The casting was really good, the effects were pretty sweet, and the story (while nothing terribly groundbreaking) does set things up for future sequels in a way that doesn’t chain it to pre-established canon so much.
If you were worried for some reason about Simon Pegg as Scotty, don’t be. He was awesome, though I wish he showed up sooner. He doesn’t enter the picture until about the half-way point. There is a neat reference to Enterprise from him, when he mentions a transporter accident with ‘Admiral Archer’s Beagle’.
All of the new actors on the original characters were great, though I’m not 100% sold on Uhura and Bones. They weren’t bad by any stretch, but were probably the weakest of the bunch. Over-eager Chekov was amusing.
Not really. Granted I’m not even familiar with 90210 but aside from an odd Uhura/Spock romance (I dunno) there wasn’t much young adult drama. Even the time spent at the Academy is pretty brief, though the bar fight near the beginning might qualify.
It was still Star Trek, though admittedly a much more flashy and 'splodey Star Trek than we’re used to, though nowhere near as poorly executed as Nemesis was. Not quite as cerebral as the best of Trek, but if this is the direction they’re going to take the series in the future then I can live with it. Beats the hell out of Enterprise.
It feels…way more “Hollywood” than a normal Star Trek. The acting was good and all that, and James Kirk was a likable dude, but the comic relief stuff was a little overboard.
Despite how “Hollywood” it was, I think that was probably for the better. If it was as geeky as the TV series was, it probably wouldn’t be that popular.
That being said, I think it would do terrible as a TV series, and I hope they don’t try that. Another movie? Maybe. TV series? That’s where the usual geeky Star Trek shines much better, I think.
Out of curiosity, does Star Trek have an international fanbase? It’s famous as a franchise, yes, but I’ve never seen a fan (let alone a Trekkie) here in Greece.
I saw it and really enjoyed it, “hollywood” or not. I thought the acting was pretty good, and though I have a few nitpicks with some things (not nerdy things, just some of the shakey camera work during non-action scenes, stuff like that) it was overall pretty damn good.
Except for anything involving the Black Hole. the rest was fine. I even liked the weird Spock and Uhura romance, mainly because they didn’t linger on it. very enjoyable.
I haven’t seen it yet, but I understand there are some huge plot holes in it. How can a supernova threaten the ENTIRE galaxy? And if you’re sent decades to the past, instead of going all crazy on the people you feel failed to save your world… how about USING THE TIME YOU NOW HAVE TO PREVENT THAT TRAGEDY?? Is this addressed in the movie at all?
I remember seeing a few reruns of the old TV episodes when I was younger because my mom liked them, but never fully understtod them other than “beaming down” on other planets and talking to the natives.
Fast forward to today’s movie, and I really liked it. I thought the scenes where he kept getting shots was hillarious. I was half looking forward to it happening again near the end the movie.
I really do hope they make a sequel, but like said above hope they don’t take this to TV.
As a lifetime Trek fan, I highly enjoyed the movie. To address some of the questions:
Wil: There’s no super nova in this movie…
Sin: As Hollywood-ified as this movie is, compared to other Star Trek movies at least (personally, besides the special effects I really feel that as an unfair adjective when applied to this movie), it lacks the common teen romance that you might think has been infused into the story line. Which is a good thing.
Spoony: I can’t believe you’re not sold on Karl Urban as Bones. I thought he did the best job of capturing the essence of the original character while adding the youthful charisma and making the role his own. I dunno, I was really impressed with him, from the very beginning, starting with the fit he throws on the transport ship about how he hates flying to a, what I’ll call, end-of-sentence raspiness that really reminds me of DeForest Kelly. Now, Uhura, I am far from sold on. Besides the peculiarity of a romantic relationship with Spock, Uhura’s character seemed the most reinvented. Which is understandable, given her lack of screen presence in the show and her lack of involvment in most of the plots of the movies. That said, I’m really interested to see where they take her character in the future. That being said, in regards to the cerebral effect of the regular Star Trek episode, there are a few moments of Star Trekkiness, but overall theres very little lingo and jargon to confuse the average viewer, while still conveying the sometimes neccessary strategic elements of applicable space science. like hiding behind saturns moon, titan
Rigamorle: I watched a few movies several years ago called “Trekkies”. The first was limited to the United States, with the exception of a piece on the guy in London who remodled his apartment to look like the enterprise (with transport room and all), while the second was largely about the international fanbase, which from memory, exists everywhere from Canada to Czech, Russia and China.
Im very happy to see that this movie is so awesome. Im going to see it again today, this time in IMAX.
It was his ‘DeForest-ness’ that kinda bugged me, oddly enough. I think he was trying a bit too hard to do a DeForest Kelly impression while doing Bones, and it felt less like his own take. But it wasn’t a deal-breaker (I was more distracted by Uhura), and if/when I see it a second time I might not even notice.
I saw the movie yesterday… other than accidentally washing my hands in the men’s room, it was a great experience. I really enjoyed it.
Spoony, when they were setting up for the jump to the drill, my friends and I were so excited since we saw a red shirt! You KNOW what’s going to happen with those, so we called him Ensign Ricky before we knew his real name. It’s not Star Trek without one of those.
Seriously this movie was far better than the trailers ever suggested was possible. Whatever was left of the Star Trek sequel rule is gone for good.
As for the characters I liked Chekhov the best, and I felt that Sulu got the least amount of development.
Originally Posted by Sorcerer Wil: There’s no super nova in this movie…
There was one in the future timeline. It destroyed Romulus. Spock then did that Red Matter thing and both his ship and the mining ship got sucked into da past. Of course why the hell was it going to destroy the entire galaxy when there were two supernovas in Generations and all that those destroyed were two star systems, a starbase, and a planet with the crash landed Enterprise D on it (for awhile then everything got all better).
Originally Posted by Wilfredo Martinez I haven’t seen it yet, but I understand there are some huge plot holes in it. How can Spoiler: a supernova threaten the ENTIRE galaxy? And if you’re Spoiler: sent decades to the past, instead of going all crazy on the people you feel failed to save your world… how about USING THE TIME YOU NOW HAVE TO PREVENT THAT TRAGEDY?? Is this addressed in the movie at all?
They were sent back about 150 years before the event happens. They really couldn’t go to Romulus and tell them that in 150 years their planet was going to be destroyed by a supernova. Especially when they had better things to do like getting revenge on the federation (Spock in particular) for failing them and their people (even more so especially since Spock basically promised the Romulans that he and the federation were going to fix things and then let them down by not making in on time (not like the Romulans could’ve done better but that’s beside the point)).
Originally Posted by VickiMints
[i]I saw the movie yesterday… other than accidentally washing my hands in the men’s room, it was a great experience. I really enjoyed it.
Spoony, Spoiler: when they were setting up for the jump to the drill, my friends and I were so excited since we saw a red shirt! You KNOW what’s going to happen with those, so we called him Ensign Ricky before we knew his real name. It’s not Star Trek without one of those. [/i]
Don’t forget about Kirk nailing a green chick. It’s really not Star Trek without one of those too (not that every movie should have one of those but it didn’t hurt).
I highly enjoyed the movie. I liked the little slapstick comedy they had throughout the movie. Scotty was by far one of my favorite characters.
Uhura on the other hand I felt was a very weak character. She seems like the sort of character that would wind up being the damsel in distress very easily even though she’s incredibly intelligent. This interpretation of her bothered me.
Besides that the rest of the movie was sweet.
My parents went to see it today for Mother’s Day. My mother told me on the phone that “We are just Trekky enough to see it opening weekend.” I love my parents.
From the Comic Book Resources review of the movie:
[SPOILER]"The plot in brief is that a few years after the Next Generation movies, a star went supernova and threatened to destroy the galaxy. Spock used recent Vulcan technology to artificially create a singularity at the heart of the supernova to collapse it, but not before it destroyed Romulus. Nero, enraged by the death of his family, blames Spock. Both are pulled into the singularity. Nero and his crew emerge decades before Spock does and after they capture him and the technology, Nero sets out to destroy every planet in the Federation starting with Vulcan so that Spock will know his pain.
The science is a little absurd. I cringed at the idea of a supernova threatening the galaxy. I’m not looking for a plot approved by Michio Kaku, just a little elementary research."[/SPOILER]
So that’s where I got the supernova thing from. Did this guy misinterpret things?
I thought the acting was pretty good, and though I have a few nitpicks with some things (not nerdy things, just some of the shakey camera work during non-action scenes, stuff like that) it was overall pretty damn good.