ST '09 ten year anniversary

The Kelvinverse burst onto the silver screen ten years ago today (07 May). I was delighted to have a whole new Trek back, especially after the disaster that was Nemesis. I liked the connection it made with TOS and TNG through Ambassador Spock. Nimoy was great, and I remember he and Quinto sparked a lasting friendship as a result. My wife and I were also expecting our first child at the time, so it's a special movie for us because of that.

Let's hear your experience seeing it for the first time!

 

I went 10 yeas ago to the day (saw it on a Wednesday night screening).

I remember being really excited, and thinking the production was amazing. The opening scene really set the tone. I was also thrilled that it performed so well and that the critical response was almost universally positive. There was a great buzz about Star Trek that summer because of the movie. It's a shame they lost the momentum so badly.

 

It is also 10 years since I had my car accident. It was raining and I was thinking about getting advanced tickets for the movie but traffic was bad and decided against it. Unfortunately, because it was raining and I was probably driving to fast, I was part of a chain reaction accident, so looking back I can blame the whole thing on Star Trek.

Anyway, it's been a long while since I've seen the first Kelvin film, but I remember really liking it. That opening sequence was really cool and such a nice way to bring fans back to Trek on the big screen. I also warmed up to this cast pretty quickly, especially Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, and Zach Quinto. I hated that fans didn't like the whole Spock/Uhura pairing because I thought because this was the new timeline they could try some new things, and I liked the Spock/Uhura dynamic.

It is a shame Paramount crapped the bed when it came to this cast because while I didn't like Into Darkness, I loved Beyond and thought this cast truly arrived as part of the Star Trek Mythos.

 

Some people will remember Avengers Endgame as the most exciting moviegoing experience of their lives. For me, it will always be Star Trek 2009. No movie or series since has filled me with the same level of anticipation.

 

I followed the news on this DAY BY DAY from the announcment that JJ Abrams was on board to release, via TrekMovie.

Such nostalgia for this movie!

 

unlike opening night of star trek into darkness with horrific stomach flu (the night forever remembered as star trek into barfness), my experience on opening night of star trek was pretty mundane. i was an extra in the film but couldn't make myself out until i watched it on DVD the following fall. i did have a lot of friends tell me they saw me in the movie, liars.

i liked it fine that night. but then i saw it again. and again. and now it's hands down one of my favorite films of all time, and i genuinely think is one of the best sci-fi films of all time (don't let anyone tell you differently). but i think my fondest memory from may 2009 is that star trek was everywhere. there was a huge mural of the enterprise on santa monica boulevard. t-shirts and toys readily available in stores. michael giacchino's theme was buzzing in my head all summer. it's the first (and sadly last) time star trek had genuine hype around it and the reviews and box office to back it up.

i wish that success had been repeated, but also sort of appreciate the uniqueness of that experience.

 

Saw it 11 times on the big screen. It was amazing for how many weeks they kept showing it!

Btw, are there any people from the official STXI website (startrekmovie.com) forums here? They brought it back for a while for STID, but it's been offline since then.

I also loved the ARG they came up with, that was really impressive!

 

I was getting over a bad back that had left me virtually housebound for 2 years. Going out was a big deal back then (I'm fine now). I remember my back killing me for the second half of the movie and sitting hugging my knees to try and alleviate it.

But I also remember being utterly captivated. It was the Trek movie I'd waited my life for, and is still my favourite a decade later.

 

I went thinking I would loath the new TOS characters cast in this new Kirk era film, but I really enjoyed it. I am really glad that we got this J.J. trilogy, so far.

 

I was kind of burned out with trek after nemesis (despite me liking it) and went into this with very low expectations, which were shattered in that opening scene which remains an awesome piece of cinema even today, in fact I think the film has aged incredibly well and is well on its way to modern classic status.

 

I will also make a controversial statement, I think Chris Pine is the better Kirk. I've got nothing against Shatner, but for me, Pine makes Kirk far more interesting and relatable. And I say this as someone who went into the movie thinking he looked and sounded completely wrong for the role.

 

Got to go see it for my birthday. Was blown away by the action, lots of emotions of seeing Spock as well as the impactful story. Still in my top 3 of Trek films!

 

A decade already....wow

 

You know, of all the Kelvinverse movies I've seen... this was the first.

Kor

 

I thought you were going to say "This was the most.... human."

 

Absolutely! I still pop in the BluRay just to watch that one scene. And as I mentioned above, my wife and I were expecting when we saw it, so the whole parenthood thing rang especially loud for us.

 

I saw the midnight premiere screening at IMAX in Australia, which was one of the first screenings in the world.

It was actually a bit overwhelming - the huge screen combined with fatigue made it hard to follow the action at times. I enjoyed my second viewing quite a bit more.

Looking back I think it's the weakest of the three Kelvin films, but the opening sequence was as good as anything Trek has ever done and it breathed new life into Trek.

 

Somehow, as a old fan, I was both uninterested and interested at the same time. Not because I don't like change, on the contrary my prejudice was because I thought tos was done and 'over' and nothing truly new could be done with the characters because I expected the writers to try to 'copy' the old thing too much. Remakes of anything, in general, don't interest me much.

However, I liked JJ shows and liked the idea of Zachary Quinto, whom I appreciated for his acting skills and charisma in heroes, playing Spock (my favorite character) so I watched and...LOVED IT!
The fact the characters are into another reality is genius and opened up so many possibilities and created so much new potential; I was eager to see more of them and kind of saw this trek as 'another chance' for the characters. It was really nice to not really know what is their 'destiny' as anything could happen since their story wasn't written yet.
Lastly, I grew to love this trek and these characters on their own and not just because of nostalgia or because they are called Spock, Uhura, Kirk etc..

Spock's story is the thing I liked the most.
Tbh this is something that didn't replicate in Discovery, where I liked the actor playing Spock, but something is 'off' and they don't make me love him like kelvin Spock (irony is that disco Spock is more like Kelvin Spock, IMO, than the guy he's supposed to be a prequel of. The difference is that kelvin Spock is another reality, so he's allowed to have his emotional development accelerated by different circumstances, while discovery makes it seems like tos Spock had a regression)
Quinto's Spock has so much charisma, and some of the smartest, sassiest, lines of these movies are his like:

Vulcan Council President : It is truly remarkable, Spock, that you have achieved so much despite your disadvantage.
Spock : If you would clarify, Minister: to what disadvantage are you referring?
Vulcan Council President : Your human mother.
Spock : Council... Ministers, I must decline.
Vulcan Council President : No Vulcan has ever declined admission to this academy!
Spock : Then, as I am half-human, your record remains untarnished.

​

I also love this line and the one I have in my signature

Spock : I intend to assist in the effort to reestablish communication with Starfleet. However, if crew morale is better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I will gladly defer to your medical expertise. Excuse me.
​

How can you not love Spock

He lost his planet, saw his mother dying so he's emotionally compromised and grieving but still, the man has integrity and he still tries to control and focus on his duty as the acting captain. Kelvin Spock is something tos Spock wasn't: a survivor.
He's younger and you can see it but he also has a maturity to him already. Everything is accelerated. Tos Spock didn't lose his mother and home planet, but it took him many years before he could accept himself and resolve some issues. Kelvin Spock' story has tragedy in it, but he becomes a resolved Spock sooner. He doesn't really deny his feelings and human side, he is less here for vulcan bs because se he knows vulcans have feelings too. He has a girlfriend, he is able to make friends sooner, he may have a far better and more honest relationship with his dad. He has the same old conflict, but it's developed in a more contemporary way.

This is a misuranderstanding because I think most of the fans liked that dynamic. Even in this board, the majority were OK about it in the threads that discussed it or the movies.
Out of all the people I know who are trek fans, most liked it especially because they remembered the flirting in tos, so it was no surprise to see that getting used as inspiration for a romance into a time where you are allowed to do more with the characters than you could in the 60s.
The old fans who complain about these things tend to be those who have an idea of Spock that, frankly, doesn't even align with canon much unless you use selective memory and really take tos out of its 60s context and how much it influenced the characters. He's a popular character yet surprisingly misuranderstood by many.
Even the id-ego-superego stuff is taken too far by some.

The problem is that just like for the movies in general, there is a vocal minority of people online who make it seems 'the fans' universally all disliked these movies.
Haters ruined the party a bit (I remember there were places online where people were literally harassed for saying anything positive about these movies), and frankly I consider them in part responsible for the demise of this trek. I have noticed that even fans online who liked the movies now seem to be persuaded into thinking they flopped and were trashed by critics, in spite of both being untrue. It seems like the fans who liked the movies have to 'apologize' for their 'unpopular' opinion now.

Anyway, I, for one, loved the s/u relationship for a number of reasons.
I didn't know about it before watching because I went totally spoiler free so it was very fun to get the hints. The moment they had that scene where Uhura roasted him for changing her ship assignment I KNEW something was up and I loved waiting for when the writers would just reveal it explicitly, to see that my guess was correct. When they finally did I was 'ready' but what worked for me in that turbolift scene is how touching yet dignified the whole thing really is. The moment he hugs her back I instantly recognize I'm watching two people who actually have a relationship. A real, mature, intimate one. The contrast between who they are while on duty and who they are to each other in private is made blurry by necessity and context, but it makes it clear that the characters aren't finite as officers and their job, there is more to them. They had a life before and outside that ship, and still have it when they are are aboard it. The ship can get destroyed and created again, what is important is the people on that ship. The fact the enterprise isn't everything they have is incredibly realistic and healthy to me.
What I also loved is that it allowed me to see layers of both characters that I wouldn't see otherwise.

I was worried, honestly, they'd write a Spock who was just a parody of the original character and thus reduced to the hero's sidekick who says 'fascinating' and plays the role of the weirdo, logical alien guy. I was pleasantly surprised Spock was, instead, more a co-protagonist with his own story and different layers.
Kelvin Spock is a more contemporary version of the character who is simply allowed to access to narrative elements that Nimoy wasn't allowed to access to.
The same goes for their Uhura (who finally has a life outside of her job too and is elevated to the original trio level) and, in different ways, even their Kirk is more contemporary.
I wish they could do more with the characters.

 

Today would've been 10years to the day I went to see it. probably around this actual time 12pm-ish..

Had been charting its evolution via TM.com and seen all the impressive trailers so obviously knew some of what would happen but had avoided any major spoilers and don't think knew exactly how the time travel would work (remember TM.com did quite a detailed interview with Orci regarding QM before the movie came out but don't think i read it before seeing the movie in order to avoid spoilers. Same with Countdown - don't think read that until after the movie in tpb form even though the comics were released before release to be read as a lead on into the film) and still didn't know for sure if Shatner would appear or not..(JJ/Shatner were hardly going to full on confirm a secret cameo before release).. or if TNG would somehow appear (Patrick Stewart cameo?) if there was to be some 24th Century stuff as was rumoured.

(posted this bit before on the previous ST09 anniversary thread about seeing it 1st time but it still stands... ):
it was great seeing a full on big budget Trek film from a new team and was great having the original characters again (and Nimoy). of course it was strange seeing other actors playing the roles but then again a younger different actor had portrayed spock in Trek III so it helped think it was abit like that. i remember being underwhelmed by the ending however (in a similar way to First Contacts when saw that 1st time)- from when Kirk and Spock beam on the narada - right up to the end when the Ent escapes the black hole. I thought it was too action orientated, typical of a Michael Bay action film complete with payoff oneliners, shootouts. i felt that when they go over to the Narada and aboard Spock Primes ship they were basically going into the ‘Prime Universe’ and messing about with Next Generation/Prime stuff, - so (as a fan) i was expecting abit more resolution on the alternate universe/future (and especially Kirks as his upbringing got so screwed thanks to nero) and have it play more of a role in the conclusion (Kirk 2.0 could have at least seen an image of his older self on a Narada computer screen from Nero checking out Kirk Prime before he got his ass handed to him). maybe I was just too old by then for loud explosions, shooting and fights and wanted something abit more substantial - I would’ve loved the end when I was a kid but now I wanted something abit deeper with more meaning, maybe even a twist end (when the red matter black hole opened again figured the Ent might go through into the Prime universe.) …But really there was nothing wrong with what they did and a good few trek eps and movies ended the same way with a big fist fight or space battle and saving the day ...and my misgivings regarding the lack of resolution on the Prime Universe/Shatner wouldn't be an issue for non fan moviegoers (anyway Neros 'I know your face from earths history....James T Kirk was a great man but that was another life' and Spocks 'a trick I learned from an old friend' was kind of a nod to Shatner and the Prime timeline)

 

Watched it again last night. Still utterly captivating.