The Official STAR TREK Grading & Discussion Thread [SPOILERS]

[siskokid888]

I said I wasn't going to be drawn into the nitpicker festival that's going on, but I want to weigh in on the "Kirk promoted too quickly" argument - When Pike is talking to Kirk, he mentions that Kirk's intellectual numbers are off the charts. He's a prodigy. He then is given command of a starship, attacks when everyone else retreats, and SAVES THE GOD DAMN FEDERATION! So Starfleet should pat him on the shoulder, say good job, and hand him a mop? Also, this Kirk is 26 to 28 years old, not 17. He entered the academy later than original Kirk. I have absolutely no problem, after the events depicted, with Kirk made Captain. HE'S FRIGGIN' JAMES T. KIRK! Buy into your own mythos!

 

[Gertch]

3. Pike in the wheelchair at the end...no medical breakthrough for this??

BEEP BEEP

I said that in the theater and got a few snickers.

 

[Warp Coil]

I saw the film last night. Crowded theater (not sold out, but pretty full). I saw it with a good friend of mine who was a casual Trek fan back in the day. Reactions from the crowd were very positive. They laughed at the jokes, loved seeing Leonard Nimoy, enjoyed some of the other cameos (like Tyler Perry), and when the credits rolled, they applauded. I have no idea how many of them were Trek fans. I do remember standing outside the theater afterwards, and a teenage girl was on her cell phone talking to someone (a friend, I assume), saying that she wasn't a Trek fan but she really liked the movie.

This film is Star Trek at the core, and yet it's not Star Trek at all. This is something different. It looks like Trek. It has all of the recognizable elements - the Enterprise, the bridge, phasers, transporters, Vulcans, etc. It has the original characters. It's still set in the 23rd century. All of the pieces are still in-tact. And yet, it feels almost like a different type of creature now. The writing is fast and witty. The chararacters feel more comfortable, somehow. I find them easier to relate to here. They act like, well... real people. They have emotions and flaws and issues - past Trek series didn't always handle that very well. The main characters had a tendancy to be too pefect or too cerebral, or on occassion, over-emotional to the point of absurdity. I really like these characters in ST'09.

The action was great. The humor was great. The pacing was quick and kept you invested in the movie. You won't get bored watching this. However, I did find the story a little weak. Plenty of plot holes. Leaps of logic need to be taken, and you will need to really suspend disbelief and just go with the flow, otherwise you'll hate it. I wish the time travel/alternate reality issues were handled better and explained more easily. The way they tried to explain the backstory of Nero and old Spock fell a little flat for me, and I wasn't satisfied with it. I also don't understand how Kirk, McCoy, Uhura and others go from cadets to senior officers of the Federation flagship in the span on this movie, either. I don't buy that for one second.

Despite the film's flaws, it's a fun adventure. I hope to see it again, and would like to see J.J. Abrams continue. Perhaps now that this new universe has been established, they'll have a more powerful story to tell the second time around.

 

[Sept17th]

I’m a bit of a Trek fan so I could not really just go in as a fan of movies but it may have even worked as an adventure/action film with sci-fi trappings. No film is perfect and the challenge of tackling TOS is huge but it worked. I saw it twice last night and I’m going again tomorrow with a friend who was an extra in the film. Best Trek film ever? Maybe, my emotional attachment to memories of seeing II, III and IV loom large. It was fun, fast and even smart for summer popcorn fare. The look was right, the recasting really worked pretty well, Pine even channeled The Shat oh so briefly a couple of times. When the crew got together at the end to take the Enterprise out I was ready to see them tackle a strange new world. It was as good as The Dark Knight was to Batman just lighter and more fun. I wish Battlestar Galactica would have been handled so well.

The theater was packed, people reacted positively and clapped at the end. A must see, grade A, two thumbs up just leave the plastic Vulcan ears at home.

 

[imranbecks]

Just saw the movie today!!!! Star Trek is back, bigger and better than before!!! The whole movie feels very fresh and the bridge of the Enterprise is very brightly lit in my opinion... My only disappointment is that the exterior of the Enterprise isn't really shown too much, not many beauty shots of the ship in space.. Once the ship is in warp speed, you can barely make out the Enterprise becoz its all a blur due to its speed it was traveling at..

Early on in the movie, you might forget that you are watching Star Trek coz it has that whole reboot theme going around much like how Casino Royale was for the James Bond franchise.. But once they go onboard the Enterprise, you will than realize that its classic Star Trek with a modern twist.. Eric Bana's portrayal of Romulan Cpt Nero is similar to the portrayal of Tom Hardy as Praetor Shinzon in Star Trek Nemesis... The new cast of the Enterprise however is really spot on to the classic Enterprise crew and they all have a certain chemistry on screen together on the bridge of the Enterprise.. . J J Abrams is a genius and I can see this cast and crew of the Enterprise staying on for another few movies... Bring on Star Trek 2!!!!! This movie is a 5 star!!!!

In the meantime, I think I'm gonna go see it again!!!! Second round!

 

[Gertch]

About attendance, did anyone else do to a noonish showing? My co-workers quipped we won't have to wait in line for tickets based on the lack of cars. I suggested most people probably just beamed there. I was wrong and there were only a dozen or so people there.

Is that typical for that time of day?

 

[captcalhoun]

i'm not wading through 49 pages before i reply, so here's my thoughts:

Pine was good as Kirk, Quinto was good as Spock. I also liked Pegg and Urban. Don't really think Cho got much to do. Seldana was good as Uhura. Yelchin's cod Russian accent was even more daft than Koenig's which is laughable since he is Russian.

Storywise, i thought it was okay. Not great. but not terrible. The science was terrible. All that black-hole time-travel bull was even more rediculous than some of the technobabble people slam VGR and TNG for.

I still hate the fugly ship. And i REALLY hated the engineering decks on the Kelvin and the E. it looked more like a pumping plant or power-station than a starship. they seem far too huge for the size of the ship.

Lens-flares. Yeesh. Seriously, what the hell was with that?

somehow it seemed forced that everyone wound up on the E the way they did. maybe it was because of Uhura's determination to be on the E, but somehow it just seemed laboured.

overall, i'm giving it a 7/10

 

[DaveG]

Who?

The bad guy from Nemisis.

[ROBAU]I'm not familiar with that movie. Where are you from? [/ROBAU]

Nemisis was the previous ST movie. Didn't do well and (spoiler) Data turned off for good.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253754/

I'm from NE Illinois.

 

[Roshi]

^

 

[Jager1025]

I wish they kept the story line alive. I miss the old story line and when the stories dealt with questions of science, ideals or philosophy. Now its been replaced by stories reduced flashy action. There seemed to be no point.

I like to think that as a first installment, this film has established a natural framework which can easily accept the elements you have mentioned.

Perhaps they have had to prioritise in this first film and even the original series took quite a few episodes to fully introduce those elements.

I would probably be ok with the new story line but the plot of this movie was just bad...like the way kirk becomes captian. There were countless moments where things made no sense. I made some my friends come to see it with me, all of whom were not trek fans and they hated it. I can see why they would maybe need a new universe to reboot star trek but i still need a good story.

 

[pookha]

I said I wasn't going to be drawn into the nitpicker festival that's going on, but I want to weigh in on the "Kirk promoted too quickly" argument - When Pike is talking to Kirk, he mentions that Kirk's intellectual numbers are off the charts. He's a prodigy. He then is given command of a starship, attacks when everyone else retreats, and SAVES THE GOD DAMN FEDERATION! So Starfleet should pat him on the shoulder, say good job, and hand him a mop? Also, this Kirk is 26 to 28 years old, not 17. He entered the academy later than original Kirk. I have absolutely no problem, after the events depicted, with Kirk made Captain. HE'S FRIGGIN' JAMES T. KIRK! Buy into your own mythos!

we also dont know about his career at the acedemy beyond the dossier and what little was in the film.
we do know while in the academy people already have served on ships so he may have already done some extraordinary things already.

but yeah saving the federation when the rest of the fleet was else where plus having pike probably pushing for this helps.

The chararacters feel more comfortable, somehow. I find them easier to relate to here. They act like, well... real people. They have emotions and flaws and issues - past Trek series didn't always handle that very well. The main characters had a tendancy to be too pefect or too cerebral, or on occassion, over-emotional to the point of absurdity. I really like these characters in ST'09. .

but,that is how the characters were in classic star trek.
they were like real people.. they fussed, complained but also very much cared for each other.
really in future movies i hope to see some of the stuff like we saw between bones in jim during balance of terror in some of the future films.

 

[Silversmok3]

My thoughts.I believe the movie is well done,on several levels.One,I love how engineering is ,well,engineering.You see coolant pipes and actual machinery instead of computer screens and desks.
Two,Kirk being 'promoted' so fast actually wasn't all that unusual.One;IIRC Kirk was taking the Kobyashi Maru,so he was on track for command anyways.Consider as well-after what Nero did to the fleet at Vulcan there won't be too many ships he can command now,not for some years to come.And with Pike being promoted to Admiralty(and thus out of the command chair) it made sense to award Kirk the chair.Also-the Enterprise isn't the legendary flagship we know it as,not yet.At this point its just a really cool lookin starship.

In any case,this is one for the wall of honor next to David Mack's Trilogy and Wrath of Khan.

 

[Voyaging Home]

I just saw it tonight in Melbourne. Excellent. Probably 4th or 5th best of the movies.
I went into this with VERY negative feelings about a reboot, but I was impressed.

I thought Kirk was great, as were Scotty, Bones & Sulu. I had a bit of a problem with the Sylar thing, but I recognise that he was bloddy good as Spock. Chekov's accent was overdone, and Scotty was too skinny. I was very dissapointed with the layout of the bridge - It should have been more like TOS bridge, or TNG. I didnt like the Spock/Uhura relationship thing, but I understand they have to cater for the modern generation. While I dont like the destruction of Vulcan, it was a shock and did add to the movie. Nero was a pretty poor villain. And at times there was too much of a Staw Wars feel about the space battles. I loved the references to the series - such as the deep trench from Enterprise, Pike's wheelchair etc.

Overall, the movie turned me from a hater to a lover !! It could have been better, but it was excellent.

 

[CramNevets]

The movie was amazing.
I haven’t been this pumped up since First Contact.
It was awesome - cool - emotional - funny - just perfect.

 

[TGTheodore]

In one exterior shot at Starfleet Academy I was suddenly expecting a young Boothby to be casually mentioned or to be gardening nearby.

Also, I just can't stand seeing the term "l*ns fl*re" one more time. It's overused more than the word "moratorium" was back in the 1970's.

--Ted

 

[new_mercury]

I really did not want to enjoy this movie. I tried not to nit pick the parts that weren't canonical but I have. Even so I enjoyed it as a Star Trek fan and as a mivie fan. It was obviously going to be aimed at non-Trekkies, at updating the franchise and making it more 'modern' and less 'cerebral' but even so it was a damn good film and I know i'm going to provoke here but i'd rather watch this ten times over than ever watch the first two series of Enterprise ever again. sorry but it's true.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I'm not sure why people are complaining about weak story logic in Star Trek - if it weren't for coincidence and weak story logic, there'd be no Trek film series at all.

 

[voygal72]

Can an old lady post here?

I was in grad school days when TOS first aired (hubby, who was working on a PhuD in space physics refused to watch -- ha, ha!) and I've faithfully watched all the series since and even own complete DVDs of three of the series.

At this stage in my life, it seems that very little can really excite me (other than grandkids, but that's another story ) but I have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for this movie, hoping for the best, expecting the nothing more than mediocre. Sheesh -- was I ever in for a wake-up call!

Went to the early AM showing yesterday morning and I've been higher than I've been ever since a few wild parties in the early '70s! The story, the characters & characterizations, music, effects... just plain downright AWESOME!!!!!! The casting was a delight, especially Karl Urban, and all the little nuances, lines, twitches that were paid in homage to the original were done with love and humor, along with a touch of reverence.

I haven't read this entire thread so I don't know if anyone has pointed out the review by Ann Hornaday in The Washingto Post, but I think of any of the reviews I've read, hers caught the same spirit of awe and wonder I felt about the movie: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...ewsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Live long and prosper, J.J. Abrams and Company!

-- voygal72

 

[Endymion]

Just finished my review.

http://moveitmoveit.wordpress.com

 

[Endymion]

^ PS: We'd love to here your comments.