A.J. Maguire

Tag: Movie review

  • Star Trek Generations Rewatch

    Why am I rewatching old Star Trek movies?

    So glad you asked!

    My upcoming novel Nora and the Werewolf Wedding was partially inspired by the character of Deanna Troi in Star Trek the Next Generation. Now, if you think it’s strange that a science fiction character could inspire a series of urban fantasy novels… Well, you’re probably right, but I never claimed to be normal. And really, we have my mother to blame here because she was the Star Trek fan.

    I fondly remember weekends with Star Trek marathons when my mother unfolded that super-heavy and not-quite-comfortable sofa bed so that we could all camp out in the living room. She was a single mom for the majority of my childhood, so she was asleep by 10PM, but it was fun watching her pretend like she could stay awake long enough to get the full experience.

    So it makes sense that an impressionable young woman like me would become captivated by a television show where a woman sat on the bridge of a starship. But Deanna Troi was not just “a woman sitting on the bridge” either. We got to see a lot of women strutting their strengths in the movies and tv shows when I was growing up, such as Ripley (Aliens), Sarah Conner (Terminator), and Princess Leia (Star Wars).

    Deanna Troi stands out because her strengths are gentleness, intelligence, and empathy.

    I know that there are some conversations about her costumes on the show, but I don’t want to get into that debate. We’ve all heard it before. Suffice to say, she had a major role to play in keeping tabs on the emotions of a wide variety of races living inside that fragile spaceship. So while I’m rewatching these movies – and yes, I chose the movies instead of the actual show because of time constraints, but I’ll obviously be rewatching the show as well – I am paying particular attention to Deanna.

    With that in mind, let’s dive in!

    Star Trek Generations Plot Blurb from IMDb: With the help of long presumed dead Captain Kirk, Captain Picard must stop a deranged scientist willing to murder on a planetary scale in order to enter a space matrix.

    First observation, I forgot Malcolm McDowell was in this movie. He has a captivating voice and makes for a fun villain, even if not the cleverest scientist. Knowing what he does about the matrix and all of its strange time travel, you would think he could have anticipated resistance from Picard and Kirk.

    Now, on to Deanna’s role.

    Troi’s involvement at the very beginning was quite satisfying. Being the empath that she is, she’s the one who knows immediately that her Captain has been given bad news. SPOILER ALERT – His brother and nephew have died and the grief that brings to the table forces him to confront his own mortality. However, she also senses that he needs some time to grapple with the shock on his own, so it is several scenes later before she walks herself into his room to ask him if she can help.

    The scene is quite lovely and while they are interrupted by PLOT happenings, it is a nice reminder that she has a true position and job to do on this ship. Her captain was in distress and she met that distress. When he tries to brush off the deaths as, “It’s alright, these things happen.” She confronts him – gently – by saying that no, it is not alright.

    We as a society often believe that grieving is a weakness of some kind, but it isn’t. Grief is a part of life. It’s one more thing that reminds us we are human and alive, and while it is painful it shouldn’t be ignored. Deanna’s presence at that moment in the storyline highlights that it is not only okay to grieve, but necessary. Even for the captain of a starship.

    The rest of the movie has Deanna doing starship things. She takes the helm when the helmsman gets injured during the space battle and is understandably busy while the ship (SPOILER ALERT) goes down. The one thing I do wish the movie had more time to explore was Data and his emotion chip. Deanna was an obvious choice for him to go to while wrestling with human emotions for the first time, but I suspect the pacing of the movie would have been dramatically hindered by adding such a scene.

    All in all, I deeply enjoyed this rewatch. William Shatner’s Kirk was a delight from start to finish, and while there were a couple of things that made me squint – such as Klingons bothering to take Picard prisoner only to throw him right down where he wanted to be instead of, you know, holding him prisoner as a bargaining chip, and the aforementioned shortsightedness of the villain – I am enough of a fan of the characters themselves to brush these off.

    Next month, Star Trek First Contact.

    Live long and prosper, dudes.

  • What I learned from King Arthur

    Yes, I mean the new movie King Arthur Legend of the Sword. And unlike the critics, I’m going to admit that I loved this movie. My son loved it too, which I find awesome because anything that gets him into King Arthur and the legends of old makes me happy.

    So if you’re leaning on critics to tell you whether or not to see this movie, ignore them this time.

    Now, the beginning was a little rough. They could have done without the very first tower exploding scene (which happens to be right at the beginning) because we had no idea what that tower was or why it was important, we just saw exploding tower and it just plain felt awkward.

    Lesson #1)  Watch your beginning carefully. Just because you know what’s happening doesn’t mean the readers/audience does. I know we abhor too much backstory being thrust at the reader in a novel, but sometimes it is necessary.

    Lesson #2)  If you have a vision for your work and it’s a little off-the-beaten-path … just stick to it and trust your readers to give it a chance. Those who do will be rewarded for it. Those who don’t … well, I guess this particular work isn’t meant for them.

    I say this because of the music. At first, I was a little taken aback by the soundtrack but as the story moved on it just … fit. In fact, I own that soundtrack now.

    Lesson #3) Failure is important but equally important is to emphasize the promise of what will come to pass once the character succeeds.

    Without giving too much of a spoiler here, Arthur and Excalibur don’t get along at first. Arthur keeps failing. But with every failure, we see the promise of what this combination is going to become when he finally gets it right.

    And when that moment comes in the movie, it is extremely satisfying.

    Now … if I were a stringent “legend of King Arthur” person, I imagine I would have guffawed at this movie. They took the very basics of the legend (Arthur, Excalibur, Lady in the Lake) and they tossed out the rest, making it into something new. In an age of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I think we’re more than capable of having a new vision of Arthur.

    So … I enjoyed this movie. And my son loved it too. And in the middle of enjoying it, I was able to gain insight into a few things for my own craft. All in all, I’d say it was money well spent.