The story sees Superman (son of Zod), Batman (a vampire), and Wonder Woman (now a New God instead of an Amazon) policing the world as the Justice League, but this version of the team is feared by the public and heavily criticized by the media. And not without good reason.

An early scene shows Superman incinerating “terrorists” with his heat vision while Wonder Woman impales them with her sword and Batman drinks their blood until they stop squirming. DC’s movies of late have a bad record when it comes to depicting bloody violence — usually they overdo it in an attempt to seem edgy — but here they give it an important purpose. It’s there to show what the world would be like if Superman didn’t pull any punches — and it isn’t pretty.

From there, the plot pivots as the League is framed for a series of murders (that no one has trouble believing given how we’ve seen them take care of business) and we are taken on a journey to explore the rest of this strange new world. Supporting characters are given new roles that are sure to tickle both casual DC fans (a Stephen Hawking-esque Lex Luthor) and longtime comic readers (a sublime new take on the Metal Men). A great strength of Gods and Monsters is how it provides a purpose for every twist so that everything fits together instead of being a gimmick.

If you were itching for a story where Wonder Woman and Superman are more compelling than Batman, then you’ve found it. Batman’s story is just fine, mind you, but a Superman with the mindset (and goatee) of Zod and a Wonder Woman who has ties to Darkseid and Highfather are just so fascinating that they take the cake. Wonder Woman’s thrilling and tragic “Game of Thrones” origin is the best of the bunch, to the point where we wouldn’t mind if that were retconned to be her origin in the comics, too. The only letdown with her character is the costume. We love the Jack Kirby-inspired design, but her breastacular top is laughably revealing for a modern female superhero costume.

The voice-acting is top-notch, with Michael C. Hall giving Batman an eerie, undead monotone, Benjamin Bratt capturing the boldness of Superman with a hard Zod edge, and Tamara Taylor absolutely crushing it by spectacularly switching from powerful to vulnerable to outraged on a dime.

By now all of us are used to strange villain plots to take over the world, but this film’s climactic scheme is so out of left field and impractical that it ruins the story’s flawless pacing. Making things worse, the resolution comes without the proper consequences for the trio. We’ll just say that regardless of their decisions in the end, the trio are responsible for so many deaths that they are overdue for some jail time.

Verdict

Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett have successfully delivered a fresh and exciting take on the Justice League by turning them into dark and violent mirrors of the heroic icons we know so well. But they do so much more than add (a lot) of blood to the proceedings — they conjure up compelling new origins for Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman that, as they are revealed, show that Gods and Monsters is much more than just a story about “What if the Justice League were evil?” The ending is a bit of a letdown, but that doesn’t take away how excellent the story was up until that point, making this an animated feature where it’s more about the journey than the destination.

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But Jimmy does not triumph over Gillian. Sally, using blood magic and calling upon their family line, presses her bleeding palm against Gillian’s and blasts the abuser right out of her sister. It’s a pure and exhilarating moment — a blast of light exploding from the both of them, the breath reentering Gillian’s body, a wide smile spreading across her face. Practical Magic is a well-crafted movie from top to bottom, but this is the moment that makes it great. It’s also the moment, 20 years after the film’s release, that is the starkest reminder of how timely the film remains.

Practical Magic blew into theaters on Oct. 16, 1998. Adapted from Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel of the same name, it was directed by Griffin Dunne with a screenplay by Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldsman, and Adam Brooks. It’s a tender, airy movie, exploring themes of love and loss, family, trauma, and survival. Critics at the time did not like it. Many of them didn’t understand the tone of a film that smirked and made jokes and leaned into love even as it took on a story about abuse and the hurt that comes from it. Roger Ebert called it “too scary for children and too childish for adults,” accusing the film of “veering uncertainly from horror to laughs to romance.” Angie Errigo wrote for Empire that “Practical Magic is a chick movie with multiple personality disorder” while also calling it “a run-of-the-mill rom-com with magic bells on.”

Practical Magic works to breathe life back into both its characters and its audience.

Luckily for us all, movies can amount to more than their initial reception. Practical Magic embedded itself in a lot of childhoods, and 20 years later, it remains beloved by the adults those children became. It also holds up — and even gets better — the longer it marinates. It seems, in hindsight, that critics didn’t know what to do with a movie that mixed genres so brazenly, and that — though the story happened to be about witches — reflected both the dark and the light that often sit side by side in real life. Practical Magic’s blend of tones is not its downfall: It is the film’s biggest strength.

Any film can have violence, and the catharsis that comes with defeating the bad guy. Any film can have romance, and lines that make you laugh. Part of what makes Practical Magic such a rare gem is that it portrays pain, grief, and emotional exhaustion at the same time as it works to breathe life back into both its characters and its audience. It’s why the film has built a loyal audience over the years, the kind that finds the film infinitely rewatchable. You can watch these women confront their demons — and maybe even confront your own in the process — without feeling too bogged down in darkness. The movie acknowledges that abuse and trauma are things that happen. But it puts a love story side by side with that hurt, a reminder that life does go on even after it tries to tear you apart.

Practical Magic opens with an old Owens family legend — that of a curse cast by an ancestor. As the story goes, every man who loves an Owens woman dies an untimely death, heralded by the sounds of a death watch beetle. The young sisters react to the legend in very different ways. Sally vows to never fall in love; Gillian can’t wait to, and runs away with a random boy in their town when she’s a teenager. The aunts eventually cast a love spell on Sally to get her to open herself up to romance. It works, and — ethics of love spells aside — she falls for a man (Mark Feuerstein) and marries him. They have two beautiful little girls (Evan Rachel Wood’s Kylie and Alexandra Artrip’s Antonia). Then Sally’s husband dies. Widowed, she moves back in with her aunts, devastated and vowing never to do magic again.

That vow doesn’t last long: Gillian calls her in the middle of the night, having been beaten by her boyfriend, Jimmy. As Sally tries to help Gillian leave him, Jimmy kidnaps the two of them. Sally ends up killing him, then using magic to bring him back, only to kill him again when he won’t stop attacking Gillian. The second half of the film is largely them trying to cover up their actions, with the added complication of an officer — Aidan Quinn’s Gary Hallet — who is investigating Jimmy’s disappearance, and whom Sally finds herself rapidly falling in love with.

Practical Magic still manages to be a movie you want to crawl through the screen and live in.

Practical Magic’s duality isn’t just in its narrative. It’s embedded in every part of the movie. Production designer Robin Standefer went above and beyond in creating Practical Magic’s visual language. The house is absolutely the most famous aspect of the film’s look: It stands big, white, and Victorian on a cliffside, high above the ocean and surrounded by greenery. Inside, it’s the kind of home that you can tell feels especially cold in the winter, with its vast spaces, big, tiled hearth, and old black wood. It just makes the cable-knit sweaters all the more alluring.

The house is the perfect place for Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest) to embody the middle-aged Owens aunts, brewing potions of love and revenge in their turn-of-the-19th-century dresses and wide-brimmed hats. It’s also an ideal setting for audiences to glom onto Bullock and Kidman as Sally and Gillian. They wear the very best of the ’90s, rich-patterned maxi skirts and dresses that make you understand on a deep level how those styles were meant to look. They have the thickest, most lush movie hair I’ve ever seen in my life, and it makes you feel the film’s ethereal nature in your bones.

Though its story is relatively dark, Practical Magic still manages to be a movie you want to crawl through the screen and live in. There’s no mention of what season the film’s events take place in, but the air in the movie feels perpetually autumnal: cozy, crisp, soft-eyed. Practical Magic evokes the feeling that you, like Sally, are standing on the edge of a bluff at dusk, releasing a leaf onto the wind, trusting it to work some magic and draw the person you love back to you. The film’s score, by the legendary Alan Silvestri, is all strings and horns. It makes you feel like you’re following that leaf on its waltz through the air.

The movie also knows when to have fun. One of the scenes that likely confused critics concerned with the tone involves the Owens women waking in the middle of the night to make margaritas and dance around their kitchen to “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson. It is raucous and euphoric, the camera spinning around the women and their overwhelmingly gorgeous kitchen as they let loose and give themselves fully to joy. But the scene is not weakened because it takes place in the middle of a murder investigation and stars a grieving widow and a woman recovering from abuse. Instead, it’s strengthened by that context. These are women calling a timeout on their stress and damage, giving themselves a moment to rejoice in each other’s company and in the simple fact that they are still alive.

The scene ends with the intrusion of Jimmy’s spirit. That could be a tonal mismatch to some, but it’s more than that — it’s a reminder that he is pulling Gillian’s strings even after death, and that the path to healing is not a smooth one.

Practical Magic is not interested in showing us the pain without also showing us that, complicated as the journey may be, there is still life left to be lived on the other side of that hurt.

Practical Magic is about a lot of things. It’s about family, sisterhood, and community. It’s about loss. It’s about beautiful antique houses. But if it’s about one thing most of all, it’s about the very real danger that comes with loving someone. Practical Magic knows the potential consequences intimately: You could lose them, like Sally lost her husband, or lose yourself, like Sally and Gillian’s mother did. Or they could hurt you, in small increments or in the very, very big ways that Jimmy hurt Gillian.

Practical Magic weaves a story about domestic abuse and the labyrinthian road that often comes with extricating yourself from a bad situation. It’s beautiful that the film also gets to be — at the same damn time — a full-hearted, earnest romance. As Sally and Gary keep finding themselves drawn to each other in spite of their star-crossed circumstances, the film gets back the breath Jimmy tried to steal from it. Both sides of the movie are treated as important, as worthy, because they are. Practical Magic is not interested in showing us the pain without also showing us that, complicated as the journey may be, there is still life left to be lived on the other side of that hurt. There is still love to be felt

The image of a woman suffering because of a man’s violence is, unfortunately, a timeless one. In real life these days, the concept of “witch hunts” is often attached to that of men who’ve been accused of wrongdoing. But in pop culture, that narrative remains the domain of women, and witch tales are often intertwined with stories of oppressive men. It’s a way for writers to weave in a perceived (if temporary) solution, a built-in resource through which to fight and heal. Audiences don’t have access to the magical powers that help these women onscreen. But if the art is built with enough love and craft, a movie can act as a balm for a weathered soul watching it.

Twenty years out, I still want to crawl through my screen and live in the world of Practical Magic. It could do with more people of color, but I can forgive that for the feeling that it still gives me and so many other people who continue to return to it. It gives us hope that the pain is exorcisable, and that curses on generations of women can be conquered. That Stevie Nicks’s discography and a little Faith Hill can help the healing along. I want to curl up inside the moment where Sally, who often resists her magical abilities, lights a candle with just her breath. Her daughters watch as she does this and immediately jump into the frame to mimic her, trying desperately to access their own powers.

When Sally and Gillian finally defeat Jimmy, it’s with the help of the women of their community, women who’d felt versions of this kind of pain before. They are crushed for her, but when Sally blasts the evil spirit out of her sister, he explodes into dust, and the women burst into relieved laughter. They sweep him out of there, banishing him for good. Gillian’s body and her spirit are free.

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“The Greatest Showman,” directed with verve and panache by Michael Gracey, is an unabashed piece of pure entertainment, punctuated by 11 memorable songs composed by Oscar- and Tony-winning duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who composed the songs for “La La Land,” as well as the current Broadway hit Dear Evan Hansen. The film is made for the whole family to enjoy, and so it leaves out many of the darker elements (explored in the 1980 Broadway musical Barnum, music by Cy Coleman). This is a difficult tightrope to walk, but credit is due to Gracey, a perfectly cast Hugh Jackman, and the entire cast, who play this story in the spirit in which it was written (by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon). “The Greatest Showman” positions itself as a story celebrating diversity, and the importance of embracing all kinds.

There are those who will see this as a rose-colored-glasses view of what was a pretty exploitive situation. But in a 19th and early 20th century context, the circus and then vaudeville were welcoming places where those who had skills or who were rejected by society could find a home. Barnum put “misfit toys” onstage, saying, in essence, “Aren’t they amazing?” (all while filling his pockets. For more thoughts on P.T. Barnum’s barely acknowledged influence on American culture author Trav S.D.’s 2005 lecture at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT is a good place to start.) Cary Grant, who had a harsh poor childhood, got his start as a tumbler in a vaudeville troupe. Years later he described his revelatory first visit to the Bristol Hippodrome:

“The Saturday matinee was in full swing when I arrived backstage; and there I suddenly found my inarticulate self in a dazzling land of smiling, jostling people wearing and not wearing all sorts of costumes and doing all sorts of clever things. And that’s when I knew! What other life could there be but that of an actor? They happily traveled and toured. They were classless, cheerful, and carefree. They gaily laughed, lived, and loved.”

That’s what “The Greatest Showman” captures.

The film starts with the title song “The Greatest Show,” a show-stopper with repetitive thumping percussion (reminiscent of Queen’s ferocious “We Will Rock You”). Hugh Jackman—in red impresario’s coat and top hat—takes us on a dazzling tour, with cinematographer Seamus McGarvey keeping the movements fluid, and all the actions connected, plunging you into the center ring. The whole number comes from the brazen heart of showbiz: Make it interesting! Give ’em something to look at! Make sure you reach the cheap seats! Barnum croons seductively, “Just surrender cuz you feel the feeling taking over!” I obeyed without reservation.

During the next number, “A Million Dreams” the young and poor Barnum (Ellis Rubin) befriends a well-bred little girl named Charity Hallett (Skylar Dunn), and they dream of creating their own destiny. This is the first time in “The Greatest Showman” where a character stops speaking and starts to sing instead; the segue is gracefully handled, setting up the artificial device early on. If you don’t set up that trope with confidence, it makes it look like you’re embarrassed to be doing a musical. By the end of the song, the little boy has become Hugh Jackman and the little girl has become Michelle Williams, leaping and twirling across the rooftop of their tenement, bed sheets on the line billowing to the beat.

After struggling to establish himself, Barnum launches out on his own, creating a theatre in the heart of New York City. He gathers together people with special talents as well as those with physical abnormalities (a giant, a bearded lady, Siamese twins, a dwarf—who would eventually be known as General Tom Thumb, Barnum’s first “breakout star”). The “audition” sequence is extremely tricky, but the tone is set by Jackman’s inclusive delight at the parade of humanity before him. It’s a moment when ignored people are for the first time really seen.

Lettie Lutz, the “bearded lady,” played by Tony-nominee Keala Settle, with a powerhouse voice, is one of the first to come on board. Settle’s performance—her first major role onscreen—is one of the many keys to why “The Greatest Showman” is so effective. She understands the spirit of the project, and you watch her transformation from cringing shame to fearless Diva. Her anthemic “This Is Me” is one of the emotional centers of the film. Barnum’s business partner is playwright and society boy Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), with snobby parents who are not only horrified at his “slumming,” but also at his romance with an African-American trapeze artist (Zendaya) who sports a pompadour of cotton-candy pink hair. Their love story, as presented, is tender, pained, and sweet.

Rebecca Ferguson plays Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” whom Barnum took on a whirlwind concert tour through America It was his entryw ay into “polite” society. Jenny Lind’s power ballad “Never Enough” makes you understand why Barnum, backstage, falls in love with her instantly, throwing his marriage into crisis. Ferguson may be lip-synching to Loren Allred’s breathtaking vocals, but it is her performance that carries.

Ashley Wallen choreographed the numbers and there are many innovative moments, where she uses the outer environment to inform the movements of the characters. In “The Other Side,” Barnum convinces a reticent Carlyle to join the circus, and as he sings, the bartender puts down shot glasses, swipes the bar with a cloth, all as accents to the beat. The real standout, however, is “Rewrite the Stars,” the love song between Efron and Zendaya,taking place in the empty circus tent, when she flies on the trapeze far above him, and he tries to climb up the ropes to meet her. Up, down, they both go, sometimes coming together, dangling above the ground, or sweeping in a wide circle together around the periphery of the tent. It is a moment when the film—every element onscreen—merges and transforms into pure emotion. This is what a musical can do like no other artform.

One of the deep pleasures of “The Greatest Showman” is you don’t have to grade the singing and dancing on a curve, as was necessary with “La La Land” (or, further back, to “Chicago,” where quick cuts hid Richard Gere’s lack of tap dancing skills.) Hugh Jackman, with his powerful high baritone, got his start in musicals, performing in productions in Melbourne, and then in a hugely acclaimed revival of Oklahoma! in the West End. He won a Tony Award for his performance as Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz and has hosted the Tony Awards three times. He is an old-fashioned triple-threat. Film fans may know him mainly as “Wolverine,” and there’s nothing wrong with that, but once upon a time a song-and-dance man like Hugh Jackman’s could sing and dance his way through mainstream Hollywood. He’s unleashed here.

So, too, is Zac Efron, who also got his start because he could sing and dance in the phenom that was “High School Musical.” His career has morphed into something rather unique, with titles like “Hairspray,” “Neighbors,” and a hilarious small part in this year’s “The Disaster Artist.” He has something that cannot be manufactured, although many try, and that is old-school movie star charisma. Add to that a beautiful voice, plus dancing skills, plus a surprisingly ironic sense of humor, and he’s got the full package. It’s thrilling to see him in a big splashy musical. He’s very much at home.

Michelle Williams, with anachronistically long blonde hair, has a strong clear voice, and there’s something exhilarating about how she tosses herself into thin air, knowing Jackman will catch her. In what could be a thankless “wet blanket wife” part, Williams adds a spunky sense of adventure, showing us the kind of woman who would say “No” to a ladylike society-wife life, and fling herself into the unknown with her man.

The timing of this release is interesting. On May 21, 2017, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus folded up its tent for good, after 146 years of uninterrupted operation. Rocked by controversy due to criticisms of exploitation and animal abuse, they retired the elephant acts in 2016, but it was too late. Barnum was dogged by criticisms from the beginning. Many of the “acts” were fakes. Barnum actually didn’t say the quote most associated with him (“There’s a sucker born every minute”) but he might as well have said it and his critics despised him for the assumption about popular entertainment and the regular folk who enjoy it. But in the film, Barnum, with a dazzling smile, explains to a skeptical journalist, “People come to my show for the pleasure of being hoodwinked.”

I was hoodwinked by “The Greatest Showman.” And it was indeed a pleasure. Ringling Brothers may have closed up shop, but Barnum lives on.

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Story: Army of One starts when Brenner (Hollman) and her husband Dillion (Passmore) head away for a camping vacation to get over Dillion recent injury on the job, the pair stumble upon a Cartel run by Mama (Singer) whose redneck crew kill Dillion and leave Brenner for dead.

Brenner a special forces soldier isn’t going to let the rednecks get away with murdering her husband and sets out on a bloody rampage against them to bring down their enterprise.

Thoughts on Army of One:

Characters – Brenner is a special forces soldier who is on a vacation with her husband, when he is murdered she goes out for revenge, which will see her using all her skills to take on the people responsible, bringing them down with her military training. Dillion is Brenner’s husband, who has been through a traumatic experience, leaving him injured, using his time to recover still caught with nightmares of what happened. Mama runs the organisation that she covers with her friendly diner chef, while behind the scenes she is ruthless leader. We have countless number of redneck figures, each one will see Brenner showing off a different skill to defeat.

Performances – Ellen Hollman in the leading role is great to watch, being the action heroine that makes the film stand out, with the physical performance needed during the fights. Matt Passmore along with the support cast all give us strong performance, even if some of the redneck figures might not have the strongest death reactions.

Story – The story here follows a special forces soldier that is left for dead that looks for revenge against the people who killer her husband and she won’t stop until everyone pays. This might well be a story we have seen many times before, which works keeping everything simple in the strategic attacks planned by Brenner. The one weaker side to the story does come from the cartel group, it is late before we learn what they are involved in, and when it comes to the locals, it leaves little to the imagination to who to trust.

Action – The action is the highlight in the film, with fights Brenner gets involved in trying to get her own revenge. Each fight will put her through a different experience and set of fighting skills, with a wonderful one-shot moment too.

Settings – The film is set mostly in an off-the-grid compound where the operations take place, you can see how secure the people think it will be until they come under attack.

Scene of the Movie – The escape one-shot fight.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The randomness of seeing Dillion’s flashbacks.
Final Thoughts – Army of One is an all-out action assault where Ellen Hollman shines as the action star.

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We believe that. We’re halfway prepared for a low-key romantic comedy when all hell breaks lose. They pretend to be an absent couple in order to grab a reservation at a trendy restaurant, and two hit men assume they are that couple and topple them into a screwball comedy. Yet all the time Phil and Claire seem like the kind of people who don’t belong in a screwball comedy. That’s why it’s funny. They’re bewildered.

“Date Night” supplies them with the “real” Tripplehorns (James Franco and Mila Kunis), two mob-employed cops (Jimmi Simpson and Common), a mob boss (Ray Liotta) and a muscular security expert (Mark Wahlberg) who never wears a shirt. These characters are also somewhat believable. Plots like this have a way of spinning over the top with insane manic behavior. It’s as if the characters are desperately signaling, Look at us! Aren’t we hilarious? But the audience has to bring hilarity to you. It can’t be assumed.

So what we have is a situation set in motion because a couple named the Tripplehorns don’t turn up for a restaurant reservation. The Fosters, mistaken for the Tripplehorns, find themselves in way over their heads with the Tripplehorns’ potentially fatal problems. The criminal characters aren’t simply stupid, but bright enough to perceive this causes a problem for everyone. And the security agent (Wahlberg) is not simply a muscle-bound goon. He’s a caricature, all right, but one living in a condo out of Architectural Digest and capable of feeling some sympathy for these pathetic New Jerseyites who’ve lost their way.

Carell and Fey are both natural comic performers, who know (as Second City teaches) that a comedian must never seem to know that it’s funny. They play Phil and Claire as nearly as possible like plausible people trapped by this nightmare misunderstanding. Yes, things heat up a little, and yes, there is an obligatory chase scene, and yes, it’s a little unlikely how they end up appealing to the security expert. That goes with the territory.

But they know, as great comic actors like Cary Grant and Jack Lemmon knew, that their job in a comedy is to behave with as much realism as possible and let the impossibilities whirl around them. To begin with, Carell and Fey look like they might be a pleasant married couple. Attractive, but not improbably so. Young, but not that young. Fit, but they don’t reveal unexpected skills. And frightened when they need to be. Do you ever wonder why the characters in some movies are never gob-smacked in the face of what seems like certain death?

All of this is a way of saying that “Date Night” is funny because, against all odds, it is involving. Each crazy step in the bizarre plot made a certain sense because it followed from what went before; it’s like the Scorsese masterpiece “After Hours.” The director is Shawn Levy, who committed the two “Night at the Museum” movies, and here shows that he is much more successful when he stays far away from CGI. Remember that he also made the entertaining “Cheaper by the Dozen,” with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as a hard-pressed married couple.

A movie like “Date Night” encourages Hollywood comedy to occasionally dial down, and realize that comedy emerges from characters and situations and can’t be manufactured from manic stunts and overkill. If you don’t start out liking the Fosters and hoping they have a really nice date night, not much else is going to work.

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A massive hit at the box office, Raiders… spawned a franchise to rival the popularity of Star Wars. The first sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) took Indy off to India for an encounter with an ancient cult fond of enslaving children and ripping still-beating hearts out of chests. Darker in tone than its predecessor, Temple of Doom also lacks the tightness of the first film’s script – but still delivers plenty of high-octane thrills and spills.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) followed five years later. While the plot (involving Nazis and the hunt for the Holy Grail) can feel like a retread of Raiders… at times, the arrival of Sean Connery as Indy’s father not only serves to add some more depth to Harrison’s character, but also results in some terrific comedic moments.

It took almost two decades for Indy to return to the bigscreen (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles hit TV in the ‘90s), but Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) left some wondering if it had been worth the wait. The first in the series to really feel like a tug of war between Spielberg’s and Lucas’s filmmaking sensibilities, this uneasy mash-up of 1950s B-movie and a modern day blockbuster ends up feeling weirdly detached from the rest of the series (despite the endless callbacks). Not as bad as some say, but not a patch on the earlier films, either.

Movies rating: 4/5

Picture: For their Ultra HD Blu-ray debut, all four of the Indiana Jones movies have been ‘meticulously remastered from 4K scans of the original negatives’ according to the studio. While these may well be the same 4K scans that were used as the basis for their 2012 Blu-ray release, extensive work has also been done cleaning up the visuals effects for this outing. The major upshot of this is the elimination of hard matte lines on composite shots, resulting in a more cohesive appearance to photography that doesn’t automatically draw attention to itself as a ‘special effect’.

The other big difference is colour grading. Right from the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark it becomes apparent that the photography now boasts a more balanced colour palette, removing the almost neon green foliage from the Blu-ray with something that looks a lot more natural. Similarly, the golden hue that was so obvious on Blu-ray has been toned down here, giving the film a much more earthy — not to mention authentic — appearance.

That’s not to say that the Raiders…, or any of the sequels come to that, now look in any way gloomy or lack vibrancy. The wider colour gamut ensures there’s plenty of richness to the palette – it just doesn’t look as artificial now. And, of course, the films are still capable of painting the screen with beautifully saturated tones; …Temple of Doom’s opening musical number and later red-hued caverns being standout examples.

The new HDR grades (HDR10 and Dolby Vision are included) add further lustre to the films’ photography. The expanded contrast range delivers deeper shadows and brighter highlights that bring an increased sense of depth to the visuals. Images that were tricky to discern properly on Blu-ray (such as Willie accidentally trying to hang up a bat instead of her wet clothing in …Temple of Doom) are now rendered so much clearer. Such upticks in detail don’t just stem from a surge in brightness, though, but also from improved colour reproduction and clarity.

Naturally, the 4K resolution also reveals plenty of previously unseen detail in the franchise’s 2.40:1-framed photography. Background objects that were little more than fuzzy shapes on Blu-ray are now crisply rendered, while mid-shots and close-ups are awash with intricately rendered textures in the environments, costumes and people’s faces. The native film grain is also better resolved (for the most part, but see below), looking tighter and more organic; its enhanced presence in …The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull makes that film’s photography (by Spielberg’s now regular collaborator Janusz Kamiński) appear not quite so far removed from that of the three previous films (all lensed by Douglas Slocombe).

However, for all of the above, there are traces of digital filtering across all four 4K encodes. It’s certainly not excessive and the majority of viewers probably won’t notice it at all, but tell-tale instances of frozen grain and posterisation will be sure to catch the attention of eagle-eyed home cinema-hedz. But even while these 4K encodes are not quite perfect, they come bloody close and are by far the best these movies have ever looked.

Picture rating: 4.5/5

Audio: Not content with giving the four films a 4K HDR facelift, they’ve also been treated to a Dolby Atmos upgrade for this Ultra HD Blu-ray debut. While some will lament the lack of the original audio, fans can rest easy in the knowledge that legendary sound designer Ben Burtt (who worked on the original mixes) supervised the creation of the new Atmos tracks from the legacy audio elements.

Building on the exceptional DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtracks that accompanied the films on their earlier Blu-ray releases, the new Atmos mixes are even more impressive affairs that offer a fuller, more immersive audio experience. So, while they retain the same dizzying dynamism and pinpoint accuracy in their spatial effects as those 5.1 mixes, they now feel even more seamless and encompassing, with John Williams’ iconic scores frequently extending into the height speakers alongside atmospheric effects like rain and thunder.

Dedicated height effects aren’t especially pervasive but are skilfully deployed and prove surprisingly effective, whether it’s the sound of that boulder starting to roll above Indy’s head in Raiders…, a ‘giant vampire bat’ fly-by in …Temple of Doom, a brush with a giant propellor in …Last Crusade, or the cartoonish ‘twang’ effect that accompanies the lead-lined fridge that flies over the car racing away from the nuclear explosion in …Crystal Skull. What’s most impressive though aren’t the individual effects (although they are pretty knock-out), but they seamless way they’re used to create genuinely cohesive and dynamic 360-degree, three-dimensional soundscapes.

Audio rating: 5/5

Extras: If there’s any aspect of this UHD boxset that disappoints, it’s the extra features; and that’s only because there’s nothing new here. Everything from the trailers that accompany each film (three each for Raiders… and …Crystal Skull, two each for …Temple of Doom and …Last Crusade) to the seven behind-the-scenes documentaries and five featurettes bundled together on the bonus Blu-ray platter also featured in the 2012 Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures BD boxset. Even so, while it would have been great to have some new material to mark Raiders of the Lost Ark’s 40th anniversary, there’s no denying that this was already a pretty comprehensive collection of goodies.

The UHD boxset also comes bundled with Blu-ray copies of each film, plus a double-sided map.
Extras rating: 4.5/5
HCC VERDICT: 4.5/5

We say: Fortune and glory, kid! An impressive 4K Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos upgrade of the existing Blu-ray boxset.

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Much of the good in The Motion Picture lies with the visuals. It’s such a gorgeous movie. Unfortunately, that good also leads to the biggest issues people had with the movie: The long takes of these special effects. So much time, energy, and money were spent, which ultimately leads to some annoyingly long takes and lengthy sequences in where the movie comes to a complete halt to stop and look at the newly re-designed U.S.S. Enterprise.

At the same time, the special effects only spruce up the disjointed storyline. The power struggle between Roddenberry and the filmmakers was well-known. This power struggle ultimately led to a disjoint between what Roddenberry wanted and what the filmmakers wanted. As a result, the movie suffers from an aimless tone.

Star Trek:

The Motion Picture fails to unite the space adventure of Star Wars with the philosophical thoughtfulness of 2001, it’s not a complete and total failure as some might believe. It’s a beautiful movie that can be the basis of someone’s desktop wallpaper. Still, at the time, no one knew what the future held for the franchise. Little did they know that this would lead to one of the best films in the entire franchise.

Movie Rating: 3/5 atoms

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Watching The Wrath of Khan again (and again), my thoughts remain the same as when I reviewed the film in 2016. For my original thoughts on the film, click here.

Movie Rating: 4.5/5 atoms

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

After the “death” of Spock at the end of Wrath of Khan, Leonard Nimoy returns to The Search for Spock but a completely new role: Director. Unfortunately, he’s unable to bring new life to the film, and much of the problems from the first film return here. On the whole, The Search for Spock dwells on several uneventful things throughout. None of the tension in Search materializes through the many storylines in the movie. Even the Enterprise’s self-destruct countdown sequence generates zero drama. Similar to The Motion Picture, the whole film is just dry. At least with Motion Picture, we were treated with some amazing visuals. We don’t get that with Search for Spock.

The Search for Spock also feels more like an epilogue of The Wrath of Khan than its own film. The crew of the Enterprise has some unfinished business, so it’s time for them to finish it and bring back Spock. While Trek wouldn’t be the same without Spock, bringing back Spock from the dead feels like cheating. With Spock’s death, Kirk finally learned the lesson of the Kobayashi Maru’s “no-win” situation. Bringing him back to life essentially negates that lesson.

Nevertheless, The Search for Spock‘s best asset is the Enterprise crew. Due to the nature of the storyline, we get to spend more intimate time with them than we did in the past two movies.

Ultimately, The Search for Spock squashed any renewed interest the franchise had after Wrath of Khan. It feels more like a “filler” film before we get to the good stuff in The Voyage Home. The film doesn’t amount to much more than a reason to bring back a character who had a glorious death. Not to mention, it also solidifies the fact that the odd-numbered Trek films are not as good as their even-numbered counterparts.

Movie Rating: 3/5 atoms

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

For most of my life, I had zero desire to watch The Voyage Home because I found out that the movie is about the Enterprise crew going back in time to bring whales to the future. It’s such a ridiculous concept that I thought it wouldn’t be good. Okay, so I was wrong. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is excellent. After the bleak tone of the last two films, the filmmakers wanted to create a movie lighter in tone.

Thus, the fish-out-of-water storyline is what makes The Voyage Home so enjoyable. The crew of the Enterprise interacting with the people of the 80s is just funny. For instance, Anton Chekov, a Russian, is going around asking random people where the “nuclear wessels” are. Realize that this is in the 80s where the Cold War conflict was still going on.

At the same time, The Voyage Home feels more like the original series than the past three films. The Voyage Home is a morality play, which happens a lot in the TV show. It’s one of the most touching elements of Gene Roddenberry’s forward-looking television series.

The Voyage Home is essentially a movie about an alien probe that will destroy us because we made humpback whales go extinct. Of course, in a long line of extremely silly scientific nonsense, whales communicating with an alien probe are high up there. Nevertheless, the film’s environmental themes are woven into the script so cleanly alongside the comedic tones of the film.

Overall, The Voyage Home is a hilarious film with a thoughtful message about saving the environment. It’s a small and simple movie that feels the closest to Roddenberry’s original vision of the Star Trek series. Not to mention, the comedy in this entry is so broad that it doesn’t even feel like a Star Trek movie. However, the smaller scale allows practically every cast member a chance to shine.

Movie Rating: 4.5/5 atoms

Video

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture hits Ultra HD Blu-ray with a Dolby Vision/HDR10 transfer and a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film has a fantastic use of light and shadows, and the Ultra HD release of Star Trek displays it wonderfully. The blacks are a deep and dark black that is obviously perfect for an outer space movie like this, and the whites are spectacularly bright. The colors are also vibrant, especially when the Enterprise goes into the wormhole. Yet, it’s the details that are the most surprising. They’re super clear, highlighting the beautiful use of practical and visual effects. Once the plasma energy version of V’Ger boards the Enterprise, you can see the dated cinematography and special effects come out in full force. Overall, this is an awesome-looking video transfer.

Video Rating: 4.5/5 atoms

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan hits Ultra HD Blu-ray with a Dolby Vision/HDR10 transfer and a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The picture is a bit flatter than in Star Trek I, but the whites are vibrant, especially during the Genesis cave scene. Similarly, the blacks are a deep and inky black, which is, once again, perfect for a sci-fi space film such as this. Likewise, the colors are wide and have a natural look to them. The maroon red on the Starfleet uniforms look natural, but the various colors on the consoles beam off the screen. Much like The Motion Picture, the picture is incredibly clear. The picture showcases a ton of fine details, from the costumes to the production design. Everything is represented well.

Video Rating: 5/5 atoms

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock hits Ultra HD Blu-ray with a Dolby Vision/HDR10 transfer and a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Similar to the other releases, the whites are a vibrant white, and the blacks are an inky black. On the other hand, The Search for Spock is a much more colorful film. The movie explores several planets with a wide array of different environments, such as the rapidly deteriorating habitats on Genesis to the fiery reds of Vulcan. The HDR represents the colors quite beautifully. Much like the previous films, The Search for Spock has a lot of fine details that are represented well here. Overall, it’s three for three in this box set.

Video Rating: 5/5 atoms

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home hits Ultra HD Blu-ray with a Dolby Vision/HDR10 transfer and a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The whites and blacks have been stellar through all three films, and it continues on with Voyage Home. Once again, the colors are more subdued than in The Search for Spock. However, the colors do fit in line with the color grading of the 80s. While Voyage Home doesn’t have the fine sci-fi elements of the past movies, the picture still showcases all the fine details of the 20th-century well. At the same time, there’s a distinct fine grain that creates a filmic look throughout. Overall, it’s not the best-looking picture, but that’s just how the source material is.

Video Rating: 4.5/5 atoms

Audio

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture hits Ultra HD Blu-ray with a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD Master Audio track. Although it’s not an Atmos mix, the sound effects move through the soundstage seamlessly and beautifully. It has an immersive and distinct use of atmospheric effects. Jerry Goldsmith’s score resonates with such clarity and even has a distinct instrument separation in the score. The dialogue is clear, but on the Vulcan planet, it’s a bit low. For a movie that’s 40+ years old, the audio mix has superior fidelity. While it’s a bit disappointing that we didn’t get an option for an Atmos mix, it’s hard to complain about the mix since it’s an excellent one.

Audio Rating: 4/5 atoms

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan hits Ultra HD Blu-ray with a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD Master Audio track. Since I’ve upgraded my sound system since the last time I reviewed the audio in 2016, I’m able to hear more out of this 7.1 mix. First of all, the sound effects effortlessly move across the soundstage. Not to mention, they’re accurately placed on the soundstage. The surround usage is limited, even during a lot of the action scenes. Thus, there isn’t a lot of noticeable atmospheric surround effects that immerse you in a scene. Much of the surround usage comes from James Horner’s score. The score resonates with such clarity, but it’s lacking in heft or impact. Of course, the dialogue is clear as well and takes priority over them all.

Audio Rating: 4/5 atoms

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock hits Ultra HD Blu-ray with a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD Master Audio track. I may sound like a broken record, but the sound movement in this mix is great. The sound effects move seamlessly across the soundstage, like a wave. Not to mention, they move accurately through the soundstage, such as ships flying towards and away from the screen. Thankfully, there is a better use of atmospherics in this film. The atmospheric sounds of the starships can be distinctly heard throughout. James Horner’s score completely fills up the soundstage with a full, rich orchestral sound. The dialogue is well-prioritized and can clearly be heard in the center channel. Overall, this is a nice-sounding mix.

Audio Rating: 4/5 atoms

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home hits Ultra HD Blu-ray with a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD Master Audio track. Yes, the fourth and final film is once again the same 7.1 mix from prior releases. Nevertheless, the mix still sounds good. The sound effects seamlessly move from the front and back of the soundstage with the flight of the Klingon starship. There are also many instances where the mix completely fills up the soundstage, such as the climax where Kirk is underwater saving the humpback whales. At the same time, there is a lot of atmospheric effects that occur in the mix. Of course, a lot of it involves being underwater. Leonard Rosenman’s score completely fills up the soundstage. Since the Voyage Home is essentially a sci-fi adventure comedy, dialogue takes precedence over everything else.

Audio Rating: 4/5 atoms

Special Features

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture‘s Ultra HD Blu-ray disc only has the audio commentaries on it. However, you can find the rest of the following special features on the 1080p Blu-ray disc:

Commentary by Michael & Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and Daren Dochterman
Library Computer
Production
The Longest Trek: Writing the Motion Picture
The Star Trek Universe
Special Star Trek Reunion
Starfleet Academy SciSec Brief 001: Mystery Behind V’Ger
Deleted Scenes
Sulu and Ilia 1
Sulu and Ilia 2
Kirk’s Quarters
Officer’s Lounge
Attack on the Enterprise
Intruder Transmission
A Huge Vessel
Kirk Follows Spock
Ilia’s Quarters 1
Ilia’s Quarters 2
Its Creator is a Machine
Storyboards
Vulcan
Enterprise Departure
V’Ger Revealed
Trailers
TV Spots

The audio commentary features five Trek experts, so it feels like you’re watching the film with other fans. So while you’re learning a lot from them, there are moments of die-hard fandoms coming in with the phrase “greatest of all-time” is said several times. The Library Computer is an interactive experience where information about what you’re watching individually pops up on screen to your right. However, these menu items that show up appear and disappear quickly, so be quick on what you want to select because you won’t be able to pick them once they’re gone unless you go to the Index menu.

From the 2009 release of Star Trek I, The Longest Trek is a short featurette that highlights the evolution of the movie from its TV roots in Phase II to becoming a film. It also covers the creative power struggle between creator Gene Roddenberry and the filmmakers. Special Star Trek Reunion isn’t the kind of reunion you’re thinking of. Instead, the reunion involves five fans of the series who reunited to talk about the day where Star Trek fans got to be extras in the film. Mystery Behind V’Ger is a cliff note rundown of Star Trek I‘s villain. The wide array of deleted scenes are short and not very interesting. At the same time, the storyboards are basically an interactive image gallery.

Special Features Rating: 4/5 atoms

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan‘s Ultra HD Blu-ray disc only has the audio commentaries on it. However, you can find the rest of the following special features on the 1080p Blu-ray disc:

Commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer
Commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer and Manny Coto (Theatrical Version)
Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda (Director’s Cut)
Library Computer (Theatrical Version)
The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan
Production
Captain’s Log
Designing Khan
Original Interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and Ricardo Montalban
Where No Man has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
James Horner: Composing Genesis
The Star Trek Universe
Collecting Star Trek’s Movie Relics
A Novel Approach
Starfleet Academy SciSec Brief 002: Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI
Farewell
A Tribute to Ricardo Montalban
Storyboards
Main Title Concept
Kobayashi Maru

• Ceti Alpha V
• Regula I
• Chekov and Terrell Find Khan
• Admiral’s Inspection
• Khan’s Revenge
• Kirk Strikes Back
• Finding the Genesis Cave
• The Mutara Nebula
• Sneak Attack
• Genesis
• Honored Dead
• Theatrical Trailer

Similar to The Motion Picture, the special features on the Blu-ray are similar to the releases of the past. You can find my thoughts on the bonus features here.

Special Features Rating: 3.5/5 atoms

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock‘s Ultra HD Blu-ray disc only has the audio commentaries on it. However, you can find the rest of the following special features on the 1080p Blu-ray disc:

• Commentary by Director Leonard Nimoy, Writer/Producer Harve Bennett, Director of Photography Charles Correll and Robin Curtis
• Commentary by Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor
• Library Computer
• Production
• Captain’s Log
• Terraforming and the Prime Directive
• Industrial Light & Magic: The Visual Effects of Star Trek
• Spock: The Early Years
• The Star Trek Universe
• Space Docks and Birds of Prey
• Speaking Klingon
• Klingon and Vulcan Costumes
• Star Trek and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
• Starfleet Academy SciSec Brief 003: Mystery Behind the Vulcan Katra Transfer
• Photo Gallery
• Storyboards
• Theatrical Trailer

For the audio commentary, director Leonard Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett do most of the talking here. Both of them focus on the movie’s story and the film’s emphasis on the characters. Not to mention, Nimoy takes some time to address a lot of rumors surrounding Star Trek and The Wrath of Khan. A lot of the information on this track is repeats a lot of the information in the other supplements. This version of Captain’s Log is still a fine making-of featurette that covers the film’s story development, Nimoy’s path to directing, and a nearly disastrous fire on the Paramount lot.

When it comes to the audio commentary with Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor, they both have a friendly talk about the franchise’s continuity and this film’s influence on their later work. Amusingly, neither Moore nor Taylor has any direct connection to this movie. They’re only doing a commentary because Moore is a co-producer on Next Generation and Taylor is a Deep Space Nine staff writer, plus both are fans of Star Trek.

Terraforming is a dry scientific conversation about the plausibility and ethics of terraforming a planet to suit human needs. Space Docks features several ILM artists who reminisce about designing, building, and compositing the film’s special effects. Speaking Klingon is easily the most compelling featurette in this box set. It features Marc Okrand, the linguist who developed the Klingon and Vulcan languages, and he explains the grammatical rules of both languages. As you can expect from the name, Klingon and Vulcan Costumes looks at the wardrobe, hair, and makeup designs of both races.

Science Fiction Museum has an interview with producer Harve Bennett while also giving us a tour of the Star Trek museum exhibit. Mystery Behind the Vulcan Katra Transfer is a cliff note that breaks down the procedure of how Spock’s consciousness transferred from Bones to Spock again.

Special Features Rating: 3.5/5 atoms

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home‘s Ultra HD Blu-ray disc only has the audio commentaries on it. However, you can find the rest of the following special features on the 1080p Blu-ray disc:

• Audio Commentary featuring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy
• Audio Commentary featuring Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
• Library Computer
• Production
• Future’s Past: A Look Back
• On Location
• Dailies Deconstruction
• Below-the-Line: Sound Design
• Pavel Chekov’s Screen Moments
• The Star Trek Universe
• Time Travel: The Art of the Possible
• The Language of Whales
• A Vulcan Primer
• Kirk’s Women
• Star Trek: Three Picture Saga
• Star Trek for a Cause
• Starfleet Academy SciSec Brief 004: The Whale Probe
• Visual Effects
• From Outer Space to the Ocean
• The Bird of Prey
• Original Interviews
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• Tributes
• Roddenberry Scrapbook
• Featured Artist: Mark Lenard
• Production Gallery
• Storyboards
• Theatrical Trailer

Right from the get-go, you can hear the fun and banter between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. You can clearly tell that despite all of their sarcastic remarks, they’re true friends. Thus, it’s quite an entertaining listen as they reminisce about the production of the film. On the other hand, the commentary with Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci is not as fun. It features many moments where they would talk about scenes that they like. Realize that this commentary came out around the time that the first Kelvin timeline Star Trek movie came out. So they could’ve easily talked about how Trek influenced them or how they would continue the legacy of Kirk and company. Alas, all we get is mundane commentary.

Future’s Past is a rather self-congratulatory making-of featurette that is all about how much the filmmakers desired a lighter tone and how much fun they had making the film. For 28 whole minutes, they repeatedly stressed how much they emphasize the lighter tone after the bleakness of the previous two films. On Location takes a look at how the movie was shot in San Francisco. Also, it’s surprising to see that some shots came from hidden cameras on the street. Meanwhile, Deconstruction is a side-by-side comparison of Donald Peterman’s different camera takes. With Below-the-Line has the movie’s sound designer talks about the creation of the film’s organic sound effects. Pavel Chekov is an interview with Walter Keonig where he talks about his expanded role in this entry and seems to regret that he usually has so little to do in the series.

Time Travel, once again, is a dry discussion about the likelihood of ever attaining time travel or faster-than-light velocity. Language of Whales is a featurette about… Well, whales. Vulcan Primer takes a look at the Vulcan species, specifically Spock. Meanwhile, Kirk’s Women has Catherine Hicks and several other love interests from Kirk’s past discuss the inherent sex appeal of both Captain Kirk and William Shatner. Three Picture Saga has Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer talk about their “accidental trilogy.” In other words, it looks at how the franchise regained life with The Wrath of Khan and continued to progress all the way to The Voyage Home. Unfortunately, Star Trek for a Cause is simply a cheap plug for Green Peace and the work they’re doing. Finally, The Whale Probe is a cliff notes feature describing the mysterious whale probe “antagonist” in the film.

From Outer Space to the Ocean is a vintage promotional piece for The Voyage Home. Next, The Bird of Prey has Leonard Nimoy explaining the design of the Klingon warship. The trio of on-set vintage interviews are decent watches, but Shatner was clearly not in a good mood at that time. Roddenberry Scrapbook has Eugene Roddenberry talk about the life of his father, Gene. Mark Lenard (Sarek) is also another touching tribute. This time, the tribute has Lenard’s widow and daughters pay homage to their husband/father.

Special Features Rating: 4/5 atoms

Overall, the Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection is a must-have for Trek fans looking to upgrade their Blu-ray collection. The video is well worth the upgrade. However, it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to receive any new audio mixes or special features for this box set.

Overall Rating: 4/5 atoms

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