Blu-ray Movie Reviews

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/TOS1.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT> Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Scotty (James Doohan), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Sulu (George Takei) are on a five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations&#151;to boldly go where no man has gone before.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/TOS2.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and crew are back for the second season of <i>Star Trek</i>, and unlike season one, this is the first we've seen these episodes in glorious 1080p. Season two has several strong episodes that tackle heavy social issues and offer up planet-eating monsters, a murder mystery, and those wonderful tribbles.

Following a dubious big-screen debut three years prior, the fate of the entire Star Trek franchise was at risk when The Wrath of Khan opened to somewhat skeptical audiences. They needn’t have worried: Khan essentially saved Star Trek from potential doom and has gone on to become probably the most beloved of the Enterprise’s cinematic adventures. This time out, a ship full of trainees—under a familiar command crew—get more than they bargained for when they embark upon one of the most dangerous missions any of them will ever face. Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) returns to active duty only to face Khan (Ricardo Montalban), a figure from his past now consumed by unreasoning hatred. Having recently acquired a dreadful weapon, Khan is a menace not only to his old adversary but to the galaxy at large.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/trek6.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Since <i>Star Trek</i>'s debut on NBC in 1966, it has become one of the most indelible franchises in entertainment history. Although the original series only lasted three years on network TV, Roddenberry's universe spawned five more TV shows&#151;<i>The Animated Series</i>, <i>The Next Generation</i>, <i>Deep Space Nine</i>, <i>Voyager</i>, and <i>Enterprise</i>&#151;and 11 feature films, the most recent being the wildly successful reboot by J.J. Abrams.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/tngmovies.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT> With178 TV episodes under its belt, the cast of <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i> made its feature-film debut in 1994's <i>Star Trek: Generations</i>, which passed the baton from Kirk and company to Picard's crew. The film opens with a retired James T. Kirk aboard the Enterprise-B as it makes its maiden voyage, but when a distress call comes from a nearby ship, Kirk apparently pays the ultimate price helping the new captain save his ship from a mysterious energy ribbon. Seventy-eight years later, the Enterprise-D encounters an enigmatic humanoid named Soran, who's devious plan will cost millions of lives, and only Picard and Kirk&#151;who's been living in limbo all this time&#151;can stop him.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/clone1.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>George Lucas did his best to alienate me and other fans from the <i>Star Wars</i> universe with the critically panned feature film <i>The Clone Wars</i>, which felt more like an overlong pilot—as it turned out to be—than a worthy contender for our cinematic dollar. Fortunately for us <i>Star Wars</i> fans, the weekly TV series is much better as we follow Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Matt Lanter), his new padawan Ashoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), and his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) on their trials and tribulations during the Clone Wars. With the help of the countless clone troopers (Dee Bradley Baker) and the Jedi council, they fight against the evil separatists led by Count Dooku (Corey Burton) and General Grievous (Matthew Wood).