2009 widely regarded as good, STID bad, Beyond very good...

The reboots have been getting progressively worse, unfortunately. But I'll never forget having seen 2009 in the cinema, with all of the potential and promise the new film series had. I should've known it had nowhere else to go after that .... but down.

 

I may be weird, but I love all three about the same (with Into Darkness barely beating the others for the top spot). I love this cast of characters, the villains and side characters are fun to watch and the music is phenomenal (I'm listening to Enterprising Young Men as I type this).

I'm not saying that the series doesn't leave me with a feeling of wanting more. I'd love to see this crew do a sci fi themed film like The Motion Picture (which is my favorite of the ten Prime films) but I'm not going to go into a long tirade about these movies sucking because the producers don't deliver on this wish. I enjoy them for what they are.

 

I've really enjoyed the take on Trek and Beyond and while it did not surpass the 2009 film, it beat Into Darkness.

 

My thoughts precisely. STID was on its way to being a great Trek film, up until the last act. When I rewatch the movie, I can't even watch it from the point Spock's yells and onward.

 

Wonder what other route they could've gone after torpedoes go boom?
Khan sets self destruct. Ent cant get away. Kirk sacrifices himself. Ent manages to get out of range just before Vengeance goes boom. Kirk dies. Khan got away in shuttlepod before Veng blew, uses it to sneak back onto the Ent. Goes on redshirt killing spree. Finds his crew in sickbay. Attempts to wake up the real khan (CG 1967 Montalban) but is interrupted by Spock who reveals he's found out who he really is - Joachim - Khans right hand man who posed as his leader to protect him. They fight. Spock kicks his ass in engineering. Kirk is saved.

 

I loved the final act. Literally, all hell breaks loose and the situation goes completely out of control. Pandemonium reigns.

 

Yes its like after Spock Prime appears the whole thing goes haywire as if the Prime timeline events are bursting through into this universe but inversed.

 

I think the way the Kelvin Timeline works, and the Mirror Universe for that matter, is that all the same events happen just in an altered form.

 

That's funny. The only spot I skip is the Spock yell and then I get right in to the action. The last act is weaker, but I still enjoy it.

 

While I consider ID somewhat weak story-wise, I enjoy it a lot because of Benedict Cumberbatch's performance.
To me, that gives it the edge over STB, which I didn't enjoy quite as much, as I was hoping Idris Elba would be more prominent in the movie.

Kor

 

I never liked the curse. The Motion Picture was a solid sci fi story with great visuals. I really loved it, it was a pretty big piece of the evolution of Spock. Also Search for Spock wasn't bad at all. I am alone in not really caring for IV very much. V had its moments but ya was pretty weak. I liked Generations and First Contact (though both have huge plot holes) but Insurrection and Nemesis were both shit. Insurrection is 100 times worse when you realize it took place during a war.

09 was a very good movie. I loved seeing Elder Spock and how they followed his journey from being on Romulus to entering the new past. I can't find the quote anywhere but I loved it when spock prime was sending Kirk back and telling him he had to get Spock (younger) to have an emotional outburst to take command. Kirk says something about Spocks emotions and Spock Prime responds "I have just watched my planet be destroyed, I am emotionally compromised" or something to that effect. I can't find the exact quote. It was an incredibly moving moment and Nimoy played it so well. Another great quote was Sarek when he said "I didn't marry your mother because it was logical, I married her because I loved her." Really great stuff

Into Darkness was okay. I rather enjoyed the mystery story thing they were doing until they had the lame lift scenes directly from wrath of khan which was so unnecessary and stupid. It wasn't a bad movie overall though.

Beyond was good. A great original story, loved the twist. Wish they would make a show with this cast because they keep ending the movies like they are going to do a show but then never do.

 

Each of the films have their good points and their less than stellar ones.
ST09 was fun to watch. My two main gripes with it are Kirk's fast track to the captain's chair (they could have missed at least 8 years rather than 4) and Nero who was so one-dimensional that he makes even Shinzon look like a fleshed-out character. Those two aside, it was, as I said, a fun movie.
STID was, for me, a far more enjoyable movie the second time around, when I knew what to expect. The Augment storyline was fine, but having Khan there seemed pointless. His only reason for existence was to have the TWOK reversal make sense at the end and to force nuSpock to contact Prime Spock. But I did like the way Khan and Kirk had to team up to beat Admiral Marcus. The Carol Marcus stripping scene was stupid. Cumberbatch is a fine actor, and I think he did a great job as Harrison. But having him become Khan wasn't necessary. I thought it was a shame Bones was reduced to the sidelines in this one.
I've only seen STB once, but I remember feeling like they were finally on their 5-year mission and that the crew had more or less settled into their characters and jobs.
When I saw the movies in theater, I was most disappointed with STID and happiest with STB, but we'll see which one of them I enjoy most in future rewatches.

 

My only beef with Beyond was the motorbike sequence/Jayla-Manus fight. I found it boring, jarring and pointless. It would have been much better if they had rocked up in the Franklin, rising up behind a hill and attacking Krall's camp with it's weapons whilst beaming people up. That would have been much better than what we got, and would given us something we've never seen before in a Trek film - a starship attacking the ground. I'd still rank Beyond alongside the other two though, and I'm still struggling to split them after multiple watches of them all.

 

Yes that sounds cool.. brings to mind the BOP ends of IV and V ..better than Kirk turning into Vin Diesel anyway (one thing I recently read somewhere that must be a major goof was how was the bike travelling at high speed when being beamed?)

 

It was just shit and had no place in the film. I'll concede that some of the motorbike closeups of the wheel skidding were filmed quite well but the whole scene just felt unnecessary. The Jaya/Manus fight I thought was really badly done - just so dull and no sense of violence to it it all, and all topped off with the ridiculous beam out of mid air. I found this really dragged the film down on the big screen, luckily the last act was pretty spectacular so I quickly forgot about it.