Star Trek 2009-11 years later

Missed that entirely, so thanks for the quote.

Bottom line is that for me every part of the movie should work the way special effects are supposed to work: if I notice them (for what they are, as opposed to part of the film telling me a story), they're not doing their job properly. The line kicks me out of the story. It blaringly says to me "You're watching a movie, and somebody here decided to be clever at the wrong moment."

 

Again, it makes perfect sense. I just didn't take it as being clever-it's Nero being Nero to me.

Obviously, mileage will vary

 

Nero was an analog for the working class who felt slighted and manipulated by intergalactic politicking beyond its station. Remember this was right after the housing crash. The folksy charm was intentional.

It was the Star Trek equivalent to the miner who just lost his job and walks into the bank and is polite and courteous to the teller right before he pulls out his semi-automatic.

 

I also drew some comparisons to his ship being sort of the Exxon Valdez vs. any kind of warship. In the Waterworld movie, the Smokers are basically unstoppable because a big tanker is an impossibly powerful battleship to the primitive people there.

Same with the 23rd century vs. 24th.

 

I thought the movie was a jumping on board to TOS; where people who never saw Star Trek would go back and see some of the material which it honored. Pine did his own Kirk, and so did Quinto for his version of Spock, but I loved his Spock and his relation with Uhura. In JJ's new world it appeared he cleverly created a new big 3 within Spock, Uhura and Kirk, the movies would not be an exact copy but doing their own thing. Star Trek was visually appealing and a fun ride.

 

One thing that truly surprised me was how accessible it was to variety of viewers. I have family members who are staunchly not science fiction fans; as in, don't like Star Wars, Star Trek, or anything like that. Yet, they sat down, and felt more familiar with some of the Trek ideas after wards. More surprising, another family member decided to try DS9 because of this movie.

I too am glad it made Trek visually appealing while allowing those more familiar to appreciate the TOS style.

 

Many of my friends liked it so much they wanted to see some of the other movies. I remember one guy asking "Are they all that good?!" right when the credits rolled. So I had a party with some of them and we watched WoK, SFS, and TVH. When Chekov made his log entry and we see the Reliant approach the planet, they cheered and said "Chekov!! Haaa!" and expected the funny character they saw in STXI. They were confused why he wasn't funny at all. They found the slow scenes where Kirk and Carol discuss age vs youth very boring, and Khan's reveal also bored them to death. By TVH, all of them were sleeping.

Some colleagues who dismiss all kinds of sci-fi or action movies did watch it with me at another party I hosted, and were very surprised how good it was. One woman who was about to have a kid herself cried at the end of the opening scene and said she never expected Star Trek to be serious and gripping like that. When we watched STID years later, she complained that we didn't take her along (she didn't have time when most other people did).

 

I'm pretty sure I saw this 10 times in the theaters when it came out, including twice on opening weekend and once for the IMAX re-release in September.

I loved it back then and love it now, despite being 100% aware of the silliness in some of the writing and some of the other WTF elements of it. I just don't let that stuff bother me. It was a wildly entertaining film featuring my favorite characters of all time.

 

To the sleeping friends post above, honestly I think it says more about modern viewers than about the movies.

Scenes with . . . dialogue and . . . pauses?! Not that!

 

I use to think that but my wife is one of those who couldn't make it through TWOK or TMP despite my efforts, yet will diligently parse through all dialog in Lord of the Rings and Doctor Quinn: Medicine Woman. I was surprised she liked Abrams Trek at all.

 

Star Trek 2009 is my favorite star trek movie. Funny thing, I watched it with low expectations thinking I'd like it just because I'm biased about Trek, but it surprised me. For a movie that is often belittled as having no depth and being just about action, it honestly made me feel more emotions that other movies in the genre. The opening scene for one, everything about Spock (including the final moment with Sarek) , the characters, the interpersonal relationships.. not a flawless movie but one I could watch forever.

Nero is my fav villain (and the most convincing) of the trilogy. I feel that guy, you want to hate him for what he did but also hope there will be a kelvin version of him somewhere that will get another chance and happier life.

To me, the movie strongly hints they have a relationship already since the Farragut scene (the script characterizes their relationship as a secret that the turbolift scene reveals to us), and that's WHY Uhura kisses him in the turbolift and HE kisses her back.
The intimacy between them is such that it would be a stretch even for common friends to act like that, but with Spock it becomes even more unlikely they'd act with each other that way unless there is something already (also see his body language on the transport pad. That's a man who hugged and kissed his girlfriend many times)
No one who knows the vulcans, let alone Uhura, would touch and kiss them that way unless they were their mate. Especially not in that moment. She does that because it's appropriate to their relationship, because they had done that before. Because she knows he'd be comfortable with her doing that.

Tptb put more than a hint they are a couple and they tried to be as explicit as they could get without being too over the top with it. The fact they knew each other at the Academy and worked together there is, if anything, a good set up for their romance providing a context where it might have happened.

I don't see the issue with them simply being a couple before the destruction of vulcan.
Frankly, the fact they have a relationship, thus interact that way with each other because of mutual romantic feelings, is more respectful to the characters for me and has more integrity from a writing perspective for tptb. If you want to give Spock a real romance (unlike the usual Chapel) you gotta commit to it.. and it would be too 'safe' to use the excuse he only gets with her because he's emotionally compromised. I'm sure tos purists would love it but JJ&Co didn't want to be safe, they (commentary) declared that putting them into an intimate relationship and saying that they are in love was 'the gutsiest thing they did even before destroying vulcan'.

I think the point is this Spock is simply having his own story and agency that differs from that of tos Spock a bit resulting in him making different choices, including that of having a relationship with a human (perhaps because he fell in love while tos Spock never did with his love interest). It's a Spock who is more embracing of his human side before the destruction of vulcan. This is not tos where big emotional moments are blamed on external influences because that's how the 60s developed 'the alien'. And Uhura isn't a Chapel or Leila Kalomi (or any of the disposable love interests from tos, tbh)

 

It should be illegal for 2009 to have been 11 years ago.

I loved this movie and thought it singlehandedly saved Star Trek as a whole. I legit cried at the third trailer when Kirk sat in the captain's chair for the first time, full on bawling my eyes out because I never, EVER thought I'd see Star Trek done so well and so beautifully on the big screen in my generation (you have to remember I grew up with the TNG movies, which were hit or miss at best). I had to fight back tears again several times in the theater, most notably when George Kirk first hears his infant son's cries, because you JUST KNOW who that baby is gonna grow up to be. It was like witnessing the birth of a Legend, a Myth that I'd heard all my life, and I was getting to see how it all began. Alternate reality notwithstanding, this was an incredible "what-if?" origin for the classic Star Trek crew, and for years I loved it as my favorite Star Trek film simply because it brought Star Trek to the 21st century with flying colors.

 

I think this is an excellent point. It is an alternate reality but it still highlights Kirk becoming who he could become in Prime and the growth of him as a leader.

 

This clip with Chris Pine perfectly exemplifies what's wrong with the JJ movies:



JJ Abrams didn't care about Star Trek or good movies with a coherent script.

 

I just clicked the video, and the first minute or so is Pine telling an anecdote about filming the scene in ST09 where Kirk runs on to the bridge to warn Pike to stop the ship before they walk into an ambush at Vulcan. Pine says he's completely lost with all the exposition he's having to get out, and asks Abrams for guidance, and Abrams tells him to just focus on running in as fast as possible, delivering the lines with urgency, and trusting the audience will take the dramatic meaning, that Kirk knows something and is desperate to warn Pike, without getting bogged down by the specifics and trying to impart a bunch of nuance.

Did it jump to a different moment for you, or did the link glitch and somehow get crossed with a different video?

 

The relevant part is in the first 80 seconds.
From 0:45 to 1:20.

"It doesn't matter [what you say]. No one is gonna care. All the audience is gonna think is: Something is happening! Something is happening!"

 

I think the best thing I can say about ST09 is this:

Whether you loved it or hated it, the movie proved that there was still some life in a franchise that up until then, was thought of by many as creatively exhausted (myself included).

I may not have enjoyed Into Darkness and thought Beyond was fine, but ST09 is probably the movie I most anticipated seeing (maybe ever).

 

This was the Star Trek movie I'd waited my life to see. Still my favourite. The energy, the characters, the emotion. It's fantastic.

I'm really hoping the rumours of Strange New Worlds casting a young versions of the TOS characters is true, because I really want that to be ST'09: The series.

 

I think the intro of ST 2009 is the best intro to any Trek movie:



You got an epic space battle, Captain Robau sacrificing himself and then the birth of James T Kirk and the heroic sacrifice of George Kirk to save his family and his crew. All wrapped up in beautiful cinematography and music. The way the classical music swells as the Kelvin is being pummeled and we see the birth of Kirk and the shuttles escaping. WOW! What a way to start a Trek movie!