To Boldly Go ... The Star Trek Thread

[Coast2CoastHoya]

Since today is geek movie thread day .... ;D

Saw the new Star Trek movie on Sunday with Bando. Loved it -- actors, special effects, plot, action, alternate timeline, references to past shows/movies, hot Uhura, all of it. I think it re-vamps the franchise and takes it in a direction it's never gone before (for the better).

Seeing that it's also the #1 grossing movie of the weekend, it seems to have attracted lots of non-Trekkies into the fold (unless lots of folks have been in the closet all these years). Is Star Trek going mainstream? Did the movie do justice to the franchise or destroy some crucial aspect?

Discuss.

www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/

[guru]

May 12, 2009 12:10:23 GMT -5 Coast2CoastHoya said:

Since today is geek movie thread day .... ;D

Saw the new Star Trek movie on Sunday with Bando. Loved it -- actors, special effects, plot, action, alternate timeline, references to past shows/movies, hot Uhura, all of it. I think it re-vamps the franchise and takes it in a direction it's never gone before (for the better).

Seeing that it's also the #1 grossing movie of the weekend, it seems to have attracted lots of non-Trekkies into the fold (unless lots of folks have been in the closet all these years). Is Star Trek going mainstream? Did the movie do justice to the franchise or destroy some crucial aspect?

Discuss.

www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/

All I can say is that I managed to go my whole life without ever watching an entire episode of Star Trek on TV or any of the movies, but I saw the new one last weekend and loved it. The sense I got from what I know of the old stuff is that this is a pretty significant departure that still manages to capture the spirit of its predecessors.

All I really know is that I thought it was the best "summer" action/popcorn flick I've seen in years. Totally fun moviegoing experience.

[SFHoya99]

Overall, I really liked it. SPOILERS BELOW!

In the liked category:

• Acting/Casting. Fantastic job. I was worried about the choices but shouldn't have been. Pine was great as Kirk, Quinto as Spock, etc. Urban is good as Bones, and they even all pulled off their catchphrases without making it cringeworthy (mostly in the flow of the movie). Scottie is apparently going to be comic relief, and I know that's Editeding some people off, but I think it worked.
  
  
• Adding in the little Trekkie things, like Sulu fencing, the green girl, etc. Lots of little nods.
  
  
• Kept it moving and great action but still keeping it Star Trek.
  
  
• Great job maintaining the "optimistic" outlook of the original series.
  
  
• Good to focus on the Spock-Kirk relationship but to include at least a scene for each of the others.
  
  
• Spock and Uhura. I always thought it was weird that Kirk got about 90% of the women. And the whole pity thing worked well.
  

Something that kinda had to be done but I don't have to like it:

• Not making it a true prequel and doing the annoying time travel/alternate universe. I felt like it was Marvel doing one of their usual resets. Annoying copout. I get that if they are using the same cast, it's hard to maintain continuity with so much source material, but gosh this just seems so... a combination of comic books and Lost.
  

The bad:

• The weird homage to Empire Strikes Back
  
  
• Spock throwing Kirk off the Enterprise in a weak plot device to get him off the ship.
  
  
• The land of the lost segment right after those two points. In other words, stay off Hoth and I'm good.
  
  
• The ridiculous, let's stand around and gloat/pretend to try to save the bad guy when we know a black hole is forming. Never mind they are creating black holes left and right...but are you going to stick around? Ughh.
  
  
• Was Vulcan destroyed and Earth really threatened by a mining ship? Really?
  
  

[vcjack]

This is my favorite review

www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film?utm_source=most_pop_pop

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I went and saw it with vcjack and I liked it. I've never watched a full episode of star trek but i know enough pop culture that I got most of the references and thought it was really well done.

J.J. abrams does it again.

[SFHoya99]

Really? A JJ Abrams fan?

The second season of Lost was so atrocious it lost me forever.

Fringe is trash.

Cloverfield?

Armageddon?

I never watched Alias so maybe I'm missing something, but otherwise, I think I liked Star Trek and Regarding Henry.

EDIT: Forgot the crap that was Mission: Impossible III.

[Cambridge]

May 12, 2009 16:45:01 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Really? A JJ Abrams fan?

The second season of Lost was so atrocious it lost me forever.

Fringe is trash.

Cloverfield?

Armageddon?

I never watched Alias so maybe I'm missing something, but otherwise, I think I liked Star Trek and Regarding Henry.

EDIT: Forgot the crap that was Mission: Impossible III.

Cloverfield was aight. Pretty much a solid summer blockbuster. The rest I agree with.

[hoopsmccan]

May 12, 2009 16:45:01 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Really? A JJ Abrams fan?

The second season of Lost was so atrocious it lost me forever.

Fringe is trash.

Cloverfield?

Armageddon?

I never watched Alias so maybe I'm missing something, but otherwise, I think I liked Star Trek and Regarding Henry.

EDIT: Forgot the crap that was Mission: Impossible III.

Um..aren't you forgetting about Felicity?

[TC]

There were some really good seasons of Alias and Felicity (and some really bad ones too - Alias went downhill when they went Rambaldi-artifact crazy, and Felicity jumped a whole swarm of sharks in the last season - even delving into time travel).

The last episode of Felicity was just about the worst episode of any show I've ever seen - they literally must have sat in a meeting and said "how can we make this a worse final episode than St. Elsewhere?"

[HoyaSinceBirth]

ok well I liked alias, I credit him with lost's existence, i appreciated clover field. That's enough for me.

[Boz]

I just had to go review JJ Abrams' IMDB because I refused to believe that he was actually involved with Armageddon.

Sure enough, there it was. I never knew that, I guess. Yeesh, what a disaster.

Interestingly, I also saw that he is involved on a project titled "The Dark Tower." I am praying that this is not a film adaptation of the Stephen King books. Those things were just a mess from start to finish (not that anyone ever read them through to finish). I have always been a big Stephen King fan, but Lord, he didn't know what the hell he was doing with those monstrosities. And unfortunately, he was so famous by the time he started them, that no editor was going to read them and say "You have no idea what you're doing here, do you?"

I can't imagine how awful that would be as a movie.

Also, another project that should be featured in the commercial for Bad Idea jeans: Cloverfield 2.

[SFHoya99]

I actually have read the Dark Tower series from start to finish, and yes, some of the series is a complete mess. The last few books actually have nice cohesion because he wrote them in a short time frame. The first three are written in three different styles, and The Wasteland is just a complete mess of a book. I'm not even sure it qualifies. It's like he didn't know where he wanted to go.

On the other hand, I think Wizard and Glass is the best book of his I've read. It's fantastic. And the ending is PERFECT, even if the last couple of books again ramble a bit.

But it would atrocious as a movie. The Gunslinger itself would actually work okay -- if a bit boring -- because short stories usually do.

[FormerHoya]

May 13, 2009 11:56:51 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

I actually have read the Dark Tower series from start to finish, and yes, some of the series is a complete mess. The last few books actually have nice cohesion because he wrote them in a short time frame. The first three are written in three different styles, and The Wasteland is just a complete mess of a book. I'm not even sure it qualifies. It's like he didn't know where he wanted to go.

On the other hand, I think Wizard and Glass is the best book of his I've read. It's fantastic. And the ending is PERFECT, even if the last couple of books again ramble a bit.

But it would atrocious as a movie. The Gunslinger itself would actually work okay -- if a bit boring -- because short stories usually do.

We couldn't disagree more about this. Yes, the last few books have a "nice cohesion," but this doesn't make up for putting himself into the novel, introducing Harry Potter werewolves, the bizarre departure of Eddie and the kid, and bringing the kid from Insomnia back in the last 20 pages to save the day.

The first book was great in a totally weird way, and I thought The Wasteland was a terrific action story, but I'm a sucker for post apocalyptic storytelling. I thought the series devolved as it went along.

[SFHoya99]

I'm not sure we disagree on everything. W&G is my favorite -- but Wolves of the Calla seems rather pointless to me as well.

Someone saves the day?

[FormerHoya]

Are you going to make me go back to my copy (assuming I still have it)? I seem to remember that the Dark Tower (and I read it years ago) ended with Roland climbing the tower after he spent some time in a house in the snow with a (deaf & dumb?) man who was some sort of artist and who eventually did something like erase (am I totally remembering this wrong?) the Crimson King?

God, that book was such a letdown...

[SFHoya99]

The part of the ending I liked was essentially that the story restarts -- Roland can't escape -- and unlike his compatriots, he can't choose to stop chasing the Dark Tower and just live his life happily. The book ends with essentially a reboot -- Roland "wins" and his reward is to do it all again. Mostly because he screws up along the way in the sense that he hasn't figured out what the point is.

At least that's how I took it.

[SirSaxa]

May 12, 2009 13:13:02 GMT -5 vcjack said:

This is my favorite review

www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film?utm_source=most_pop_pop

Excellent VCJack... thanks for the link!

[SirSaxa]

May 12, 2009 12:10:23 GMT -5 Coast2CoastHoya said:

Since today is geek movie thread day .... ;D

Saw the new Star Trek movie on Sunday with Bando. Loved it -- actors, special effects, plot, action, alternate timeline, references to past shows/movies, hot Uhura, all of it. I think it re-vamps the franchise and takes it in a direction it's never gone before (for the better).

Seeing that it's also the #1 grossing movie of the weekend, it seems to have attracted lots of non-Trekkies into the fold (unless lots of folks have been in the closet all these years). Is Star Trek going mainstream? Did the movie do justice to the franchise or destroy some crucial aspect?

Discuss.

www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/

SPOILER ALERT

OK. liked it a lot.
UHURA was awesome... But Spock gets the girl?

The back story on Kirk, Uhura -- who got a personality makeover -- Bones, Spock... all good.
Sulu and Checkov and Scottie's -- well, the movie is supposed to be fun... and it is.

I do wish they had incorporated the Star Trek Theme into the new soundtrack. That was a big missing piece for me. IT could have been updated, re-arranged, and made into a great addition to the film.

But, overall, a Fun movie and a whole new start to the Trek series. I expect to see another one in 2011.

[Bando]

May 14, 2009 12:45:36 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

May 12, 2009 12:10:23 GMT -5 Coast2CoastHoya said:

Since today is geek movie thread day .... ;D

Saw the new Star Trek movie on Sunday with Bando. Loved it -- actors, special effects, plot, action, alternate timeline, references to past shows/movies, hot Uhura, all of it. I think it re-vamps the franchise and takes it in a direction it's never gone before (for the better).

Seeing that it's also the #1 grossing movie of the weekend, it seems to have attracted lots of non-Trekkies into the fold (unless lots of folks have been in the closet all these years). Is Star Trek going mainstream? Did the movie do justice to the franchise or destroy some crucial aspect?

Discuss.

www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/

SPOILER ALERT

OK. liked it a lot.
UHURA was awesome... But Spock gets the girl?

The back story on Kirk, Uhura -- who got a personality makeover -- Bones, Spock... all good.
Sulu and Checkov and Scottie's -- well, the movie is supposed to be fun... and it is.

I do wish they had incorporated the Star Trek Theme into the new soundtrack. That was a big missing piece for me. IT could have been updated, re-arranged, and made into a great addition to the film.

But, overall, a Fun movie and a whole new start to the Trek series. I expect to see another one in 2011.

Did you not see the closing credits? The Original Series theme played over that.

[Boz]

Haven't seen this yet, probably will when I get back from London (or maybe when I'm in London if it's playing there), but someone please tell me that they incorporated the Kirk-Spock fight scene music somewhere in this movie.

Bonus points if they included Jim Carrey doing his version of the Kir-Spock fight scene music.

;D ;D