Star Trek

[Velorath]

How about the time travel aspect? I recall that it provoked a lot of angst among the "Trek has been dead since the Wrath of Khan" crowd.

I still think the time travel aspect was just there to pander to Star Trek fans who would have otherwise been upset that the Trek timeline they know is now gone, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  It made for a few nice Leonard Nimoy scenes, and the movie as a whole was awesome enough that I could overlook the time travel.

[Yoru]

How about the time travel aspect? I recall that it provoked a lot of angst among the "Trek has been dead since the Wrath of Khan" crowd.

I still think the time travel aspect was just there to pander to Star Trek fans who would have otherwise been upset that the Trek timeline they know is now gone, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  It made for a few nice Leonard Nimoy scenes, and the movie as a whole was awesome enough that I could overlook the time travel.

Saw it last night. This is correct, although I thought the time travel plot device was the weakest link in the entire movie. Particularly since they mash it in your face by explaining it no less than 3 times throughout the film.

Either way, I thought it was a decent summer blockbuster and little more. If you turn your brain on even a little, it's going to scream in agony at all the plot holes and macguffins. As a pretty display of space lazers and space boobies and space guys in space ships throwing space punches, it works great.

[Trippy]

My biggest problem with the time travel/Spock whatever is this: I know nothing about this movie, other than it's Star Trek, and there's mention of time travel, and Leonard Nimoy is in it. So my fear is, if it's all a dream sequence, or a holodeck thing, or even if Leonard Nimoy is seen at the end telling this story to a bunch of kids (God especially that last part) I will freak out. I don't care how good it is. If there's even a hint of retconning, rather than just telling a damn story, I will feel like I wasted my money.

Can someone please answer that for me? I love spoilers. PM me if you don't want to post. I just want a warning!

[Yoru]

Re: What trippy said above, they come right out and confirm that. In dialogue. You don't need to "pretend".

[Quinton]

Catching this with coworkers tomorrow afternoon.  I grew up watching reruns of classic trek after school, enjoyed the classic cheese, was never really a follower of TNG or DS9.  I was not horribly offended by the "reimaging" of BSG, and am hoping trek-rebooted will similarly be a fun ride, borrowing bits and pieces from trek-of-yore as appropriate.

[Trippy]

Re: What trippy said above, they come right out and confirm that. In dialogue. You don't need to "pretend".

[Yoru]

Re: What trippy said above, they come right out and confirm that. In dialogue. You don't need to "pretend".

[Trippy]

Re: What trippy said above, they come right out and confirm that. In dialogue. You don't need to "pretend".

[Yoru]

I am going to cease having this argument for fear of spontaneously sprouting a neckbeard.

[Trippy]

[ShenMolo]

Saw it last night....loved it.

Seeing Nokia and Budweiser product placements in a Star Trek movie was kinda jarring though. I know they gotta pay the bills and all, just saying.

[Slyfeind]

Oh wow. I was totally going to not see it until you posted this. This is exactly what I needed to know, thank you...and it's probably the only retconning I could stomach. I think I didn't want them to tie in to all the previous Star Trek stuff because I'm sick of the previous Star Trek stuff. I don't like Voyager, Next Gen and DS9 was always hit or miss for me, and the original series was fun but nothing worth geeking out about. I like Star Trek, but I'm also tired of it, so...

[Ironwood]

It all sounds good.

Someone said that people were worried about Sylar as Spock.  Really ?  This was the only thing I wasn't worried about !

[Ghambit]

BIG

[Yoru]

It all sounds good.

Someone said that people were worried about Sylar as Spock.  Really ?  This was the only thing I wasn't worried about !

The new Chekov is a whiny little pimply teenager and the new Kirk isn't rugged enough. Those are pretty much the limit of my complaints with the casting.

I do think that the whole movie had the feeling of speed - as if they were rushing through plot points. There's no slow, sedate scenes or any contemplativeness. It's punching scene, shooting scene, stuff blowing up scene, space lazors scene, another punching scene, okay wacky hijinks time, back to punching... Even the new warp speed effect seems oriented towards conveying a sense of the movie rushing by quickly and chaotically.

[Ghambit]

It all sounds good.

Someone said that people were worried about Sylar as Spock.  Really ?  This was the only thing I wasn't worried about !

The new Chekov is a whiny little pimply teenager and the new Kirk isn't rugged enough. Those are pretty much the limit of my complaints with the casting.

I do think that the whole movie had the feeling of speed - as if they were rushing through plot points. There's no slow, sedate scenes or any contemplativeness. It's punching scene, shooting scene, stuff blowing up scene, space lazors scene, another punching scene, okay wacky hijinks time, back to punching... Even the new warp speed effect seems oriented towards conveying a sense of the movie rushing by quickly and chaotically.

The effect of Star Wars fans (Abrams and the entire cast except Sulu) making a Star Trek film.
Kind of a happy medium with this flick I think though, and they've got plenty of room to explore the cerebral aspects in the sequels.  And for the new Trek, you've really gotta come out with more of a bang imo - to rebuild the fanbase.

[ahoythematey]

I don't recall the new chekov ever whining in the movie.  He is a pimply teenager, though.

Embrace the zeitgeist of the moment.  Love your new robot jesus.

[Quinton]

Someone said that people were worried about Sylar as Spock.  Really ?  This was the only thing I wasn't worried about !

this!

As soon as I heard that, I thought "brilliant casting, maybe there's hope."

[ShenMolo]

Someone said that people were worried about Sylar as Spock.  Really ?  This was the only thing I wasn't worried about !

this!

As soon as I heard that, I thought "brilliant casting, maybe there's hope."

I thought he was great. I liked the emphasis on his humanity, his emotions, and the conflict between Vulcan/Human etc etc. He really pulled it off. He managed to be a stud too.

[Zar]

Not much to add other than I really enjoyed this.  Only real complaint I had was that the villain was basically a cardboard cutout, i.e. "MY NAME IS NERO, YOU KILLED MY FAMILY/SPECIES. PREPARE TO DIE." Definitely no Khan here.

I thought all the new actors were great in the roles.  And while it's true that this was more action-oriented than most Star Trek, I don't think that was a bad thing for this reboot.  I look forward to seeing where they take it.

Also, as far as this potentially drawing in new fans, I dragged my wife along, and she thought it was enjoyable as well.   Normally when I start watching one of the various Star Trek series/movies on TV, she's asking me to change the channel within 5 minutes.

[Velorath]

It's dragging a lot of new fans in including a lot of people who wouldn't have been caught dead watching an episode of any of the Star Trek series on TV.

[justdave]

...and the new Kirk isn't rugged enough. Those are...

Rugged? Original young Kirk was so metro the french would be tempted to use him as a form of publi\c transport. That having been said, my main complaint is that he  looks like a goddamn college intern. Kirk was at least in his mid-thirties.

[Ghambit]

...and the new Kirk isn't rugged enough. Those are...

Rugged? Original young Kirk was so metro the french would be tempted to use him as a form of publi\c transport. That having been said, my main complaint is that he  looks like a goddamn college intern. Kirk was at least in his mid-thirties.

Kirk was only 17 when he entered Starfleet.

As for Bana's Nero and the complaints I've been seeing about him.  I kinda agree his character was a bit underdeveloped, but this is done in a perspective I agree with. 

[justdave]

Kirk was only 17 when he entered Starfleet.

Matters not, he was 34 when he got his first command, and was the youngest captain in starfleet. Nevertheless, it's not even a lore thing, he just doesn't look like he would be in charge of the flagship of the entire federation. He looks like a d-bag from marketing to me. 

[Trippy]

Kirk was only 17 when he entered Starfleet.

Matters not, he was 34 when he got his first command, and was the youngest captain in starfleet. Nevertheless, it's not even a lore thing, he just doesn't look like he would be in charge of the flagship of the entire federation. He looks like a d-bag from marketing to me. 

The movie doesn't follow the established timeline cause of all the time travel stuff. Kirk becomes Captain far earlier than he would've otherwise. So the fact that you think he looks like a college intern in fact matches this new timeline. And I thought Chris Pine was fine as his Kirk and was glad he didn't try to do an "homage" to Shatner's.

My only complaint about his character is:

[LK]

They did a fantastic job. Everyone I saw it with (couple hundred nerds) thought it was amazing.

[Venkman]

Loved the movie. Best one in the IP (I didn't get into Trek until Wrath of Khan, so while that was an awesome movie, it didn't have that omgawesomesauce vibe that followed 15+ years of watching 2+ seasons of TOS). This is #1, Khan 2, First Contact 3.

I eagerly await anyone who hated it. I have my guesses

Only one part I wasn't thrilled with, but that was relative (in the spoiler below). They absolutely nailed the casting though. Visual effects, sound, top shelf. I saw it in an IMAX, and I'm not sure I can see it again unless it's in an IMAX. And way more than enough fanservice, enough so that they clearly established which lore they were retaining and which they weren't. I'm still trying to decide which reference I enjoyed the most, and I'm sure I didn't catch all of them.

I do think that non trekkies might miss some of the nuance, but not any more than someone might miss in The Dark Knight if they didn't read the the Batman comics. There was enough here due to decades of pop culture.

Minor nitpick, which isn't spoilerly because it's in the trailers: it's long been part of canon (TV and movies) that Voyager was the first ship to land on a planet after serviving atmospheric entry. I know they wanted a nice scene of Kirk "encountering" the Enterprise, but I'd love to see them get that ship into space. I'm sure it's space elevators or tractors or something, but still.

And yes, I'm nitpicking because while I loved the movie, it wouldn't be Trek without the nitpick.
But I hate time travel, particularly in Trek, because it's so inconsistent. More in the spoiler.

Really hope this becomes a TV series.

[justdave]

See, to me, having it be a whole new reality goes against the point of using 40-year old characters that have their own ingrained expectations. Although, yes, the new-character versions (i.e., Enterprise), well...Yeah.
I'm just having a hard time as seeing this as anything other than a venal attempt to get gen-y butts in seats. I strongly suspect it's just Not For Me.

I'm honestly trying to push back on my admittedly knee-jerk trailer-based nay-say until I see the thing, but. I just have a bad feeling about this drop.

[Merusk]

See, to me, having it be a whole new reality goes against the point of using 40-year old characters that have their own ingrained expectations. Although, yes, the new-character versions (i.e., Enterprise), well...Yeah.
I'm just having a hard time as seeing this as anything other than a venal attempt to get gen-y butts in seats. I strongly suspect it's just Not For Me.

I'm honestly trying to push back on my admittedly knee-jerk trailer-based nay-say until I see the thing, but. I just have a bad feeling about this drop.

We had that discussion earlier. Those who felt that way were told to get their walkers and get out of dodge because ST is old and tired and lame and needs this 'reboot' to make it a valid bit of pop culture again.  I question why it needs to be such, but w/e.

[Ghambit]

So yah, I thought they left some stuff out but you could easily fill in the blanks to make sense of it.  It's not like they flat-out broke a bunch of rules that made the movie make no sense.

[Venkman]

Good thoughts man. Some response:

[justdave]

I'm quite sure I don't get the actual science beyond how they hack it into a story :)

[Ghambit]

The sciency-ness:

p.s.
Trek just broke the Rottentomatoes Tomatometer record for highest positive percentage.  It was at 94%, now it's at 96%. (with over 200 reviews counted)

[Trippy]

Good thoughts man. Some response:

[Trippy]