World Premiere/Advance screening discussions [SPOILERS GUARANTEED]

Um. So. We're not "true" fans if we don't agree with you?
Charming to know. Thank you for clearing that up.
Trek is a huge franchise. There would have been more movies, or series, or whatever if this JJTrek had never existed. I can't understand fans who seem to be convinced that the future of Trek is THIS or NOTHING. Not liking NuTrek is not some kind of "betrayal", it's just an opinion. Lot's of people have them.
Even if this Abomination somehow tanks or eventually sputters out or is wiped off the Earth by an angry God (who really wants a starship in the worst way), there would still be more Trek, of some kind, down the road.

Not all of us are in love with NuTrek or even the IDEA of a NuTrek reboot.
Some of us are looking forward something other than NuTrek, someday.
True or False?
whatever.

 

Its not the fact that some people don't like the new film on its own merits, thats fine, it's those who don't like it because its not THE EXACT SAME as TOS.

Im sorry, but Trek was a dying dinosaur, and this abomination (abomination? Really? TOS was not some shakespearean masterpiece by an means) will give Trek the kick in the ass, and the marketability it so desperately needed.

 

No, thanks. Not when "marketability" means turning something thoughtful, something that at least aspired to SF's "sense of wonder" and "literature of ideas," into a big dumb summer action movie that will attract fanbois and mundanes. Trek has fallen victim to the Hollywood mentality: "People like it, so let's change it." There was no reason for a reboot where known characters die and Vulcan is destroyed other than to pander to the intended adolescent audience-- look, kids, anything can happen now; i.e. more known characters can die and more things can be destroyed. The most creative thing that these guys could up with was Star Trek: The Disaster Movie? No strange new worlds, no new life and new civilizations, no character insights, no theme, no message-- just things blowing up. Lame.

 

I think Abrams has spelled out his reasons for the alternate universe plotline rather than just a prequel in numerous interviews. The main reason is that the "prequel" would have been tightly constrained by the need to make sure that everything ends up exactly as it was in the Original Series, right down to set design and every single detail.

That's sort of the reason why the Star Wars prequels sucked. You knew Padme was going to die. You knew sulky Anakin was going to turn into Vader. You knew Jar Jar was an irritating walking irrelevance who wouldn't turn up in the other films, but sadly just went into hiding rather than ending up on the right end of a clone trooper's blaster.

Instead, the time travel plotline ensures that they can have everything take place without affecting the "purity" of the "main universe". And I have a TOS Movies Boxset on Blu-ray that somehow hasn't disappeared despite the introduction of the new universe. The new picture means that the Original Series and its movies, among other things, will see a revival of interest. XI is good for the entire franchise.

Basically - this film is far more respectful than it could have been, and I and a lot of other people are just happy to see Star Trek back again.

 

^ That isn't why the Star Wars prequels sucked.

 

Since that's not really true in any respect, it's not a problem.

And the labeling of non-sf fans "mundanes" has always been a red flag of a pretty unthoughtful point-of-view.

 

Well, yes, there was also the fact that George Lucas couldn't write his way out of a paper bag these days. The acting was appalling, but for me I couldn't help but just sit there not feeling any excitement at knowing that the Republic would fall and the Empire would take over everything. All of the best "prequels" have in fact been reboots.

 

so what is it that you WANT, exactly? no new Trek? cloned actors from the old cast? cartoons? is that it?

what do you want, exactly?

 

uhh, have you SEEN it? how do you know it's some "big dumb summer action movie"?

 

Okay, you guys can have it your way:

This movie completely disrespects and dumbs down Star Trek.

And it's about to become a huge success. Far more successful, from Paramount's point of view, than anything they've ever let anyone - including Roddenberry - do with Star Trek.

So, from this point forward, no new Star Trek productions will be based on anything that doesn't support and extend Abrams's version of Star Trek.

You've had all the "real" Star Trek you're ever going to get from the studio.

But, you have your DVDs.

 

Well I finally saw the movie this past Saturday at a press screening, and I really loved it. Man this is a great film.

Some things that I haven't seen others say yet:

They did a great job at making the Enterprise feel big. On the inside the sets are big, and engineering was huge. The Enterprise also didn't maneuver like an xwing or fighter ship. It moved like a huge cruiser.

The outerspace scenes were also really great. I thought Star Wars Ep 3's opening scene over Coruscant was the pinnacle of space scenes in movies, but it's now been supplanted. There wasn't any battle between fleets like that, but as far as spaceships in outerspace, Star Trek now owns that territory. I mean, it was beautiful to see.

It also was futuristic. It basically looked nothing like TOS. But they did incorporate all of the old sound effects for the ship, and it actually didn't sound out of place.

The bridge of the Kelvin and Enterprise really seemed like the command center of a large advanced vessel, with various stations communicating and being busy with ship operations. It felt as if you actually needed a full crew to run the ship.

I think they also did a great job at making the Romulans, and space in general, feel creepy and mysterious. When they came across a strange gravity anomaly it felt like a weird deep space mysterious thing. When the Kelvin was facing this huge alien octopus ship it just nailed that feeling of creepy alienness.

Simon Pegg sounded exactly like Scotty, it was eery.

The lens flare actually was pretty ridiculous. I read how JJ wanted to give a feeling like the future was literally bright and shiny and clean and optomistic, and that's cool, but it was just a little too much. Having said that, it was (I think) the only flaw of the movie, and it was minor. The pure awesomeness of that movie simply could not be diminished by something like that at all.

Btw, this most definitely was not an empty-headed summer popcorn flick. It wasn't just Michael Bay 'splosions. The destruction of Vulcan was handled very well. It had a huge emotional impact. The main characters were well developed, and the movie really is about them. Kirk and Spock are the center of this movie, and they're character arcs are done very well.

Most importantly, at it's core this was a Star Trek movie. It wasn't something else pretending to be Star Trek (like Smallville is a teeny angst show pretending to be a superhero show, or BSG was a gritty drama pretending to be scifi). The characters really were the characters we all know and love, the ships were exploration ships, Starfleet officers were intelligent respectable somebodies, and the future was advanced and optimistic.

Honestly, for anyone who doesn't like this movie, I just simply can't understand the way your brain works. I think there's two kinds of people who aren't going to like this movie: those who are close-minded and won't accept any scifi at all, and those who are close-minded and anal about their Trek.

This was just a great movie. Star Trek is back. I hope they make 10 sequels, and spin-off TV shows, and I hope this new Trek lasts 50 more years.

 

I just wanted to add:

The Enterprise's phasers were burst beams, like the ones in Wrath of Khan. The Narada fires only torpedoes, which are called missiles at least once in the movie, and are some sort of futuristic projectile missile being propelled by green fire.

But the handheld phasers weren't beams at all. They were just like ones in Star Wars, which I honestly think makes more sense. I've always thought that to knock a person out, or kill them, you would only need a short burst of high-powered energy. With Trek phasers, either the beam is really weak and therefore you need to be hit for a full second or two in order to be hurt by it, or the beam is powerful and your just wasting energy.

Related to that, the new phasers have barrels that literally flip when they change from kill to stun. The stun barrel was emitting a blue light, while the kill barrel emitted a red light.

SPOILERS:
There was one really cool part where Kirk and Spock are on the Narada, and they are shooting Romulans left and right. Then Kirk neals down and switches the barrel to stun and shoots the last Romulan with that, in order to leave one alive so Spock can meld with him and figure out where Pike and Old Spock's ship are.

 

yes, that was really cool. cooler was the fact that only trekkies would get it

 

Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

"Out of the chair" is my new favorite line from Star Trek. It was so nice to see starship battles without taking a 5-minute break to discuss how to reverse the frequency modulation on the polaron emitters. There's a lot here that will piss off the hardcore. Which surprised me. There were even a couple things that irked me, and I don't consider myself hardcore. But it was a small price to pay for such an entertaining movie.

But there is no way this cost 120M. Unless ILM has doubled their fees, they got this in the can for 90-95M. I didn't like the ice cave set, and Engineering looks like a sewage processing plant. But there was so much they got right, my quibbles are meaningless.

It's fitting that Uhura gets the line stating they're in an "alternate reality" because she seems the most changed to me. The cast were flawless and for the first time in 23 years the humor in a Star Trek movie is actually funny.

Reboot all you want if things are going to turn out this good. They can take Star Trek anywhere now, and I love not knowing what happens next!

 

Oh please, of course this is an empty-headed summer popcorn flick. It may be a step ahead of the stuff Michael Bay puts out, but that doesn't change what kind of movie this.

BTW, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this being a summer popcorn flick. Better than trying to be a movie with a message that bores you to death.

 

See I think you've just hit the nail on the head, and that's what's bothering a lot of people. At this point, it looks like this movie is going to be a huge success, but only time will tell. Assuming it is successful, you're 100% correct, that's the only Trek we're going to get now.

Someone said that Abrams Trek doesn't destroy what went before it, and that's correct, we have the DVDs, the books, etc. But the original Trek (one where Vulcan survives, etc) has probably been destroyed as far as it's future on the big screen or TV. And for a few of us, that's kind of sad.

On the one hand, I can be glad that Trek is back on the big screen and doing well, and there's a buzz about it once again, but at the same time, I hope that some of you can understand we're a little sad about seeing the deviation from the original.

 

^ I understand the sadness at the deviation to the original, and I am also mentally preparing myself for Thursday night for those changes.

However, it was such an adherence to the original and the subsequent Treks that lent the movies and TV series to ridicule by a general public that does not and will not sit to watch something adhere to everything else to satisfy a fanbase they don't care about.

TOS was more about going into the unknown, but showing us ourselves as we are and how to maybe better ourselves. In doing so, people were treated to a great adventure every time through that. If things happened to tie together with an earlier episode, fine. But, it didn't have to.

This is what Trek had to return to in order to survive. Stagnation via canon would have only confirmed its' death.

 

Really? Nothing we've heard about it thus far shows it to be any more "empty-headed" than any previous Trek movie - well, except maybe for a little fuss about whale extinction in that one. Trek's other attempted forays into Big Thoughts on the Big Screen - TMP and TUC - were pretty vapid.