The Official STAR TREK Grading & Discussion Thread [SPOILERS]

Re: Holy shit @ how good it was

I'm flabbergasted at how much I enjoyed it . . . though this may mean my favorite Vulcan won't be born in this timeline . . .
I mean no Tuvok?

 

I thought Nemesis was bad...but no...no..."Star Trek" is the biggest kick in the balls to Trek fans ever and I'm totally shocked to come here of all places and read people's posts exclaiming how great the movie was.

IT WAS TERRIBLE!!!

What Abrams and crew did was take a bunch of established characters, slapped new paint on them and then took bits and pieces they liked (while ignoring 99% of everything else) to create this movie!

If you stripped away the names, ships and many "Trek" lines of dialogue you'd be left with a terribly generic sci-fi film. As I feared, "Star Trek" turns the ST universe into a setting where all out reckless attacks, explosions and fist fights conquer all. Forget all the fleshing out TNG, DS9, VOY and even ENT did...nope...in "Star Trek" we have a random Romulan going back in time and destroying Vulcan and totally f'ing up the timeline, essentially "erasing" all the Trek stuff that came later.

I'll be sure to write a lengthier review later on...but c'mon...if you consider yourself a real Trek fan (that is, anyone who's enjoyed Star Trek BEFORE this movie), I honestly don't see how you could enjoy it after realizing how much they screwed with the universe.


They really, really, really should have focused on characters we never met before instead of trying to re-create iconic crew members from TOS. And blowing up Vulcan? Oh, that'll set well with fans.

I will say this though before I stop writing:

I HATED CHEKOV. HATED HIM. WHY THE **** WOULD STARFLEET LET SOMEONE WHO CAN'T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH ENOUGH TO PRONOUCE "VULCAN" CORRECTLY? THe actor they got took what was done before here and there and blew it wayyyyyy out of proportion. The kid looked sickly and was unbearable to listen to.

In the future, is the galaxy so strapped for space ship personnel that they'll recruit non-English-speaking 17 yr. olds who are supposedly genuises? Ughhh....

 

Just thought of something, will the future/timeline that Spock comes from be altered by the planet Vulcans destruction in the "new" timeline? I can only assume the devastating consequences it could have.

 

Just saw it.

Give it an A.

Awesome characters, they nailed that part really well. Pine was excellent. There was actually a shot that I thought Pine WAS Shatner. Wow.
When George Kirk is ramming the Kelvin and you hear his kid crying over the intercom.....man that made me feel for the character real fast.

VFX....amazing. What do you expect from ILM?
There were two or three shots, close of up of the Enterprise's hull where I could see light bouncing different directions off all the individual panels etc. Even the phaser ports that popped up....soooo much detail.
Also when the Kelvin is being attacked, and then a hull breach occurs and you hear all this noise and screaming, then the camera follows the crew member out into space and......no noise. Awesome.
I know 2 of the guys who worked on the film...bastards didn't tell me. Gonna have to see what shots they did.

Bana actually wasn't that bad. He made me feel for Nero a little bit. But I thought Nero's reason for all this was kinda weak. Just the way it was presented. Even Old Spock's story felt rushed and was basically...."this is why the Enterprise, characters, technology is different". But that's Orci and Kurtzman for ya.

Good to see Nimoy again.

Did feel a tad too Star Warsy for me, but it was still good.
Some of the phasers sounded like the stupid star wars weapons.
Was hoping they would've knocked down the number of jokes as the movie progressed, but still funny.
Damn JJ's obsession with lens flares. 70% or more of them were digital I believe. Kinda pissed me off.
As someone else pointed out....it wasn't as intellectual as past trek's but I can see why not b/c they need a big bang movie to re inject life into Trek.

Def going to see it again. Great to see the little nuances from TOS, some of the sounds, the communicators, etc.
I think TWOK is on downstairs! Going to watch lol

 

Re: Holy shit @ how good it was

Spoiler: So much fun!

I loved it. I saw it on a regular screen tonight but some evening next week I'm going to go see it at the IMAX theater.

I actually cried during the whole Winona-gives-birth-while-George-sacrifices-himself scene. Music was great. SpFx were excellent -- tho' I do think sometimes there was too much happening during the battle scenes ...

I thought the entire cast was excellent. Abrams et.al. did a great job casting it. Chris Pine was great as Kirk and Zach Quinto was excellent as Spock.

I especially loved all of the nods to TOS ... Pike in a wheelchair at the end! And Scotty losing Adm. Archer's beagle (tho' it couldn't have been Porthos, he wouldn't have lived that long!)

 

I loved it. FANTASTIC

Great Casting. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto were excellent. Kirk was spot on, Spock made me cry. Leonard Nimoy, god bless that man. Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Eric Bana & Anton Yelchin were all very good at their roles.

The story was solid but it was the characters that sold the film for me.
Not sure what to think of the new Enterprise, looked a bit small to me. But the new design is not that much a big deal, its the characters that matter.
SFX was amazing, as they should be! Good humor and good action. Has all the hallmarks of a summer blockbuster, with the added advantage of a fantastic bunch of characters we've loved for many years. A very enjoyable film indeed.

My expectations for this film were very high, and they were all fulfilled. Going to see it again in two days!

 

I was heartbroken over Vulcan too and pretty shocked.

But there is a lot of potential for Vucan storylines as Vulcan struggles to rebuild it's culture. I think future books could be particularly good for this (I don't really expect a film about clashing Vulcan philosophical factions).

And here's something I wondered: when we see the group of Vulcan elders that have been saved isn't that T'Pau there? Sure looked like T'Pau from Amok Time.

True Shinzon was empty of any Romulan qualities but we did get to see the Senate bickering and there were some great Romulan scenes there. X at least had that. If Abrams continues to use Romulans I really hope he delves into what makes them something other than galaxy bullies.

 

^ This film has apparently erased Remans from canon, given that there was not the slightest mention of their planet being blown up. There goes one possible option for a Romulan story...

 

Re: Holy shit @ how good it was

HOLY CRAP! Color me converted! Just got back from the opening night showing at IMAX and I tell you all, it totally lives up to the hype. Me, the 37 year fan, and wife went in all "old school" and got totally wrapped up in it. They really nailed the characters. Yeah, the Enterprise looks like ass, but I got so engrossed in it, so freaking involved, I didn't care. They took the characters I've loved for 37 years and treated them with total respect and really gave them new life.

This is EXACTLY what the franchise needed, the ability to restart, refresh and do it in a way as to not erase the past. They do things that no prior producing team would EVER consider. "No chance, we can't do that" would be the response. There is so much heart in this film, so many laughs, thrills and tragedy to float three films. Yet it never felt bloated, slow, rushed or anything other than great. I wanted to see the next film right away. I'll setting for seeing this one again on Sunday (will squeeze in Trek 6 Saturday).

The trailers do this film no favors. Ignore them. See the movie to watch Trek resuscitated.

I will say it, something I haven't heard since the 70's:

STAR TREK LIVES!

 

EXCELLENT!

Just got back from a packed movie theater a little while ago. I was very happy with this film. It had it all. Action, humor, great FX...it was even touching at times.

The strength here is definitely the performances. The big three of Chris Pine, Zachery Quinto, and Karl Urban did a great job with their respective characters. Pine definitely plays it Han Solo-like but you do see how in the end he becomes Captain Kirk. Quinto was terrific, particularly in that Vulcan council scene. He brought Sylar to Spock and did it very well. Urban was terrific as McCoy and I agree we didn't see enough of him. They even managed to work in a reference to McCoy's divorce, a piece of backstory that's been a part of the character forever but never referenced on-screen. The friendship with Kirk was great.

I have to say that Bruce Greenwood was awesome as Pike. I'm glad Kirk ended up as captain at the end but damn, I'm sorry we didn't get to see Pike in command longer. He even looked like Jeffrey Hunter from a distance in that uniform. Nice touch with him in the wheelchair at the end. He might not end up banging Vina on Talos IV but at least he's still got his face.

Leonard Nimoy was indeed the emotional focal point as Old Spock. His scenes were actually quite touching and it was so awesome when he returned. The audience cheered for the first time when he was revealed.

Like I said, the film had a lot of heart. The death of Kirk's father, the destruction of Vulcan and Amanda's death (can't believe they actually did that), and Old Spock's scenes brought out emotion you haven't seen in a Trek movie since Wrath of Khan.

The rest of the cast was fine. Both Pegg and Yelchin were funny, Saldana was hot and I'm glad that they made Uhura an actual linguist instead of a switchboard operator. Sulu was succificently badass with his sword. Ben Cross was good as Sarek, who seemed a hell of a lot nicer in this movie than his initial ST appearance.

Weak spots...I really wish Abrams would have calmed down with the rapid-fire editing during the fight scenes. Just like in Batman Begins and Quantum of Solace, the actions sequences fly by way too quickly and don't make you enjoy them very much. Also, I don't think the Nero character was given enough time to be a truly memorable villain. I thought Bana was fine but we saw too little of him and why in God's name did he wait so long to attack Earth after destroying Vulcan?

Continuity porn...did Scotty kill Porthos?!?!

All and all, a great first outing and I can't wait for the next film. I agree...it ended way too soon. I can't wait to see what the next adventure of the original crew will be.

 

Re: Holy shit @ how good it was

I agree with all of you it was amazing.

 

Re: Holy shit @ how good it was

Luck you!!

I'm going tomorrow

 

Here's a quick question for those who have seen the film: Just how much did they 'sex it up' in an effort to make it more mass market? I mean, I know there's a sex scene of some sort in the film. But how much of that did they include, and was it tastefully done or explicit? IOW, would you feel comfortable taking your kids to see it?

 

Agreed. This is the great strength of the movie and a strength of JJ Abrams. Even when Alias started to decline in Season 3, the character work was always top-notch.

 

Why would they let him...what?

You should hear some of the accents of barristers. I feel very sorry for the people who have to transcribe it.

 

it's one quick scene really, not racy at all. More funny than racy, imo.

 

There is really no sex. Kirk jumps into bed with someone, no nudity, they are interrupted. That is it. FAR less sex than you see on tv. I took my 12 year old.

There are also a couple of comments about sex as I recall but they are pretty light.