I love it. And you? (spoilers)

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Some spoilers ahead.

.

I'm not a film reviewer. Nor am I the penultimate encyclopedia on anything TOS. I'm just a regular guy, mid twenties, who has watched and loves everything Trek. Having said that, I do have some thoughts:

I've just watched the movie. And, after letting it sink in, all I can say is (to paraphrase McCoy): I like it, it's exciting!

And it truly is.

The space battles don't look 'realistic' (in the 'the universe is so large you'd be kilometers away from each other' sense), but they are exciting as hell. It gets the blood pumping and damn, I was literally rocking in my seat.

The emotional scenes do more to give the characters, well, character, then entire seasons have done for the previous series. My girlfriend even let a tear escape when Jim was born. Even my eyes got a little wet (sure was glad for that few seconds black! Gotta wipe my eyes in secret ).

And the story, well, of course it's rushed in some places; it's a movie, what do you think? But it's not some slice of cheese with more holes then my garden fence like most previous Treks: it's engaging, it's (at times) very logical and it's definitely not too drawn out, it's the right pace at the right times.

Even the re-design of familiar elements have been done superbly. Yes, I don't like engineering much either (still looks too much like a brewery -- where's the warp core?), but what it does look like is real. It's looks absolutely, completely, definitively real. And that rocks. Just like all other elements of production design. It looks cool, it looks real and above all: most of it looks completely and utterly futuristic. This could very well be our future! Our bright, optimistic, wonderful and exciting future!

And to top it all off, they lost the reset button! That's right, no reset. There are now 2 Spocks in existence. Vulcan is no more and the United Federation of Planets and it's heroes would forever be altered. Nothing will be the same again.

The new possible story lines that these events have opened up are fantastic as well; how would you feel if Spock's efforts of unification would come true in this universe when all he had to do was to sacrifice his entire home planet? How will things develop now? All the possibilities are staggering.

And I love it. When the movie was done, I felt like a little boy, seeing my first Star Trek movie on the big screen. You know that scene with the food from 'Ratatouille'? When the guy relives his childhood? That's how I felt. And you?

PS: When is the next movie coming out? Cause I say: BRING IT ON!

 

[Roger Wilco]

I agree 100%.

I was silently giggling inside throughout the whole movie.

 

[Praetorian]

I......enjoyed the movie.

 

[Eddie Roth]

I agree as well. Actually, I've been trying to make a review-ish post all daym but I still don't know where to start. This being a completely new beginning, everything being new, there are just so many things you might want to mention.

Two things come to mind right away, small things that everybody seemed to criticize in advance that I ended up loving: First, engineering. I think it's only the people who KNOW they filmed it in the Budweiser plant that think it looks like a brewery. I did know too, but unlike some I was able to forget my knowledge of the film's production and be absorbed by it. And I thought that gritty and industrial feeling it gave added heaps and heaps of realism and urgency to those scenes and the Enterprise as a ship I can believe could really happen in that future. It fit the new look of this universe. Which brings me to another point I enjoyed tremendously:

Crowd scenes. Finally, someone injected some scope into Starfleet. The assembly of the cadets, their deployment to the fleet, and in general scenes with people aside from the main characters actually doing something!

My second point is Sarek. Can't understand the criticism of Ben Cross. I thought he did a very good job of making that old asshole likable. He was a good casting choice for a certain resemblance to Zachary Quinto, so I never doubted Cross in the role. And he got some of the deepest character moments, early on with child Spock and then their discussion of Amanda later on. Beautiful.

More random thoughts:

- I'm glad Pike survived. I want to see more of him.
- The Kelvin intro was amazing. Never was a space battle more intense and brutal, yet emotionally wrenching at the same time.
- Chris Pine is the single best casting choice in the film. Blue eyes or not, he oozed Shatner in so many moments big and small, a tremendous source of joy for me in the film. Perfect lead.
- The warp speed sound effect is awesome. BOOOOOM!!! Yowza.

And I'm not concerned as some folks round here seem to be about the holy "canon". A reboot was really the only way for Trek to go on. The term "reboot" implies change of established franchise lore, going back and starting over. It was a nice and elegant move on the writers' part to throw those canon junkies a bone by tying it in with the previous continuity, so I find the outrage on this BBS here today shameful and petty. I think of the many exciting unknowns this new universe has, and when the Enterprise begins its five-year mission at the end (nicely illustrated by the credits by the way) it finally feels some sense of wonder and mystery has been restored to a fictional universe in which for the past 15 or 20 years, going into space was neither a mission, nor a calling or an adventure, but simply a job. Now I hope that if we're so lucky to get another film, it will show us the strange new worlds that Delta Vega and the Narada so intriguingly hinted at, but couldn't explore at length because of the usual origin story concerns that also made Batman Begins slightly mechanical.

That would be my one gripe with the film, and another is that sometimes the writers went a little overboard with the references and the character catchphrases. The "I have and always shall be your friend" line, well meant though it was, didn't feel right in the context of its scene. Things like that made the film a little too self-conscious for me in parts. I'm also not the hugest fan of either Uhura or her relationship with Spock. Somehow that feels icky to me.

But altogether, I enjoyed the hell out of the film. Kirk's verve, Spock's internal conflict, the difficult relationship between the two resulting in their coming-together to board the Narada (a fine moment when Spock called Kirk "Jim" for the first time on the Jellyfish), the sheer screen presence of Leonard Nimoy, the nostalgic humor wrought from Chekov's accent, the fast-paced action and gorgeous FX photography... What's not to love? Star Trek hasn't been this dynamic since TOS for sure.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

You know what I loved? That the trigger to make Spock lose his temper (which he did gloriously IMHO) was Kirk telling him he never loved his mother. What a great tie in to the TOS ep "The Naked Time". Spock always had such an odd tug of logic vs emotion with his mother.. she must have been very important to him during his difficult childhood, yet the more he succeeded the less he could reveal his feelings for her. This film is absolutely consistent with TOS and builds on this relationship.

Kind of a shame she's dead now.. but I guess that will have it's own impact on Spock's future choices. Really there is a whole world of Vulcan angst waiting for the next film to explore.

 

[USS Triumphant]

You love me? You're not sure if you love me?

I know - you don't want to say whether you love me or not, because it would be a spoiler.

Now I really have to see this movie!

 

[Michael]

I agree as well. Actually, I've been trying to make a review-ish post all daym but I still don't know where to start. This being a completely new beginning, everything being new, there are just so many things you might want to mention.

Two things come to mind right away, small things that everybody seemed to criticize in advance that I ended up loving: First, engineering. I think it's only the people who KNOW they filmed it in the Budweiser plant that think it looks like a brewery. I did know too, but unlike some I was able to forget my knowledge of the film's production and be absorbed by it. And I thought that gritty and industrial feeling it gave added heaps and heaps of realism and urgency to those scenes and the Enterprise as a ship I can believe could really happen in that future. It fit the new look of this universe. Which brings me to another point I enjoyed tremendously:

Crowd scenes. Finally, someone injected some scope into Starfleet. The assembly of the cadets, their deployment to the fleet, and in general scenes with people aside from the main characters actually doing something!

My second point is Sarek. Can't understand the criticism of Ben Cross. I thought he did a very good job of making that old asshole likable. He was a good casting choice for a certain resemblance to Zachary Quinto, so I never doubted Cross in the role. And he got some of the deepest character moments, early on with child Spock and then their discussion of Amanda later on. Beautiful.

More random thoughts:

- I'm glad Pike survived. I want to see more of him.
- The Kelvin intro was amazing. Never was a space battle more intense and brutal, yet emotionally wrenching at the same time.
- Chris Pine is the single best casting choice in the film. Blue eyes or not, he oozed Shatner in so many moments big and small, a tremendous source of joy for me in the film. Perfect lead.
- The warp speed sound effect is awesome. BOOOOOM!!! Yowza.

And I'm not concerned as some folks round here seem to be about the holy "canon". A reboot was really the only way for Trek to go on. The term "reboot" implies change of established franchise lore, going back and starting over. It was a nice and elegant move on the writers' part to throw those canon junkies a bone by tying it in with the previous continuity, so I find the outrage on this BBS here today shameful and petty. I think of the many exciting unknowns this new universe has, and when the Enterprise begins its five-year mission at the end (nicely illustrated by the credits by the way) it finally feels some sense of wonder and mystery has been restored to a fictional universe in which for the past 15 or 20 years, going into space was neither a mission, nor a calling or an adventure, but simply a job. Now I hope that if we're so lucky to get another film, it will show us the strange new worlds that Delta Vega and the Narada so intriguingly hinted at, but couldn't explore at length because of the usual origin story concerns that also made Batman Begins slightly mechanical.

That would be my one gripe with the film, and another is that sometimes the writers went a little overboard with the references and the character catchphrases. The "I have and always shall be your friend" line, well meant though it was, didn't feel right in the context of its scene. Things like that made the film a little too self-conscious for me in parts. I'm also not the hugest fan of either Uhura or her relationship with Spock. Somehow that feels icky to me.

But altogether, I enjoyed the hell out of the film. Kirk's verve, Spock's internal conflict, the difficult relationship between the two resulting in their coming-together to board the Narada (a fine moment when Spock called Kirk "Jim" for the first time on the Jellyfish), the sheer screen presence of Leonard Nimoy, the nostalgic humor wrought from Chekov's accent, the fast-paced action and gorgeous FX photography... What's not to love? Star Trek hasn't been this dynamic since TOS for sure.

I absolutely agree, Eddie! About everything you just said.

Just out of curiosity, did you watch the German version or the original one?

 

[M'Sharak]

Some spoilers ahead.

.<snip>

DiSiLLUSiON, since what appears to be an identical review has been posted by you in the pinned Grading & Discussion thread, I'm going to close this and encourage everyone to continue the discussion over there.

PS: When is the next movie coming out? Cause I say: BRING IT ON!

The writers have been given the go-ahead to begin the script for the second movie, and have said that they'll be beginning work after they've had a little time to gauge response to this movie -- probably looking at July or so. For the next movie, given the timetable this one was on, 2012 might be a good bet for seeing it in the theaters.