Star Trek XI discussion [Spoiler]

[Cut]

...this is the week, that finally will see the release of a new Star Trek movie in cinemas all over the world.

Dispite my fears for the re-boot I am feeling nervous and am exited about it all at the same time.

It was the trailer music of the third Trailer and that line that Pike said to the young Kirk that finally got me hooked to the new movie. And then I recieved a special treat the other day: a review copy of the Star Trek: Countdown comic giving me some sort of background information. One part of that comic sadend me deeply. One made me very happy...

Ok. I have said that I am sceptical about the movie. So, I admit now, I am nervous, and I am looking forward to seeing the movie on wednesday evening.

I will be going in there as unbiased as I can. I don't want to be dissappointed, therefore I don't want to get my hopes up high. But I really want this movie to be good. I really want to like this movie. I hope for the best

I wish all of you an enjoyable time in a cinema of your choice when you decide to see the movie for yourself.

Let's make this the place where we discuss the movie and your impressions of it.

Please only post once you've seen the movie and keep it friendly and flame-free, guys

May the newest Star Trek be Star Trek and a good adventure. Let us boldly go to see an adventure that we haven't seen before

[Evan van Eyk]

I have to go for the "Yeah, nice movie, but nothing too impressive", which pretty much sums up how I felt, after I left the audience yesterday. It was some nice entertainment for me, but it really wasn't Star Trek. Some names and places don't make it Trek and I think the movie lacked an identity.

On the pro side there is the fast action and surprisingly good acting (which is so surprising, because what few there is as a story, is so little that it hardly can be acted upon). There were nice special effects, which added to the suspense.
I especially liked Karl Urban's performance, his mimic and acting was immediately recognizable as Bones, although I am unsure what he was doing on the bridge so many times. It was also bad that he did not really have a purpose in the movie, he was mere detail. Most of the actors did a nice job on re-acting their predecessors, even Chris Pine managed to pull a Shatner once or twice.
Most of the music was good, the new theme is nice, although I do not like it as much as the TNG-Theme.
I also liked the idea that Spock and Uhura are a couple, gives them a nice touch and depth of character, a new refreshing direction for Spock. Generall I like the New-Spock approach as something different and new. Giving him an acceptance of his human nature, including feelings to a certain degree was nice.


The the con-side there is also a lot. At times the music did not work, it simply was to remniscent of LOST, but that was rare. One could also argue that the actors should have created own interpretations and not simple copies of old ones, but that is a matter of taste, I guess. And given the fact that they were well matching their old counterparts visually, mimicking their performance might have been the better idea.
There are two things, which really make this movie lack something: Story. There was none and what was there, was in short: Junk. All in all it felt like Abrams and Co just had ideas of certain scenes and locations, which they wanted to create and then had to produce somekind of narrational connection - and failed miserably (btw, in hindsight, this is the exact problem Cloverfield has). There is no basis for a story and the remaining plot is full of holes.
First: Nero's motivation. He wants revenge on the UFP, because they did nothing to prevent the supernova... Right, what is the UFP supposed to do? Why not revenge on the Rom. Empire, since they did not even figure it necessary to evacuate the planet? Why does the Empire not realize that there is a Supernova coming in the first place? It's not that those things come unannounced.
In the first telling of the story, i.e. Nero informing Pike, it seemed as if Nero had reached the disaster-zone long after it had happend, then suddenly he was a witness and directly involved - why then did he not beam his wife aboard?
Why did the Romulans suddenly need and trust Spock with saving the planet - although of course destroying the planet's sun would not really save it, right? - and why did the Romulans, who use Black-holes as energy source (yeah, sounds strange, but, I did not come up with it), not send their own scientists?
OK then the black hole acts as time-tunnel and puts Nero and Spock back in time, alright, I can live with that as well as the fact that Nero does nothing for 25 years.
Then he moves to Vulcan - and no one is alarmed by the fact that there are no transmissions at all from the planet, only Kirk's behaviour warns them, once they are under way - and there is no fleet, neither Vulcan nor Starfleet, present at the UFP's core? The only fleet available is days away? And instead all cadets are suddenly commissioned with ranks (the cadets launching reminded me of Starship Troopers, odd), which starts a chain reaction, of who is getting command (and no, you are not called Captain, when taking command after the real captain has been incapacitated in whatever manner) - at one point even 17-year old Chekov (17 and already a full officer, when did he enter the Academy, at 12?) gets it.
We follow the characters to some nice locations, although there is not enough time to really experience any of them. Vulcan is destroyed, Spock's mother killed, because movable target's are difficult to track - the fact that later a distance of 1.5 Billion km is covered with transporters beaming from Titan to Earth's orbit and no problems due to difference of orbital speed are encounterd makes this problem hard to believe.
Kirk gets expelled from the ship on a Planet called Delta Vega - which later is revealed to be in visual distance of Vulcan, which is very strange, because Enterprise travels at Warp to reach it and Vulcan is not in the Vega system. But maybe they renamed it after the Kelvin was destroyed, in Honor of Ensign Delta Vega, who saved a Vulcan desert lizard from certain death, when Nero attacked...
Finally Enterprise decides to follow Nero to Earth and they infiltrate the ship, by the above mentioned Incredible-Beam. From here on everything is pretty straight-forward until the very end: Neros ship gets sucked into the artifical black hole - yet, instead of another time travel, it is doomed to die... Why not another time travel? Mentioning that, why was Vulcan not travelling back in time?
What was the worst however was Kirk's promotion to Captain - yeah, right from Cadet to Captain in one step...

The second thing that the movie was lacking was an identity. It lacked a message, some meaning and it felt like the writers could not decide if it was a comedy movie (Kirk's giant hands) or a tragic one (Spock's mother) or action paced war story - at the end it was neither and therefore really nothing.

Another thing was very much to my disliking - but I knew that from the beginning, thanks to the trailers - the design. It was simply too much. To shiny, too colourful, the classic cliche Sci-Fi-Geek-Design. Polished Corridors, etc. I did like the idea of the Window/Screen-Screen, but the whole bridge looked odd and totally impractical. In very odd contrast the engine room/decks were totally non-Sci-Fi, it felts as the designers wanted to do something "new and innovative", but failed (besides the valves-and-pipes-idea was already used in Galactica, successfully, though). The giant laundry-machines (at least they looked so) were strange and useless as well as was Scotty's pipe dream, erm, travel. All in all the engine decks were gigantic and felt far larger in the interior than the exterior.
Phasers and torps were far too small. I do not mind this so much as canon mistake, but it simply does not work as impressive weapon or powerful. It's mediocre at best. In addition the whole "phaser intercepting torpedoes by laying a surpressing fire barrage" was too galactica-like for my taste.
Interestingly I liked the darker design of the Kelvin quite well.


There were minor "Trek-mistakes" too. Even before the timeline is changed, meaning onboard USS Kelvin, Starfleet personell wear the Enterprise-Emblem as Starfleet Emblem - maybe the writers did not know, or figured that too many emblems would simply confuse the majority of the audience. The same thing with the blue command-uniforms on Kelvin - funny that Command now got through all of the basic colours. I first thought maybe all uniforms are blue, but there definitely different colours around. Then the 800 people onboard Kelvin, when Enterprise was originally only carrying 430? Besides the ship did not look that big.
The one "Non-Trek"-Thing that I really disliked was Old-Spock's speech at the end to himself. "Listen to your heart"? Despite his half-human heritage, Spock was always "THE" Vulcan and considering the many times he was attributed as "hey are'nt we all human", he was offended, so this "listen to your heart"-idea, was a complete dissonance with the character.


All in all it wasn't a bad movie, it just was a "bombastic, loud, colourful" space opera, a "fun-film" without real depth or meaning. It felt like a second "Galaxy Quest", although GQ actually had some meaning (and I really liked the movie). It is a movie that can't be taken seriously and without a true identity, which means it was not a Trek-movie. However I liked it more than Nemesis and I really liked that it was a "parallel"-universe story, meaning the old stories are still valid...
It is watchable, but I doubt it can revive the franchise - if it does, I think this tells a lot about todays level of entertainment, and its not good.

[BouncyCaitian]

I will reserve judgement until I see it. We also must take into account that this is the first film for a relaunch.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Sounds... exactly like I expected.

Ho hum.

[REG]

The one "Non-Trek"-Thing that I really disliked was Old-Spock's speech at the end to himself. "Listen to your heart"? Despite his half-human heritage, Spock was always "THE" Vulcan and considering the many times he was attributed as "hey are'nt we all human", he was offended, so this "listen to your heart"-idea, was a complete dissonance with the character.

I dunno about that. For many years he rejected his human heritage, it is only until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country that he began to accept his human side that makes him for what he is. Probably why he took the Ambassador role and went to Romulus despite his father's objection, because it is time that Vulcan and Romulan accept one another.

I've yet to see the Abrams adaptation to draw my conclusion. No doubt we will critcize on some continuity discrepancies as well as technical issues (like the Kelvin capacity to carry 800 crew despite her somewhat small size compared to the Enterprise).

I just hope that if the film is a succcess and there will be future sequels, that Abrams will see that there is more to than just Kirk and Spock relationship dynamics (hint hint: add Bones).

[Brian K]

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film

I love the Onion. I think this beats the Disney Clone Labs video.

[The Transformed Man]

Just got back. Old school Trek fan and grew up with TOS as a kid.


Initial reactions... very good Star Trek film. Nowhere near as good as the hype, but very good. I would put it 3rd or 4th on the Star Trek film list behind, Wrath of Khan and Voyage Home... pretty much on par with Star Trek The Motion Picture (Director's Edition... not the crappy theatrical version).

Casting is spot on. Pine really gets the Shatner swagger down by the end of the film, Quinto is brilliant, and Karl Urban channels De Kelly in every scene... good stuff.

Structurally the plot is a mess and suffers from one too many "just happens to" moments. Eric Bana is utterly forgettable as the villain (note to Trek writers and producers, stop trying to one-up or find the next Khan-like bad guy... ain't gonna happen). Also some odd comedy moments seem very out of place in the film (i.e., inflating Kirk, Scotty stuck in a water pipe)

Yancy

[mechascorpio]

I was absolutely blown away by it. I'm seeing it again tomorrow morning in IMAX.

I'm still gathering my thoughts on it. In some ways (many ways) it exceeded my expectations. I truly haven't had this much fun watching a movie since... since The Empire Strikes Back? There were a number of times when my eyes simply welled up with tears of joy, starting with the reveal of the logo, continuing with the appearance of Spock (prime), and up to the end. My mouth hurts from smiling so hard. (BTW, I'm 43, I'm about as old school TOS Trekkie as they come).

In other ways, I felt a different story with the same approach would have possibly imparted a bit more depth. Kirk got depth, Spock (with both taken as a whole) got a good amount, but I so wished that everyone else could have gotten more. Especially McCoy (you nailed it, Karl!). At the same time, they probably got no less than and sometimes more they did in the older films.

In the end, though, I probably wouldn't have had as much fun with that other story. And, frankly, it's been a loonnnggg time for me since Star Trek was fun rather than fascinating. This time, I got both. And if the worst I can say is "I wanted more", that's not too shabby.

[Tobian]

I completelly loved this film.

I can't say that I don't agree with the criticisms leveled, and I could have a list of nitpicks as long as my arm... So no different than ANY OTHER TREK FILM then!

Visually it was exciting and fresh, and incredibly compelling. It was emotionally charged, and the time travel even made some sense, which is better than most episodes LOL.

I did think Nero was a bit of a damp squib, in terms of acting and plotting, but to be honest, he didn't really NEED to be much, it was simply the force of nature threat he represented. The ship and what it was capable of, effortlessly, was the main villain of the piece.

If you go to see this movie with unrealistic expectations, then you fail to see the irony of what you want! The fact that this movie is hyped to the ying yang is because it's not a tired lazy 'fans only' Trek outing: they have really pushed the boat out in terms of accessibility to re-ignite the fanbase. I'm certainly reignited!

[JALU3]

Got to see it in IMAX at 1900PDT yesterday. Was so excited to see it that I haven't slept, and am existing on caffine now until when I get to go to bed after work tonight.
I went in very hesitent, and after looking at the crowd that came there for the first showing ever at that particular theater of the film you can see how much we as a fan base has aged, and how little representation we have had in the near term nerd-dom (2-5 years). Furthermore, we had projector problems from the get go, making the additional IMAX cost less worth it due to the blurriness of the screen at times during the movie.
All that being said, it wasn't the original trek that my father grew up with or that I use to watch as re runs of TOS while waiting for TNG on CBS in the 80s and 90s. It had many trek elements, however, the clearly slapped us all in the face with the time travel, alternative timeline, new reality, "butterflies" caused by IOT (Item out of time) introductions that basically stated that although it isn't how it originally was, let us create a new trek with many of the same core characters, but through a different lense. It was enjoyable if taken as its own, it was enjoyable but highly questionable if taken as an offspring of the original timeline we have all been nurtured in Trek in for all these years.
One of the best things though, even though there were some wtf moments if you use original trek as your base reality, is that they didn't erase what happened. People died, planets got destroyed, and there were consequences for the timeline moving on.
I for one have reservations regarding the iBridge, the we're all Commissioned Officers now, look how conveniently helpless Vulcan is on its own, where are the Andorians things ... however, it was nice that they gave nods to the original fandom as well, such as the Starfleet Spacedock, almost a strait lift from the 1970s Star Trek Manual, that was once apocrypha to some of the fan-dom.

Now what shall we call this?
We already have ENT, TOS, TAS, MOV, TNG, DS9, VOY and MU. So how about one of the following:
RST (Reimagined Star Trek), ST2.0 (Star Trek 2.0), ALT (Alternative Trek), NST (New Star Trek), 21ST (21st Century Star Trek), JJT (Jeffrey Jacob Trek), AST (Abrams Star Trek)
Or maybe something else.

[Slobberknocker]

It was GREAT!!!
Best Star Trek - Tied with 2 and 6.
It opened a new story-line while paying homage to the old one.
It had problems but what movie can't be nitpicked. It flowed and felt right. I can not wait for the continueing adventures

[Ensign001]

Eeh, I'm sorry I just didn't care for it. I try to sit there and give it a chance. It failed. I understand that it is trying to be something new, but the whole idea of the storyline connects it to the old and it even fails at that.

And I knew it was going down hill in the beginning with the Kelvin. I am not going to say anything to spoil it, I just felt the dialogue and the action was becoming contradictory.

Anyway, that is my opinion, I could be wrong.

[Aldaron]

'Fraid there was no poll option:

"It sucked beyond the telling of it..."

Product placement in a Star Trek film. I mean, if anything would have Roddenberry rolling about in his grave...

Shaky camera...more shaky camera...and oh, look, more shaky camera. Battlestar Galactica has a lot to answer for.

I didn't realise that the Federation used Star Wars blasters for a time, that 22nd century phasers (blasters, again?) could shoot down dozens of late 23rd century torpedos, or that you have to put a black hole in the centre of a planet to royally screw it up.

I think it's interesting that not only was Kirk the youngest captain in Federation history, but that he also went from "Cadet Kirk" to "Captain Kirk" without bothering with all the little things like "Ensign", any "Lieutenant" or any "Commander" in between...

I'd rather sit throught ST V: TFF and seven seasons of Voyager that watch this again!

[Evan van Eyk]

So more than 75% figured this was indeed Star Trek and a worthy if not "THE" worthy movie/ relaunch. I am curious what was your "Star Trek moment" in this flick? When do you feel this was Trek or how did the movie transport a Trek-message to you?
As I said, I do not dislike the movie, but for me it did not really feel like Star Trek, just a generic Scifi-Show, so I'd like to read what made it Star Trek for you.

[Ronin84]

I liked the movie and I thought that Urban did a great job with his interp of McCoy. I also thought that Pine and Qunito did great jobs with Kirk and Spock, and given time I could see the chemistry between the three of them.

AS far as taking the franchise forward I thought that Abrams and his team did a nice job of doing that as well, moving outside the tight ball that Star Trek had become.

My nitpicks are most about Kirk going from Cadet to Captain...but I guess there is more to that than we are led to believe...I hope and I am willing to gnaw on that one for awhile.

When did it become Star Trek for me...when Pike took the Enterprise out of warp at Vulcan knowing it was a trap! He listened to his officers, ok most were probably cadets and possibly retirees, weighed his options and lived up to what he needed to do.

I enjoyed it and look forward to what comes next, would I like more of an explanation on some things, yes, and I look forward to what Alan Dean Foster does with the book!