Reviews

I'm not entirely sure what to make of The Circle. On the one hand (and for most of the film) it appears to be a warning against the increasing power of social media. So far, so good. At the end of the film the heroine, who seems to be trying to resist...hands over even more complete power, albeit to the platform, not to the people who are running it. Still, in the closing moments, she seems to think that all pervasive social media is a wonderful thing. I'm not one who needs a film to lay everything out for me, but this would be like having been told for 9 hours (12 in the deluxe editions) that Sauron's One Ring must be destroyed, then in the closing moments being told that no, we can learn how to use it safely.

Lately, Star Trek as a franchise has been increasingly disappointing. Simon Pegg, who passed himself off as something of an expert in all things Trek, foisted off Star Trek Beyond on an unsuspecting public, complete with Fast and Furious director Justin Lin's Fast and Trekious. An upcoming franchise entry promises to have a gang of teenagers finding a wrecked starship a la Scooby Doo. Lower Decks promises to make Trek funny.

And then there's Picard. Picard was a major letdown. The story, such as it is, is a mostly meaningless mess, with perhaps 3 episodes worth of plat stretched out to 11 episodes. How did they manage that? Well, there's the episode with Picard in a zoot suit on the crime syndicate planet (stop laughing, I'm serious). There's tons of material with Borg and Romulans which has no bearing whatsoever on the main plot (such as it is) or the season's conclusion.

And about that conclusion. There's an attitude around current Trek, on full display in Picard. I can best describe it in an online conversation I had with a fan, when I pointed out that the show was incredibly fluffy and light on story. The response was "But Picard is now sooooo woke!" as if that in and of itself was sufficient.

So surely the characters make up for the lack of story, right? Uh huh. First, Picard himself is a shell of his former self. This would be OK if the show explored this development, but it really doesn't. It has Picard morosely feeling disappointed in former life choices (and be warned, everything in this show is morose) but it doesn't address his aging. At the same time, whenever there's action, it's hard to escape the feeling that the actors around Stewart are fearful of breaking him.

Few of the other characters come off any better. Agnes Jurati comes off as incredibly neurotic, even before she's subjected to a Vulcan-style mind meld which may have completely compromised her. She kills a man who may have been her lover, becomes deranged...then everything is OK, and all is forgiven. No, strike that. All is NOT EVEN mentioned.

For Voyager 7 of 9 kills someone who may have been her former lover. She's morose throughout the episode, but she's smiling by the end, even though the thing which apparently apparently made her morose has had no resolution.

Rafi Musiker is apparently meant to be a third major character. When introduced, she hates Picard enough to threaten to kill him. But she changes her mind (because the script requires her to do so), and by the end, she's smiling along with everyone else.

And Picard? He has the best ending of all. He dies, and then after a short scene he is brought back as an android. There follows an explanation that nothing will have changed for him. He can still be killed, and he will still grow old and die, yadda yadda yadda. I'm tempted to say that he died because the episode was running short, but I think the truth is that Stewart wanted a death scene.

Is the show completely worthless? Almost...but not quite. The Doj and Soji characters have something of an interesting (yet rushed; not to producers, less Borg and Romulans, less traipsing around in search of clues, more character development). Riker and Troi are back, and unlike their former Captain they have character development and it's believable. They also have a daughter who steals the show, and scenes with her and Soji are the season's best.

Is that enough to make it worthwhile to watch the show? For me, Picard is ten hours of my life that I can't get back. I would have to be paid a lot to get me to watch any more of this drivel.

Yesterday I watched this odd little film. I'm still not sure how to react to it. On it's most basic level it's an animated horror film (or at least horror influenced). i'd say that it's aimed at tweens, as it's too scary for little ones but pretty boring for adults.

First, the style. It seems to have grown out of Edward Scissorhands, visually. All the characters are pale, with dark eye sockets, dark hair, etc. They all have perpetually pained expressions. Sure, why not? It does fit the mood of the original (divorced) source material, if not the tween audience.

It's that divorced-from-the-source-material element that's the oddest thing about this film (and apparently its two in universe films that I haven't watched). For example (mild spoiler) young Howard Lovecraft, presented as something of a horror-involved Indiana Jones, has Cthulhu as a pet. He calls him Spot.

Things like that are why I saw it's a horror-influenced tween film. Anybody who understands what Lovecraft was writing about is terrified at the mere thought of Cthulhu. In the books, the people who actually see him go crazy. Here, he's a boy's best friend.

I can't say that it's flat out bad, but I can say that the dialog and character actions are near the lower end of the quality scale. Characters say what they need to say in order for the writer to advance the very simplistic plot. They typically don't seem to be having a conversation, i.e., responding to one another, as much as they're spouting independent exposition.

I've got no desire to seek out the other two films. One was enough.

Like some of the other reviewers I really wanted to like this. I don't find The Next Generation to be great, certainly not Original Series great, but I find it tolerably OK and I watch it when there's nothing else on to attract my attention.

This show is a train wreck. The characters are for the most part, flat and dull, and worse they make no sense. Musiker, for instance, hates Picard when we first see her. She threatens to kill him. Suddenly, everything is OK and she's willing to Trek along with him. Jurati goes crazy, kills a man, then all is forgiven.

The only character who is truly endearing is Riker's and Troi's daughter. The actress is charming and natural, and her scenes with Soji are the high point of the show, although that's a sadly low target to set.

The story, such as it is, is similarly pointless. Picard et al rush to some location to get a clue to solving their mystery, which sets them toward rushing to another location to get another chunk. We're given information that's supposed to make us care about them, but it rings hollow. Musiker, again, is supposed to hate Picard, holding him responsible for the end of her Star Fleet career. She doesn't seem particularly committed to here ideals, however.

Then there are the tons of characters who have no real point at all in the story, although they suck up a lot of screen time. Of them all, 7 of 9 is probably the worst. She's another tortured person (there are a ton of them), but the reasons why are vague, and it's OK because, like all the rest, she's happy at the end. There are a pair of Romulans who appear to be Picard's servants, but who also appear to be trained operatives, who...just disappear. Then there are a ton of ex-Borg including our old friend Hugh, who...just disappear, although at least he dies, so we understand his disappearance.

And what does all this lead to? A conclusion which I believe is supposed to make us feel good. It's composed of two primary elements. In the first, Soji is ready to give up on all corporeal life in the Milky Way galaxy. She requires very little convincing to support this course of action. She's just ready to kill us all. And then, she's not. Changed her mind. Why? It's a girl's prerogative.

In the second element, Picard dies. After a brief dialog between his "spirit" and Data's "spirit," he's back. Those responsible go to great lengths to explain that, while he's been resurrected in an android body, he's just like he was before. He has his own soul, his body will wear out, he will die, etc. In other words, he's died, and nothing has changed.

Granted, Star Trek has been on a long downhill slope for decades, but this is the bottom of the barrel.