Zapped! - T'Baio Reviews Star Trek
- Thread starter T'Baio
- Start date
I'm glad I'm not the only one in conflict over this movie . . .
Dirty bastard. 
Nardpuncher
Rear Admiral
C'mon man! At least tell us how much you liked it!
Alright...here goes the review. Spoilers if anyone doesn't know already........
Many, many years ago, I used to smoke. I gave it up and have never turned back. My favourite cigarettes were after meals, over coffee with friends, post coitus and after a great movie. I've seen a lot of great movies since I quit that horrible habit, and I've never felt the need for a smoke afterwards.
I felt like having a smoke last night.
Star Trek was a fantastic, fantastic film. It smiles and delights, has fun and sadness, fantastic action without overtaking the core of the film, and miraculously reinvigorates a stale franchise by doing what I thought was impossible; not only going back to the well of Kirk, Spock and Bones...but recasting them, and recasting them brilliantly.
I enjoyed Star Trek on two levels. First, I enjoyed it immensely as a Star Trek fan. The film is undoubtedly a version of Star Trek, it feels like Star Trek, though admittedly a new and vastly different Star Trek. I enjoyed seeing interpretations on characters, unexpected surprises (guess who Uhura is dating! They destroyed...WHAT!?!), contemporary music (Beastie Boys!?! But I think I like it!) and spotting all the nods and graceful tips of the hat to canon and all that has come before. All this put a huge smile on my face.
Secondly, I enjoyed it as a film, and unfortunately, that's a rare surprise in Trek movies. The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Undiscovered Country and arguably First Contact are all really good films. Good cinema. But the rest? Not so much. The question I have and perhaps I wont know until I see it with a close friend who is not a Trek fan, is how much does my Trek fandom bleed into my view of it as a film? Did my utter glee come mainly from Karl Urban's astounding performance as Bones? Or was it because here was a film with an excellent eye to style, action, camera movement and creativity? As I write this, I realize even that is influenced by my Trek fandom, because I've always bemoaned the lack of style in Trek. Robert Wise had it, and Meyer has his own, though admittedly workmanlike, style. But when in any other Trek, TV or movie, have we ever seen this much style? In the opening prologue, in which we see George Kirk take command and James T. Kirk's birth, in this 7 minutes alone, I kept thinking, finally, Trek with some flare! (Yes, that was a purposeful pun.) It was a style that brought excitement to Trek, and I for one loved it!
Is Star Trek perfect? No, unfortunately not. There are many things that bother me that I think will bother more on subsequent viewings. However, I'm confident they will never take away from the film's charm. Most of the problems come in storytelling shortcomings. One of the things I was most anticipating going in was seeing the return of Leonard Nimoy as Spock. Unfortunately, though, I felt he was the worst part of the movie. The film bogs down after Kirk is marooned on an ice planet by Quinto's Spock. My first puzzlement about the film came at this point, as I wondered why the Enterprise didn't have a brig? I suppose you could say Spock knew how brilliant Kirk was and didn't trust he couldn't break out of the brig, but that doesn't seem entirely logical. At any rate, at this point the film dumbs down. Nimoy's Spock comes out of nowhere, coincidentally marooned on the same planet by the film's villain, Nero. Kirk happened to land right near where he was hiding out, and Kirk basically runs right to him after a pretty pointless and boring chase through the snow by a couple of CGI monsters. There, Kirk and Spock mind meld, and we have a painful five minutes of exposition going into the detail of Nero's motivation. Did we need it? Later, Nero says that Spock saw his planet destroyed and wanted to return the favour. He also explained to an imprisoned Captain Pike (the brilliant Bruce Greenwood...Canadian shout out!) how he wanted to rid his future of the Federation. Everything he says in these scenes, I felt was enough. We could have, in the end, gotten rid of Leonard Nimoy altogether. That makes me sad to say. This segment then leads to a Starfleet base 14 km away where Scotty is coincidentally stationed, who then figures out how to beam them onto the Enterprise. Keep in mind, the ship has been travelling at warp since dropping Kirk off...his chase through the snow, his finding Spock, their conversation and mind meld, the 14 km hike over glacier to Scotty's base and then that whole conversation and discovery. Then they beam onto the Enterprise? Wouldn't it be a million miles away by now? That scene stretched even my forgiving suspension of disbelief, and made me think that if they could do that, what does anyone need with a starship?
So this middle segment dragged the movie down. It was badly written, overly coincidental and had pointless action beats for nothing but lame exposition that was done elsewhere. The good news, though, is that this fifteen minutes is pretty much the only bad part of the movie. Almost. The less said about Nokia, the better.
Acting was phenomenal. Pine made Kirk his own, really only imitating William Shatner in one sequence, where he was partaking in the Kobeyashi Maru test, and here Kirk was obviously having fun...and so was Pine. Quinto played Spock's duel of identities wonderfully. Simon Pegg was hilarious as Scotty. While mainly comedic, he never dishonoured the character and showed a man proud of his brilliance. The stand out, however, was Karl Urban. As soon as you hear his voice, you smile. As soon as he makes a comment about "bones" and you understand the relevance, your smile grows broader. Every minute he was onscreen, my smile grew and grew. The man honoured Deforest Kelley, understood the character in a way I don't think I did until I saw his performance, and yet made it his own. Bravo.
While I enjoyed the villain on a mission of revenge who brings our crew together storyline, this does lead to my one other small gripe. While the film has many great themes such as friendship and emotion vs. logic, this Star Trek isn't really about anything. One thing I've always loved about Trek is its high minded ideals. It's philosophy and big science fiction themes. This film uses the villain out for revenge plot to get our crew together, establish their characters and create a new universe. There aren't a whole lot of ideas in it, though. This would usually bother me a lot more than it does here, simply because I recognize what the filmmakers were up against. Getting the crew together, establishing their characters and creating a new universe for Trek to exist in is a damn tall order, and one they did brilliantly. Pondering the unknown possibilities of existence would probably be a little too much. So I don't mind so much that they piggy backed all their brilliance onto a typical revenge plot, but I love Star Trek most when its pondering the ideas. I'm a little worried, because I can't seem to see this crew in a film adventure that deals with hard science fiction. But after how great this film was, mostly, I think they've earned my faith. And my faith will carry me into this newly forged final frontier.
Many, many years ago, I used to smoke. I gave it up and have never turned back. My favourite cigarettes were after meals, over coffee with friends, post coitus and after a great movie. I've seen a lot of great movies since I quit that horrible habit, and I've never felt the need for a smoke afterwards.
I felt like having a smoke last night.
Star Trek was a fantastic, fantastic film. It smiles and delights, has fun and sadness, fantastic action without overtaking the core of the film, and miraculously reinvigorates a stale franchise by doing what I thought was impossible; not only going back to the well of Kirk, Spock and Bones...but recasting them, and recasting them brilliantly.
I enjoyed Star Trek on two levels. First, I enjoyed it immensely as a Star Trek fan. The film is undoubtedly a version of Star Trek, it feels like Star Trek, though admittedly a new and vastly different Star Trek. I enjoyed seeing interpretations on characters, unexpected surprises (guess who Uhura is dating! They destroyed...WHAT!?!), contemporary music (Beastie Boys!?! But I think I like it!) and spotting all the nods and graceful tips of the hat to canon and all that has come before. All this put a huge smile on my face.
Secondly, I enjoyed it as a film, and unfortunately, that's a rare surprise in Trek movies. The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Undiscovered Country and arguably First Contact are all really good films. Good cinema. But the rest? Not so much. The question I have and perhaps I wont know until I see it with a close friend who is not a Trek fan, is how much does my Trek fandom bleed into my view of it as a film? Did my utter glee come mainly from Karl Urban's astounding performance as Bones? Or was it because here was a film with an excellent eye to style, action, camera movement and creativity? As I write this, I realize even that is influenced by my Trek fandom, because I've always bemoaned the lack of style in Trek. Robert Wise had it, and Meyer has his own, though admittedly workmanlike, style. But when in any other Trek, TV or movie, have we ever seen this much style? In the opening prologue, in which we see George Kirk take command and James T. Kirk's birth, in this 7 minutes alone, I kept thinking, finally, Trek with some flare! (Yes, that was a purposeful pun.) It was a style that brought excitement to Trek, and I for one loved it!
Is Star Trek perfect? No, unfortunately not. There are many things that bother me that I think will bother more on subsequent viewings. However, I'm confident they will never take away from the film's charm. Most of the problems come in storytelling shortcomings. One of the things I was most anticipating going in was seeing the return of Leonard Nimoy as Spock. Unfortunately, though, I felt he was the worst part of the movie. The film bogs down after Kirk is marooned on an ice planet by Quinto's Spock. My first puzzlement about the film came at this point, as I wondered why the Enterprise didn't have a brig? I suppose you could say Spock knew how brilliant Kirk was and didn't trust he couldn't break out of the brig, but that doesn't seem entirely logical. At any rate, at this point the film dumbs down. Nimoy's Spock comes out of nowhere, coincidentally marooned on the same planet by the film's villain, Nero. Kirk happened to land right near where he was hiding out, and Kirk basically runs right to him after a pretty pointless and boring chase through the snow by a couple of CGI monsters. There, Kirk and Spock mind meld, and we have a painful five minutes of exposition going into the detail of Nero's motivation. Did we need it? Later, Nero says that Spock saw his planet destroyed and wanted to return the favour. He also explained to an imprisoned Captain Pike (the brilliant Bruce Greenwood...Canadian shout out!) how he wanted to rid his future of the Federation. Everything he says in these scenes, I felt was enough. We could have, in the end, gotten rid of Leonard Nimoy altogether. That makes me sad to say. This segment then leads to a Starfleet base 14 km away where Scotty is coincidentally stationed, who then figures out how to beam them onto the Enterprise. Keep in mind, the ship has been travelling at warp since dropping Kirk off...his chase through the snow, his finding Spock, their conversation and mind meld, the 14 km hike over glacier to Scotty's base and then that whole conversation and discovery. Then they beam onto the Enterprise? Wouldn't it be a million miles away by now? That scene stretched even my forgiving suspension of disbelief, and made me think that if they could do that, what does anyone need with a starship?
So this middle segment dragged the movie down. It was badly written, overly coincidental and had pointless action beats for nothing but lame exposition that was done elsewhere. The good news, though, is that this fifteen minutes is pretty much the only bad part of the movie. Almost. The less said about Nokia, the better.
Acting was phenomenal. Pine made Kirk his own, really only imitating William Shatner in one sequence, where he was partaking in the Kobeyashi Maru test, and here Kirk was obviously having fun...and so was Pine. Quinto played Spock's duel of identities wonderfully. Simon Pegg was hilarious as Scotty. While mainly comedic, he never dishonoured the character and showed a man proud of his brilliance. The stand out, however, was Karl Urban. As soon as you hear his voice, you smile. As soon as he makes a comment about "bones" and you understand the relevance, your smile grows broader. Every minute he was onscreen, my smile grew and grew. The man honoured Deforest Kelley, understood the character in a way I don't think I did until I saw his performance, and yet made it his own. Bravo.
While I enjoyed the villain on a mission of revenge who brings our crew together storyline, this does lead to my one other small gripe. While the film has many great themes such as friendship and emotion vs. logic, this Star Trek isn't really about anything. One thing I've always loved about Trek is its high minded ideals. It's philosophy and big science fiction themes. This film uses the villain out for revenge plot to get our crew together, establish their characters and create a new universe. There aren't a whole lot of ideas in it, though. This would usually bother me a lot more than it does here, simply because I recognize what the filmmakers were up against. Getting the crew together, establishing their characters and creating a new universe for Trek to exist in is a damn tall order, and one they did brilliantly. Pondering the unknown possibilities of existence would probably be a little too much. So I don't mind so much that they piggy backed all their brilliance onto a typical revenge plot, but I love Star Trek most when its pondering the ideas. I'm a little worried, because I can't seem to see this crew in a film adventure that deals with hard science fiction. But after how great this film was, mostly, I think they've earned my faith. And my faith will carry me into this newly forged final frontier.
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You're dead on as always T'Baio!
Hey, that wasn't the XXX review! 
Hey, that wasn't the XXX review!
Hot naked chicks are hot and I like to watch them.
How's that?
Yeah, great review.Hey, that wasn't the XXX review!
Hot naked chicks are hot and I like to watch them.
How's that?
Good review.
Thanks for the compliments!
One of my favourite moments that doesn't seem to be getting mentioned a lot is when Kirk pats Spock on the shoulder near the end. The way Quinto plays Spock's reaction, almost with a shudder of revulsion, shows the filmmakers know their lore. Vulcans don't like to be touched, and the scene was brilliantly played without explaining it.
There were a lot of wonderful, respectful moments like that.
One of my favourite moments that doesn't seem to be getting mentioned a lot is when Kirk pats Spock on the shoulder near the end. The way Quinto plays Spock's reaction, almost with a shudder of revulsion, shows the filmmakers know their lore. Vulcans don't like to be touched, and the scene was brilliantly played without explaining it.
There were a lot of wonderful, respectful moments like that.
I missed your reviews, T'Baio! I couldn't have said it better myself!
Was good to see "Zapped!" in this forum. I used to like your reviews, even when I didn't agree with them.
Dead on about Urban/McCoy, T'Baio. He was simply awesome.
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