What did you think of the special effects?

[nokiafuturephon]

I was mostly impressed. Even the animals on Delta Vega seemed lifelike. Although they TOTALLY ripped off the "bigger fish" scene from that Star Wars prequel.

I liked the new phaser beams too. They were a lot more intimidating than the old ones.

 

[Bamasi]

I was mostly impressed. Even the animals on Delta Vega seemed lifelike. Although they TOTALLY ripped off the "bigger fish" scene from that Star Wars prequel.

I liked the new phaser beams too. They were a lot more intimidating than the old ones.

I agree with everything you just wrote. I only liked the extreme close ups on the beauty shots of the Enterprise. For the most part, I liked the long shots much better. Overall though, the effects were excellent.

 

[nokiafuturephon]

The new transporter beam effects were the best so far in any Trek, in my opinion.

 

[davejames]

I actually missed the old phaser beams. The little pulse blasts were so small and quick I could barely see them.

The Enterprise looked AWESOME though. My only problem (and I know this might not be the thread for it) is that as cool and badass as it looked.... it felt much more like a piece of hardware in this movie than a true character like in the other movies. I know there was one critic who had that same issue, and I have to agree with them.

 

[Mr. B]

The actual ships and locales weren't bad but their usage left a lot to be desired. Thanks to the schizophrenic editing we seldom got a good look at the handiwork. If the lens flare counts as a special effect (I'm guessing it does since the movie wasn't filmed with plastic lenses) than you can knock it down a few more notches.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

I was a former hater of the Enterprise redesign, but the movie sold it for me. The visual F/X were some of the best work ILM has ever done.

 

[cultcross]

I was a former hater of the Enterprise redesign, but the movie sold it for me. The visual F/X were some of the best work ILM has ever done.

Agreed - it was almost flawless stuff. The only bit I thought was slightly ropey was the beaming away as Vulcan disintegrated - Amanda falling was a little bit Roadrunner, imho, with a bit of a comic pause before she fell.
Other than that, it was excellent work - the ships in particular have never looked better - one may hate the design, but the actual rendering of that design in the finished product was masterful. It made the opening shot of the Kelvin.

 

[nokiafuturephon]

The only bit I thought was slightly ropey was the beaming away as Vulcan disintegrated - Amanda falling was a little bit Roadrunner, imho, with a bit of a comic pause before she fell.

It's called inertia.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Thanks to the schizophrenic editing we seldom got a good look at the handiwork.

Dammit Jim, it's a movie, not a painting!

 

[ParticleMan]

I really liked the bit with the Enterprise coming up from Titan...I really felt like these ships were massive for the first time since TWOK. One other good thing was that as I watched, nothing jumped out to me as screaming "THIS IS CGI!!!" which was, to me, basically the problem with every single effect in the SW prequels. And Abrams seemed to use natural locations instead of soundstages as much as he could. That was a welcome change as well.

 

[davejames]

I really liked the bit with the Enterprise coming up from Titan...I really felt like these ships were massive for the first time since TWOK. One other good thing was that as I watched, nothing jumped out to me as screaming "THIS IS CGI!!!" which was, to me, basically the problem with every single effect in the SW prequels. And Abrams seemed to use natural locations instead of soundstages as much as he could. That was a welcome change as well.

Agreed about the size thing. I was really worried Abrams would have the Enterprise doing barrel rolls and zipping around like the Millennium Falcon (or the NX-01), but thankfully the E still moved with the grace and elegance we're used to seeing. I loved that it still took a bit of time to turn the massive ship, and that Sulu had to really struggle to avoid the ship debris when they came out of warp.

Speaking of which, I freakin LOVE the new Warp Drive. It's so much more powerful and badass than any other warp effect to date (both the launch and the light effect around the ship), that I can't believe it's taken this long for Trek to try it.

 

[CaptainDonovin]

Loved the effects. Would have loved to see more of the other ships in the fleet (besides the debris field). The E coming through the clouds of Titan & that shot of Saturn was fantastic, so was the shot near the end where the E finally escaped the black hole. Thought the black hole itself was a very sweet effect.

I will say one of my top favs was the title when it came onscreen after the Kelvin was lost, best Trek title intro of any of the films.

 

[Brent]

Grand

That describes them, like someone said above didn't feel like CGI, that is when you know its good.

 

[darkshadow0001]

I was mostly impressed. Even the animals on Delta Vega seemed lifelike. Although they TOTALLY ripped off the "bigger fish" scene from that Star Wars prequel.

I liked the new phaser beams too. They were a lot more intimidating than the old ones.

I was impressed, too. There was so many rumbling noises in the theatre that I wasn't used to in a Star Trek movie.

 

[Michael]

What I thought of the effects? They were fucking awesome! Wow, just wow!

 

[Brent]

The Enterprise warping in with guns blazzin was an awesome CGI scene. I loved how it zoomed out a bit so we could see the big picture, that is something you never saw on the series, a far away view of what's going on.

 

[cultcross]

The only bit I thought was slightly ropey was the beaming away as Vulcan disintegrated - Amanda falling was a little bit Roadrunner, imho, with a bit of a comic pause before she fell.

It's called inertia.

Ever broken a chair? Do you hang there in mid air for a second first?

 

[Brent]

The only bit I thought was slightly ropey was the beaming away as Vulcan disintegrated - Amanda falling was a little bit Roadrunner, imho, with a bit of a comic pause before she fell.

It's called inertia.

Ever broken a chair? Do you hang there in mid air for a second first?

She was being beamed at the time, it probably did hold her there for a second before the lock was lost, makes perfect sense.

 

[shapeshifter]

My favorite effect was when the Enterprise slowly rose from Titans 'cloud' layer.

 

[Starbreaker]

It's set a new precedent, for sure.