Reviews

I don't think that movie can really be rated as a whole because some parts were extremely good and some were extremely bad. For that reason, I will separate the review into segments: visuals and world building, plot and characters and behind the scenes.

So from the first trailer that I saw for this movie, I thought "this looks amazingly beautiful" and in that department, the movie didn't disappoint. You get to see so many different types of environments, planets, space stations, space battles, real and imaginary environments, aliens, technology old and new... It's like every SCI-FI movie compressed into one. And what I like is that it doesn't seem like too much and that's because the pace in which these environments are represented is just right. The plot unfolds within a certain environment long enough for the viewer to get a general idea how things work without actually narrating it. It left me really interested to know more about the space station and the planet with the virtual marketplace. In general, the pacing of this movie was good, at least for 2/3 of the movie. In the end, it gets very rushed and sloppy. The visuals in this movie are truly beautiful and it's fascinating to see how far CGI has come in the world-building department. Literally, anything you can imagine you can do. And the movie should really be commended for that. One more thing should also be commended and that's Luc Besson's ability to introduce this complex world to the viewer without explaining things through dialogue. The two exceptions from this feel very organic and logical to the plot. On that part, I felt that it was treating the viewer as an intelligent person that can draw some conclusion on his own.

For that reason, it makes me so mad that the movie fails to treat the viewer in the same way when it comes to characters and the story. The main plot is very underdeveloped and feels like a watered-down version of Avatar. And if you don't make that connection the movie actually suggests it by introducing a very similar alien design. The gravity of what happened to them gets trivialized by not paying it the time it deserved to really make an impact on the viewer. The movie either should have ditched the side plots and committed to the main story or chosen a lighter theme so it could take time to really explore this world. Out of those options, I would have chosen the latter because I'd love to see more.

But, even a bad plot can be saved by having iconic characters and this movie missed the mark. I have to admit, when I first saw the trailer I was intrigued by the actor choice because they really weren't typical blockbuster faces which are getting so boringly perfect. But after watching the whole movie I just felt that something was off. First off there is no chemistry between these two actors. None! I just couldn't see them being in love with each other. But I could see them as being brother and sister (which was kind of creepy) because a lot of their bickering came off as sibling rivalry. Apart from the non-existent chemistry what bothered me more was that the actors didn't really portray their characters well. Now I've seen Dane DeHaan in a few movies and I know that he can act but this role really wasn't for him. As for Cara Delavingne, I think she has a very interesting face, very expressive and a bit alien like...too bad she doesn't express a lot with it. Now I'm not saying she couldn't be a good actress, but she needs a lot more experience and practice (maybe some lessons) because she didn't deserve to be the lead in such a big movie. The result of this bad casting are inconsistencies that happen throughout the movie with how characters look, what is being said about them and how they behave. This really gets highlighted when both of them show up in military uniforms and you can see how gimmicky they look. To me, they look more like renegades with no morals or space mercenaries - not military types. Now Valerian is supposed to be this military trained follow orders type of guy. Shouldn't he have a bit more muscle for that?? Or maybe just a stronger yaw line? Also, he's supposed to be a player? Really? I just don't see Dane DeHaan as being a player. There's this one scene that paints both characters in a particularly heartless light. They're riding the bus with their assault team when the bus gets attacked by a creature trying to tear the bus apart. They escape this situation without even trying to save their teammates and later just expressing resentment that they ruined Laureline's dress or something. Talk about cold. I found it surprising that Luc Besson envisioned this for his characters since he stated that this was his passion project. He even went so far as to say Laureline was his first childhood crush.

So right from the start, it's obvious this is another teen romance/crime series. If you've watched at least one of them you pretty much know exactly what to expect. A group of teenagers (who are all played by people in their 20'es) wrapped up in a mystery plot who's days seem to last 48 hours instead of 24h, because in that time they seem to do pretty much everything from schoolwork, socializing, detective work, talent development and hooking up like there's no tomorrow. Boy, I sure feel inadequate because I just can't seem to fit all of that into my schedule :) But that's to be expected since it is a series and doing just homework wouldn't drive the plot forward very well. The mystery part of the series is very intriguing at first, but get's a bit watered down with all the high school drama. It's most similar to Pretty little liars series except they didn't drag it out for seasons. Instead, the first season ended with a resolution and the next season began with a whole different plot. Which I appreciate. The series takes every opportunity to show the main characters half-dressed, girls go to school either dressed like Wallstreet attorneys, Stepford wives or like they borrowed Ariana Grande's concert outfit. OK, they do sometimes wear regular clothes, I'm over exaggerating. :D Nobody's having sex, but they do go around a lot. Archie has a different love interest every two episodes. The actors are likable but what always bothers me about these shows is they never treat characters with respect. They set them up one way but when the plot demands it characters will change whichever way suits the plot. A high school overachiever/good girl will become a sensual seductress for an episode so they can dress her in something sexy. Characters will fluctuate from episode to episode making it hard to get a sense of who they really are because they're actually whatever the plot needs them to be at the moment. Every other silly thing is bearable.

Nice start of the season. I'm glad the Jason plot was wrapped up in the first season and not dragged out for seasons and seasons like in Pretty Little Liars. The shooting was definitely a surprise at the end of Season 1 and we finally discover what happened. One problem I had with the episode was the part when Archie goes home with Veronica. The whole taking a dog for a walk and having sex with your girlfriend in the shower while your dad got shot and might be dying in a hospital is just..unrealistic.

Write a story about people connecting across the planet. Put in different races, cultures, sexes and feature them without Hollywood stereotypes. Also, use different sexual orientations without dumbing them down.

And this show gets canceled??? Why? Were the sex scenes too much? Because I would have thought after Game of Thrones that anything goes. Or maybe people weren't interested because for once America wasn't in the center of everything? Anyway, such a pity. I thought many people have grown to like and love all the characters in the show as I have. I was really interested in what their story is going to be and the exploration of different cultures. Now everything is going to be summed up in a movie? Jeeeeeej!!!

Plot-wise this movie is very school project like in a way. The characters are one-dimensional almost a cliché. It could be intentional for the purpose of creating conflict between them but it comes off one-dimensional really. As any introspective thought-provoking movie, it comes up short at the end of the story. Especially with the double ending, which is a stupid idea in 90% of movies. Gives the viewer a feeling of sorrow and hopelessness since it doesn't give any resolution or way to move forward. Creating a movie just to show us it's all hopeless and we should all kill ourselves or them isn't very inspired, just comes off childish.

Where this movie really shines is the dialogue and Salma Hayek's performance. Salma sells the character perfectly which is especially entertaining because we're used to watching her always glammed up. Her slow persistent monologues are interesting to watch and the little moments of silence and introspection. John Lithgow also gives a good performance. The interaction between characters was the best part of the movie and it didn't feel boring at all. I had to tackle some feeling of awkwardness with all the weird social behavior but I liked it. All in all a slow pace movie with amazing performance and mediocre plot.

I was expecting to hate it, but I watched the first two episodes and I actually liked it. I am very much excited to see more.

As a female Star Trek fan, I was happy to see a female captain and a first officer. Michelle Yeoh is amazing, I've always loved her and she did a great job portraying a Starfleet captain in a crisis. Didn't really like the Michael Burnham character but she's also a typical first officer, full of herself. Reminds me a bit of Riker. We'll see about her character development. I thought I was going to hate the show because of the new Klingons, but I was once again surprised to find them believable. They look menacing and scary. Out of all the races in Star Trek I've always disliked the Klingons and the gimmicky childish way in which they're portrayed. In all the previous series characters spent more time talking a lot about Klingon honor, culture and conquests but in most scenes portraying them like dimwitted apes that just shout at each other and lose every battle shown in the series. So I can't wait to see what the war against the Klingons actually looks like.

Some parts of the plot were a stretch for me. The Klingon ship design is a bit excessive, not in decorations, but in the size of the ships. They were a bit too large. The costumes and the masks the Klingons wear are so stiff. I can't really see them being very effective for combat and you can't read any facial expressions through the masks.

I am a bit surprised at all the negative commentary, even more, surprised at the reasons listed behind them. Anyone calling this show bad because it doesn't look exactly like all the other shows before isn't a real Star Trek fan. It would be sad for any SCI-FI show to adopt such an outdated image today and there are enough episodes already made for us to watch if we feel nostalgic. Even I as a fan can say that from today's perspective old Star Trek episodes seem a bit childish and naive. They also had many plot holes and ridiculous plot lines. The fact that I find a comedy show Orville to be very similar to Star Trek is just proof. I like it but let's face it. Television has progressed beyond the familiar frontier. It has become more grey, more bold with its topics, ready to challenge our black and white ideals. So I think we should give Star Trek a chance.

All in all, I like the direction they're taking it in. I just hope that on that road they won't lose the main spirit of Star Trek and that's the exploration of human society, our ideals and what makes us human while referencing real issues we face every day in a highly futurized environment. Loosing this was the first mistake the Star Trek movies made when they turned Star Trek into a firework of visual effects without any content. ------------------------ So after the pilot episodes, this show took a weird 180 degrees turn. The third episode is like a completely different show than the first two episodes and not in a good way. Apart from 2 characters we're introduced to a whole new cast of characters who are all extremely unlikeable. The atmosphere is completely changed from "we come in peace" attitude to "we will cross any line for the greater good". Characters have become really irrational and aggressively impulsive in their decisions. I still don't understand the Klingon arc. I was expecting it to become clearer with the progression of the show, but I just don't understand what the heck are they on about. They keep talking to each other like we're in Season 3, dropping names and terms I am not familiar with. What is a torch? Why is it important? Why is this T'Kuvma dude so special apart from possesing a torch? They spent 5 seconds with him, why is he suddenly a messiah? The show treats this as a matter fact topic. I don't know, it's like a completely different show.

Kind of sad to look at, not because of Kyle but because of the whole situation. All these kids going crazy because Kylie showed up. So what? Have some self respect. This episode would have been more fun if just nobody payed any attention. The episode is so over edited, probably because there's nothing happening.

I know most people don't really care much for the scientific stuff but the writers of this show can't really assume that people who watch this are completely willing to ignore all the nonsense that happens in this show?

If they just wanted to deal with teenage drama then they should have picked a fantasy theme like vampires, you can invent things all you want there. This show starts all scientific, it's even set in a world where most technology and human knowledge is similar to what we now have and know, but with every season the explanations get more and more far-fetched. The last season is especially unbelievable, 100 people is not enough to sustain a genetically viable population. The other thing are the characters, they're just like any half-brain series, they're not really consistent, they keep shifting from maniacal to reasonable mental states. The third season was pretty good, watching Allie take over everybody was frustratingly entertaining but this nuclear winter again...I don't know where it's going to lead, hopefully not big brother confinement of 100 people.

I gave this Star Trek movie a 1 because I just don't have the patience for this kind of bad storytelling anymore, especially because I liked the first movie so much. I would rather watch any episode of Star Trek series than this, any day.

Damn, I don't even know where to start. There's no moral to this story. The reason why Star Trek is different from XXX movie is that it always has a deeper moral to explore, I didn't find any in this movie.

The characters are messed up. The thing that bothers me the most is Spock. I had no problem with Spock shedding a tear in the last sequel, but in this movie he's really off the rails, he's sobbing, laughing...emoting all over the place. If they really wanted to pay homage to Leonard Nemoy's performance maybe they should've payed more attention to his acting not mentioning his name all over the place. Kirk was really bad in this movie, I understand that he's depressed but he was just boringly bland. Sulu being gay is obviously another positive discrimination Hollywood rule.

All the CGI and stupid and illogical plot lines and scenes made me cry. The scene where Kirk and Lt. Chekov slide down from the saucer can only be surpassed in stupidity by the scene from Prometheus where they run straight from the doughnut ship instead of turning left/right. The number of those little bee ships grows exponentially in the final scene?! Playing rock music is a total rip off from Guardians of Galaxy. Why did the ships start exploding when they played the music??? I thought they were just suppose to collide with one another?! Anyway bullshit after bullshit with no effect.

The only bright thing was the humor, that really made me watch the whole thing.

I went to see this documentary mostly because I saw that it was about Antartica because I've always been fascinated by it. I didn't know anything on the subject of the French scientist Claude Lorius or his life work, but I thought that even if I didn't like the documentary at least I'd see some nice scenes of Antartica. It turned out better than I'd expected, I really enjoyed every minute of it. The old footage of the expeditions were fascinating and the new ones breathtaking but the biggest surprise, even to me, was the story itself. I have always been curious about people's life journeys especially the ones of people who choose unusual life paths and I really appreciated the little details he managed to remember like wanting to quit each time he had to take his hand out of the glove or how he suffered the cold nights just to get a glimpse of the Aurora Australis. I guess the first part was a bit more interesting on an emotional level because I found myself trying to imagine how living on Antarctica for a year with two people would feel like and the second part was more interesting for the story. The documentary comes to a bitter sweet end, bitter because we know we're hurling towards an unpredictable future and sweet because somewhere in the audience somewhere in the world could be a future scientist feeling inspired to help.

I would recommend this to patient viewers who find themselves fascinated by extraordinary life stories.