Scootin' to the Movies '09

Well, my wife has been in the hospital for a couple days, so despite the fact that money is tight, I took the Goober (my son) to see a couple movies to get his mind off things (well, mine too).

On Tuesday night, when my wife first went in, I decided to take my kid to see Wolverine. I'd heard a few negatives about it, but I figured he'd like it. My car is out of registration at the moment, and my wife's car was at the hospital, so the scoot was the only vehicular option. Unfortunately, the Goober's helmet was in her car. So, I had him put up his hood and stuck my helmet on him, and popped to Trans-Am Cycle sales in Lititz to grab a cheap half helmet to tide me over (and so I'd have a spare), until I could get the kid's helmet. I really wanted to get myself a nice modular, but at $40 vs. $300...the "Skid Lid" was the clear winner.

So, we got to the Theater Tuesday night, and while "X-men Origins: Wolverine" was exciting for my kid, I'd rather read the comic book. It wasn't a horrible movie, and my kid loved it, but it seemed uninspired and completely unsurprising. They changed a few things here and there, but then, they do that in the comic books all the time, so that's nothing new, and forgivable.

We left the theater on Tuesday evening at around 6:30 to rain spitting in our faces, well, in mine at least. At 40 miles an hour, rain really stings. I was able to duck down behind my windscreen, which helped, but I'm glad my main helmet has a face shield.

Tonight, my son had his helmet back and we rode to see Star Trek when it opened at 7pm. Surprisingly enough, I only noted two geeks dressed in Star Fleet uniforms (the original series kind).

We sat in a nearly full theater and waited for the movie to start...and it was good.

The action sequences were well rendered and gripping. It was Star Trek as it should be...sort of. They screwed around with a few things and set the stage for either more movies or a whole new series. I found it a little unnerving how they screwed around with the storyline, but I don't want to be a spoiler, so I'll leave it at that.

If you are a "Trekkie", you will probably enjoy this newest installment. If you aren't, well, you might like it anyway, though you'll not get half the humor and many of the 'Trek references along the way.

One other thing that bugged me is that I kept expecting Spock to cut off the top of Kirk's head and steal his abilities...Kinda like when I first watched Enterprise and half expected Captain Archer to wake up in somebody else's body every show...oh boy...

But, I digress...

All in all, I give Star Trek four and a half out of five stars. Wolverine gets two stars...yeah, it was that bad.