Star Trek 09 review thread

[Bounty]

So i'm going to step up and shoot the 600 pound elephant in the room by asking the obvious question.

Is it better than any of the SW prequels?

Oh yes. It's easier better than I and II and it even gives III a run for its money, though that comparison is a bit unfair as both movies try to accomplish different goals.

[Dartzap]

It was a damn fine film, I thought. Highly enjoyable, it didnt take itself too serioulsly but managed to have the airs of a fairly epic level of story telling. and it set up for some sequels without the usual feeling that it hasn't accomplished anything.

Could have done with more Starship pron, mind. It was all strange and....character based. Most unsettling

[Skylon]

I just came back from watching it and in many ways it wasn't a Star Trek film, the bad guy was reasonbly beliveble, there wasn't an overflow of technobabble, the heroes were flawed but not stupid due to the "needs of the plot" (well not noticibly so at least), the sets didn't look like movie sets and so on...

How does that make this "not a Trek film"? I'd say TWOK meets all those criteria. Heck, most of the TOS films lack excessive technobabble.

To me this sounds like Star Trek getting back to its TOS era roots in more ways than just the characters, and I'm left wondering if a full-up reboot of the continuity was needed to do this (if that is indeed what's happening).

Well, I'll know in a few hours.

[Lord Revan]

I just came back from watching it and in many ways it wasn't a Star Trek film, the bad guy was reasonbly beliveble, there wasn't an overflow of technobabble, the heroes were flawed but not stupid due to the "needs of the plot" (well not noticibly so at least), the sets didn't look like movie sets and so on...

How does that make this "not a Trek film"? I'd say TWOK meets all those criteria. Heck, most of the TOS films lack excessive technobabble.

*sigh* maybe I should added a smilie, but do you realize that those aspect are more or less a laundry list of what was wrong in the recent (Inserection and Nemesis) trek films before this one, but was almost considered a good thing by the makers and certain fans. It wasn't a "star trek" film in the sence that it lacked the cliches that where more or less mandatory for the TNG films.

[TK-984]

The opening sequence was terrific. When they mentioned they were alternate versions of themselves, I cringed.

[CDiehl]

It wasn't a "star trek" film in the sence that it lacked the cliches that where more or less mandatory for the TNG films.

I fail to see why those cliches would be considered mandatory instead of just what stupid people did.

The opening sequence was terrific. When they mentioned they were alternate versions of themselves, I cringed.

I know what you mean, but I took it more as a "this is how this works, so deal with it" moment, directed at the sort of people who'd be bothered by all the changes.

[JME2]

I saw it earlier today with fellow SDN'er Theran-Rel. We both loved it; it was literally light years above NEM and the best film for me since FC. It perfecrly appeals to the longtime fans while serving as a jumping on point for newcomers. I can't wait to see where they go with this.

5/5

[phred]

I just got back and, umm, yeah. Awesome movie.

I wasn't sure about Zachary Quinto being Spock, but he did a good job. Karl Urban's McCoy was spot on, like he was channeling DeForest Kelley or something. It needed more starship pron IMO, but what we got was pretty good. And of course, Kirk making out with a green chick.

I'm not sure about Nero's ship. I mean yeah, it's scary and all but I kept thinking 'That's a mining rig?' Spoiler

The black hole thing bugged me, as did the galaxy destroying supernova. And I'm really not sure about the Spock Uhura relationship.

[JME2]

I'm not sure about Nero's ship. I mean yeah, it's scary and all but I kept thinking 'That's a mining rig?'

The comic-book prequel Star Trek: Countdown goes into this more...
Spoiler

After Romulus' destruction and Nero's decision to go on a rampage, the Narada was refitted at a secret military base with salvaged Borg tech.

[hongi]

After Romulus' destruction and Nero's decision to go on a rampage, the Narada was refitted at a secret military base with salvaged Borg tech.

Damn it, I hate it that I have to read a comic book to understand the missing parts of the movie's plotline.

[General Zod]

I just got back, I think I can safely say this is the best Star Trek movie since VI, and well above ST4 quality-wise. Some thoughts on the movie (I'll avoid commenting on any plot specifics here, which I have separate issues with):

The good;

1 - For the most part, fantastic cast that managed to work well together. There was some good legitimate character conflicts and I think most of the actors hit the nail on the head for their characters.

2 - Excellent soundtrack. Finally they've ditched the idiotic B&B meme about music distracting the audience.

3 - The pacing was fantastic. I didn't feel anything dragged through the film and I hadn't realized 2 hours had passed when the movie was over until I checked the time on my phone.

4 - The visuals of course, are top notch. Plenty of shiny CGI sprinkled throughout, and enough of the old feel is there to make it seem like it's not a complete remake.

The bad;

1 - Camerawork. This is my biggest pet peeve throughout the movie. Did they hire BSG's film crew? I mean I can appreciate they're trying to show action shots throughout the thing but for fuck's sake learn how to use a goddamned tripod. Star Trek does not work well with fucking shaky-cam abuse.

2 - Chekhov I'm not entirely thrilled with. Somehow the actor doesn't really fit, and I think the fact that they had him slur his Vs into Ws was stretching things a bit. He didn't do that until after ST 2, and that was because of the slug in his brain.

3 - Sound FX. What was the deal with Spock's future-ship? It sounded like they lifted the effects for it from a ship in the Star Wars prequels.

Despite the flaws it was an enjoyable flick. It's definitely worth watching, just be prepared to put up with the shaky-cam.

[Havok]

On Spock's "Destroy the Galaxy" line... I'm wondering if he was speaking metaphorically somehow... Like destroy the galaxy as we know it by destabilizing the region and forcing the Romulans to expand their territory by force and throwing the AQ into war... or something?

[JME2]

3 - Sound FX. What was the deal with Spock's future-ship? It sounded like they lifted the effects for it from a ship in the Star Wars prequels.

Not too surprising given that SW alum Ben Burtt served as the sound designer for the film.

[General Zod]

3 - Sound FX. What was the deal with Spock's future-ship? It sounded like they lifted the effects for it from a ship in the Star Wars prequels.

Not too surprising given that SW alum Ben Burtt served as the sound designer for the film.

Still annoying when I can pick up on it without even paying more than casual attention to the sounds. It literally sounded like a direct copy

[FSTargetDrone]

I was a little disappointed to see that Spoiler

the bit from one of the trailers where Nero says, "James T. Kirk was a great man, but that was another life" wasn't in the final film in that exact form. In the movie, Nero says something like, "Apparently (or "evidently") James T. Kirk was a great man...but that was another life." A few words were different and the actor's inflections on some of the words in the lines were likewise different.

The point is, in the preview, the way Nero says those words, it implies/suggests that he knew quite a bit about Kirk and was talking about him almost wistfully or with some admiration. In the movie, it sounds like he was less familiar with the "other" Kirk and not as impressed with what he knew of the original timeline's Kirk. A small matter, but one I found interesting. Obviously it was just an alternate take used by whoever put the trailer together. I preferred the trailer version, but again, it's a small matter

In any case, I enjoyed the movie. Time travel is not my favorite plot device in ST films/TV by any means, but it wasn't terribly objectionable here.

1 - Camerawork. This is my biggest pet peeve throughout the movie. Did they hire BSG's film crew? I mean I can appreciate they're trying to show action shots throughout the thing but for fuck's sake learn how to use a goddamned tripod. Star Trek does not work well with fucking shaky-cam abuse.

Agreed. I wish they would have pulled out on the action scenes a bit more. There was a lot of frenetic stuff happening and at times it was hard to see exactly some of what was going on.

[Havok]

You and I have pretty much the same view of the flick Zod, and you also mentioned the one thing I forgot. The sound. It was the only thing that distracted me and pulled me out of the movie, for the same reasons you said... It sounded to much like the Prequels.

[Mad]

I liked it. Some impressions and reply. (When do we get a thread we don't need spoiler-text for?)
Spoiler

Loved the presentation of the new Enterprise. Industrial-looking engineering decks; rapid-fire phasers capable of point defense; seeing the top of the saucer from the bridge viewports; "new," much faster-feeling warp effect.

The new size of the ship is pretty jarring, but OK, fine. Clearly there are differences before Nero arrived, given the Kelvin was at a similar scale. A more complete reboot than a simple timeline branch is certainly welcome from me, so it doesn't really bother me.

I liked the Spocks' dismissal of universe-destroying time paradoxes.

It was strange--yet refreshing--to hear some contemporary (to us) music in Trek. Young Kirk's music choice of the Beastie Boys made me wonder how the oldie (to him) "Intergalactic" would've gone in his universe, since it couldn't have its Trek reference to a "death grip from Mr. Spock." Oh, and looks like Nokia still exists in the future. Nice futuristic additions to the car, too.

Budweiser still existing is a head-scratcher, though...

Which is no surprise...Abrams' love of Star Wars is all over this film, though it's not to the extent where it becomes tiresome.

Speaking of which, the new warp effect was very nice, even if it was basically Wars' hyperspace.

Spoiler

-WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THE TRANSPORTER. Range = infinite. Shields = no problem. Momentum? What momentum? One magic equation can get you from a planet to an FTL starship? I really had a problem with this, as there seemed to be no reason why the Enterprise can beam people into Nero's bridge but can't just start beaming people out into space. And did Nero even have transporters?

Spoiler

I figured Scotty's trick was limited to beaming to a difficult target and couldn't retrieve someone under the same conditions. (Though it seemed too much like a "tech of the week" thing, seeing as Spock knew it but nobody ever did it. On the other hand, having Scotty receive technical information from a traveler from the future was too perfect a ST:IV reference to give up, I'm sure.)

Momentum and potential energy have always been issues with transporter realism. I mean, unless starships are limited to beaming targets while in geosynchronous orbit, momentum is going to change. Kirk and Sulu seemed to hit the deck pretty hard, but clearly lost quite a bit of momentum (which was probably transferred to the ship to negligible effect).

Spoiler

-Scott's transporter board couldn't detect life forms in the enemy ship in the immediate area of the beaming. Funny, but sketchy. Especially considering that Kelvin detected lifesigns on the ship earlier.

Spoiler

Weren't they beaming from Saturn to Earth? The Kelvin was right in front of the enemy ship. That's quite a big difference and nothing to really cause any concern.

[Gil Hamilton]

Fantastic movie. Absolutely loved it, even though some sourpusses will no doubt find things wrong with it. Great characterization, bold move vis a vie the Vulcans, fantastic space porn (man, shooting down missiles with phasers and using ALL of their weapons together? Is this StarTrek?), great pacing, decent plot with only one point bumped off for being a time travel story. It even had the old StarTrek classics of arbitrarily killing a Redshirt to prove that the situation was serious. However, I'll forgive that, because StarTrek was in desperate need of a reboot.

Incidently, with regards to the Ebert review... some parts he criticized don't exist in the movie. There was no space ladder made of large metal hunks. The drill was only a few dozen kilometers long at best. The Enterprise was constructed on the ground, but it actually did have the necessary scaffolding you'd expect. It looks like some senator from Iowa managed to slip its construction contract into an appropriations bill, or something, to have it built there instead of in space.

I'll admit the black holes were wonky as hell. Can't win them all and I don't care because the movie was excellent enough.

[Academia Nut]

I got back a little while and while I supremely enjoyed this movie, I just realized that aside from some of the points already raised, there is a gigantic plot hole that they really should have caught in scripting.
Spoiler

When headed for Vulcan it was reported that 'lightning in space' was detected. But that phenomenon was associated with the time travel due to black hole nuttiness, notwith the drive systems thus there should not have been anything like that to warn Kirk about the fact that it was the same ship that blew up the Kelvin, thus they wouldn't have had the warning to come in with shields up and on red alert. Plus if Vulcan managed to get off a distress signal that something was wrong you would think they would mention the gigantic spaceship causing it as it was apparently the drill that did the jamming, thus they would have had to have noticed the space ship before it started drilling

Overall, a fun movie that suffers from enormous problems of science, discipline, and the pieces of Trek canon it isn't supposed to be overwriting, but if you ignore those then its a strong character driven bit. Could have used more ship porn in fights though.

[Anguirus]

^ Regarding that plot hole, which I picked up as well...it may have been Spock's arrival. However, this has the further consequence of putting nearly all of the events and locations of the film (Vulcan, Delta Vega, the Hobus star, the Kelvin's route at the beginning, Rura Penthe, and Romulus) within spitting distance of each other. Which is already kind of evident by Delta Vega's sudden extreme proximity to Vulcan.

Damn it, I hate it that I have to read a comic book to understand the missing parts of the movie's plotline.

That's not a part of the movie's plotline. That's technical trivia.

The only important thing is that it's a former mining ship with future-tech and a lot of firepower. Frankly, it's relatively obvious from the movie alone that either the mining ship started armed or was armed by Nero. The Borg thing is a throwaway reference.

[General Zod]

^ Regarding that plot hole, which I picked up as well...it may have been Spock's arrival. However, this has the further consequence of putting nearly all of the events and locations of the film (Vulcan, Delta Vega, the Hobus star, the Kelvin's route at the beginning, Rura Penthe, and Romulus) within spitting distance of each other. Which is already kind of evident by Delta Vega's sudden extreme proximity to Vulcan.

I just figured Warp Drive is a fair bit faster in this version of Trek than any of the previous series rather than assume they put all the locations close together.

[Zablorg]

I enjoyed myself wonderfully. There are a few issues I have with it naturally,
Spoiler

Yeah, similar blackholes shouldn't really be any indication of similar attack. But maybe Kirk is just associating his father's death with lightningholes a tad too much.

If a drop of red matter makes one black hole shouldn't it follow that the entire canister will create a really really big one? And for heaven's sake, Nero's ship was close enough to earth that the blackhole making drill was close enough to touch it, yet the blackhole doesn't effect it in the slightest? Bleagh.

I thought it was pretty stupid how Spock arrived at the conclusion that Nero must have travelled in tiiiiiiime with no reasonable reason to think so. Why was it impossible that Nero could have just showed up, again?

Spoiler

Why couldn't Spock teleport into the Culture hall?

Oh yeah, and what exactly happened to his mother?

I really have to agree on Ebert's review here; it is by no means "WOAH BEST MOVIE EVER WHAT A THRILL RIDE YEAAAAAH!", and the reviewers who gave it 5/5 are douchebags. It is a great deal of fun however, and in my opinion was worth the ticket.

The characterization was solid. I immediately got the feel of all the characters, except for perhaps Chekhov, who not only provided little in terms of interaction but I had to concentrate to hear him.

I'm sad to say it does suffer from the same old Trek safety record. Places which should really really really have safety rails don't have safety rails. I'm also kind of dissapointed that the sense of maturation in Kirk that I would have thought was neccessary to become a captain never really happened, and he pretty much rides the whole movie through, being a dickhead the whole while.

I'm not good at concluding reviews or making them for that matter, so I would like to finish by offering advice to the people of Vulcan. When wishing to confirm a query, a simple "yes" will suffice. "Affirmative" takes three more sylables and makes you sound like a cock.

[Bounty]

Spoiler

And for heaven's sake, Nero's ship was close enough to earth that the blackhole making drill was close enough to touch it, yet the blackhole doesn't effect it in the slightest? Bleagh.

Spock warped away the Spockmobile after cutting the drill and Nero warped after him. They may have still been near the Sol system but they weren't in earth orbit any more.

I thought it was pretty stupid how Spock arrived at the conclusion that Nero must have travelled in tiiiiiiime with no reasonable reason to think so. Why was it impossible that Nero could have just showed up, again?

He didn't conclude time travel because Nero showed up again, he concluded it because he was a Romulan with technology centuries ahead what a Romulan should have. It's still a leap though.

Why couldn't Spock teleport into the Culture hall?

Oh yeah, and what exactly happened to his mother?

It was in the middle of a mountain?

The ground under her gave way and Chekov lost the lock on her when she fell.

Places which should really really really have safety rails don't have safety rails.

The Enterprise had safety rails...

If you're talking about the Narada, yeah, they really should have considered investing in rails and... floors

[Ford Prefect]

Spoiler

Why couldn't Spock teleport into the Culture hall?

Drammatic necessity.

[Stofsk]

I really have to agree on Ebert's review here; it is by no means "WOAH BEST MOVIE EVER WHAT A THRILL RIDE YEAAAAAH!", and the reviewers who gave it 5/5 are douchebags.

Oh really?

Maybe it's not the best movie ever, but it's pretty damn close to best Trek film ever. Yes, I went there. Because it's a reboot, it should stand in a league of it's own.

I would give it 5/5 stars. I've never had this much fun watching a movie. Ever. My face nearly cracked in half because I had a huge fucking grin on my face throughout almost all of this film... when I wasn't gasping with shock, surprise or delight. I even clapped at times, and I don't think I've ever even done that before.

Admittedly, I placed an enormous amount of expectation on this film, and on another film, Watchmen, when I was still counting the days inside of a jail cell. While Watchmen was lacklustre and didn't grab me by the balls and refuse to let go, I actually felt Trek did, and I want to see it again.