Gratuity and the modern Hollywood summer blockbuster

I've found the minor kerfluffle regarding the Alice Eve "strip down" scene in Star Trek Into Darkness somewhat amusing. It's not often that you have both the screenwriter and director basically apologizing -- after the fact, of course -- for having a hot female character in basically her underwear just, well... BECAUSE, ALL RIGHT?

I mean, there's no arguing that it was gratuitous, pandering, et cetera, et cetera. But considering that it was buffered on either side by Michael Bay's Pain and Gain:

(which, by the way, I haven't seen yet -- though I'm dying to -- so I'm just guessing at the general gratuity, seeing as it's a Michael Bay movie (and as demonstrated Baytastically starting around the 1:52 mark in the above trailer)...

and FF6:

which I have seen and can so personally attest to its extreme gratuity (Michael Bay must be suffering some sleepless nights trying to come up with things more insane than the stuntwork in FF6 for TF4)...

it's therefore pretty crazy that STID is taking a bullet for what is standard practice in summer movie land, especially considering that Eve at least plays some sort of doctor in the film (though Alyssa Rosenberg's point about how if you're female -- and at least a lead -- in a summer movie, you want to live in the FF universe is a good one).

Mostly, though, it just reminds me how forgettable STID was in the first place, that this is what people are talking about. I mean, I enjoyed it as I watched it, but 10 minutes after it ended, it was nearly completely out of my head, Cumberbatch vamping and all.

Furious 6

There is really only one word to describe this magnificent opus, and it's the one we uttered immediately to each other after the thing ended and the lovely wife and I exited the theater:

AWESOME.

Definitely not "good," because there's really not a whole lot about this series that's defensible if you try to examine it piece by piece. The acting is... not good. The story is... overly simplistic. The so-called jokes are... not in any way funny. (though the so-called dramatic scenes are often intensely amusing. (There's a scene near the end where Luke Evans tells everyone to look at Vin Diesel's face to see if the Vin thinks he's joking, and since Vin has a face roughly as expressive -- if not less so -- then the Iron Giant he played years ago, I burst out laughing, because he had the same semi-constipated look he had in every other scene in the flick.)

Yep, that's the look.

 And yet... the whole thing works like gangbusters. The second it was over (even before the credits rolled, but after -- and honestly, mostly because of -- the post "don't try this at home" warning stinger -- I was immediately ready for part 7 to start). Much credit has to be given not only to the stunt team, which I hope is having the time of their lives coming up with the crazy auto work in these things, but also to Justin Lin, who somehow straddles that line of taking this world of fast cars, muscle-bound brutes, and sexy ladies completely seriously while letting the audience know he's in on the joke and that it's okay to laugh at/with the damn thing. Though there was a music-video montage scene right in the middle before a street race (all ass-focused, fade in/out, slo-mo action) that was too pedestrian '90s rap video-esque for me not to roll my eyes at even in the general lack of seriousness that is the FF franchise.

Not that it's really necessary to enjoy FF6, though there are callbacks galore to the previous films in the franchise, I've somehow been (un)lucky enough to have seen them all, even though only parts 5 and 6 are any good -- I mean, any AWESOME. And how many series not only get better with part 5 but are then even more glorious in the sixth installment? I do fear a bit for part 7, not only because of the change in director but because I can't imagine how they're going to possibly top the ridiculousness of 6... and because I'll almost certainly be rooting for the "bad guy" to win.