And I’m an original watcher of TOS (I was 13!)
Even when young, I always ‘reimagined’ the show on the fly; improving the ship, the effects, the actors, always tweaking it to fit my imagination.
And this movie is the tweak. The main character casting (Kirk/Spock/McCoy) works and it’s what makes the movie for me.
Was there a plot? A villain? Oh yes, I think I saw some of that fly by… 
If only this could be a show.
I liked the fact that not one moment of the movie was wasted. I did find the visuals a bit overwhelming at times. Way to much white. I did like the fact that the Enterprise and other ships came in at all angles.
I agree with you. Part of me wishes that they wouldn’t have gone with the seemingly out of place slapstick (Kirk balloon fingers? Scotty pulling a keystone cops in the water tubes?)
So, just so I am clear on this point: Movie = awesome. They did a great job and I won’t take that away from them. Were my expectations high? Yes. Were my expectations met? Jury still out. I stick to my guns on this…I look forward to the second installment where they weren’t trying to introduce the story, re-introduce characters, play to the new viewers, respect the ‘experienced’ Trekkers and somehow sneak a plot in there.
Got back from seeing it in imax with 9 GWCer’s in new york!!! was soooo awesome! i loved it. loved the acting, very funny, spectacular special effects, and an awesome score. and i really love that nero’s jump back in time starts an entirely new timeline for us, in which anything can happen. a brilliant way of tying it in to previous content. it was awesome seeing it with fellow gwcers, and can’t wait till the next one!
As a non-trekkie, I have no idea if this movie correctly captured the spirit of TOS or not. I just remember seeing the TNG movies from the 90s, and thinking to myself that none of the characters are strong enough to carry the movies, and the story line is very hard to get excited about. There were some Sci-fi elements that I found kinda cool. But overall… meh.
This new movie? I thought originally it’s gonna be Star Trek, bastardized and dumbed down with emo teens and space teen heroes… it’s gonna be stupid. Now that I’ve seen it, yeah, it’s a little silly here and there, but I thought the characters were strong enough to carry the movie. The pace of the movie was great, the story line was compelling (in a sense that it was no stupider than it was expected to be), and it set the stage for more movies and even possibly a new “rebooted” series.
All in all, I was very happy with it. I liked it a lot.
(Oh, and Uhura was hot.)
And to balance it out: Spock is Sexy. Yes. With a capital S
OK, since I tell other people to post the whys of their disagreements: Some of the things that bothered me:
[ul]
[li]The Trek Babies thing. Did we need to meet everyone in this movie? Including Chekow?
[/li][li]The plot made zero sense. Once Nero had the red matter stuff (and that in itself is just bizarre) he had the means to SAVE ROMULUS! But instead he decides to destroy Federation planets. W.T.F.? (And no, ‘crazy with grief/rage/patience’ doesn’t do it for me.)
[/li][li] Also, what the hell was going on there? Was it Romulus’ sun that was exploding? Because turning it into a black hole seem to be an inappropriate response.
[/li][li]Spock doing the crouch pose on the transporter pad… for no apparent reason. (Not a huge WTF, but still…)
[/li][li]Spock and Uhura. Smacks of the kind of thing that works well in the writers room, but doesn’t really translate.
[/li][li]The Orion girl. Are we just ignoring Enterprise? (Not that I’m not OK with that.)
[/li][li]Sulu’s switch-katana. First, how is that a good idea? Second, screw his whole multicultural western fencing thing. He’s a Jap, give him a katana.
[/li][li]Multiple tries at the Kobayashi Maru? No wonder Uhura et al. hate Kirk. They’re dragged into it each time. And it’s a test that you, by design, cannot pass. Why even allow someone to retake it?
[/li][li]And it’s programmed by Spock? It doesn’t seem like the kind a test a Vulcan would conc ieve of, unless he was just frakin’ with humans.
[/li][li]And while I loved the fan service, there were too many shots of aliens (e.g., Arex?) that were shown for a second, and then NEVER SEEN AGAIN. Why bother?
[/li][li]Kirk being chased by the Fuzzy Thing, which is taken out by the Insect Thing. Which then abandons the much larger, and now dead, piece of meat in order to chase the much smaller piece of meat. (The GF finds this perfectly understandable.)
[/li][li]Random encounter with Spock, (OK, I get the “All our yesterdays” ref) who then presents the info dump, but handicaps his old friend by gauging friendship higher than, you know, the actual job to be done. Wouldn’t a mind-meld with his young self do the job better?
[/li][li]Delta Vega is what? A moon of Vulcan? Because that was one hell of a view. Even then, he could have seen it a lot better if he was on, say, THE SHIP DESTROYING THE PLANET AT THE TIME.
[/li][li]Ejecting the warp core(s) in order to escape the singularity. That’s like someone worried that another car is gaining on them, so they throw their engine at them.
[/li][li]Also, Kirk graduates as a Captain? A bit to precocious for my tastes.
[/li][/ul]
Again, I didn’t hate it, and it may just be the hump I have to get over to get everyone together for the next movie. Maybe the Odd/Even thing still holds true.
Well at least in regards to the multiple Kobayashi Maru takings, i’m pretty sure that was established in Wrath of Khan, but you have raised a number of interesting questions.
BTW speaking of the Orion Girl room mate. What ship was she dispatched to? I hope It was the E. If not I hope she got into a life boat before it all ended.
I wants to see more and less of her, if you know what I mean.
Me too. I was hooked almost immediately. Really looking forward to more.
So I’ll toss in my $.02.
Generally speaking, I like the movie.
Stuff I loved:
The acting, the character interactions, the people playing the characters, really got them right and made a potentially ‘meh’ story much, much better. I can’t think of an actor that put in less than an above average performance.
Stuff that bothered me:
The engine room looked like a Pepsi bottling plant and not an engine room. Why was there so much open space? Was the ship like the TARDIS? because it looked like the engine room was larger on the inside than the ship. And what kind of coolent system has windows on the pipes?
The let the kids have the ship attitude of Star Fleet. One thing that really ticked me off about Starship Trooper (Sucking with the power of a thousand suns) is that teenaged crew are given very high rank and do some dangerous showing off. Kirk’s smart(sorryBarb) actions in the Kobiashi Maru simulator should have thrown him out of Star Fleet. And the Enterprise not have another officer aboard the ship that had, O’ a week of experience more than Kirk, and how did he get promoted 6 levels in rank from Cadet to Captain? Who assigns a cadet to command a fleet heavy cruiser that is the flagship of the Federation?
Why did the Romulan ship have puddles of water all over the place?
There were some style issues that I had a problem with:
Why did they do a really cool bit where you see a person being sucked out and you hear the sound disappear as you leave the ship, but then you hear all of the stuff happening outside of the ship? I wish they had been brave and actually had no sound in space.
Also, way too many close ups. Can’t say why it bothered me, just made me uncomfortable.
Like I said, I generally like the movie, but a few things did bother me.
I’d like to add to your list, but nothing on this list is as strong as your above quote:
The whole of planet Vulcan couldn’t figure out a way to take out the drill when it only took three guys parachuting onto it to destroy it?
What was up with Olson pulling his cord at the last minute, WTF? And he was the only one with charges? Is that logical?
They didn’t give Kirk a phaser in the escape pod to fend for himself?
The animals on cold planet Delta Vega don’t have fur? BTW monster hot breathe on the hero has been done (Pirates of the Carribean)
Kirk has incredible finger strength not once but twice (drill platform, on the Romulan ship) right after his hands were swollen up. Hanging by your fingers is such a cheap dramatic device and guess what, I don’t recall it ever happening in BSG.
Scotty’s cute comic relief alien friend with the ill fitting Star Fleet jersey at the end? Bones, I think I’m going to puke on you.
Is there any possible explanation for the water tubes that Simon Pegg gets beamed into with the escape hatch and clear see thru casing in some parts? That was a very Galaxy Quest moment.
All in all I thought that this movie just further underlined why BSG is so much better than Star Trek. If RDM had been in charge I think it would have been a much more grittier realistic movie that I could have gotten behind a lot more…
So I got to see the movie tonight and, not being a long time fan, I can only say
HOT DAMN WHAT A COOL FRAKKING MOVIE!!!
Seriously, it was so much fun, plain old fun. Haven’t had this much fun at the movies since Iron Man…and Trek was way more fun.
More on spoilery reactions later. I’m going to bed now.
Yes. I’d even go so far as to ask how could you NOT introduce everyone? Even though Chekov wasn’t introduced in TOS until the 2nd season, he’s very much a firmly established part of Star Trek & I think 99.99% of fans would’ve wondered why he wasn’t included.
The plot made zero sense. Once Nero had the red matter stuff (and that in itself is just bizarre) he had the means to SAVE ROMULUS! But instead he decides to destroy Federation planets. W.T.F.? (And no, ‘crazy with grief/rage/patience’ doesn’t do it for me.)
“Zero” is way too big a stretch (it always amuses me when someone claims a movie has no plot, ALL movies have a plot & story, some are just stronger or weaker than others) but you have a good point about the red matter. The only (kinda halfassed) explanation I can offer is that it was established in the Countdown comics that Nero was dead-set on revenge more than anything else. True, nobody should be required to read something outside of the movie in order to get a point across in the movie, and this isn’t even a very strong explanation, hence the halfassedness, haha.
Also, what the hell was going on there? Was it Romulus’ sun that was exploding? Because turning it into a black hole seem to be an inappropriate response.
It was Romulus’s sun, the idea was that by creating a black hole in the middle of it, the two would cancel each other out. Still not sure how that applied in the Narada’s case at the end, guess that’s a black plothole of sorts.
Spock doing the crouch pose on the transporter pad… for no apparent reason. (Not a huge WTF, but still…)
I can only guess maybe he thought he’d be beaming into potentially cramped surroundings with all the chaos going on. Regardless, is this really a problem?
Spock and Uhura. Smacks of the kind of thing that works well in the writers room, but doesn’t really translate.
I dunno, personally I loved the idea of Kirk NOT getting the girl this time. I remember Dax from DS9 had a thing for Spock as well. Besides, I got the feeling that Vulcan’s destruction & his mother’s death motivated him into becoming more serious & possibly making him spurn romantic relationships. I mean, he pretty much brushed off Uhura afterwards & she looked like it was more than a “not now” kind of thing.
The Orion girl. Are we just ignoring Enterprise? (Not that I’m not OK with that.)
Not having seen much of that series, I don’t get the reference. But it WAS established in this movie that everyone’s lives were altered the second Spock & Nero showed up in their time. Maybe not as drastically as in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, but it’s clear that absolutely nothing from any previous series or movie is set in stone anymore.
Sulu’s switch-katana. First, how is that a good idea? Second, screw his whole multicultural western fencing thing. He’s a Jap, give him a katana.
Wow. NICE racial slur there. And you’re a moderator here? As for the sword, I don’t see the problem. Sulu seemed to pull off a number of martial arts moves for someone trained in fencing. The sword seems more appropriate for his fighting style.
Multiple tries at the Kobayashi Maru? No wonder Uhura et al. hate Kirk. They’re dragged into it each time. And it’s a test that you, by design, cannot pass. Why even allow someone to retake it?
I think that’s the point here, to show that Kirk is the exception and isn’t willing to accept that test’s deadend outcome.
And it’s programmed by Spock? It doesn’t seem like the kind a test a Vulcan would conc ieve of, unless he was just frakin’ with humans.
He’s an academy instructor, it makes sense that he’d not only create tests but also create this specific one. If anything, I’d think he’d be one of the only people to conceive of such a test. He even explained that it’s purpose was to evaluate how a Captain will perform under fear of certain death.
And while I loved the fan service, there were too many shots of aliens (e.g., Arex?) that were shown for a second, and then NEVER SEEN AGAIN. Why bother?
Uh, it’s Star Trek? I don’t think this is anything new to the movie series. You have interesting nitpicks, I’ll give ya that.
Kirk being chased by the Fuzzy Thing, which is taken out by the Insect Thing. Which then abandons the much larger, and now dead, piece of meat in order to chase the much smaller piece of meat. (The GF finds this perfectly understandable.)
While this is an age-old chase occurrence that doesn’t seem to make sense, I’d guess that the predator is more focused on catching the moving target than it is on eating. Sure, it’s most likely he’s hunting for food, but it’s not impossible that he might be going after an intruder on it’s territory. So it either makes sense or doesn’t depending on your POV.
Random encounter with Spock, (OK, I get the “All our yesterdays” ref) who then presents the info dump, but handicaps his old friend by gauging friendship higher than, you know, the actual job to be done. Wouldn’t a mind-meld with his young self do the job better?
I had a problem with both Spock and Scotty being on the same planet that Kirk just happened to be dumped onto. But Spock did indicate that his younger self must not be even made aware of his older self’s existence. The idea of meeting your future self has long been a sci-fi tradition of implied doom or something to be avoided at all costs. Of course, this doesn’t explain why Spock DOES go to meet his younger self at the end, I guess he got homesick haha.
Delta Vega is what? A moon of Vulcan? Because that was one hell of a view. Even then, he could have seen it a lot better if he was on, say, THE SHIP DESTROYING THE PLANET AT THE TIME.
This reminded me of Khan’s “wish to go on hurting you” from Star Trek II. I’d guess that Nero realized the Enterprise crew pulled something & chose to not risk getting caught up in the singularity. It’s not specifically stated WHEN he marooned Spock, but it could’ve been a last-minute decision. Spock hadn’t met Scotty until Kirk came along, so he may not have been there before the Narada arrived at Vulcan.
Ejecting the warp core(s) in order to escape the singularity. That’s like someone worried that another car is gaining on them, so they throw their engine at them.
Except your car’s engine isn’t likely to explode. Scotty was hoping the cores’ explosion would provide enough force to propel them out of the singularity’s pull. Since they were already at (I assume maximum) warp & losing ground, there wasn’t much to lose by trying.
Also, Kirk graduates as a Captain? A bit to precocious for my tastes.
Most likely a need for new Captains after losing most of them to the Narada, combined with Kirk’s field promotion to First Officer & then to Captain, as well as him saving Earth. Seemed pretty rationalized to me.
Again, I didn’t hate it, and it may just be the hump I have to get over to get everyone together for the next movie. Maybe the Odd/Even thing still holds true.
I sure hope so, I don’t know that I’d be able to read through a list of disagreements from a movie you HATE, let alone respond to it.
Someone in a red shirt had to die, so I assumed this was their way making that happened.
Not sure why Olson was the only one with the charges, maybe he was the only one Pike trusted.
And… I was just informed by my friend that Kal Penn made a cameo. I will be checking this tomorrow at the Imax.
Do me now, I’d love to see your reactions to my list!
I will not be forced into coitus with anyone I just met on a bbs. 
- The whole of planet Vulcan couldn’t figure out a way to take out the drill when it only took three guys parachuting onto it to destroy it?
Since it was shown to be a bit of slight-of-hand on Pike’s part, I’m assuming nobody on Vulcan had the ability to sneak someone onto the drill from the ground without being shot down. And it only took two guys. Besides, the Vulcans were probably too busy discussing the logic behind such an attack to actually do anything. :rolleyes:
- What was up with Olson pulling his cord at the last minute, WTF? And he was the only one with charges? Is that logical?
I think once the “gung-ho red shirt” was introduced, all bets were off. Personally, I thought that just shooting at the drill was more of a stretch than Olson taking his “last-minute” orders too seriously.
- They didn’t give Kirk a phaser in the escape pod to fend for himself?
Haha, I don’t think Spock particularly cared about Kirk’s well-being after kicking him off the ship. And even if he did, he probably figured Kirk’d make it to the Federation outpost somehow in the likely event he ignored the pod’s warning to stay put & wait for rescue.
- The animals on cold planet Delta Vega don’t have fur? BTW monster hot breathe on the hero has been done (Pirates of the Carribean)
That 1st animal seemed pretty furry to me, and the 2nd was probably big enough to not care. Regardless of appearance, anything that actually lived in that climate had probably adapted to the cold. I’m also pretty sure PotC wasn’t the first to do the monster breath/roar thing, though they did do it well.
- Kirk has incredible finger strength not once but twice (drill platform, on the Romulan ship) right after his hands were swollen up. Hanging by your fingers is such a cheap dramatic device and guess what, I don’t recall it ever happening in BSG.
It stands to reason that if McCoy could administer something that gave that reaction so quickly, he’d also (eventually) find something to alleviate it as rapidly. I agree with the hanging-over-the-edge thing, but at least Kirk had the seemingly rare thought to actually SHIFT his hands to avoid the 1st few stomps by the Romulan. And please don’t even suggest that BSG never used “cheap” dramatic devices.
- Scotty’s cute comic relief alien friend with the ill fitting Star Fleet jersey at the end? Bones, I think I’m going to puke on you.
I missed the jersey part, but Kirk’s line to McCoy was a direct tossback to the 1st thing McCoy said to Kirk when they met on the shuttle. Plus he probably WAS going to, being pumped full of whatever McCoy gave him to make him sick enough to take on board the Enterprise as a patient.
- Is there any possible explanation for the water tubes that Simon Pegg gets beamed into with the escape hatch and clear see thru casing in some parts? That was a very Galaxy Quest moment.
I noticed one of the elbows was labeled “____ inert reactant”, could just be something akin to the water pump in your car, don’t think it really matters what the exact purpose is. Besides, that whole bit kinda lends credence to Scotty’s perpetual claim of knowing the ship inside & out. :rolleyes:
All in all I thought that this movie just further underlined why BSG is so much better than Star Trek. If RDM had been in charge I think it would have been a much more grittier realistic movie that I could have gotten behind a lot more…
He wasn’t in charge, but he did have a big hand in several TNG & DS9 episodes, especially the 7th & final season of DS9. He also killed Kirk in “Generations”. Not really disagreeing with your thought, just pointing out that he has a history with Star Trek.
And Kirk would have spent a great deal of time wallowing in self-pity and crying on the deck.
Bottom line, if you liked the movie, you will overlook the shortcomings of the movie. One can nit-pick anything to death.
Good job Geof on all your responses but you really got me stone cold on that one!
Spoilers
I really enjoyed Trek XI. I watched it with a group of GWCers in NYC Saturday afternoon, at an Imax theater.
Of course, the major hurdle in convincing we TOS fans that this new incarnation is going to be worth our future time and money:
The Characters. How they interact. There’s a special chemistry that has been missing for quite awhile. It’s what makes Star Trek what it is, more so than the bells, lights, and photon torpedoes.
And on that count, I say: Complete Home Run. They pegged it.
Watching young Kirk and Spock as they were, each at war with themselves because they were trying to live up to, or turn their backs on, what they believed was expected of them. Light years apart, completely different lives, and yet very much the same, for reasons set for them at birth or before. Both rebels at heart, with different ways of expressing their inner conflicts. I thot watching Quinto and Pine in scenes together was just amazing. I believed I was with ‘my characters’ again. They captured the magic, imho.
Likewise Urban and Saldana. Uhura’s new persona is a terrific update. We’ve always known Uhura was dope, and now we have confirmation as to her awesomeness. A smart, modern woman who fends for herself and goes after what, (and who) she wants. And Urban’s McCoy! If someone told me there was a 'Bones Suit" that he’d slipped on prior to filming, I’d believe them. His backstory as a divorcee with nowhere else to go (“She took the whole planet”) is a great explanation for why a guy who hates space so damn much is headed out to the black. His banter with Kirk and Spock is hilarious and dead-on.
The supporting actors did an admirable job as well, imho. Let’s face it, they all have a razor-edged line to walk between pulling off something we’re all happy with and parody, and I think overall they accomplished that.
Back from the Future Spock, who’s plotline is a little too contrived for my taste, did serve the important and appreciated (to me) role of passing the torch, and establishing that while this is Star Trek, it’s going to be different, folks. Timelines and events are up for grabs now. It’s not your grandad’s Trek anymore.
With a little time and effort, hell, it might even be better.
Now off to listen to the podcast!