Kevin's Watch

I was excited to see this this weekend, but with "Angels & Demons" coming out I think my wife wants to see that instead

Loremaster wrote:Captain, I'm giving these spoilers all I've got!

Cut into auxiliary if you have to!

Rigel wrote:I was excited to see this this weekend, but with "Angels & Demons" coming out I think my wife wants to see that instead

Well, there we have it: the conflict between sci fi soap opera and religious soap opera.

Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors, but I have very little interest in Angels & Demons.

"Doc Emmet Brown, The Killer Klingon"

Saw Star Trek today. I finally get it. It's all good.

Also has a GAP Spoiler enclosed.

Spoiler

I noticed this significant similarity between the new Star Trek film and the GAP: they both end with the enemy ship swallowed by a man made singularity.

I enjoyed it, though not as much as Khan or First Contact. Khan especially has some classic moments.

Spoiler

The villain was all right, though I'm not much of a fan of creating an alternate reality for the sake of more films. Could just have some early adventures and still maintain continuity; though I suppose having Leonard Nimoy's cameo ultimately levels my reservation out).

This film was much better than the average reboot (Batman Begins, even). I got a warm feeling from seeing the world reintroduced, the well-selected cast and the Star Trek feel pretty much kept faithful (with a healthy but not overpowering dose of 2009-standard action). I also liked that green-skinned chick. Heh.

I think dramatically time travel has drawbacks in terms of event management, ie consequences and new time lines, but for this situation its probably the only mechanism that gives a clean slate to write new adventures, develop characters (within given limits) and have the scope to do so without the the sword of Damacles, (as represented by the full on Trek Nerds), hijacking every deviation from what many I'm sure believe to be (future) historical fact rather than fiction.

I love to watch Star Trek in many of its guises (TNG, DSN etc), but I recall the only serious convention in Sydney where Michael Dorn was forced to confront the fact that many die hard fans really had taken one step beyond and were quizzing him about stuff as if it were real. His response that "its not real and I can only comment about stuff the writers have written" elicited tangible disappointment amongst the Kilngons, Romulans, Enterprise crew and general wierdos that had grabed the first three rows.

Without having to pleasure these holders of the faith, there a lot of restrictions lifted as to what me be offered next.

Finally got to see it. I loved it.
The characters were all written well, and the actors did a great job portraying their namesakes.

Spoiler

I knew about the time travel aspect, but, it didn't ruin anything for me, because I was expecting it to play out much different (I expected Old Spock to travel back and actively work with and guide the crew through course correction to prevent history from changing, rather than just provide a little bit of info)

While it's true, the time travel aspect wasn't neccesaary, (JJ could've just been unapologetic and said this is MY Trek, not prior Trek, and we're starting over) I think it probably helped the popularity. Hard Core Trekkies (the general population of them, that is) are accustomed to "The Reset Button" and I think it actually helped that segment accept the changes easier and allowed them to enjoy the film without picking apart the changes. Of course, I hope they are done with "resetting", but, as a means to start over, I think it was fine and helped give a reason to the changes

rdhopeca wrote:

Spoiler

I noticed this significant similarity between the new Star Trek film and the GAP: they both end with the enemy ship swallowed by a man made singularity.

Heh, you might want to warn that your spoiler reveals stuff about the GAP books, not just Trek. (I haven't read the GAP.) No biggie for me, but other people might get upset.

I just came back from the movie. Thumbs up, waaay up. If I'm ranking in tomatometer fashion: 85%. I'm really glad I went to it.

The most enjoyable, most exhilarating Trek movie I've seen since The Voyage Home. But as an in-your-face action spectacle, this Star Trek leaves every other Trek film far behind (although I did not see Nemesis).

Like most here, I felt the Enterprise cast was impeccable. I thought all the actors did honor to their famous roles while at the same time making them new. Kirk, McCoy and Spock naturally hog the discussion, but I especially liked the new Uhura. It was nice that she was allowed to be an interesting person first.

I agree that the villain was bland. He looked like some lost cousin of the villain in Nemesis. That's the only negative I can say about the movie for now.

SPOILERS: (I'm not going to use spoiler tags in a thread that already has "spoilers abound" in its title, so there )




The Uhura/Spock romance didn't bother me - in fact, I though it was wonderful. It worked within the context of this story.

The time-travel didn't bother me either, because the story and acting and everything else was compelling enough that my mind didn't drift into thinking about thorny physics issues.

I thought Leonard Nimoy's appearance was brilliant, as was his makeup. His haunted look conveyed his pain - everyone's pain - at Vulcan's destruction very well.

Oh, and James Kirk's dad going out with a bang was exactly the kind of end that would have befitted Kirk himself, not the lame dying-under-a-bridge crap in Generations.

Lord Foul wrote:I also liked that green-skinned chick. Heh.

Okay, Foul, I can see we're gonna be fighting over that goddess.

matrixman wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:I also liked that green-skinned chick. Heh.

Okay, Foul, I can see we're gonna be fighting over that goddess.

I heard that she's going to be playing Scarlet in the G.I.Joe movie. I haven't bothered to check and see if that's correct.

Matrixman, I was counting on you. Now, I am truly the only Star Trek fan who thinks this movie is crap. I'm along in the universe, as Fist said.

OK, we watched the new Star Wars, I mean, Trek, movie last night.

It was enjoyable, and the cast was good (with the exception of Chekov... first they way overdid it with his accent, and then he never got to brag about how the Russians got to space first? WTF?!?!?), especially Bones and Scotty (I had my doubts about Simon Pegg, but he was brilliant in the role).

It felt even more like fantasy and less like sci fi than the usual Trek movies, though again I haven't seen any since Generations so that may be the current trend.

Also, as good as Abrams is at developing character, he doesn't know how to build to a climax. Instead, you get four or five mini climaxes, none of which really feel like they're resolving all the tension in the movie.

I think the best thing to come of this is that it's rekindled my interest in TOS; I'll probably go watch the first six movies sometime this week

Malik23 wrote:

matrixman wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:I also liked that green-skinned chick. Heh.

Okay, Foul, I can see we're gonna be fighting over that goddess.

I heard that she's going to be playing Scarlet in the G.I.Joe movie. I haven't bothered to check and see if that's correct.

It's true. And I think I'll let you win the battle, Matrix. ...Not! Let's go!!

dlbpharmd wrote:Matrixman, I was counting on you. Now, I am truly the only Star Trek fan who thinks this movie is crap. I'm along in the universe, as Fist said.

Along? I would have typed 'alone', but I'm just whacky that way.

Hey now, be nice to the poor guy, dAN.

Dlb, I'm sorry this movie turned you off so much. You mentioned that at times the film felt like Galaxy Quest - and I know of your...intense dislike of that film.

I guess I just don't share your view that the new movie is a parody. I see it as a sincere and credible re-imagining of the Trek universe.

Saw it again today. This time caught the noon matinee, so the audience was relatively sparse. I had been wondering if the enthusiastic vibe of the packed theatre last week had led me to an inflated opinion of the film. But after today's viewing, I liked the film even more. So then, this movie works on its own merits - but it doesn't hurt to have an excited audience along for the ride. J.J. Abrams has won me over: I think this film is exactly the kind of "refresh" needed to attract new fans to Trek.

The science errors: the way I understood Star Trek was that it had always been more concerned with exploring intangibles like the human condition than about scientific accuracy. One of this Trek film's best accomplishments, in my view, is in creating an Enterprise crew with a very human spirit that I care about.

(That was one of the problems I had with Picard's crew: nearly everyone seemed stilted to me. Whereas in this "new" Trek, I was cheering on the Enterprise crew every step of the way.)

I liked it. Thought it was a fun movie in the way that 300 was a fun movie. A lot of action, nor a lot of deep thought behind it. The acting was solid enough. There were a couple of things that seemed strange (The villain's ship was not creditable for the job that it supposedly did, unless it was a "Q" ship.)

Was there parody of the original as dbl suggests? Perhaps a little, if you remember this Eddie Murphy bit and what part of Kirk's character it underlines. It's what came to mind to me when I saw that scene.

But all that is no big deal and didn't get in the way of me enjoying the film.

Saw it last night with a cool group of people and I must say I loved it! The new crew is hawt Hawt HAWT! I must say that the new Captain Kirk can fly the USS Jennterprise anytime he wants.... hello Kirk.... I'm over here baby.... Lets do the time warp again......

dANdeLION wrote:

dlbpharmd wrote:Matrixman, I was counting on you. Now, I am truly the only Star Trek fan who thinks this movie is crap. I'm along in the universe, as Fist said.

Along? I would have typed 'alone', but I'm just whacky that way.

Thanks for pointing this out to the whole world. I guess I'm just stupid.

I knew what you meant dlb, I don't care if you have typos in your posts you are still beautiful and wonderful to me, I will never forget what went on between us in SF last summer....