Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond

Last night I took my BFF Mike out to see the latest film in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek Beyond.  We saw the movie as part of a marathon, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness, and the newest instalment back to back, in IMAX.

First of all - IMAX is pretty much the best way to watch epic Science Fiction, the images move beyond enthralling and simply become immersive (also my inner thirteen-year-old was reawakened as the giant-sized screen works to make me feel smaller, like a kid again).

In the latest film (written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, and directed by Justin Lin) , the series moves beyond the original films and heads into new territory.

The film is a lot of fun, filled with high levels of action and a seriously strange new world, and although it is a sort of bitter-sweet experience, due to the recent passing of actor Anton Yelchin (who plays Checkov), I had a pretty great time.  From my point of view it was a vast improvement on Star Trek Into Darkness and it brought back a crucial element to my science fiction adventure film experience...

It was a lot of fun!

R.I.P. Richard Matheson

For those of you who have reading my blog for a while now, you know that I've actually spent the last few years reading the works of Richard Matheson at the rate of one book a month since July of 2011 - I finished earlier this year and one of my favourite aspects of his work was just how varied it was - everything from Science Fiction to Westerns, Mysteries and Crime Fiction to Horror and his own views on the afterlife, Matheson's work always impressed me, from both the basic ways in which his stories worked, to the incredible ideas he came up with.

I couldn't possibly give a list of my favourite novels written by the author as they are so different from each other it's virtually impossible to compare and contrast them.

The stories are great - whether you like WWII stories, straight up Horror or romance, he has stuff that would appeal to you, (My BFF Mike will happily point out that he wrote the original series Star Trek episode The Enemy Within), and I've barely even mentioned his work in television.

In my adult life I've worked my way through the complete fiction of maybe a dozen authors; everyone from Robert B. Parker (Thrillers), to Pierre Berton (Canadian Non-Fiction and History), to Elmore Leonard (pretty much everything), but I can honestly say that Matheson is one of my favourites of the whole bunch - his work was massively influential (Stephen King is quoted as calling Matheson "...the author who influenced me most as a writer"), filled with interesting and intriguing ideas and great characters, and most importantly, a whole lot of great reads.

Things I’ve Noticed: Your favourite sub-sub-genre can tell a lot about you

Let’s begin with some quick definitions.

Genre – a particular style of fiction (i.e. Horror, Romance, Science Fiction, and Crime)

Sub-Genre – a more specialized type of genre fiction (i.e. Zombie Horror, Historical Romance, Time Travel Science Fiction, and Hard Boiled Crime)

Sub-Sub-Genre – The nitty-gritty of sub-genre, where only the fans who really reallylove (obsess over) the genre go (i.e. Zombie Apocalypse, Historical Fiction that doesn't get too steamy, Time Travel Fiction ending up in a return to a changed future, and

Swedish Hardboiled Crime (Hello Steig Larson fans).

Most people have favourite genres, and I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people have favourite sub-genres, but I think the number drops significantly when you go to the fans of a sub-sub-genre.

Like me for instance – I’m personally a big fan of Horror/SF or Horror/Fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic setting. After all, why just end the world and follow the few survivors unless you’re going to throw in prophetic dreams, robots, aliens or hoards of the undead?

Probably you could simply say that I like stories which follow the Man vs. Environment theme which also touch on our consumerist nature and echo my own personal notion that in some ways the world might do better with a few years off of the grid.

At the same time my BFF Mike is a huge Star Trek fan (which you all know as you’ve made sure to check out his Star Trek episode review blog that I’ve linked to right here, right?) and I suppose that could be considered a sub-sub-genre of fiction – genre (Science Fiction), sub-genre (Space Travel), sub-sub-genre (Star Trek). And his love of Star Trek tells you is that he’ll likely be in Calgary next month and perhaps he watched Enterprise a little longer than was good for him (I gave up in season three when they explained that in the past Florida was cut in half by a giant space laser – I mean COME ON!! This was supposed to be a prequel and NOWHERE DID KIRK, SPOCK, PICARD, SISKO or JANEWAY EVER TALK ABOUT THE TIME WHEN FLORIDA WAS CUT IN HALF BY A RACE CALLED THE XINDI!!!!)

But I digress.

What I mean to say is that your personal favourite sub-sub-genre can be an excellent way for you to examine your likes and dislikes, and hopefully find other things you could check out and enjoy just as much.

Sorry about before, I promise not to talk about season three of Enterprise ever again.