong it unapolagetically makes up for in frenetic fast-paced energy. Requiring us to take extreme liberties with history, religion and science the script stays true to its pop fiction roots. It’s a more tightly directed and cleverly plotted version of the original, but don’t be tricked by all the high profile actors attached- it’s still not a series that prides itself in characters. There is little to be explored in Robert Langdon, but a far-fetched maze of theories regarding the Catholic Church and its secret heretical sects fuel his tromp around the Vatican City with a beautiful but less than important co-star.

The Vatican City is only recently mourning the sudden passing of the pope when a group of scientists become the victims of the theft of a dangerous vial of antimatter. Fearing a threat from the ancient underground society known as Illuminati , the Vatican requests the help of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) in order to stave off further harm. The top four contenders for the new chair (Preferrati) have been kidnapped by the Illuminati and threatened to be offed every hour leading up to midnight. Remember that vial I mentioned earlier? At the stroke of 12, the battery life that the vial is running on will expire and the Vatican city will go up in a blaze far bigger than any black or white smoke from St. Peter’s square.

The circumstances though dire, seem to have been created for no other discernable reason than revenge for years past of the Church’s silencing of great scientific thinkers i.e. Galileo. That and the obvious need for an exciting plot of course. The real reason is not even a side-note for a script such as this, because what really matters is that the trap has been set, and now Langdon must race across the city trying to locate the undisclosed location of each of the four cardinals. Thankfully the enemy is at least kind enough to point to a series of ancient clues used to help Langdon on his search, and lucky for us, he seems to be remarkably savvy at stumbling across them. But again, to ask such obvious questions of how or why is, according to Dan Brown, to completely miss the point.

Yes the plot of this film is completely preposterous, but it is also quite entertaining. It doesn’t ask us to buy anything we see save for 2hrs. of investment in the wildly outlandish plot. It is also a Ron Howard film, and here he does what he does best, making Hollywood pop that is cleverly paced and easy to watch. Just don’t expect to learn anything about history. If you want that, head to the library because after all, that’s not why you’re sitting in a movie theater on a summer day in the first place.

3/5

Star Trek= Great Reboot of a Tired Franchise

Simply hearing that there is a new Star Trek movie is enough to make some grab their plastic Spock-ears and rush down to the local cineplex. The series has often pandered to that type of fan-boy that the rest of us would much rather see on TV than have to deal with sitting behind us at the theater. In fact, I’m sure that some of you reading this may need nothing more than the afore-mentioned title to make you lose interest and move on to the next article. If director J.J. Abrams has anything to say about it, those days might be gone for good. Abrams’ new installment to the age-old franchise boldly goes where no Star Trek film has gone before..kind of.

Although the plot is nothing terribly new or fascinating for Star Trek material, the young, hip cast create characters that are intriguing to watch as their origins unfold before us on screen. Abrams tactfully blends the perfect amount of action, stunning visuals, nostalgia, and pop-philosophy to create a chapter in the series that above all else is extremely watchable.

When we first meet young James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) he is brash, naeive and adventurous. Prone to bar fights, stealing cars, and chasing girls, the legacy of Kirk’s Starfleet captain father has gone before him. Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) convinces Kirk to enlist in Starfleet academy and follow in his father’s footsteps. Kirk, having quickly proved himself a natural completes the 4 year study a year earlier than the allotted time.

During Kirk’s rise we meet many of the other characters that will become so influential later in the story. He meets and develops a friendship with Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban), and initially squares off with that ever-historic Vulcan who places sheer logic over emotion, Spock. The two’s relationship becomes an ever present power struggle on the U.S.S. Entrerprise.

There of course are bad guys that are threatening the crew’s and the planet’s existence. There are Black holes and time travel, both of which seem to be topics that Star Trek has created its own rules about. The time travel theme is used in particular as a device to bring Old Spock (played by the original Leonard Nimoy) into the script. It seems to serve no other discernable purpose.

I am sure that unabashed Trekkies will find this a bit of a departure from the heart of the original series. You won’t find the same amount of moralizing from our characters that give the original series its running commentary on social/political issues. The result is a film that feels less like true science fiction and more like summer popcorn. Abrams gets away with it by offering picture-perfect casting to help create depth to characters that in previous installments would have seemed uninteresting to anyone not already invested in the show’s history. The film is true to the heart of the source material though and helps reboot this franchise for a 21st century audience. Future installments with this same cast and crew will not doubt “live long and prosper” for generations of trekkies to come.

4/5

Origins: Still has a lot of explaining to do..

The calendar may still read Spring, but last week the summer movie season officially got under way. Unfortunately, X Men origins: Wolverine does little more than to start the summer off with a thud.

Fox’s resurgence of the X-Men franchise is the first installment in a series intended to explain the origins of each of the main characters from the comic story. Hugh Jackman reprises his role as the tortured mutant hero Logan aka Wolverine. The film boasts a few action sequences which are entertaining if only for the briefest of moments, but otherwise begs the question, why is this story necessary in the first place?

Logan and his half-brother Victor’s (Liev Schrieber) story begins in 1840. After Logan kills his adoptive father, who had previously murdered the brothers’ biological father the boys run away together. After serving together in the Civil War, both World Wars, and Vietnam (if you’re new to this source material, yes the two boys live forever and at some point retained the age of which they would look most handsome on-screen), The two are recruited by a special forces op. led by William Stryker. The unit is made up entirely of mutants and Logan, eventually tired of the atrocities committed by the wayward band, retreats to a life of peace and solitude in the Canadian Rockies. His life becomes bent upon vengeance after the murder of his girlfriend, and he joins the secret “X” program intended to manipulate his powerful abilities.

Forget about failing to land properly, this film’s plot never seems to even take off right. We are reduced to years of back-story via picture frames during the opening credits, and are thrust right into the middle of Wolverine’s plight for resistance. Perhaps the biggest disappointment though, stems from the fact that our hero is completely uninspired and uninteresting. He never once says anything that challenges us or makes us question his struggle. He offers nothing of the such to those who come in contact with him throughout the film either. This might actually be excusable if it wasn’t for the fact his powers virtually eliminate any stakes that could exist within the story. He uses his razor-sharp blades to fly through the air, dismantle a helicopter and walk-away virtually untouched, which seems to be his character’s only real purpose: stimulus.

Unlike Batman or Iron Man from last summer, Wolverine seems to be laying up on the screen strictly for our own amusement. “Look at how he does what he does and how cool it looks in the process”, the director seems to want us to be saying. Some of us undoubtedly will be voicing such phrases when leaving the theater, but on the whole there is so much more to care about during the story that doesn’t even exist. Nothing learned, nothing gained, which is unfortunate when your film boasts to be a movie about origins. Last time I checked, origins implied story.



2/5