CléaTwo words I dislike:
Franchise. Prequel.
Two words I love:
Star Trek
And that’s from a die-hard fan of Star Trek, The Original Series* (TOS) and The Next Generation (TNG).
No review simply to avoid spoilers.
Simply stunning.
* Thank you Dad for turning me into a Trekkie. You were sadly missed.
Tags: cbmused, Star Trek, The Next Generation, The Original Series, TNG, TOS, TSH
Stunningly bright as well. My god that’s a lot of lens flare for a movie.
Kami: Like the Enterprise bridge! I loved the characterisations of the crew and how they were given enough development.
I am really glad that you got the chance to see this movie. For me, it is out at a perfect time of the year where fun distractions from life/work are most welcome.
Yeah, I thought it was pretty damn good. It could have went poorly.
Of course, <i>prequel</i> is sort of pushing it.
Justin: It’s the first time I’ve enjoyed something fully that has had such media hype. With Wolverine and Terminator Salvation, it’s looking like a good year for my taste in cinema. No chick flicks for me!
Casey: It was so well done, that although they tampered with the timeline, and challenged what we’ve been told all along about time travel, it’s the characters that made it credible. Could I see the crew of the Enterprise become the ones we knew from TOS? Without a doubt.
Enterprise, the TV series was supposed to be a prequel. And what a flop of a crew and ship that was!
Just saw it today with my son. Money well spent. The special effects were awesome!
Tree: I’m interested to know if he liked it, as I’m assuming he’s a new a fan?
Loved the effects, though I was so absorbed in it that everything seemed real. I particularly liked the swirl when they beam.
I actually really like Enterprise sometime toward the end of season 2 and really dug season 3.
I sort of hate TNG. I mean, I watched it because it was on after school during one of the few times we had TV as a kid, but the original series was always the one I liked. I guess because it was dirtier. I don’t think for a minute humans going out into space will be like some manifest destiny horseshit. Also: everyone knows men have taken to the sea in ships primarily to screw diverse females in other places. TOS and Enterprise both touched on that.
Now I’m a huge nerd. Keep it quiet, please.
I haven’t seen it yet! Opening weekend is akin to hell, to me.
Casey: Enterprise had a grungy military feel to it, a PC Captain, a cowboy of a first officer, a ship that felt like a hap of metal and a Vulcan with a hot bod. But that wasn’t enough for me. They could have done it much better in that it didn’t deliver on the premise of discovering the things we all know and love, eg beaming. And a dog on the ship, puhlease!
I initially resisted TNG, after Kirk I found Picard’s bald head and looks a hindrance but very soon, I found his intellect very sexy. And I’m a bit like that. I agree that TOS was grittier. Kirk packed a punch, fought aliens and slept around with aliens. Beats the hell out of the Riker-Betazoid alliance, a poor excuse of an officer who states the obvious.
Trekkie nerds unite.
Mahd: Same here. I picked the right moment to go: lunchtime on Mother’s Day. The cinema wasn’t even half full. The following session had long cues.
I’m interested in your thoughts once you see it. I will keep the comments open on this post in case you’d like to add to it in the near future.
He thinks he will be seeing it with me. He is wrong. So very, very wrong.
Mrs Mahd: If I were him, I would want to see it with another fan. Not a movie you’d force someone to see if they’re not into it. You’re either a trekkie or not
I saw it tonight. And I didn’t feel like it was Star Trek-y. At least, not as it’s been presented in most of the recent films. And that’s a good thing.
This just happened to be a pretty excellent action movie. It happened to be a good sci-fi movie, heavy emphasis on the “fi” and less on the “sci”. And it happened to be a Star Trek movie, though it didn’t need to be, but it wasn’t cluttered with useless technobabble; it’s kind of an iTrek: user-friendly, and basic- warp drives, phasers, check.
What’s best is that the filmmakers realized the important characters- the drama is all about Kirk and Spock; the villain is ancillary, and the other characters are there to show up and exist, but this story is theirs, and the drama is about them.
I was never really a fan of the campy TOS show, and some of the throwbacks in this film irked that sensibility in me even as I understood their inclusion. TNG went in the other direction; a sterile, spotlessly clean Federation that could always choose the better, more humane way. This movie is the former, grown up and the latter with a little dirt on it’s face. A good path; a sort of middle way, as Star Trek goes.
Mahd: Since my intro to ST was TOS, I have a soft spot for it, even when it seems basic by the later standards. As campy as it looks now, it was revolutionary at its time, such as having a black woman on the bridge. Gene Roddenberry was quite a visionary.
I liked the techno babble in TNG, a series that appealed to the love of science and intellect. Picard was never a sensual man, not until the movie with the Borg.
As you say, this movie centred on the characters and their development. The nods to the past, I welcomed, like the green woman he was sleeping with, but as much as Kirk was the central character in TOS, Spock steals the show here. Incidentally, I never liked Spock (or the Vulcans). The new Spock, I don’t mind.
The bad thing is having to wait so long for another movie. I got TOS remastered on DVD, so that’ll keep me going for a while. And the old video tapes of TNG.