Batson's Blog

J.J. Abrams is about to go from Star Trek to Star Wars . "Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy," was written in a statement published on StarWars.com. While I'm not a mega-fan of his work like some are, I thoroughly enjoyed the 2009 Star Trek movie. If Abrams can bring that kind of work to the Star Wars films, it'll only mean good things. I've been in a sci-fi kind of mood recently, as I just watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Wars: Episode II . Both movies left a lot to be desired, so I'm all for Abrams taking a shot at re-creating Star Wars (even if it doesn't need to be revived). Related Content: • Star Wars: Episode II - reviewed. • Star Trek: The Motion Picture - reviewed.

I'd never seen the original Star Trek, but J.J. Abrams' 2009 movie gave me an itch to watch a little more of the Star Trek franchise. I figured the best place to start was square one. Turns out that may not have been the case. The effects in the movie weren’t too bad – despite being several decades old. Granted, they kind of played it safe. They didn't have the cast involved in a lot of the special effects. Much of the effects were done in the outer space setting, so it was probably easier to incorporate graphics into that than it would be to mix with actual human beings. There were some primitive green screen spots as well, however, like when Spock was floating into the invading alien's ship. The story is what was lacking. It lacked a little bit of logic (this alien ship seemed more friendly than threatening), but most of all it lacked excitement. The alien ship, which was operated by robotics (no humans or other races aboard), didn’t really both to at...

I first saw this movie when it was released in the early 2000s. I don’t think I’ve seen it since then. I was going to start with Star Wars: Episode I and go through the entire hectlogy (trilogy x2), but Episode I was on a “Very Long Wait” status on Netflix. I had the same issue with the movie this time around as I did last time: bad acting. Hayden Christensen gave such a stoic performance . After watching the movie again I have to wonder if that’s what George Lucas was going for. Natalie Portman’s performance wasn’t much better. Ewan McGregor wasn’t much better than Christensen. Their performances were a mixture of campy and unenthused. Even Samuel L. Jackson was bland. The delivery of their lines lacked the conviction they should’ve had to make the movie truly epic. Maybe that’s how Lucas wanted it, though. Maybe it wasn’t the actors. Portman went on to win an Academy Award , so it’s hard to argue that she can’t act. She delivered a believable and enjoyable perfo...