The Fifth Estate

First Hit:  Although interesting, don’t think I learned much about Assange through its 2+ hours.

This film is very topical in that the US Government just sent Bradley Manning to prison and Edward Snowden is now living in Russia.

The tie between these two is the publication of documents showing the underbelly of our government. However, the film and camera spends a lot of time on Julian Assange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) but outside a few statements about his past, he ends up being an enigma. Do his decisions make sense? Sometimes.

Does he really believe in what he is doing? It appears so. Does he use people? If the film is to be believed, yes at times. One statement in the film that seemed to fit the character as Cumberbatch portrayed him was: “Julian is out for himself.” For the 2+ hours we float from scene to scene watching and waiting to see how Wikileaks handles the exposure of a plethora of US Government documents.

The suspense is minimal, because we know the answer already. The worst part of the film is that it didn’t leave much of a lasting impression about Assange. I did feel compassion for Daniel Berg (Daniel Bruhl) as he was a believer of Assange’s drive and belief, but ended up feeling betrayed by him.

Did the film move forward the Wikileaks cause? I don’t know. My personal dilemma with Wikileaks is that, although I think exposure of information is really good, if it is posted anonymously, one has to trust that the information is fully validated before it goes public; else it becomes a personal bitch Yelp posting. So far so good; I can only hope it stays that way.

Cumberbatch is excellent at giving the illusion of an enigma of a person. Bruhl is really good as Berg and I could feel him become a believer and how he provided traction to the cause. Daniel Domscheit-Berg and David Leigh wrote the book on which the film is based and it shows the elusiveness of Assange. Bill Condon seemed lost, as we spend 2+ hours getting to the big test of Wiki Leaks but the breadcrumbs along the way weren’t necessarily interesting or engaging.

Overall:  Maybe this film comes too early in Assange’s life. It might have been a better film if there was in-depth character development – as there was none here.

Star Trek Into Darkness

 First Hit:  Kept the thrill, charm, and excitement of the first prequel – I liked it.

What I really liked about the first 2009 “Star Trek” prequel was the embodiment of the original Star Trek television series characters as younger people.

For this film, the thing I was concerned about was if this film would be able to carry through the joy and feel of the characters. The answer is yes. Although there were things that needed some work and scene trimming, the feel of the film worked and it was fun to watch.

I’m not sure what others think, but Chris Pine (playing Kirk) has a great feel of the original Captain Kirk. A brash intelligence mixed in with independence. He knows he doesn’t know everything but he cares about the crew more than himself.

The film begins with him losing the star ship Enterprise do to this brash behavior. Then he is pressed into being captain again because of an attack at Federation HQ by Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) and he's the one who figures it out. The story hangs together really well and the main criticisms where that some scenes, like Spoke in a fist fight with Khan on the cargo containers, was overly long and served no real purpose.

The special effects were well done and did not take over the film but enhanced it.

Pine makes a great Kirk and there is room for him to grow the character in the next film. Zachary Quinto as Spock is very good. Zoe Saldana as Uhura is strong and brings an exotic presence to the bridge. Karl Urban as Bones is slightly overplayed but good enough. Simon Pegg is wonderful as Scotty. John Cho as Sulu holds his character with strength. Anton Yelchin does a wonderful job of embodying Chekov. Cumberbatch did a very good job of being the guy who was going to rule the universe. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman did a good job putting together a fun and interesting script while J.J. Abrams kept the Star Trek theme and feeling alive – kudos.

Overall:  Very entertaining and a good effort for the second prequel.