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Leading up to Halloween, we had zero time to take in any movies, but with the festivities past we’re doing our best to catch up. Here’s a few of the best we’ve seen lately.

Zombieland

The first order of business right after the party was the horror-comedy, Zombieland. It’s pretty much a mashup of Natural Born Killers and Shaun of the Dead with certainly more comedy than horror in the mixture. There aren’t any great surprises to the movie, but it’s a pretty fun romp of head smashing and double taps. Stylized graphics and narratives add some unique flavor (similar to Max Brooks’ book “The Zombie Survival Guide”) and edge it past run of the mill zombie flicks.

Paranormal Activity

A lot has been said about this $11k movie which has raked in millions. I went in with little knowledge of the plot and relatively low expectations (despite the word mouth raves), and I was really impressed. I don’t think there is necessarily a huge, continuous market for flicks shot in this style, but there’s definitely more of a market than what’s being fed, and Paranormal’s success is proof. It’s hard not to like the big budget popcorn munchers, but after too many movies drenched in sweet CGI, it sure is refreshing to cleanse the palate with a film shot with single $4k camera, a couple unknown actors, and good creepy suspense. And, oh heck yeah, it’s creepy.

This Is It

Most recently we caught a midweek showing of MJ’s final opus, This Is It. Between all our recent focus on Thriller for Halloween and the good reviews I’ve been hearing, I was anxious to see this. As you’d expect from how the movie was assembled, it’s really a collection of glimpses of the prep for their massive stage show. A moment from the dancer auditions, a few moments of Michael working on arrangements and choreography, moments of stage effects and CGI work, and of course many moments of onstage rehearsal. Footage is cobbled together from different days and different cameras with varied levels of quality (sometimes near HD, other times relatively fuzzy), but the clips are well edited and seamless. No song is complete or quite polished yet. Michael holds back on his vocals, sometimes singing every other line. It certainly isn’t the spectacle that MJ would have wanted us to see, but it’ll have to do. This Is It, is all we have.

As everyone has said, there’s nothing in the film to suggest MJ was sickly or frail. You see him very involved in the whole production, and physically, even in rehearsal, it was tough to remember he was 50 years old. His glides were as smooth as in the 80s. His voice, restrained, but spot on. If Jackson was ailing he sure hid it well (or the editors did). So you can really understand the blindsiding shockwave the news of his death surely sent through every member of the production. Feverish rehearsal one day, then nothing.

The best thing about This Is It is, of course, the music. Most songs are brought to life just as they sounded originally, while a few others are updated with new grooves or breaks. And all of it booming through the theater’s surround sound was pretty sweet. The second best thing about the movie, is that they keep it about the show. It’s not a movie about Michael’s death, and not even his life. Just the show. Which, you gotta figure, is just how he always wanted it.

I was really looking forward to seeing the latest film in the Terminator series, Terminator Salvation. Dating back to ’84, the first film, and the second in ’91, put lasting stamps on sci-fi history with a memorable take on the theme of machine over man. The third movie 6 years ago, didn’t do much to extend the lore, but I cut it some slack and enjoyed more than many other viewers. Now, 25 years later, we’re taken (in almost real elapsed time) into the future to see John Connor fighting his war against the machines. This is what all the other movies were leading up to – what Skynet and the terminators were trying to prevent.

Unfortunately, Salvation isn’t really about John Connor or his war. It’s more about some new character, played by Sam Worthington, who is brought into the future (no spoilers). Worthington is a surprising bright spot acting-wise, but I didn’t want to see a movie about him because it doesn’t really connect to anything we’ve seen before. I was hoping to see a movie showing Connor’s rise into leadership of the Resistance, rallying survivors to fight the machines, but this movie never delivers. Instead, we get a war led by some government coalition in hiding, which just happens to be getting help from Conner. This movie fits into the correct timeline, but just seems to be telling the less interesting tale.

It’s ironic then that this movie’s at it’s best early on, when it’s not about Connor at all. Once Worthington’s character meets up with Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) in post apocalyptic LA, the movie hums along nicely. As far as action goes, there’s plenty here and it’s shot well enough to make you not regret the money you spent on tickets. The sound effects are thunderous and menacing robots large (no, huge) and small might beat the other summer robot movie at their own game. As the movie spirals along it gradually loses personality. Christian Bale as Connor, doesn’t help. His portrayal is so one-dimensional that he’s barely different then the cybernetics he’s fighting.

In this era of cinematic recycling, has there been a more ambitious rehash than JJ Abrams latest, Star Trek? I mean it’s one thing to make another Summer popcorn muncher about robots from the future trying to destroy humanity (wait, which one?), but to take on the roots of a forty year old Sci-Fi universe…that’s gutsy.

Then again, it’s not like there haven’t been a history of Trek clunkers on the big screen, so despite the hype, fans wouldn’t be surprised to see another miss.

Still, this is not just another Trek movie with better CG than the last. It’s one that reboots all the best known, and most loved, characters – all with shiny new actors, of course. And it weighs heavy on those actors, because for all the battles and jumps to warp speed, this is just a character pic.

It’s with these new actors that this movie succeeds, so I’ll spend some time on them. The new lead, for example, Chris Pine, manages to embody the swagger and machismo of James T. while leaving out some out of Shat’s more parodied mannerisms. Qunito does a surprisingly good job with the challenging role of playing a young Spock. Then there’s Karl Urban, who plays Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy and nails so many classic lines pitch perfect it really saves him from coming off as a shticky impersonation. Speaking of classic lines, they’re all pretty much here, delivered well and in the right situations. Sure, a couple maybe be a little forced, but I still loved every one. Zoe Saldana (who?) does a killer job as razor sharp Uhura. Simon Pegg (always Shaun to me) was a clever choice for Scotty. I’m really happy they cast a Russian-born actor (Anton Yelchin) to play Chekov, since I’m so critical of Russian accents. Unfortunately the “w” for “v” substitution he portrayed was really annoying (albeit humorous at times) since it’s a more Eastern Europe thing. And then there’s Sulu, played by Harold of and Kumar fame. While I like the actor (John Cho), this is the one character who took me out of it. The physical resemblance wasn’t there, nor was the odd aloof demeanor; but at least the sword play was true to form.

Unlike the throngs of harder core aficionados, the movie wasn’t going to be made or broken for me on styling alone, but I saw more kind nods to the past than away from it. Yes, I’m not a huge fan of the white and translucent Apple-esque Enterprise bridge. Yes, the curvy lines of the Enterprise looked Romulan-ish while the Romulan craft looked all spiky like it escaped from the new Transformers flicks. And yes, it took a damn long time to hear the familiar soundtrack strains. But on the other hand, most of the sound effects were there – right off from the start with the instrumentation warbles of the USS Kelvin. The uniforms stuck to simple untucked shirts and black pants, and even skirts and tall boots for the female crew members. And gosh darn it, Uhura still had that big silver dongle stuck in her ear!

Maybe best of all is just the lightness that they maintained with this reboot. Sure, there are serious moments and lots of action-packed sequences, but the healthy dose of humor throughout ends up sealing the movie with the same levity as TOS. While all the other blockbusters are going darker and grittier, this flick stays true to Roddenberry’s optimism (even if there is a lack of the usual underlying social commentary).

I have to give Abrams some due credit here. I haven’t been a fan of his previous work (gasp). Alias, nope. Lost, nope. Cloverfield, not really. I think in general I like his concepts, but not his results. Maybe he’s a better director, than producer. Maybe his writers have improved. In the end, watching this Trek was just fun, like sitting down with old friends reliving old tales, and telling a few new ones.

As the first of the highly anticipated films for 09, I was very excited to catch Watchmen this weekend. And being a rather important release for all of geekdom, we went with a group of 15, nearly enough to command an entire row. I’d spent the last week re-reading Alan Moore’s book cover to cover, totally engrossed, and very curious how certain bits would translate to film. Besides a lot of crazy sci-fi imagery, Watchmen includes an interesting narrative, often layering different dialogs or rapidly jumping through different timelines. The visuals by Dave Gibbons, are cinematic – panning, zooming – and often brutal.

Gotta say, I was very happy with the movie. Watchmen has gone from graphic novel to a film which is quite graphic. It shares the dark and gritty atmosphere of Nolen’s Dark Knight, but with more sex and violence. I think most fans were worried that the adaptation would be toned down to maximize the marketability of a “comic book movie”, but gladly they kept it fully an adult movie. There plenty of adult themes (like the nihilist outlooks on one’s own life and career and the world at large) and plenty of adult scenes (lots of nudity, mostly male, and some brutal fight scenes). Visually, as most people expected, the movie rocks. Director Zack Snyder really stayed true to the book’s look of each scene – in fact his trademark slo-mo created moments with an amazing resonance to the original cells. The casting was really good (though I would’ve preferred an Ozymadias a bit older looking), and even characters with small parts were spot on.

I really appreciate the thought that went into the soundtrack as well. I’m not a fan of Bob Dylan, but it was a perfect backdrop to the almost-still frame retrospective sequence in the opening titles. The result is a beautiful five and a half minutes of film. Later, 99 Luftballons was as fitting as could be both chronologically and thematically. Leonard Cohen’s dark and jaded tone in a couple of songs was also a perfect compliment to a world on the brink of nuclear armageddon.

For all the exact similarities though, the movie is unique from the book in a few ways. The most striking to me was a new take on the ending – and I’m glad. The original ending was fine in the book, but wouldn’t have played well on screen…at all. Besides that, most of the differences were just omissions in order to restrain the movie to its already massive running time. As I think through all the cuts, however, I can’t think of any that really weaken the story. Of course I’m coming in with all the detail provided in the book. I wonder if non-readers would feel that there were things unexplained. Or maybe less than that, perhaps without all the detail of the original, viewers just might not really “get” the characters or their alternate version of our world. Reading the book first will “spoil” key plot points, but I believe it makes the movie even better.