Star Trek and Coraline

On a cold recovery day in Stockholm, I decided not to play tourist but to play at relaxation instead. So I went to the movies. Then, as my brain was muffled nicely with drugs, I couldn’t decide between seeing Star Trek or Coraline – so I went to both. Star Trek was first.

I think the movie is just called Star Trek but it probably should have an additional title as it is the 11th movie in the franchise, however, as it goes back to the beginning of the Kirk / Spock timeline, I’m not sure where it fits in. I’m not enough of a Trekkie to know, but somewhere in my back brain is the information that the Star Trek: Enterprise, series was set before the original Star Trek series, so maybe this film comes after that? I mean, I know that Star Trek: Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are timed after the original series, and that the first six films were between the original and Next Gen… and maybe I am a Trekkie. Oh Dear.

Anyway, the movie makers have re-started the whole universe off on a tangential time line, due to an accident caused by Spock in the future, so all that has gone afterwards is now non-existent and the slate is clean. For instance, while Kirk’s father in the original series was a great influence on him, in this movie, he dies as Kirk is being born and so Kirk grows up a lot wilder. Spock’s mother is likewise killed, rendering him a lot more emotional, and Spock ends up captain for a while whilst Kirk is thrown off the ship as a lowly cadet. The love story is also nicely twisted - Uhuru was Spock’s love interest of all things.

It really was a who’s who of recent actors. Spotting the famous face became a delight. Eric Bana played a grieved baddie Klingon, which was fun and Winona Ryder, plays Amanda Greyson – Spock’s Mother. I know Uhura (Zoe Saldana) from the dance movie Centre Stage and Kirk’s father was played by the Home and Away actor Chris Hemsworth. Kirk’s mother (Jennifer Morrison) is of 'House' fame, the actor who played Bones was Eomer in Lord of the Rings (Karl Urban) and Scottie turned out to be the guy from Shaun of the Dead (Simon Pegge), very appropriately I might add. Sulu, Checkov, Spock and Kirk were really the only unknowns to me.

All in all, though it was great fun, it was just another Star Trek with the usual mix of adventure and daring-do, and I was a little disappointed that it didn’t break away from it’s progenitors as much as it could have. There were lots of explosions and fist fights, angst and moments of light levity. All ends happily. A great escape movie. Mind you, I enjoyed it for what it was and had a great ride, so all’s good.

The movie Coraline was a different matter altogether. From start to finish, I loved every minute of it. What a fabulous production! I saw it in 3D, and that made it that extra bit special.

I was terrified at first that it was going to be dubbed, being a kids movie, but it was only the opening titles that were in Swedish, and soon we were off. Dakota Fanning voiced the perfect Coraline, with Teri Hatcher (of Desperate Housewife’s fame) playing the mother(s) and a wonderfully disguised Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders playing Miss Forcible and Miss Spink respectively. The movie is all done in stop-motion animation and everything was made by hand. It was awe-inspiring. The cat was creepy, the garden amazing, the whole other world… wow. The story was tweaked a little and an extra couple of characters were added but this didn’t change the integrity of the original so all was good. It was just the right mix of fairy-tale and nightmare. Loved It!

In fact I have loved Neil Gaiman’s work for years now. I first read his graphic novels thanks to R and then fell in love with his twisty, dark mind in Neverwhere, Anasi Boys and Stardust. He is such a different story-teller to my usual favourites. His writing is like a blast of chill wind when I’m burning with fever, so refreshing yet also startling and unexpected.

So yeah. A good romp followed by a good mind-twister. Just what the doctor ordered.