Rate the new Star Trek Film
- Thread starter fanboy2000
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I got a little misty-eyed during my 2nd viewing. This film has obliterated my ability to be objective. What can I say? It reminds me of being a kid and first falling in love with those characters, with SF in general. No other Trek film has done that. Not even Khaaannnnnnn!
I mentioned to my wife over dinner I might see it in the theater a 3rd time. She told me not to tell her if I did
.
I mentioned to my wife over dinner I might see it in the theater a 3rd time. She told me not to tell her if I did
.
Atlatl Jones
Explorer
I really liked that the Applied Phlebotinum plot device was called "red matter", and never explained. It's a big blob of red paint that creates black holes. That's good enough for me.
I gave the movie a 3.5. It was far from perfect, but it was immensely enjoyable, and shows even more promise for the future.
Some random thoughts:
- This was a character movie, not a plot movie. The plot was, at best, mediocre, and the villain was one-dimensional and boring. Nero and the Romulans were basically a plot device that set up a dramatic situations for the characters to react to. Fortunately, the characters, and their relationships and banter, were fantastic.
- I loved the way they jettisoned canon by cleverly using Star Trek temporal pseudoscience against itself.
- I LOVED the reveal with the green-skinned woman. I laughed out loud when they turned on the lights.
- Karl Urban as McCoy was fantastic, and the new Spock is a valid and interesting direction for the character. Simon Pegg was, of course, lots of fun.
- I was dubious about the actor playing Kirk at first, but by the end I was sold on him. He managed to portray the cheeky essence of Kirk without doing a Shatner impression: he wasn't playing Shatner playing Kirk, he was playing his own Kirk.
- The only characters I wasn't entirely enthusiastic about were Chekov and Sulu: Chekov was played mainly for laughts, and didn't have any depth. Sulu was too bland; the Sulu I remember had a strange gravitas to him, helped by a deep voice and odd accent, while the Sulu of this movie acted and sounded like any random American college kid.
El Mahdi
Muad'Dib of the Anauroch
Just saw it tonight.
I gave it ***stars (Good).
It was definitely fun, action packed, and had quite a few humorous sections (usually clever comments linking it to past movies and series - I especially liked how Scotty had gotten in trouble for trans-warp teleporting Admiral Archer's beagle
).
It was wonderfully campy and retro in spots, while still being cutting edge and incredibly modern the rest of the time. My only real criticism is one that a lot of people have brought up - way too much "shaky cam".
It was completely irreverent to previous movies, series, and cannon - but it worked. They even state in the movie that they are essentially in an alternate reality due to the actions of Nero. If one goes into it expecting it to be closely related to the movies and series that came before - you'll probably be disapointed. If you view it as a stand alone or an alternate reality retelling, then one will probably quite enjoy it.
Will it go down in history as a classic like "The Wrath of Khan"? Personally, I doubt it. At least it won't be for me. But, it was a very fun, action packed romp through a familiar and well known, yet changed, world. Definitely worth seeing.
I gave it ***stars (Good).
It was definitely fun, action packed, and had quite a few humorous sections (usually clever comments linking it to past movies and series - I especially liked how Scotty had gotten in trouble for trans-warp teleporting Admiral Archer's beagle
).It was wonderfully campy and retro in spots, while still being cutting edge and incredibly modern the rest of the time. My only real criticism is one that a lot of people have brought up - way too much "shaky cam".
It was completely irreverent to previous movies, series, and cannon - but it worked. They even state in the movie that they are essentially in an alternate reality due to the actions of Nero. If one goes into it expecting it to be closely related to the movies and series that came before - you'll probably be disapointed. If you view it as a stand alone or an alternate reality retelling, then one will probably quite enjoy it.
Will it go down in history as a classic like "The Wrath of Khan"? Personally, I doubt it. At least it won't be for me. But, it was a very fun, action packed romp through a familiar and well known, yet changed, world. Definitely worth seeing.
I really enjoyed it.
It's the third best trek film ever (Khan is #1 and #2 is Galaxy Quest)
LOVED Urban as Bones. Quinto was very good as Spock. Pegg is hilarious as always and makes a great Scotty.
Pine was okay, but missed out on one of Kirk's defining characteristics, his rock solid, absolute confidence and air of command. Admittedly, he was only a Lt for most of the movie, but it was one of the things that made you believe Starship Captains were a breed apart.
Two minor quibbles
1) Red Matter/Black Hole bomb - Er, if you have a weapon that can create a black hole that will suck an entire planet into it in about 5 min, then WHY do you need to drill anything? Just let it go. It's obvious why they did it from a dramatic point of view (the drilling device served a number of plot points), but would putting a little bit more thought into things have hurt?
2) Virtually no off planet Vulcans? - I realize that Vulcans do seem to be somewhat insular, but they were also clearly established as a major star faring race. I mean there's WAAAAAYYYY more than 10,000 US citizens abroad and we've only got a population of 300 million.
I was pleased that they showed a bit more imagination than was in a ST short story I read many years ago as to how Kirk beat the Kobayashi Maru scenario (Short answer : He changed it so that his simply announcing who he was caused the Klingons to surrender).
It's the third best trek film ever (Khan is #1 and #2 is Galaxy Quest)
LOVED Urban as Bones. Quinto was very good as Spock. Pegg is hilarious as always and makes a great Scotty.
Pine was okay, but missed out on one of Kirk's defining characteristics, his rock solid, absolute confidence and air of command. Admittedly, he was only a Lt for most of the movie, but it was one of the things that made you believe Starship Captains were a breed apart.
Two minor quibbles
1) Red Matter/Black Hole bomb - Er, if you have a weapon that can create a black hole that will suck an entire planet into it in about 5 min, then WHY do you need to drill anything? Just let it go. It's obvious why they did it from a dramatic point of view (the drilling device served a number of plot points), but would putting a little bit more thought into things have hurt?
2) Virtually no off planet Vulcans? - I realize that Vulcans do seem to be somewhat insular, but they were also clearly established as a major star faring race. I mean there's WAAAAAYYYY more than 10,000 US citizens abroad and we've only got a population of 300 million.
I was pleased that they showed a bit more imagination than was in a ST short story I read many years ago as to how Kirk beat the Kobayashi Maru scenario (Short answer : He changed it so that his simply announcing who he was caused the Klingons to surrender).
El Mahdi
Muad'Dib of the Anauroch
Pseudonym
Ivan Alias
I finally got a babysitter and was able to catch this with my wife. At the end there was applause, and I agree with most here: it was an excellent movie.
Good was the fact that they mentioned that by traveling back in time Spock/Nero created an alternate universe that we get to see unfold in this and hopefully a few more films. That said, there was a lot of nods to the Trekness of it all. Nice that Pike was in a wheelchair at the end when Kirk took over. I can't wait to see what extras the DVD will have.
Mark
CreativeMountainGames.com
LightPhoenix
First Post
Overall I liked it.
I think all the positives/negatives have been gone over by everyone else, so I'm not going to mention them.
I'm getting really tired of time travel in sci-fi. When used well it's excellent. However, most of the time I think it's just a lazy plot device. It wasn't used awfully here, but I'm not convinced it was strictly necessary.
I consider this to be an origin story, effectively. Like all origin stories, the onus of having to go through the origin makes the story a little weaker. It's my opinion that most of the time a series (movie or tv) gets vastly better once the origin stuff is out of the way.
I didn't catch the Admiral Archer reference. Doh.
This is a semi-fan wank, but it may depend on how strong the black hole is. If you've read anything on the LHC/Black Hole debate, it's the same general principle. Small black holes will "evaporate", but perhaps the added bonus of a planet's gravity helps stabilize it long enough.
Though I'll admit, the whole black hole physics was wonky in the movie. I chalk it up to deus ex machina.
I think all the positives/negatives have been gone over by everyone else, so I'm not going to mention them.
I'm getting really tired of time travel in sci-fi. When used well it's excellent. However, most of the time I think it's just a lazy plot device. It wasn't used awfully here, but I'm not convinced it was strictly necessary.
I consider this to be an origin story, effectively. Like all origin stories, the onus of having to go through the origin makes the story a little weaker. It's my opinion that most of the time a series (movie or tv) gets vastly better once the origin stuff is out of the way.
I didn't catch the Admiral Archer reference. Doh.
Rackhir said:
This is a semi-fan wank, but it may depend on how strong the black hole is. If you've read anything on the LHC/Black Hole debate, it's the same general principle. Small black holes will "evaporate", but perhaps the added bonus of a planet's gravity helps stabilize it long enough.
Though I'll admit, the whole black hole physics was wonky in the movie. I chalk it up to deus ex machina.
Pseudonym
Ivan Alias
I'll give them credit that they at least didn't go with the slingshot-around-the-sun method used in previous Trek movies.
