This is topic Have you seen It (ST XI)? What did you think? in forum General Trek at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.


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Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
 
Short of flying to another country or sneaking on to a US base, I won't be seeing the new Star Trek movie until it opens in Japan on May 29.

So, if you've seen it, what did you think?
 

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Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
 
Shameless self-link (contains spoilers) http://fleetyard.net/2009/05/star-trek-review/

In essence.. I really enjoyed the movie. For me at least, the visual and 'treknological' changes don't really detract from the movie.

Certainly in the movie itself, it's much more about characters and story than about treknobabble and starships.

I'm curious what the opinion is of people that already sort of hated the movie for changing the Enterprise and not staying close to TOS. Did you go and see it anyway? Did you change your mind?
 

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Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
 
Saw it last night and it was really quite good. Much more accessible than any ov the previous entries but not as action focused and the trailers might have you believe. The cast all play their parts very well, surprisingly so in some cases.
The effects are unlike anything seen in star trek before, they have more of a feel of Moore's BSG by way of Ridley Scott.
As for continuity...well if works fine so long as you can buy the basic premise but be prepared for a drastically altered status quo. Oh and there's one "Enterprise" reference that got quite a good laugh out of the audience.
Oh and while the "new" ship design never really bothered me, I think it works much better than I thought it would and there are a few shots that make it really feel like it could be a "real" ship.
 

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Posted by Jim NCC1701A (Member # 1021) on :
 
I wanted to like it, and went along with some pretty good expectations.

As a sci-fi action flick it was pretty good. But as a Star Trek flick I left feeling a little disappointed. I guess there's just too much TOS lore in my head
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'
 

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Posted by Blue387 (Member # 2157) on :
 
Just got out.

Starfleet has no ships in hailing range of Earth? What is this madness?
 

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Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 
I just saw it last night. I really enjoyed it. There were a few instances of belief-suspension involved, but then they wouldn't have been able to tell a satisfying story without it.

There was much humor and poking fun/homages to the old show, and IMHO, every single instance was funny and not stomach-churning. Karl Urban gets my vote for best impersonation of the original character. His McCoy was absolutely perfect.

I think the best scenes were between Spock and Sarek. This was not the strained relationship of Nimoy/Lenard, but an entirely new positive father/son relationship. It worked extremely well.

Bruce Greenwood was also terrific as Captain Pike. Uhura was developed more in this movie than all three TOS years and six movies combined. Simon Pegg's Scotty was very funny, although James Doohan, while admittedly good for a few laughs, was never as amusing as Pegg's take on the character. But Nero had to be the best. His character was literally an everyman who suddenly has lost everything and now has nothing to lose, so he's turned into a maniac. No over-the-top goofiness as with Shinzon.

One last note: I think the Countdown comics, while meant to "bridge the gap" between TNG and this movie, really should be taken with a grain of salt. AAMOF, after seeing the movie, the comics almost downplay it.

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Starfleet has no ships in hailing range of Earth? What is this madness?

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Wow, dude. That's all you have to say about this movie?
 

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Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
 
I saw it today -- loved it. I'll probably go see a matinee again tomorrow, and I'm going to write a very lengthy blog post shortly.

I figured this out in my head: this movie actually takes place about the time of "The Cage" in the "real" time-line, doesn't it?
 

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Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
 
Anyone catch the reference to Admiral Archer?
 

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Posted by Wes (Member # 212) on :
 
Poor Porthos

I loved loved loved the movie. It works, it makes Trek "legit", and isn't necessarily a reboot. Everything pre-Kirk in existing canon still happened. Enterprise, the Botany Bay, Cochrane, First Contact...

I think this timeline is closer to what TOS is to Next Gen then the original TOS.

Seeing it again soon. I want to make an MSD in the style of this film of the Enterprise and Kelvin.
 

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Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
 
That had to've been a long-lived dog
 

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Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
 
Have a care with the spoilers guys, Masao still hasn't seen it yet!
 

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Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
 
Neither have I!
 

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Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
 
Don't worry about spoiling me. I've heard pretty much everything. I can't help being curious.
 

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Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
 
Well, I saw it last night. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I can easily overlook the small things that may not fit in "properly" with the established timeline, but in the movie, they even come right out and say that it's an alternate timeline. THe VFX were quite good too. One thing that doesn't bother me, and that I quite like-even though it seems a bit out of place, is how engineering now looks. It's a mess of boilers, pipes, valves, and even a Willy-Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-esque water pipe system that gets used for some pretty good laughs. It's certainly different...
 

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Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
 
Camped out for it. First in line. Loved so much about it. Thought the real genius of it was how deftly they sidestepped the canon problem and prebooted the series. Totally loved how everything looked. I did feel like there were some problems with how convoluted the story was and specifically in developing Nero. In some ways it felt like a collection of scenes and not one cohesive whole. But MANOMAN was it fun and pretty. I really enjoyed it. Had been religiously avoiding spoilers. Very excited to finally be able to come back to Flare.
 

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Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
 
d/p n/m

Spock on Uhura? WTF?
 

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Posted by Zipacna (Member # 1881) on :
 
I saw it yesterday, and I must say I was disappointed. While the effects were good, the "reboot" wasn't too contrived and didn't bother me, and I was impressed by the way some of the "new" actors interpreted their roles...honestly I just found the plot to be too formulaic and like I was just watching any standard action movie. It just felt to me I was watching another rendition of "standard bad guy has super weapon and threatens to destroy everyone, but is stopped at the last moment by the good guys". No doubt it will do well at the box office and will make a lot of money, but I just feel it could have been any movie and honestly if it didn't have the Star Trek label on it I'd probably not have bothered going to see it.
 

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Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
 
Saw it last night.

My inner fangirl is still basking in the afterglow.

There are a couple things I found really jarring, and the camera work made me dizzy at several points, but other than that, A++++++++ would (and will, because my dad hasn't seen it) view again!

And I didn't realize until the movie actually ended how much my enjoyment of the movie was based on them not pressing a reset button.
 

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Posted by Blue387 (Member # 2157) on :
 

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Wow, dude. That's all you have to say about this movie? [/QB]

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quote:

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Originally posted by HopefulNebula:
Saw it last night.

My inner fangirl is still basking in the afterglow.


Too right! I was so surprised that I liked it - 80%, maybe more.

Second:
And I didn't realize until the movie actually ended how much my enjoyment of the movie was based on them not pressing a reset button.

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Originally posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim:
All the acting and character interaction was great, as were the special effects, but man is that plot full of holes.

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• If Spock-Prime had succeeded in imploding the Romulan sun, how does that SAVE Romulus since it no longer has a sun?
• Trans-warp beaming from a planet to a starship that is LONG gone?
• "Fate" just HAPPENS to bring the entire regulars together and immediately puts them in their accepted positions?
• Where the $#&*(#)@ is Daniels and the other Temporal agents?
• Just how many shuttles did the Kelvin HAVE?
• Sylar-Spock just happens to drop Kirk a few hundred meters from where Nero dropped Spock-Prime off?
• Just WHY would S-P have that HUGE amount of 'Red Matter' in his squid-ship? How many stars was he planning on imploding?
• Just what was Nero doing for the 25 years that it took for S-P to appear through the vortex? That's a long time without resupply.
• Just how far IS Vulcan from Earth that they can warp there in minutes?
• Can you see S-P going, "Now there's this one race called "The Borg" and here's some weapons to fight them with."

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Originally posted by WizArtist II:

quote:

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Originally posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim:
All the acting and character interaction was great, as were the special effects, but man is that plot full of holes.

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Such as?

• If Spock-Prime had succeeded in imploding the Romulan sun, how does that SAVE Romulus since it no longer has a sun?
• Trans-warp beaming from a planet to a starship that is LONG gone?
• "Fate" just HAPPENS to bring the entire regulars together and immediately puts them in their accepted positions?
• Where the $#&*(#)@ is Daniels and the other Temporal agents?
• Just how many shuttles did the Kelvin HAVE?
• Sylar-Spock just happens to drop Kirk a few hundred meters from where Nero dropped Spock-Prime off?
• Just WHY would S-P have that HUGE amount of 'Red Matter' in his squid-ship? How many stars was he planning on imploding?
• Just what was Nero doing for the 25 years that it took for S-P to appear through the vortex? That's a long time without resupply.
• Just how far IS Vulcan from Earth that they can warp there in minutes?
• Can you see S-P going, "Now there's this one race called "The Borg" and here's some weapons to fight them with."

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• It was not the Romulan sun, it was the Hobus Star. The star had unique properties in which its Super Nova would convert mass into energy, producing a domino effect which could wipe out a good portion of the entire galaxy.
• The Enterprise could have still been in-system if for whatever reason it was traveling at a low warp factor. This would line up with what Scotty had said was possible.
• Fate & destiny were a huge part of this film's plot. I think the writers conveyed that pretty clearly, but there is even a deleted scene that spells it out for you: Spock Prime stipulates that the timeline is 'healing' itself (i read this in an interview with Bob Orci, forgot which one). Not to mention that Spock Prime gave Spock a push in the right direction, as did Pike give Kirk.
• Daniels, the 29th Century Temporal Starfleet protect thier own timeline. This movie uses an alternate timeline theroy which doesnt jive well with what's been used in trek before, but fits our current understanding of science much more closely. Think Back To The Future -- while Spock Prime is now stuck in this new timeline, the original TNG timeline continues with the Hobus star halted and Romulus and Remus now wiped out. This story continues in the Star Trek Online game.
• From the small part we saw of the shuttle bay, plenty. They were stacked and parked in rows in multiple levels.
• It's not really known if Spock Prime was dropped off elsewhere and eventually found that cave, or how large Delta Vega was. I know it's a stretch but some consessions need to be made for movie's sake.
• I belive this was Vulcan's entire supply of Red Matter.
• He was captured by Klingons and sent to Rura Penthe. He served some time there, and it is here where he loses part of his ear (presumably in his escape or in a prison fight). He destroyed 47 Klingon Warbirds on his way out. The details of where his crew and ship were in this time are unknown. Perhaps with the Romulans of this era?
• I don't think they arrived in minutes. Remember, Kirk was knocked out flat cold when they were on the way, it could be therorized that the drilling process could have taken hours or even days, and Kirk was simply out for that amount of time. The passage of time wasn't very apparent here. Also Checkov could have not made the ship wide transmission about the details of thier mission until hours into the trip at maximum Warp.
• I think his primary concern is rebuilding the Vulcan people. He had no issues giving Scotty the equasion for in-warp beaming, but he knew Scotty would be the one to invent it anyway. I see him sharing info where logical.

 

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Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
 
Well I just saw it, it was excellent. I loved the Fed ship designs, though their appearance was brief. The klingon ships stuck closely to the good ol' D7/K'tinga design. The New E doesn't make me forget the classic one, though stands well enough on its own. Wasn't too crazy about the Spock/Uhura relationship, sinced it seemed to appear out of nowhere. I too liked Pike's uniform at the end. Hopefully those silly TMP red uniforms won't come to fruition in this universe Also the position of Delta Vega really stretched credibility. Unless it's one of Vulcan's moons (which apparently shouldn't have any), I don't see how Prime Spock could see...well you know. Overall, it was definitely more accessible, but not dumbed down like the trailers and commercials would have you believe. And Urban's McCoy was awesome, though I was left surprised by the reason TPTB gave for his curmudgeony behavior.

Bring on ST XII: The Search for Porthos
 

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Posted by Josh (Member # 1884) on :
 
Maybe they'll take a shot at that ridiculous transporter episode on Enterprise and have Porthos show up in a doggy wheelchair.

As for continuity, there's no reason Archer couldn't actually show up either as the President or as an old man in this since the cast is relatively young at this point. Kirk is like what, 25?
 

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Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
 
Whose to say it's necessarily Jonathan Archer. Maybe its his son or grandson who also has a pet dog.
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
 
My other question is, in the JJ-verse, do all Romulans have tats all over their bodies? If it had been Nero that would have been one thing. But all the Rommies had shaved heads and tats.
 

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Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
 
I'm pretty sure it was mentioned in the tie-in comic that the tattoos are a sign of mourning, traditionally done in paint, but Nero and crew decided to make it permanent.


EDIT: Also, why assume it's a son or grandson? IIRC, Scotty didn't specify gender.
 

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Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
 
Yep, that's what it says. There's a good synopsis of the comics at memory alpha. What were they? "Star Trek Countdown" I think.

EDIT: From the comics, Nero tells us:

"There was a tradition on Romulus that when a loved one died you would paint your grief upon your skin. Ancient symbols of love and loss. In time the paint would fade, and with it the period of mourning. Life would go on. We paint these symbols on our skin now. But we burn them deep. So that they will never fade. Because life does not go on. We died with our friends. We died with our families. We died with Romulus. And all that is left is revenge."
 

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Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :
 
I finally saw it, and like almost everyone else, I enjoyed it.

Beyond the usual expected complaints about Kirk-falling-off-a-cliff and the moderately excessive lens flares, only one annoyance sticks out in my mind. No, two annoyances.

1) <morbo>BLACK HOLES DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!</morbo> Where was the time dilation?
2) Warp cores? Plural? Huh?

Beyond this, everyone's said pretty much everything already on my mind. McCoy was right on, Kirk doesn't quite feel right yet, etc.

At this point, I can't wait for the BluRay disc, so we can begin geeking out over the other ships. It's First Contact all over again, yay!
 

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Posted by Wes (Member # 212) on :
 

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Originally posted by Hobbes:
My other question is, in the JJ-verse, do all Romulans have tats all over their bodies? If it had been Nero that would have been one thing. But all the Rommies had shaved heads and tats.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Charles Capps:
<morbo>BLACK HOLES DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!</morbo>

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Originally posted by Mars Needs Women:
I too liked Pike's uniform at the end. Hopefully those silly TMP red uniforms won't come to fruition in this universe

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quote:

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Originally posted by Aban Rune:


I was a little distracted by the various plotholes (such as why one drop of red matter creates a black hole that will sometimes destroy a planet but still send a ship back in time intact while a whole giant glob of red matter will create a smaller black hole that will destroy a ship but not send it back in time).

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quote:

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I was a little distracted by the various plotholes (such as why one drop of red matter creates a black hole that will sometimes destroy a planet but still send a ship back in time intact while a whole giant glob of red matter will create a smaller black hole that will destroy a ship but not send it back in time).

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When Spock shot the red matter into the Hobus star/supernova, his ship and the Narada were sucked into the resulting black hole after the fact. When Spock's ship crashed into the Narada, the red matter was detonated inside the Narada. That's two totally different scenarios.

Anyway, I went to see the movie again with my father. He really liked it (but he also liked Nemesis, so his credibility is somewhat suspect ). Although I pretty much felt the same way I did on the first viewing, one thing that kinda irked me this time was the Spock/Uhura thing. The relationship was fine, but the kissy-face was a bit annoying.

Some other tidbits:

- Nero's wife was tattooed as well! So strike yet another observation down from the "Countdown" comic, which stated that Nero's crew only got tats after Romulus was destroyed as a symbol of mourning. Apparently Nero, his crew and his wife were all members of some worker-class caste, and they had the tats from the get-go.

- I definitely heard the ship names Hood, Farragut, Antares, Walcott, and Truman, so five of the seven other Starfleet ships are accounted for (six, if you count the wrecked saucer with the name "Mayflower" allegedly printed on it).

- After seeing the film again, I definitely believe that the Enterprise is larger than its TOS/TMP counterpart. I doubt it's 2500 feet, but it is bigger.

- The scene with the Romulans on the drilling rig that Kirk and Sulu fight off: Their uniforms reminded me of something, especially the two-toed boots one guy wears. Then it hit me: they looked like Klingon uniforms! I think they stole Klingon clothing in the deleted scene on Rura Penthe (remember, Nero was sporting just rags in the trailer with the two Klingon guards). This is one scene that they really need to put back in, since they even mention the prison planet and the 47 ships Nero destroys in the dialog, and it would better explain where Nero was in his 25 year absence.

- Ship analysis: I could better see the Kobayashi Maru scene with the ships (I first saw the movie on IMAX, sitting in the front row, so I had a lot of head-turning which was why I missed a lot). The Klingon "warbirds" looked remarkably like regular D-7's, and the KM seemed to look astonishingly like this ship:

http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/images/federation/neutronicfuel_kobyashimaru.jpg

I could definitely make out a Kelvin-style nacelle above the saucer.
There are seven other major Starfleet vessels besides the Enterprise: three with round Kelvin-type saucers but with smaller nacelles under the saucer; one three-nacelled ship with Kelvin-type nacelles and a saucer with cuts in the back; two ships with half-saucers and two Kelvin-type nacelles above the saucer and two secondary hulls below the saucer; and one final ship that looks like a half-saucer with four nacelles (although this could also be another of the previously described ship...not too sure about this one). All the ships can be seen for a few seconds on the viewscreen before they go to warp. As I said before, the two clearest ships were the three-naceller and one of the two-nacelled, two-secondary hulled ships.
I'm not sure I buy that the Narada was a "simple" Romulan mining vessel from the 24th century. It looks nothing like a Romulan ship, and it's just fucking huge. But hey, it was better than the Scimitar.

P.S. Here's some caps of some of the new ships.

http://flareupload.pleh.net/uploads/341/newship1.jpg

http://flareupload.pleh.net/uploads/341/newship2.jpg

[ May 19, 2009, 09:33 PM: Message edited by: Dukhat ]
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
Well, I've finally seen it and have had a lot of catching up to do in these threads.

My major impressions: the tempo of the whole feature was incredible, I haven't felt this pumped when leaving a theater in a long time.

I actually liked Giacchino's music, it wasn't as Horn-section patriotic as Hans "one-trick pony" Zimmer, and yet not as syrupy-sweet or chirpy as Danny Elfman. Overall the soundtrack was pretty intense, conveying the desperation and soberness of the plot events for most of the time. It felt consistent with the music quality of LOST (which I think is above-average for a TV show).
The composer also exercised self-restraint regarding the many humurous scenes of the movie, not ruining them with silly-tunes or a trumpet going wah-wah-waah ("my ass functions like a floatation device"), again just like "LOST", where humor segments are allowed to stand on their legs and work on their own merit without being played off.

Nod to Psyliam: I was very thankful for the solemn grounding the movie got from the opening scene, I got a lot out of it. The very fine line mommy Kirk was balancing on, trying to work with that unbearable acceptance and letting go, it was tough there. George's "Tiberius" gag was funny and at the same time made it all feel worse, since he wanted to distract her and make her feel better.

I knew the special effects would be ice cream, but the new, crisp take on Warp entry was unexpected, and nice. Some might dislike the brevity of the sequence, but I appreciated the angle that if you go ftl you go FTL.
To the person who disliked the new ship phasers, I agree somewhat but at the same time it seemed to me like the beams behaved differently in different parts of the film, in accordance with variable charge, yield and spread that was probably available to the federation ships, and I thought some of the phaser volleys from the Kelvin were impressive.
Also, I've long ago accepted that every Trek movie so far changes the phaser/torpedo effects from that of its predecessor, which is nice.
The new photon-launcher sound was fresh, and accurately enough it didn't feel nearly as powerful as the Ent-E's quantum torpedo action, just as it should be. Also, the torpedoes themselves seemed to be the same kind of blue-white as the one the Enterprise used against that asteroid in TMP.

I enjoyed the slow, battleship-like maneuvering of the Enterprise through the debris field of Vulcan, reminded me of her handling in the TWOK nebula, elegant and purposeful. Also, the USS Roger Young + asteroid in "Starship Troopers".
What also reminded me of TWOK was when the Enterprise micro-jumped into the fluffy rings of Saturn or Titan or whatever, and then broke cover slowly, very much like the moments before the endgame-volley in the nebula of TWOK.

Was there anyone more than me here that at first thought the red ice monster was the Clover-species from "Cloverfield"? Obviously it had a different face and was 20 times smaller than Clover, but there was a part of me that wanted it to be the real deal, like the Alien-skull in "Predator 2".

I liked what they did with the Brainbug (Speculum Montalbanus), they should've done that mode of insertion in TWOK too, imo. Scared the crap out of some of the girls in the audience, they even stopped texting.

If there is a weak point in the movie it's the speedy "future-events" exposition by Spock, I wish we'd been shown the future events as they happened, with Year 2387 starships thrown in, but at the same time I recognize what twenty minutes of that (instead of two) would've done to the budget.

From one thing to another, the sheer amount of punishment Kirk got in this movie was staggering. Like some director said in Empire magazine (paraphrased), "We must remember that actors take the job to receive attention, and for that they must be forever punished".
Kirk suffered more than in any other movie, and he wasn't even the kind of kickboxer he is in TSFS or TFF. It was good for the balance in the movie.
 

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Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
 
I'm personally a little chagrined and astonished to see how many people like this movie. Forgetting its Star Trek aspirations (which I can eviscerate at length, if asked), from a simple movie-making/storytelling standpoint, it sucks.

Too much lens flare, exceedingly rapid editing. It seems to rely on dazzling the audience and throwing stuff at them too fast to process. The "score" is a series of short cues, mainly brassy flares. It became apparant very quickly that the composer didn't know what do do after thirty seconds of that and it just sort of trailed off until the next brassy blare. I forgot anything original that score might have contained as soon as I was out of the theatre. Nothing whistlable, as with Goldsmith or Horner.

The villain was too undeveloped, in character and motivation. A moviegoer shouldn't have to rely on a tie-in comic prequel to explain who one of the main characters is. An entire necessary sequence around him was cut, and I don't know why. I won't give spoilers, but it leaves it to the audience to fill in that gap in the story. That's sloppy storytelling.

The main character has no real arc or evolution. He starts callow and arrogant, and ends callow and arrogant and gets rewarded for it. There's no revelation, no maturation, no price paid for his reward.

Time travel is a weak mechanic in any story, at best. When it's presence is a surprise, as in Lost In Space, it works for story reasons. When it's the main mechanic for everything that happens during the movie, it's too easy for it to break down -- especially when the wrong model of temporal/quantum mechanics is used.

And they should have gne to the trouble to build an actual set for Main Engineering, instead of using a brewery with a couple of strategically-placed touchscreens and a big water pipe. That's hopefully not a spoiler, Masao. We see Engineering in trailers.

My take on this film was that it was a tremendously fun roller-coaster ride, as long as one left their brain at home. I plan to see it again, if I get the chance, but I won't be too upset if I miss it before it leaves theatres.

--Jonah
 

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Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
 
Star Trek opens in Japan today! I'm seeing it in 5 hours. Yay!
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Am I the only one to notice that the captain of the Kelvin is the same actor that played the main terrorist in Iron Man?

I guess he's on a roll- good death scenes in two very big movies..
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
Well the captain of the Kelvin believes in good grooming, that threw us off.
 

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Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
 
Oh, no, I spotted him. I would have been happier, I think, if he was the villain, but... *shrug*

--Jonah
 

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Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
 
I held off coming here to see reactions because I know this is probably the most anal Trek board I visit (not a bad thing in itself, guys). If anyone was going to be sensetive to the minutiae without a thought for the overall experience it was going to be people here. And yet, overall, the reaction is positive! Wonders never cease, JJ must have done something right after all.

Overall I liked the movie, very entertaining with enough nods to the fans without it becoming distracting to non-fans and without Kirk turning into Zapp Brannigan. My likes and dislikes, in no particular order...

Liked
McCoy, overall CGI effects, the revamped designs of old favourites, 2 x Spock, hot Uhura & green chick, red shirt bites it on away mission, Kirk slouching in chair, alternate timeline get-out clause, classic music at end.

Disliked
Kirk starts and ends an arrogant dick and least resembles the original, reliance on coincidence of cosmic proportions, standard Romulan mining vessels are humungous nightmarish ships with incredible armament.

Honorable mention has to go to Pegg as Scotty, for not making a complete hash of the accent. As a Scotsman, hearing a fake Scots accent does my head in and stands out a mile. Pegg wasn't half bad, although he'd get a kicking in a pub if he tried it here.
 

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Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :
 

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Originally posted by Axeman 3D:
I held off coming here to see reactions because I know this is probably the most anal Trek board I visit (not a bad thing in itself, guys).

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Really? I find this board to be a lot nicer than Trekbbs.

Of course, that doesn't keep me from going to Trekbbs.
 

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Posted by Josh (Member # 1884) on :
 
I think I saw him on 24 once too a few years ago.
 

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
I really didn't like Engineering on the Enteprise.

All those industrial vats... full of what?

The Star Trek Engineering sets have always been fantastic sets - I think the pinnacle may have been in First Contact... but the Engineering set or lack of one in Star Trek XI was a disappointment.

I also really liked Karl Urban's work as McCoy. It was just... right!
 

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Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
 

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All those industrial vats... full of what?

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I assume it had something to do with deuterium, or the bulk of the ship's water recycling is all piped through to the engineering hull.
 

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Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
 
Given where those scenes were shot, they're full of beer.
 

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Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
 
It's no wonder Scotty liked the ship...
 

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Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
 
@ HerbShrump - I didn't mean the people on the board were assholes, the TrekBBS could win there, but that more minute nitpicking/disecting/categorising goes on here.

The engineering set was a bit of a shocker, particularly if you've ever seen the awful film Space Mutiny (MST3K'd a while back) which appeared to be filmed entirely in a brewery too.

I think they were trying to go more retro than the last films, but swung a little too far south of the TNG style sets which were basically computer centers with a nice lava lamp in the middle. A middle ground between the two would have been more believable, with lots of computers controlling lots of reactants and liquid stores, etc. I'm also not a fan of huge open spaces in spacecraft, where space and weight would no doubt be at a premium. It's good to build in room for new tech and some growth, but not by leaving massive gaps.
 

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Posted by Herb Sewell (Member # 2163) on :
 
In a word, the movie sucked. I'm still shocked with how many fans are duped into liking it, or thinking that it was a Star Trek movie.

Apparently the reboot is todays Hollywood, and apparently dropping random references to popular elements of Star Trek was enough to appease "fans". sad.

Poop on Abrams.
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
2-post newbie wrote:

quote:

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In a word, the movie sucked. I'm still shocked with how many fans are duped into liking it, or thinking that it was a Star Trek movie.

Apparently the reboot is todays Hollywood, and apparently dropping random references to popular elements of Star Trek was enough to appease "fans". sad.

Poop on Abrams.

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quote:

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In a word, the movie sucked. I'm still shocked with how many fans are duped into liking it, or thinking that it was a Star Trek movie.

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quote:

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Apparently the reboot is todays Hollywood, and apparently dropping random references to popular elements of Star Trek was enough to appease "fans". sad.

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Apparently you know nothing of how Hollywood works. Hollywood "reboots" things all the time, and they've been doing it ever since they came into existence. And there were hardly "random references" dropped in this movie. If you want random references, go watch the first three seasons of ENTERPRISE.
 

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
Back to engineering sets: The problem is they built such a lovely bridge set - the engineering set - the second most important set just came up as... well... crap.
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
Yes everyone says so, then again you can look at it from a producer's point of view: how many scenes and total stagetime was spent in engineering? Compared to the bridge (with Kelvin bridge scenes added, as they probably used the same one)?
 

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Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 
Exactly. Everyone's bitching about a scene in engineering that lasted about five seconds. When I saw the movie with my dad (who is a smart guy but hardly a ST fan like I am), he never even noticed the beer tanks until I pointed it out to him. Do you know what he said to me? "All you have to do is add a few futuristic gizmos to an ordinary background, and you can get away with it all looking like it's from the future."

Of course, he's apparently never met anyone from the TrekBBS.
 

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Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
 
Keyboards on the wall? It must be.. The Future! That's all it takes to dupe the average Star Trek fan, but thank the maker it didn't fool the few genuine Trekkies out there. They saw through its lightweight humour, vibrant action and entertainment and noticed it was just a movie out to entertain and make a few bucks.

I think no matter how rabid a trekker you are, you should be happy the movie is as popular as it is. Endlessly picking over the bones of long gone telly series and very spotty movies isb't that popular a hobby as it once was. New life, even if it is a bit different, is better than no life.
 

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Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
 
Well the film's popularity is not a reason to like or dislike it. I think many of us are glad that it was popular because it signals that there is still life in one of our favorite franchises and so we will get more trek out of this. I'm not sure anyone is making an argument that this movie was bad only because it was different.

So I enjoyed this movie very much. At the same time I acknowledge that this movie had some serious problems, and shall enumerate them for you here:

I would say chief among my problems with this movie is a dramatic one: The motivation of Nero. Great bad guys make the good guys that much better. What made Khan such an iconic villain? His single-minded need to best Kirk. How did that movie let us know about that? Through numerous references to that very thing, up to and including his Second in command asking (somewhat reluctantly) why with a Starship and Genesis that they needed to get Kirk. It was right there in the movie on the screen for us to watch it and we had a palpable sense of how much Khan hated and resented this man and years of torturous existence had ...blah, blah, yes. We get it. Nero? Not so much. Reading the prequel comic gave me some answers to questions that had been bothering me (ie. Nero's motivations, a mining ship with how many torpedoes?, etc.), but those things weren't in the movie and unfortunately for the movie that means they don't count. And so in the context of the movie Nero is a ranting kill-crazy madman intent on imploding the Federation in his miles-long super-ship. Bond villains get more depth than this. It pains me to say it, but hell, even Shinzon (with his for no apparent reason psychic molester powers) came across as more sympathetic and therefore terrifying. It's especially frustrating having seen what JJ can do with a good bad guy. Alias was by far not my favorite show, but watching Ron Rifkin square off with Victor Garber is still among my favorite things on TV. I love Eric Bana, but I don't think the story let us see into the gearbox of what was driving him to get Spock, to destroy Vulcan, to annihilate the Federation. Anyway, my point is for all the talk of using Genesis to blow up planets, Khan never did that and only scarred-up and crippled an old trainee cruiser. Nero blew up a planet in the second act, shredded a flotilla of Starships and didn't have half Khan's menace.

Kirk should not be bratty. I know it's new. Things are different, but for all his bravado, Kirk still shouldn't be a brat. Arrogant, headstrong, cocky, self-involved? Absolutely. But not a brat. During the Kobayashi Maru test Kirk was a brat. Arguments can be made for some of the other scenes, but his brattiness bugged me. Friends have convinced me that perhaps early brattiness may be later shaped into the unshakable confidence we've come to adore. But I will be ever-vigilant against brattiness.

Another Kirk related sticking point was his preposterous rising through the ranks. Three years? There's "This kid's got the makings of a first rate Starfleet officer," and then there's "Let's give him command of our newest and bestest, giganticest ship, right now, today..." That's crazy pants and no organization as complex and deliberate as Starfleet-- no organization anywhere ever could possibly hope to work this way.

Spock on Uhura: Now maybe this is me getting into "it's different and that's bad territory, but..." I have difficulty accepting that Spock would violate the student-teacher relationship in a smootchy-smootchy way. Now perhaps that was their first kiss and I am just being silly, but their implied relationship--it just goes against what Spock is all about. Flirty? Absolutely. (Plenty of that in TOS), but this seemed much more familiar. I liked the story beat of Kirk not getting the girl. That's funny and even a cute wink to fans of TOS, but young teacher, the subject, of schoolgirl fantasy... Too much. Too MTV.

Transwarp beaming? Very silly, but possibly saved by Simon Pegg's delivery of the description of what that'd be like. "Shooting a bullet with a smaller bullet while riding on horseback, blindfolded..." (or something) For some reason, I think I would have had much less a problem with it had the shuttle taken off after Enterprise.

There were other problems, but my heart's not in it. I camped out to see this movie and have seen it 3 times so far. I'd watch it again and can't wait to get it in HD. Which is to say that for all it's faults, I still found a lot to like in this movie. Great pacing, with exciting stunts and effects. Thought the lens flares were beautiful, and other than the brewery set for one or two short scenes, I loved the production design. I found the humor to be spot on. I look forward to seeing what else they can do with this.
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Axeman 3D:
I think no matter how rabid a trekker you are, you should be happy the movie is as popular as it is. Endlessly picking over the bones of long gone telly series and very spotty movies isb't that popular a hobby as it once was. New life, even if it is a bit different, is better than no life.

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quote:

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Another Kirk related sticking point was his preposterous rising through the ranks. Three years? There's "This kid's got the makings of a first rate Starfleet officer," and then there's "Let's give him command of our newest and bestest, giganticest ship, right now, today..." That's crazy pants and no organization as complex and deliberate as Starfleet-- no organization anywhere ever could possibly hope to work this way.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dukhat:
[QB] [QUOTE]we'd pay more attention to you.

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quote:

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2 Post Newbie

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You mean I have a life and havent posted 5000 times? I must not have a valid opinion because I spend time away from the computer and this forum...


Enjoy your repackaged crap, everyone.
 

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Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 
Whether a person posts 5000 times on a Star Trek bulletin board, or just once, that's proof enough that said person has no life.

Buh-bye, and thanks for your stimulating, erudite conversation. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
 

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Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
 
Apparently he didn't read the User Agreement? (Especially the last part.)
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 

quote:

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You mean I have a life and havent posted 5000 times? I must not have a valid opinion because I spend time away from the computer and this forum...

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No, "2 post newbie" means that you don't introduce yourself or give us any way to relate to you, but in the space of two posts you alienate most of the members on this forum by effectively saying that everyone who remotely likes the new movie are sad, deluded people who have no right to call themselves fans, and that by definition you are the real kind of Trekkie others should be compared to. With no prior history here.

Sorry, the correct term should've been "poser".
 

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Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
 
To be fair: most of the members of this forum are sad and at least somewhat deluded. So I mean maybe he's half right...

I think the heart of the matter is that making bold statements without citing any specific problems does not add a whole lot to the conversation. I do find I'm very curious to hear what issues people have with this movie. I have found Jonah Peregrinus's comments to be especially illuminating.
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Herb, dont go away just yet- yes, we ARE elitest snobs but that does not preclude you becoming one as well- a bit of verbal hazing weeds out the serious from those that do things like starting topics like "list your favorite starship" threads every two weeks.

But DO introduce yourself formally, please- tell us what you bring to the virtual table, as it were.
 

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
Maybe they shouldn't have made/given them positions in this movie, maybe have waited till the next?

The other reason for the move straight to Captain - I'm guess Starfleet lost a lot of people and Starships - due to Nero at Vulcan and also whatever is going on in the Laurentian system, as to why the starships and the rest of the fleet there couldn't be brought to help out with the Nero problem.
 

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Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 
But there were people already on the Enterprise that could have taken command before Kirk. Hell, Scotty could have done it, and he wasn't even a crewmember yet.
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
Well Pike had mentorial investment in Kirk from the bar and onwards, he may have recommended and vouched for him to the admiralty because he was confident Kirk was on the track now, and would in time unfurl his captain skills like a brand new size 9 Gucci chestnut toupée, unfrizzlable and splash-resistant. Organic glue sold separately.
 

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Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by PsyLiam:
I dunno. I thought it was quite convenient for Yoda to be hiding on Hoth, saving Luke the trouble of making it to the Dagobah system.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Daniel Butler:

quote:

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Originally posted by PsyLiam:
I dunno. I thought it was quite convenient for Yoda to be hiding on Hoth, saving Luke the trouble of making it to the Dagobah system.

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wait....what?

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He's refering to the part in the welsh edtion... or was it Slovac? I dunno, i remember movies being different when you watch them in the slovac sections of Cleveland back in the 70's ( Heya, Heya, Heya!!)
 

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Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
 
Ooo,ooo, more new bits.

http://trekmovie.com/2009/10/27/star-trek-movie-deleted-klingon-scene-available-online/
 

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Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
 


Can't wait to see what other scenes are included with the DVD...
 

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