What have you watched recently? 3D!

I think they could have found someone who at least seemed to occupy the same world as the rest of the cast; Bloom was so dead, so wooden I never bought into the idea of the guy at all. It didn't have to be Crowe but someone who could do the Silent Dignity act without looking lost. Like I said Eva Green alone kinda ate his lunch just with a look

I actually had a hunt for some background but couldn't find anything saying if Bloom was a studio mandate or a choice by Scott's production.

Not sure who, in 2005, would have made a better choice but the extended cut was indeed legitimately fabulous, but constantly undercut by its central paragon of virtue.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

"As a physician, you of all people should appreciate the dangers of opening old wounds"

God damn but when the scripts of the original series' films let its primary trio off the leash to doodle in the emotional margins, it was that rare form of cinematic alchemy; Shatner, Nimoy and Kelly may not have been the strongest actors individually but their combined energies and chemistry always allowed for the kind of interpersonal & soulful bickering that with good writing, let these actors and characters truly seem like souls who had shared lives & careers together. So much about Kirk's past, and a hitherto unknown past relationship with Dr. Marcus, had to be established yet with this efficient bit of writing so much was communicated to the audience in a single line - then enhanced by Shatner's irritated and wounded reaction to Kelly's affectionate-but-misplaced jibe. Many jokes have been cracked at William Shatner's (in)famous acting style, but films like this did demonstrate that the man could deliver an authenticity when required, especially if the ammunition given was a frailty previously non-existent with Captain James T Kirk. And that's before you even mention that scene, and how well Shatner underplayed Kirks' loss; his broken little "no" such a great counterpoint to his more theatrical and memetic scream of "Khannn!".

Wrath of Khan will always remain the highpoint by approximate consensus with that original Star Trek crew, and something of a "true" starting point for the rest of the run, but watching it so soon after The Motion Picture I really saw the difference in execution and relative productions here. Mostly notably: even if the '79 film suffered from pacing best described as somnambulant, and some ludicrous aesthetic choices, it still put what was a bloated budget on-screen; no expense was spared but an underwhelming box office meant any sequel was gonna get squeezed. So as timeless as the actual meat of Wrath... might still prove to be on yet another rewatch, the still-fresh memory of TMP's splendour only served to spotlight this sequel's ramshackle sets, reused FX from the prior film and an overall, inescapable sense of scruffiness with everything. The Enterprise's bridge sometimes felt distractingly flimsy and thrown together; those more naval inspired uniforms looked great though and it's easy to see how that became such an icon to the franchise. Even as recently as the latest TV show, Strange New Worlds, we would see that uniform get use; to an extent, it's the Star Trek uniform.

All that said, here was where the 1979 film's seeds started to bare fruit, and perhaps why this film's themes have become more resonant as I trickled towards my mid-40s: here was a script front-loaded with middle-aged angst and confronting the consequences of ones choices from youth; oh sure, the actual thrills of the two warring ships were as fabulously tense and thrilling as ever - and I'd love to see this film get the same remaster The Motion Picture received and its reworked FX - but everything played out against a melodramatic backdrop of age, growth and change.

The larger subtextual meat was obviously the arrival of a former love and the son Kirk walked away from, dismissed from his mind as some faux rational choice, but it was also in iconography like Kirk's sudden need for glasses or his ship crewed with raw recruits, their faces barely past their teens. Children would die while Kirk grappled with the notion that his bravado might no longer suffice; and by no accounts was any of this ever rubbed in the audience's faces, but I admired the script's thematic foundation to let it all just simmer.

While it ends on a happy note there is a lot of uncertainty about the future. Spock is far from himself, the Enterprise is gone and Kirk's career is in tatters. Kirk gets his ship and career back eventually but it takes a whole other film. I think it's quite a brave ending.

I see what you're saying and can see that point of view: the finale does make sure that Spock's return came at a price no question, I just think they vastly undersold David's death - bar Shatner's immediate reaction when the son gets stabbed and further proof the actor got a bad rap for hamminess; but something about Kirk's remark to Savak about the cost to his soul rang hollow, like the script both wanted to acknowledge that ost, but also the necessity of the movie in the first place in getting Spock back. I think I'd have liked to see a few more beats really underlining that cost and the loss, instead of ending on the happy note of reunion; something a bit more vague and unsure.

When all's said and done, Kirk's adult son died before he ever properly reconciled with him and I kinda felt a tonal conflict between a script really reaching for something more raw and profound in its characters … and the requirement for Fun Space Adventures. Heck IIRC David wasn't even referenced again 'til VI & Kirk's sudden ennui over making peace with the Klingons, an angst that informed that film's story.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Yes, I'm still doing these; though may take a break 'cos The Final Frontier is next, and hoooooo boy it's a stinker.

So there's me prattling on, admiring all this emotional maturity stitched through the first three Trek movies, of one's growing obsolescence and how maybe there's a sunset to boyish galavanting about ... then the fourth Star Trek movie was this supremely silly time-travel comedy about rescuing whales from the 20th century to save the future. "Double dumb áss" on me for forgetting just how far this leaned into a breezy, frivolous and no-strings adventuresome tone: and sure, anyone who held the Original Series to heart will have absolutely seen the genetic lineage in what remains Trek's most silly film (and intentionally silly 'cos Final Frontier still sits in the corner, waiting on me) ... but there was still a bit of tonal whiplash all the same in jumping from what had been a predominance towards interludes of introspection and emotionality to ... well, this. The one where Spock mind-melds with some whales & Chekov(!) asks a cop about where he'd find the Nooklear Wessels. The scenes with McCoy in the hospital my own standout, his irritated compassion a joy.

And maybe that was the point: after three films where despite their own various thrilling moments and set pieces, perhaps it was rationalised that there had been enough introspection and it was time for Voyage Home's grinning, goofy charm and absolute commitment to telling the daftest story in as engaging a fashion as possible. This should have been a disaster as the disparate parts didn't make sense, yet all those ingredients merged perfectly to yield Trek's most overtly fun outing. I couldn't conceive of any equivalently popular franchise in Hollywood swerving its tone this deliberately & to this extent - while also succeeding. Maybe, at a pinch, you could argue the MCU's dalliances into outright comedy - but as we've seen with Thor: Love & Thunder, the end-results have not always excelled in the balancing act. Voyage Home was an example of the perfectly baked dessert: sweet, delicious and without substance sure - but every morsel went down great.

I did have to take a moment though to reflect on what was an early-doors swing at environmentalism in popular media: it had that starry-eyed naivety of those Captain Planet adjacent days; that approach that appealed to our better nature to arrest quite obviously appalling behaviour towards our own home (and its co-tenants); yet I don't think our pop-culture has it in itself to render something this optimistic and confident of our better natures anymore. Attitudes have hardened since then, power and populism mutated to dogmatic antagonism to the extent it'd deny reality while the flames lick their heels. We can barely save ourselves at this point, let alone the whales.

I saw the TV Glow (2024)

This was a film whose inclusive intent could only go so far before it collided into my issues with its basic execution. Ultimately its tonal choice will come down to the personal taste of the viewer, but it didn't gel with me at all: going into this I was aware both of the creator's background & the broad discourse it had generated about the nature of its subtextual story but this was allergy turned up to 11; everything dominated by such monolithic symbolism and intent to create a detached sense of itself it lost all basic coherence - skirting into the realm of being nothing but a gussied up Student Film. That is, abstraction for its own sake and not half as clever as it thought it was (the "Pink Opaque" ... really?), surrounded by this ... utterly indistinct voice that even seeped into how all the actors delivered their lines; all with this borderline monotone diction, punctuated by pregnant pauses so elongated they could be carrying triplets. Pacing elasticated by needlessly prolonged shots featuring nothing of consequence.

This seemed like a movie with a dogged intent to generate "vibes", a concept increasingly suggesting no meaning except a way for vacant scripts to lean on presentation, contemplative aesthetics and mood in lieu of any kind of emotionality or structure. I didn't want melodrama and plates thrown across the kitchen - but it needed some emotional tactility here. Especially given the subject matter - going double while trans people become increasingly targeted for no sane reason except institutionalised malevolence. It was nearly saved by a last 20 minutes that almost jolted itself alive by way of some Cronenbergian oddity, but as patient as I can be I can't in good conscience manufacture interest in a (near adult) character vacantly waxing sorrow about their 10:30pm bedtime like it was this colossal existential conundrum. If even the film can't make it seem like an important pivot, then why should I care?

I applaud the voice here - just not the song.

Funny I used to love it; my introduction to Trek was Voyage Home and occasional re-runs of the Original Series, so for me the pulse of Trek was broadly silly nonsense, so when they started showing TNG and DS9 I was turned off by both shows' more serious and less playful tone. Whereas now I'll stick my feet in the ground to insist DS9 wasn't just the best Trek show - but also one of the best Sci-Fi TV shows in history.

Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)

An entertainingly throwaway 50s thriller elevated by threading the mania of Captain Ahab's iconic, quixotic quest for revenge into a clash of submarine captains' priorities: a friction that wasn't entirely dissimilar to what we would see decades later with Tony Scott's Crimson Tide; and while the younger film wrote its conflict from the precipice of nuclear armageddon, here the stakes were considerably lower and confined to one man's wounded pride potentially leading his new crew to calamity.

Good performances for the most part, although Gable and Lancaster had that slight aroma of wood that I find with many of those older Hollywood stars; they were often magnetic and commanding sure, but a constant stoicism that meant they projected a little emotional stuntedness when something a little less than rigged determination was asked of them; two similarly straight-backed planks didn't quite rattle my cage as much as the more obvious personality differences between Gene Hackman and Denzil Washington's own performances as stressed-out naval officers working on the ragged edge.

Good attention to detail here as well: there was a lack of sentiment or artificiality in the presentation of the submarine's inner workings and normal operation; this was a claustrophobic, sweaty and stressful work environment and Robert Wise made good use of what seemed like "real" inner locations, all shot with a pragmatic and unsentimental or melodramatic eye.