Originally Posted By trekkeruss I was gonna go to the matinee today, but my mom wasn't up to it, so we'll go on Monday. The reviews I've seen are good, so I'm a bit excited (and relieved it's not a stinker!)
Originally Posted By markymouse I saw it yesterday as well. I liked it but I didn't love it. I thought McCoy was dead on. And Chekov was a hoot. But ... and this IS the thread with spoilers ... as a long time fan, I did not like the Spock and Uhura story. Poor Nurse Chapel. She's been waiting since, what, 1964. Spock finally decides he has a taste for earth girl lovin' and its not with Nurse Chapel. That is so unfair. Apparently, miss nurse, Spock has no trouble expressing love, he just doesn't like you. I don't think so. But I understand why he had to be hot for Uhura and not Nurse Chapel. That would have required two female characters. And action movies are generally only allowed one female character. Either that or forty years of canon was thrown out the window for no other reason than to allow for one joke in which Spock reveals Uhura's first name.
Originally Posted By Rsey103 I saw it this afternoon and walked out. It was too noisy, felt a headache coming on. Man, they had the volume cranked up. I'll see the rest of it on DVD where I can control the sound.....
Originally Posted By Mort2 I saw it earlier today. I give it an A. A great refresh of classic characters.
Originally Posted By hopemax >Either that or forty years of canon was thrown out the window for no other reason than to allow for one joke in which Spock reveals Uhura's first name. < Well, a central point of the movie is that once Nemo came through the black hole, the timeline as we knew it no longer exists for anyone but Spock Prime. Forget Spock's love interests, we went from Spock not have been through the Kobayashi Maru scenario in Wrath of Khan to programming it for Kirk's test. I think the cast is signed for 2 more films, I think we'll be seeing a lot more turning things on its head and away from canon. We saw it this afternoon, and both DH and I enjoyed it. The main cast all did a really great job, and the movie had good pacing, and a good balance between light and heavy stuff. Everything a good summer blockbuster should have.
Originally Posted By brotherdave I saw it today. And although the acting was good, it did have a few things I didn't like. MANY SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! The cast: Kirk was good, although a bit too rambunctious at times. Still, he was adequate in the role. Captain Christopher Pike has a MAJOR role. HIS timline gets changed dramatically from the original series, but that part I didn't seem to mind. His character is GREAT and I'm glad to see he'll most likely be back in the next installment! Spock and McCoy are dead on look alikes. The actor portraying McCoy seems to be almost channeling DeForrest Kelly. He's spot on! Spock is equally done well. At times, I thought I was looking at a young Leonard Nimoy. Scotty was great, except his entrance is much too late. We need to see more of our favorite Chief Engineer! Chekov was an absolute hoot! He was sort of a combination of the Chekov we all know and love, with a little bit of Wesley Crusher thrown in. Very good! Uhura was a bit TOO sexy for the role (though I could overlook it, she is definiely hot!). I'm not as happy with her attempted seduction of Spock. Especially after the tragedy he just witnessed. Very inappropriate and so against the storylines of the orignal series. Sulu was good, but did not have much to do except for the sword fight on the Romulan drill midway through the film. I did like his mistake when engaging the Warp drive for the first time. Very funny. Nero (Romulan Villain from the future) was evil enough, but his 'quest' seemed far-fetched at times, and his demise seemed very anti-climatic. I also liked the many references to previous Trek canon (Kobyashi Maru test, Spock's famous "I am, and always shall be, your friend" statement from STII, the mention of Captain Archer from Enterprise and his beagle, etc. Good stuff for Trek fans to digest. My beefs: The jerky, hand-held camera work, especially of the space battles was very annoying, almost nauseating on a large screen. It DOES NOT translate well to the large screen, nor does it look 'right' in the Trek universe. It's very similar to the recent Battlestar Galactica series in style, and felt more like BSG than Star Trek at times. I personally prefer more stationary camera shots in this type of film. It's much more polished. The storyline was confusing at times, which leaves doesn't convince me why Nero had to go back in time to... (MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD!) ...Destroy Vulcan!!! I realize its impact would be major in a storyline, but Vulcan has ALWAYS played a major role in Trek lore. I'm sorry, but the destruction of Vulcan and the death of Amanda is just not necessary. Some other 'tragedy' could have sufficed, but it really skews the timeline in a major way. I suppose that was JJ Abrams intent, but I have a feeling that most loyal Trek fans will not like this. Perhaps a time travel plot in the next installment can correct this (and the fate of Romulus, too) in a future sequel. THAT may redeem it some, but to change the future so drastically basically puts all previous episodes (including ST:TNG, DS9, and Voyager) and movies into limbo. Much of the previous timeline will get lost, especially with the original series. Sorry, too many liberties taken here. Seeing Leonard Nimoy as old Spock was great, but he didn't really offer much, unfortunately. Somehow, he should have tried to 'right' what went wrong. He certainly could have tried, or said that he would attempt to in the storyline. Sadly, he just 'accepts' what's happened to his homeworld and goes on to help rebuild it elsewhere. Overall, I have to say I enjoyed most of it. I just wish it didn't turn the Trek world so much on its side. Perhaps all of this will get rectified in a future installment.
Originally Posted By Ursula brotherave, I think the plot was such that we DON'T lose what has happened before...instead, we have an alternate universe and timeline. Nothing is changed, we are just on a time tangent. I loved it. I was so worried and I really afraid JJ Abrams and crew would really destroy the canon. Instead he just made another one and I'm good with that.
Originally Posted By brotherdave The funny thing is, I don't even consider myself a "Trekkie". Just a loyal fan who's watched all incarnations of the show since I was a child in the 70s when I discovered the original series in reruns. Except for a few models of the ships when I was a kid, that was as far as my fandom went. I never was interested in reading any of the other books and stories that were created for it. To me, it was just a fun show to watch. Yet, somehow, I felt 'cheated' by the alternate timeline created in this movie. Almost like after all of these years of watching the different series has now been for nothing because it is now all re-imagined. I suppose that this was the only way to 'reboot' the series so it would not be completely boxed in by what had happened in the previous stories. Please note that I don't hate this new film, just not exactly happy with some of the liberties taken. I'm also not a fan of the 'hand-held' jerky camerawork. It just was very, very annoying to me.
Originally Posted By ctdsnark So,I'm not the only one---I saw it last night,and basically liked it,but I found the altered timeline distressing;I thought perhaps,with Nero's defeat,the damaged timeline HAD been restored,I just didn't pick up on whatever-far-too-subtle clue they had at the end.I agree with brotherdave---that's far too great a change to a mythology that's existed for some forty-odd years.
Originally Posted By markymouse I actually closed my eyes at times during the previews, thinking I'd have to put up with it during the movie, but I didn't have to endure ten minutes of it before the movie too. I just think it would have been a cool "standing canon on its head" change for Spock and Nurse Chapel to be all hot and heavy for each other. Spock and Uhura is so out of left field, I have no investment in it. It is also such a blatant jab at the Kirk character. Kirk is a skirt chaser but Spock gets the girl. Yeah, we get it. Much of later Star Trek has suffered from the inability to see James T. Kirk and/or William Shatner as anything but a joke. And so did this movie, at least in some of the Kirk/Spock scenes and any Kirk/female character scenes. I am glad this movie mostly took its universe seriously. For instance, the Enterprise, though crewed by cadets, was fully functioning. In the movies the Enterprise was invariably just out of space dock and being repaired or whatever and was never at full flagship capacity. One place I'm really glad the movie wasn't too serious was Chekov and his security code. Weector Weector That was hilarious.
Originally Posted By markymouse Whoops. Too much editing, not enough re-reading. "It" above refers to the frantic camera work.
Originally Posted By jasmine7 I went in with a great deal of trepidation, but I absolutely loved it. I got choked up at the opening scene and at the destruction of Vulcan. My only gripe was that Scotty didn't appear soon enough (but the way in which he was introduced was ace!). I'm taking the whole AU situation better than I expected. I guess being a comics fan, I'm used to 40 years of canon being shot out the window with a retcon.
Originally Posted By ecdc Wow. I'm surprised by the overall ho-hum response. I'm not a trekkie, but I'm a pretty decent fan. I've seen all the original series. What's a bigger surprise is I've been a critic of J. J. Abrams for a while - hated Cloverfield - and I thought he knocked this out of the park. This was a great film that had the perfect blend of a "reboot" and a homage to the original. Superb acting and I loved that this was more a story about Spock than anything. My own real beef is the convenient plotline of having Kirk land on the same planet, and miraculously end up in the same cave, as alternate world Spock. How about a line or two explaining how Spock was actually waiting for him or something. Or even something about fate. But...coincidence? As for Star Trek canon, I just don't think the film owes much to the past. They need to make a good film, and if they do that, then mission accomplished. Obviously if they disregarded it to such an extent that the average viewer wouldn't even recognize it as Star Trek, then it probably wouldn't be all that popular of a film.
Originally Posted By BrnardM Yes, that openning scene really sold it! I didn't expect to be so involved within the first five minutes, but there you go. High marks to everyone involved here, especially the writers, who didn't write a movie that was exclusive to fans or Joe Public. And there were plenty enough references for the fans! I have to say though, love it or hate it, the alternate reality setup was perhaps the best thing about the movie. If you think about it, the new series can go absolutely anywhere without treading on, or contradicting the show we all know, and it subtly helped excuse the change in tone for the series. As much as I love Casino Royale, I was bothered that the twenty other films in that series were just 'poofed' away (What! No cold war?). In true Kirk fashion, the writers have found a way around that.
Originally Posted By BrnardM P.S. Regarding the fate of Vulcan, I'm convinced that J.J. Abrams is still suffering from Superman envy. So, if he couldn't blow up Krypton....
Originally Posted By oc_dean I largely enjoyed the film. I've been waiting for this since the end of the franchise following "Nemises". The biggest problem that does not gel right ...... By the end of the film .... Not only does 23rd Century Spock know that not only does he suffer from the loss of his planet, and the loss of his mother ... but is also aware that his future-self is the sole one responsible for the destruction of it in Nero's hands???? How does this new crew go "boldy where no has before" for the next few decades with Spock having that on his conscience?!!! All the moral and emotional implications are so high .. how does he make it to the next day ... let alone the next few years for outer space adventures? That's just screwed up. Does not gel! So .... I picture the sequel a means to save Romulus and subsequently Vulcan. Time travel is apparently so easy ... as portrayed in Star Trek 4, and an episode in which they travel to the year 1968 to make "general observations" .... So .... I just can't see how the new "tenants" of the franchise so easily invalidate 40 years of known Vulcan history between the various shows and films. It's like Bobby Ewing on Dallas waking up one morning ... after the fact he was "apparently" killed off ... and just negated the entire season before as just one big dream. Hey ... when they infuse the time travel changes .. and just write off all that known history .... you're gonna p*ss off a lot of fans. I expect the next film to make those necessary fixes. Two more things - So ... you have these 23rd century ships with all this incredible technology .. yet the Kelvin and the Enterprise engineering sections - that make the ship travel faster than the speed of light .... look like 20th Century Beer Brewery. Where's the warp core? Or was it represented in some nondescript silver canister like the rest of "beer brewery" factory?! Then another error ..... 'M Class planet Delta Vega?' Planet??? Try a MOON of Vulcan. The distance of Vulcan from Spock's position watching it being sucked up into a black hole ... gives a distance from the point of being on a moon of Vulcan. And being so close to Vulcan .. how is it that it is so sparsely populated with just one measly outpost where Scotty is discovered ...yet, neighboring Vulcan is an advanced world of 6 billion? So ... those are my gripes. Overall though .... it was great. The other problem is the "lightning storm" thing. When Nero's ship was emerging from the other side of the black hole ... and came in contact with the Kelvin ... the lightning thing was apparently created out of the black hole. Yet .... when they say there's a "lightning storm" at Vulcan .. it's not Nero's ship coming out of a black hole. It would just be him coming out of warp. Good movie though! Now ... I hope writers at Paramount are seriously considering fixing the timeline for the sequel!
Originally Posted By DlandDug We saw this Sunday, and I was very impressed. The kids, who had only vaguest notion of the original series, loved it. Two big issues for me were the destruction of Vulcan/death of Amanda and the whole Spock/Uhura romance. I hope that the time travel possibilities will solve the former. Still scratching my head over the latter. (At least Uhura is more than just a glorified phone operator in this revival of the franchise!) I didn't realize I knew so much about the original series and much that followed. Here are a couple of things I caught in just this viewing... The sight of the Vasquez Rocks (used for the surface of Vulcan), where many episodes of the series were shot. The crew sent to the base of the drill consisted of Kirk, Sulu, and... Engineering Officer Oneal. So, of course, we instantly know Oneal will die. And, further honoring the old series, Oneal was dressed in a red shirt! Just hearing (off screen) the line, "I don't need a doctor! I AM a doctor!" told us that McCoy had arrived. Kirk is caught making out with a bright green girl. Sulu's hand-to-hand specialty is fencing. There was a riff from ST4, when Spock gives Scott a formula that Scott himself was credited with in the future. Scott, of course, did the same thing for an engineer on Earth, justifying it by saying, "How do we know he didn't invent it in the first place?" I was very impressed with the way Abrams managed to take a great many elements of the old series, polish them up, and present them in a fresh new way. It looks like it will appeal to new fans, without alienating the old ones. No small trick.
Originally Posted By Labuda "Kobayashi Maru scenario in Wrath of Khan" THANK YOU, HOPEMAX!!! It's been killing me trying to figure out why Kobayashi Mary sounded so darn familiar!
Originally Posted By Labuda "Nothing is changed, we are just on a time tangent. I loved it. I was so worried and I really afraid JJ Abrams and crew would really destroy the canon. Instead he just made another one and I'm good with that." Amen to that, Ursula! I, like brotherdave, am just "kind of" a fan, though to ME he'd be a Trekkie since he had models and has watched all incarnations of the show - I'm movies and STTNG only prior to now. BUT, that being said, I think what they're doing is great and it'll brathe a great life into something that tons of people already love but that was dying. As for me, myself, and I - I LOVED this movie. I was bummed at how late Scotty came in, but absolutely loved the casting and WOW to Bones - he was GREAT! Spock darn good, too. And Kirk is a hottie! One of my favorite scenes was when Bones was getting Kirk on the Enterprise - loved the allergic reactions! hehe I thought this movie did a good job of establishing an alternate timeline for the world of Star Trek. Kudos to JJ Abrams and company!
