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Hairy Priest Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 3:06 am
The Star Trek franchise has finally awakened from its four year coma since the cancellation of ST:Enterprise with the recent premiere of the eleventh movie, simply titled "Star Trek". As I'm sure there's a lot of overlap between folks who like Doctor Who and folks that like Trek, I'm curious to see what others here thought of the movie.
I thought it was a pretty good movie, even if most of the new cast didn't look and/or sound like their counterparts from the original show. The movie did seem to drag at parts. It also seems like a movie one would enjoy more in a packed theater full of other Trek fans that react to key moments in the film... I went in at around lunch time on a Friday, so the room was less than half full, and no one really laughed or cheered aloud, which kind of takes some of the fun out of the theater experience. The latter part of the movie felt dramatically flat to me; I had more of an emotional resonance with Kirk and Spock early on, when we saw them growing up.
In comparison to the other Trek movies, I liked Wrath of Khan more, but for now I'd say this is my 2nd favorite in the series, followed by First Contact.
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 5:08 pm
I dunno...I grew up with the REAL crew, and I kinda resent them being reinvented before the real actors were even all gone.
They've demonstrated repeatedly that they can create brand new crews that we like, so why the heck didn't they create some new cadets to follow to their later careers? That I might have gone to see.
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Hairy Priest Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 1:17 am
While I can understand where you're coming from, I don't think a Trek movie consisting of entirely new characters would be as successful (financially) as a movie featuring Kirk and Spock... even if they're NOT the same characters we all grew up with. This was clearly a decision based on what would have the most mass-market appeal. And it's not a bad film, though some of the 'science' seems a bit dubious (but less so than some of the silliness that passes as science in the RTD era of Doctor Who). And everyone looks waaaay too young.
Given your affection for the original crew, I suspect you'll really despise some of the changes made to Spock.
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Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 12:54 pm
I wanna hear what other old-school grew-up-with-the-original-crew people think of it.
I oughta go check at the Geezers Guild on that....
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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 4:11 am
Eirwyn I wanna hear what other old-school grew-up-with-the-original-crew people think of it.
I oughta go check at the Geezers Guild on that.... Psst. Talk to my dad once he's seen it. xd He's a Trekkie for sure.
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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 10:10 am
Lemmie know what he thinks, then?
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Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:13 am
I don't really know what I thought, since I've only seen the original series to compare it to, I mean... well, a good episode of the original series would be Kirk being chased around by a lizard man, but in the movie there's explosions and crazy shiz going on everywhere.
I quite liked it I guess, it's weird to see them young, but I guess... they could have done a lot worse.
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 6:47 pm
As a Star Trek Fan, I liked it. I thought it was tastefully and intelligently done with wonderful nods to long time fans. I laughed I cried I was creeped out and thrilled. Go see it.
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The_Enigmatic_SEF Captain
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Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 8:00 pm
Eirwyn Lemmie know what he thinks, then? Generally, he's not too fond of movie discussions after he's watched it, so it's hard for me to gauge his reaction as he basically avoided the question. sad My dad didn't seem too fond of the reboot, but he's not really happy about remakes of classics (think Pink Panther, Get Smart, Superman, etc). Personally, my mom and I loved it. She watched a lot of the original series with my dad and all the movies, I think. There were one or two moments we thought were just a bit ridiculous, but it was needed comic relief. I caught a few subtle nods to the original series -- some of the more well-known episodes, I guess -- which was great if you recognized them but didn't detract from anything. I don't know how much of the original characters' storylines were altered, so I can only say that I enjoyed the way the characters were brought together and the great interactions between Spock & Kirk. biggrin IMHO, it was much better than Wolverine in the sense that they're both prequels. Altogether, definitely worth going to see on the big screen, especially if you go with at least one other friend/fan -- if I had gone by myself it wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable, but that's just me. [/essay]
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 12:30 am
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Hairy Priest Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 5:44 pm
I've been a Trekkie since I was probably seven-ish (almost 20 years ago...), and my dad has been watching the show since the original pilot aired in 1966 when he was four. We both LOVED the new movie (I've seen it twice now, actually). I have no idea what you are talking about when you say it dragged in parts. I can't think of one thing I genuinely disliked about it (well, that little alien guy who followed Scotty around was a little weird, but maybe I'm just not getting something there).
I thought the characters were great. Simon Pegg as Scotty was awesome, and I loved the reinterpretation of Kirk. I thought Chekov was adorable and McCoy was almost creepy with how spot on he was. Spock and Uhura... well, after watching some TOS episodes, it wasn't as much of a leap as I originally thought (wow, she was a flirt...). All in all, I thought they did a very good job in the character area.
Also, this movie had one of, if not THE best opening scene of any movie I've watched yet. And then the second scene lived up to the awesomeness of the first one! And all the scenes after that were also amazing! If the movie had one weak spot, it would be that the plot, while not really full of holes, was a little soft in some areas. But I don't feel it harmed the movie in any significant way. There were some things that were just like "huh?" like the goth squid the Romulans were flying around in and the previously mentioned little alien guy. But it wasn't a huge deal and the rest of the movie was amazing enough to make up for it.
Honestly, people who don't like the movie because it isn't like an exact replica of the original series are watching it for all the wrong reasons. Also, they probably have TOS on an undeservedly high pedestal. It was a great and very influential show, but seriously, it was just a low budget sci-fi series with mostly mediocre acting, lots of sexism and pretty cliched plots (even for the time). The reason most people love it so much isn't because of the show itself, it's because of the nostalgia attached to it because they watched it as a child.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 1:58 am
I just don't think the movie was structured as well as it could have been. The part I enjoyed the most was the beginning, where we get the backstory on Kirk and Spock. Kirk being a rebellious punk. Spock having a chip on his shoulder because of the way Vulcans look down on him. I was really into it up to the point where Vulcan gets annihilated, and the confrontation between Kirk and Spock which leads Spock to abandon Kirk on the ice planet.
And then, somehow, the pace seemed to slow down. Probably because suddenly there was a lot of exposition that had to be dealt with (like Old Spock explaining why Nero and he came back from the future). There was a scene where the crew was talking to themselves about time travel and alternate universes that seemed superfluous, since we (the audience) already knew what was going on, and it later dawned on me that the only reason it was there was to tell fans of the original series that 'hey, this is all occurring in a mirror universe, so it doesn't invalidate previous Trek history!". And I don't think they used Nero to his fullest potential.
And it might be heresy to say it, but I didn't think Nimoy was all that great in his reprisal of Spock. I'm a fan of the original series and have fond memories as a kid of Nimoy narrating the old TV show "In Search of...", yes, but that doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to stop being critical just because Nimoy's in the movie. I felt many of his lines weren't delivered with enough emotional impact. The younger cast seemed to be doing a much better job than the veteran.
I didn't like the Spock-Uhura relationship, either. Not that I necessarily think it's a bad idea for them to be involved, but it just seemed thrown in there to be another example of 'look, this is different from the Trek you remember'. There was pretty much zero development of the relationship. If this was an angle they wanted to explore, I think it would have been better to have it develop organically as a side story in the sequel. Not as a time-waster right before some bald, tattooed Romulan's about to vaporize the Earth by dropping a black hole into its center.
Nearly all of the Trek movies suck (IMHO). This one was pretty good. But not perfect.
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Hairy Priest Vice Captain
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Fantasy_of_Strange_Things
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 10:20 am
I always thought Star Trek was kinda nerdy... But i guess people think that about DW when they don't like it. But this movie was pretty good. Wasnt that one dude... The beam guy... one of the hobbits in Lord of the Rings?
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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 1:26 pm
Eruravenne It was a great and very influential show, but seriously, it was just a low budget sci-fi series with mostly mediocre acting, lots of sexism and pretty cliched plots (even for the time). The reason most people love it so much isn't because of the show itself, it's because of the nostalgia attached to it because they watched it as a child. Out of context, that sounds a lot like Doctor Who to me. smile @Fantasy: Lord of the Rings? Karl Urban played Bones in ST as well as Eomer in LotR, but that's about it. Dominic Monahagan played one of the mutants in the new X-Men movie, but he's the only hobbit actor in a currently released movie. @Hairy: The exposition was a little slow but the beginning was the most amazing opener I've seen in a long time. Also, I didn't like the Spock-Uhura side-story because Uhura is such a strong, independent female character among all these guys, so I felt like it dumbed down her character to give her a romance AND with a character who is trained to not show emotion. (In fact, that's probably why they did it, to further along Spock's character).
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