There are two things I have to say first, I haven't seen this movie, I have only read a lot about it and I'll try to keep this text as short as possible. How can I have an opinion without seeing the movie. It's very easy, I would bet that every Star Frek fan will agree with me in at least one thing, it does not make a difference if you like the movie or not. The Fandom was already splitted before this movie, but through this movie this split has gone bigger than before. And I would go a step further and say this was their intention. If someone writes a story like this one, for a Fandom that is already splitted than you don't need to be able to count 1+1 to know that there will be more dispute after it.
As I already wrote, I have read a lot about this movie, this included several Forums. But what I got to read their was close to make me speakless. Through this I now also know why there are not that much negative comments like positive ones about it. There isn't a real discusion about it, no but instead of that some "Fans" are insulting the ones who don't like the movie, there have been words that I ask myself where are those "Fans" coming from if they think it's neccasary to act this way with other humans. Also I was really surprised about the reaction of the Forum Admins, which was it you ask? None! Only to make one thing clear, I'm not talking about Fans who tell other Fans they are fanatic or something like that, it were real hard insults. What is the sense of this? Everyone has the right on a own opinion and just because someone does not agree with others it is not a reason to insult someone. Probably such happenings are the reason that many Fans haven't told their opinion, to make sure they are not getting insulted too, well I can't blame them for it.
Meanwhile I've also read some Interviews of the Actors, let's say it was interessting in some way. Zoe Saldana as Uhura had something with Spock, in an Interview she now said it would be possible that Uhura would have something with Kirk in the next movie. Hey yes why not, in the third one she then could have something with Bones and if they do more films this is not a problem because there are still Chekov, Sulu and Scotty.... Unfortunately nobody knows how many movies they can do, according to an Interview with Bruce Greenwood the writers have enough ideas for at least two more movies. So what will come after this two movies? I don't think they will make it with this cast to a tv series, which means another new cast for tv or cinema? Also he said in the Interview he wishes the third movie will show the way to TOS. I'm very sorry to ruin that, but on TOS vulcan was never destroyed....so how should TOS happen after this if the timeline is not getting repaired?
But after all I was shocked about a Interview of Chris Pine during the premiere of the movie in Berlin. He said that we can not hope for a positive future. I'm sorry but if I understand this right, why should we try? In the past Star Trek showed us the future as a positve thing, a time in which nearly everybody would be happy to life in it. Are there really people who want to life in this new Star Trek future? Star Trek always showed what can be reached in the future if it is tried. Since the beginning of Star Trek there have been a lot of positive changes in our real lifes because people believed that it is possible to change things and that it's worth it. The new Star Trek shows a darker future with bad monsters who life in the ice of other planets. Humans and Vulcans who like nothing more than to quarrel or to battle with others on each possibility instead of searching for a peacefull way to solve their problems. I would bet on these new characters are longing for revenge, and I'm not talking about the way Picard was in First Contact.
What happened to the time when you could use an Star Trek character as example for something positive, not enough with that, you could learn something durring that time. But it seems this is over forever, Hollywood is currently rebooting or remakeing everything they can get their fingers on and it seems we can't stop them. I have never been a fan of remakes and reboots. Just because someone don't likes something you don't need to take it away from the people who like it to give it to others who never liked it. It would have been a much better way to use a middle way, for example a step into the 41 century. Because of the big distance it would have been possible to say a lot of things are no longer relevant there and it could have started on zero there. But no, they hope that every fan is coming back because of a whole reboot, sorry to all who haven't noticed yet, but this are not the same characters and they never will be again. It was in the last episode of the first TNG season when Data said the television didn't made it over the year 2041, well if it's continuing like currently than whis will not happen, because it will not take 32 years to end it....
Here is a little list of Reboots that already have been done, are planed or are rumored about:
Battlestar Galactica
Tomb Raider
Batman
Alien
Predator
James Bond
He-Man
Star Trek
Captain America
Police Academy
A-Team
Back to the Future
Dare Devil
The Crow
Fantastic Four
Planet of the Appes
Superman
Spawn
(Knight Rider)
I was surprised they didn't try to make a reboot of another series which was running good in the past, maybe they want to do it now: MacGyver some years later they can use the main actor for the Stargate reboot (Yes the day wil come).
Don't get me wrong, I have seen the reboot of James Bond and some episodes of the rebootet Galactica, and truly that have been several hours of my life that I want back!
I have also read comments how great it is that there are now humans getting pulled out of damaged ships through hullbreaks into space. I'm sorry, but is this what we call good entertainment today? That would mean the people who make such comments watch not enough Star Trek or I have watched to much. A little hint, Enterprise Season three, Nemesis when the Bridge is hit directly and I am sure there are a lot more scence where this was shown before. What about people in exploding Starships which got buried by debris, no problem, watch DS9 and you have already found it, breaking hulls? DS9, Nemesis, Voyager, Enterprise....we already had all of this before, but it seems nobody saw it, that's surprising after this seems to be the most important things today.
There have also been a lot comments that people have waited before they got to cinema because they wanted to see the movie without the crazy costume wearing fans and with just the normal people. How is that to be understood? That's nothing else like saying "I would like to watch a Baseball game live in the stadium, but there are always those freaks with their Fan accessories". The difference is, one of those things is public established and seen as normal because a lot of people do it, the other not because there are not that many people. So let's go on and say Star Trek is getting a mass medium through the reboot, than it would be accepted by the public, now those people who said wearing a costume is crazy would have to do it themselves. Beside this, where would Star Trek be today without those dedicated, devoted Fans? A very good question that I can't give an answer to, but I know one place where it won't be, in cinema. Fans shouldn't be scared off just because they seem currently disturbing, what do you think will happen after the current mass hype, right, many of the people that have watched Star Trek for the first time now will not come back because this was not what they expected, currently just nobody is seeing this, currently everyone is just watching on the visitor counts and the money. A short mass hype will not help if the result can not be continued, instead it will go down deep, very deep, that deep that no light will shine there.
It seems the movie is running better than any other Star Trek movie before, but you don't see the whole thing. Yes it's true it is running better, but just in the United States, in other countrys it's not running that good. In Germany also Nemesis had more visitors, but no panic they have already found the reason for this. The weather on the start weekend was to good, (ironic on) so probably they will get more money for the next movie to build a weather controll machine to make sure the weather on the next movie will be bad...(/ironic off)
How is this mass hype formed and why is there just positive critics in the media? The mass hype is easy to explain, 160 million Dollars for the movie means 100 million more than for the last one. When Nemesis got to cinema I saw about one or two times a trailer on TV, not really much. On this movie it's just doing one thing, it nerves, they are "boming" the people with it, there are TV stations you can't watch without seeing it again and again and again and so on. But there is more, the other media, there has been a news blackout about the story of the movie before it came to cinema, on every other movie nearly the full story was published before on some scources. This time they have not given the fans a choice than to go to cinema to see what they have done. And if the media is acceppting news blackouts there has to be a reason for it, money, so it is no longer a surprise that all their critics are positive. There are not many people who still form their own opinion without infuence of others. Already years ago people asked me why I watch Star Trek, because it's just nonsense. If I asked what they don't like on Star Trek they several times had to say they never watched it, they just heard this from others.....
Also some wrote Star Trek has been exempt from Nerds. How is that to be to understood? I can't understand it, everyone should use a search engine of his/her own confidence and search for the meaning of the word. Wikipedia shows some very interesting aspects about this word which already turns the comment Star Trek is now free of Nerds around into it's opposite. But ok, if those people want to believe this....there will come a time they will be called Nerds by others, that will be the moment they're waking up, they have been assimilated by the Nerds without realizing it.
Because according to the description there you're already a Nerd if you're getting a little deeper into Science or Technology, sorry to all of you out there who haven't seen this yet, but Star Trek always did this. So may I say, resistance is futile you're already a part of it. So before someone throws around such words you should inform yourself what they mean, that's very easy today, it needs just a few mouse clicks. But were getting away from topic, if those people think Star Trek is still Star Trek just without Nerd things, pelease explain to me what the difference is, I only see a deleted Star Trek timeline, sorry my mistake, had been transfered into an alternate universe where the life circumstances of the Crew are different. Or do you want to say some of the old Fans for which Star Trek was something special could feel hurt by the new movie (which whould be an emotion) and wont come back?
So another question would be what means Star Trek really? We know the Crew around Captain Kirk from the original series and are now getting confronted with a new situation and how the same Crew will behaves this and it's said this is Star Trek. According to this defination there is a very good possibility for a very successful new series on TV with the Crew of Captain Kirk, no really, I'm not kidding. Here is a possible way how it could run, in the first episode the Crew is getting back in time to the 21 century without their ship, to be exact to our time, there is no hope for them to get back to their century and they now have to acceppt their new life in our time. Sure they will try to use their knowledge to get back to their time, but we would see how the Crew will make it through this very bad situation for the whole series. But would this be Star Trek? According to the defination of some, yes because it's still the same characters in just a new situation. So will already the characters be enough to make Star Trek to what we want to see? There is also another possibility for a new Star Trek series with a new Crew which will show the life in a colony that tries to keep contact to Federation as low as possible, sometimes other species will visit them, so we would have the technology of the future, but would this be Star Trek?
It's not difficult to see that it needs more than known characters or known future technology to make something to Star Trek. Let's see if we can find a way, we place Captain Kirks Crew in the colony, so we have the characters together with the technology, finally we're back at Star Trek, but.....it seems something is still missing, and it's not the Enterprise. It always needed more than just characters and technology to make something to Star Trek, it always was the interaction of many things which made the difference between Star Trek and other series or movies.
It would have been possible without any problems to bring new adventures with Captain Kirks Crew, played by the new actors, into cinema without deleting the Star Trek timeline, I'm sorry again, putting it into an alternate universe. But it's very easy why they haven't done this, all who worked on the movie would have to inform themselve about the known Star Trek universe, but they said they had no intereset in this. There was a comment in "The Wrath of Khan" which describes it very good.
Spock: "As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy, than to create"
McCoy: "Not anymore; now we can do both at the same time! According to myth, the Earth was created in six days. Now, watch out! Here comes Genesis! We'll do it for you in six minutes!"
It's possible to rewrite what McCoy said a little bit. "Not anymore, now we can do both at the same time! In 43 years Star Trek had been grown with more and more details. Now watch out! Here comes J.J. Abrams team, They'll create another Star Trek in only 127 minutes!"
Well, it took them a little longer than the playtime of the movie to make the original Star Trek disappear, but we all know what happend to the Genesis planet on Star Trek.....
On a blog I've read another very interesting comment about this movie, they deleted everything including TOS, sorry but can someone please explain to me why I always write deleted? They made everything which will happen including TOS undone here, but Enterprise was before it and has to be there for the future. On Enterprise have been several time travels which also included temporal agents from the far future who traveled back to repair a damaged timeline. They did this for Archer and they did this on Voyager but not for Kirk? Oh I know he had 17 violations of the temporal directive (I had to serach for the 17) so he must not be worth the help.... Now don't say they can't do this because maybe they wont be there in this alternate universe, they still did it for Enterprise in this universe and if they are not there it would have been a completely different universe before, nevertheless there was an Admiral Archer...
Now I am nearly finished with the movie, but I have to criticize also the people who liked the original Star Trek and want to vaporize the new movie. What sort of Fans are you if you think everything is lost? There have been many episodes in the past which messed up the timeline, and in the end everything was repaired again. If someone really wants to delete the whole original Star Trek timeline forever, then he needs to know Star Trek into every detail and I don't see this danger on the currently involved people. It's Science-Fiction, which means there is always a way back. The Kobayashi-Maru test is also just a Science-Fiction scenario, sure they cheated on the current movie, but in opposite to Kirk here will be no commendation for originally thinking, because this was nothing else than a bad hoax.
How could it continue from this point?
1. Q, No explanation needed.
2. Everything stays the way it is now and the original Star Trek is useless history.
3. Everything stays the way it is, but in 24 century another Crew makes a time travel to rapair the damage (It only needs a little knowledge about TNG and a little fantasy)
4. A repair without a time travel in 24 century (I don't want to explain this here)
And I am sure there are dozens of other good ideas to repair it.
I've already read about rumors of a return of Khan in the next movie, this could work. Just an idea how this can be done, the Enterprise finds the Botany Bay and wakes up it's crew. Unfortunately the stasis wasn't working that good for Khan and he now needs to wear a black helmet with a oxygen mask. Khan is very angry that Kirks Crew wasn't able to help him more and decides to kill Kirk. To do this he gets a Phaser, but he don't understands how to use it really so he needs to modify it and makes it to a Phaser Sword. Ok I hear you, you say this would be Star Wars and not Star Trek. Sorry but you're wrong, it would be nothing else than another Star Wars part into the Star Trek universe. Millenium Falcon in Star Trek First Contact, R2D2 in the current movie and yes that's official. So this would be a way how Khan could be new developed in a very fast way and make it a very fast movie nobody could follow. Exactly what the people seem to want today. Beside that I have today found a funny link you should take a look on.
http://www.trailertrasher.com/2009/05/6-comedies-jj-abrams-should-reboot.html
Some of the excited Star Trek 11 viewers may ask, why repair it? Because I think the statement this is just an alternate universe is nothing else than a lame excuse to get Fans of the original Star Trek to cinema. Let's see this really and logical, why should old Spock make a time travel to stop Nero if it will not have an effect on his own universe? Ok I can answer it myself, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. But there is a problem with this statement, there have been a lot of time travels on Star Trek in the past were nobody had this view of things like Spock has. So why travel back in time if you can be sure after the bad guy has traveled back you wont see him again and your problems are gone with him? Also there was the Guardian of Forever on TOS, Bones had just walked through it, as a result the Enterprise and other things never existed. How is this possible if a time travel just creates a new alternate universe? Nothing else on First Contact, the Borg travel back and from one second to the other Earth under the Enterprise has been assimilated, where was the alternate universe in that case? Or is an alternate universe just getting created after the use of the new red matter? Is there any scientific theory this matter could really exist? If the answer is a no then this has no longer to do with Science, just the Fiction or let's better call it Fantasy remained. As I already wrote I have not seen the movie, but does it have to do with Science in any way or is it only Fiction without any connection to reallity?
Ok everyone who has read down here is getting a little video as reward wich I found during cleaning up of old VHS tapes. Unfortunately I had only the last 9 minutes left on the VHS, it's from the 30 year Star Trek event 1996. It doesn't matter if you like the new movie or not, maybe we can find someone who still has the full video. But before you open it I need to say one thing about it, it's in german, I have added subtitles to it but I can not completely guarantee that every word was translated back fully correct, nevertheless I'm sure the sense is still the same.
http://www.startrek-thewayback.de/vid/StarTrekEvent1996.wmv
In this sense, live long and prosper, see you out there.
to those who were brave enough to read the whole thing.
