xSatisfactionx

Denis Villeneuve is the man!
There’s only one word that came into my mind after watching it: finally.

Finally, a blockbuster that isn’t afraid to be primarily driven by drama and tension, and doesn’t undercut its own tone by throwing in a joke every 30 seconds.
Finally, a blockbuster that puts actual effort in its cinematography, and doesn’t have a bland or calculated colour palette.
Finally, a blockbuster with a story that has actual substance and themes, and doesn’t rely on intertextual references or nostalgia to create a fake sheen of depth.
Finally, a blockbuster that doesn’t pander to China by having big, loud and overblown action sequences, but relies on practical and grounded spectacle instead (it has big sand worms, you really don’t need to throw anything at the screen besides that).
Finally, a blockbuster that actually feels big, because it isn’t primarily shot in close ups, or on a sound stage.
And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow.

(Yeah, I know Tenet did those things as well, but I couldn’t get into that because the characters were so flat and uninteresting).

This just checks all the boxes. An engaging story with subtext, very well set up characters, great acting (like James Gunn, Villeneuve's great at accentuating the strengths of limited actors like Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa), spectecular visuals and art design (desaturated but not in an ugly washed out way), pacing (slow but it never drags), directing, one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores: it’s all here.
I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half.
It can occasionally hold your hand by referencing things that have already been established previously, and some scenes of characters explaining stuff to each other could’ve been conveyed more visually.
Other than that, it’s easily one of the best films of the year.
I’ve seen some people critiquing it for being incomplete, which is true, but this isn’t just a set up for a future film.
It feels like a whole meal, there are pay offs in this, and the characters progress (even if, yes, their arcs are still incomplete).

8.5/10

Such an amazing episode.

Mad Max earns her name, Mike (briefly) outsmarts the shadow monster, Hopper finally opens up to Eleven and does everything to protect her, Eleven unleashes all her power, and Dustin keeps breaking the tension with just the right amount of comedic relief:

"Demodog…like demogorgon and dog…put together."

Then there's Steve. Can we talk about Steve for a minute? In season 1, he was a first-rate dick, and I was so mad when Nancy ended up with him at the end of the finale. This season, though, he totally redeemed himself by repeatedly putting himself in danger to protect others. In this episode he was beaten to a bloody pulp while protecting Lucas from Billy, and when he comes to, what does he do? He takes charge and leads the party again.

Meanwhile, this season Nancy hooked up with with Jonathan "I hang out with my little brother because I have no friends" Byers because Murray Bauman claimed there was something between them. There was so much character development and relationship building this season, but the writers seemed to skip over Jonathan. He mostly just moped around and was almost as useless as Will, which made Nancy's attraction to him seem that much more forced. Hopefully next season Nancy will see the error of her ways or Steve will find someone better.

In the meantime, I'm officially on #TeamSteve.

I wish I had a group of friends as awesome as these guys when I was a kid. I was always the lone geeky one amongst the people I hung out with.

So much to enjoy here. Dustin's feelings of protection toward his newfound pollywog are a bit odd, mostly because the thing is not cute in any way! His friends' reactions were a bit more in line with my own, and I get the feeling that it's going to keep growing into something nasty. But there's something very cute about the way he interacts with it. I was also won over by Max here in much the same way Mike was as she skateboarded around him and made him laugh - typically, Eleven would turn up right at that moment. Great use of tension as she and Mike nearly meet each other, anyway.

But again, none of this compares to the horror that Will is going through. In any other situation, Bob's advice about standing your ground would probably have been good, but of course it backfires here - and again, I have to wonder, did Bob set that up on purpose?

Major Teen Wolf (the original) vibes during the basketball scene. Not sure what Nancy is up to, because I can't believe she's stupid enough to make that phone call to Barb's mum without realising the danger it puts her in.

[3.3/10] Did you know that Captain James Tiberius Kirk is a great man? And that great men can do anything? There is just not substitute for a square-jawed hero, who’s battle-tested and ready to step in to save the day.

Spare me.

Don’t get me wrong, “The Deadly Years” isn’t the first time (and I imagine it won’t be the last time) that Star Trek leans into the idea that Kirk is one of a kind and, by god, the Enterprise needs him. It may not be my favorite beat (in fact, it’s probably my least favorite next to Kirk having some sordid romantic history or irresistible animal attraction with every woman he ever meets) but normally it’s not couched in a story that is damn boring.

The senior staff of the enterprise are getting old. That’s it. That’s pretty much the whole episode. They need to figure out how to stop it. Kirk doubts that he’s getting senile and there’s a long boring trial and a lot of hemming and hawing at the awesome responsibility of sidelining a starship captain. But most of the episode is just “we’re old! What do we do!” with little really happening in the story beyond people ruminating over that fact.

The oldness itself isn’t that compelling. There’s something a little fun about seeing the makeup department go to town on making Shatner, Nimoy, Kelly, etc. look decades older than they are, and it’s generally amusing to see the actors play version of themselves a bit more feeble in body and mind. But once the novelty of that wears off (which is quickly), you’re just left with the unsatisfying camp of the whole thing.

So let’s do what I always try to do when we hit one of these episodes that I think is just godawful – talk about what’s good in it. Admittedly, that’s a bit difficult in this episode, but I’ll try. For one thing, I like that Kirk returns to using the “corbomite maneuver” from the episode of the same name. For as much as find Kirk’s convenient and sui generis leadership abilities in “The Deadly Years” a bit trying, his actions in “The Corbomite Maneuver” really showed a boldness and cleverness that set him apart, and going to that well again signifies a shorthand for Kirk’s abilities that “The Deadly Years” doesn’t exactly earn elsewhere.

I also like that as McCoy ages, he gets a little more Southern again, just like he did when he was hopped up on spores. It’s funny thinking of Bones as a genuine “country doctor” like he claims, but it sells the transition of his aging. Plus, the continuity suggests that in this professional military outfit, McCoy has downplayed his roots, but when made more emotional or less in control, he turns into a 23rd century Foghorn Leghorn as his upbringing comes out.

And while as a whole, Shatner’s performance is a bit of a mixed bag, there’s some interesting touches he uses to communicate the ways in which an elder Kirk is different from the starship captain we know. Little details like the way he uses his hands or barks in a different tone sell the distinction.

On the other hand, there’s a whole lot of tradition Shatner ACK-TING that veers way too far inot caricature. That frankly goes for the whole episode. The writers’ take on what it means to be old is fully of clichés that were tired 50 years ago – old people are forgetful, they think they’re as capable as they ever were despite obvious limitations, they don’t like being corrected or helped.

But rather than taking a deep and authentic look at what it would be like to deal with rapid aging, or even a leader losing their abilities and a crew having to deal with it, “The Deadly Years” quickly collapses into a sea of clichés and plodding reminders of Kirk’s slippage and the terrible responsibility of potentially having to relieve him of command. Again, there’s the germ of a decent idea there, in the hardship of having to tell someone you love that they can’t do what they’ve done anymore, but this episode doesn’t do much with it, just noting it’d be a hard thing in a cheesy fashion.

Nevermind the weird attempt at Casablanca-like romantic angst with the babe of the week. Again, is there any woman Kirk’s come across that he didn’t have either some instant attraction to or some colorful past with? It’s overdone melodrama at its worst as this woman we’ve just met is said to have this long backstory with Kirk, and the only the “The Deadly Years” can do to try to make it click is shoot her with a soft lens and lean on the usual clichés. It’s really the pits, even as Kirk romances go, with a totally unmotivated and unconvincing connection between the two, and soap opera-style melodrama to boot.

Then there’s the accompanying commodore who initiates the proceedings to sideline Kirk while he’s aging. I’m glad that, for once, the Starfleet admiralty are not wholly evil or craven, but he’s still made incompetent for pretty weak reasons in the story. Again, the commodore is right – Kirk is less than himself and having a forgetful person who snaps at the people who help him would leave him as a less-than-effective commander of the ship.

That just makes it feels even dumber when the commodore takes over and immediately screws up a situation with the Romulans, only for Kirk to recover from a miracle serum developed just in the nick of time for him to run to the bridge and save the day.(As an aside, the “Chekov was scared” epiphany being the key to the cure is a pretty weak, convenient plot solution here).

What are we to take from this? That the commodore was a desk jockey and so rank aside, he should never have taken command even if it would have meant a junior officer taking over for him? (In fairness, I think acting Captain Sulu would have done pretty well!). Are we to believe that battle-tested Kirk, no matter how diminished his capacities, should have stayed in the captain’s chair? It’s not clear what side “The Deadly Years” wants the audience to be on.

At best, it’s a little inconsistent and incoherent, basically saying that Kirk shouldn’t have been in charge in his present state but neither should the commodore. (So what, then, should they have done?) At worst, it suggests that Kirk is just so inherently great that he should never be relieved of command, no matter how erratic is. Either way, the whole thing, misguided as it seems, would have been much more tolerable if it weren’t so utterly boring. I can tolerate a lot of bad story choices, a lot of bad character choices, even a lot of points that I heartily disagree with in my television shows, but turning your forty-four minute story into an utter slog, which this absolutely was, is something tough for me to get over. Keep this episode on the senior circuit.