Detrious Wrote:I absolutley loved it!!
Was much better than I expected, kept the pace and action, and also made enough nods to the past to keep fans happy, while making the franchise it's own with the update...
Not exactly a highbrow review, but it had explosions, and a green girl in her underwear, so I was pretty stoked
![[Image: startrek2.jpg]](http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5996/startrek2.jpg)
Graham Wrote:I'm a Trekkie and I did not like this movie at all. I would love to debate anybody here about it. Especially since I'm the only person I know who doesn't like it.
It's not a Star Trek movie. It's a Hollywood movie using the Star Trek franchise.
What bothered me the most is that this movie does not have any grander scheme going on. There were no boundaries to be pushed. Star Trek envisioned by Roddenberry was an advanced society that used the current times to illustrate his points. This Star Trek movie, I expected, to be a movie of the times. Instead, it was a "leave your brain and your ten bucks at the door" popcorn flick featuring lame action trying to be realistic, bad writing and more flash than substance. Actually, no substance.
The writing was horrible. I think this is an industry wide trend, and why I don't watch many movies. More and more Hollywood likes to revive old franchises (Star Trek, Get Smart....a dozen others) make a formulaic movie and walk away with millions. Don't get me started on comic-book-based movies. IMO this is shying away from the fact that few can write good movies anymore and use the backdrop/security blanket of a recognized franchise as a safety net: read: you cannot fail.
The writers used time travel (whcih I am not a fan of) as an excuse to create an alternate reality in which these were not really the "real" Star Trek characters. Thus, they could do whatever the writers so pleased. This includes lame ass things like Uhura kissing Spock. Or, Spock freaking out, and jettisoning Kirk onto Hoth, err, whatever that planet was (despite the fact that no Vulcan and I dont care if he's half human, would ever do, especially considering he was on his way to Earth, you would think Spock would get more entertainment out of putting Kirk in the brig and knowing he would never see the light of day again).
They also use the alternate reality to implode the Vulcan homeworld. Which is fine. But you know what? It took me half the movie to figure out that THEY WERE IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. I spent half the movie figuring out how things would "get back to normal." Mostly because, I had sheltered myself about this movie and led myself to believe that this movie was supposed to be about how these characters meet up, how they go to the Academy together and how their younger less mature selves come into being, so to speak. That this is an alternate universe, you must take two things into account when discussing this movie: 1) it is fictional to even think that all these people would even end up on the Enterprise together as cadets, and 2) if it was an alternate universe, then why is the entire movie devoted to developing these characters such that by the end of the movie, there is no mistaking that the characters on the bridge of the Enterprise are near perfect recreations of the originals?
More bad writing. How many times in this movie did Kirk end up clinging to the edge of a cliff? Jeez, there's foreshadowing and then there's over-doing. The writers did not need to show Spock acting irresponsibly or kissing Uhura to show his personal conflict. However they needed to do so, otherwise Kirk would never have been banished to Hoth, Kirk would never have met up with the "real" Spock or Scotty, and Kirk would never have gotten back to the Enterprise. The humour? I keep hearing about how great the humour is and how well it sticks to the humour of the original franchise. I'm sorry but I completely do not agree, the humour in Star Trek is not slapstick or blatantly obvious, it is subtle. Also giving a character lines just because he has a Scottish accent and it is somehow funny, is lame. Having a Scottish guy yelling at a monkey-alien to "get down!" is humour for 4 year olds watching Sesame Street or something, not Star Trek.
One major thing that bugged me after the movie was how they made a black hole somewhere around Saturn. Does this black hole magically dissapear after it's finished sucking up Nero's ship?
Speaking of Nero, since when are Romulans bald white guys with tatoos on their faces?
While I'm at it can we please have a Star Trek movie that ISNT about revenge?
Sorry if I come across as a whining douchebag but I really wonder how everyone I see around me can watch out of 98% of movies they see and go "THAT WAS A GREAT MOVIE!" Movies, are like music to me, it is something to think about, something to deconstruct in your time afterwards. I don't watch "popcorn flicks" anymore than I listen to Katy Perry. This is why I watch sci fi series like Star Trek and Battlestar, why my favourite movie of last year was WALL-E. Movies used to be a form of art and my best indicator of which films are actually films, are what is playing in the limited release theatres.
If this is supposed to "reinvigorate" the Star Trek franchise, then God help us. There's already dozens of shitacular shows that don't push boundaries and don't stretch limits. Do people really just want something to watch where they can turn off their brains and be "entertained," or is the reason that no TV franchise today enjoys the success of shows like the original Star Trek, or MASH, because no show today is heartfelt and resonates with people? Case in point: there's a reason why Slumdog Millionaire exploded and why people will forget about this Star Trek movie by the time July rolls around.
Graham Wrote:I'm a Trekkie and I did not like this movie at all. I would love to debate anybody here about it. Especially since I'm the only person I know who doesn't like it.
It's not a Star Trek movie. It's a Hollywood movie using the Star Trek franchise.
<Snip>
Detrious Wrote:Graham Wrote:I'm a Trekkie and I did not like this movie at all. I would love to debate anybody here about it. Especially since I'm the only person I know who doesn't like it.
It's not a Star Trek movie. It's a Hollywood movie using the Star Trek franchise.
<Snip>
OK, I hate to break it to you Graham, but the films were dying on their arses...
Seriously, you had the 'ST-TOS' guys drawing a pension, but still expecting you to believe that they were able to save the universe again and again.
Then 'ST-TNG' popped up and it all got a bit luvvie for me, and a bit contrived 'Oh look, it's another Data popping up on a mystery planet, and look at that, he's a badun too!
So why can't Spock kiss Uhurah? I think it was a good idea to bring closer to the surface his internal conflict, and as he comes from stock that was willing to marry a human, it's probably genetic... Or might just be a way to make him more human so Kirk could meet (Future) Spock, and also allow Kirk to piss Spock off so much to get command of the enterprise.
If that wasn't written in, the film would have been about an hour shorter.
'We're not going to the meeting point Spock!'
'Yes we are Kirk, you, easily disposable Red shirt guy, throw him in the brig till we get there!'
'OK crew, we're here... Oh, big ship.. explosions... what's that on the scanner heading this way?... Oh SH.....'
(Cut to end titles)
And as to time travel...
It was used in ST-TOS, it was used (iirc) in ST-TNG, and also in DS9, as well as the lame ass 'Lets get to the past, grab a few whales and put them in this Klingon ship and head off to the future/present' in The Voyage home. So I think a precedent has been set...
And as to the Romulan, who was from Remus anyway, I think it was about April Stardate 20863.7 they became bald white guys with tattoos, it's called the 'Stewart/Tyson' effect... You want to complain about the modern Klingons versus the 1960's version, or do you just want to let this one slide as one of those quirky 'works of fiction'?
Oh, and as to While I'm at it can we please have a Star Trek movie that ISNT about revenge?
I give you, 'The Voyage Home' It's a film where the Enterprise crew form the anti-whaling group 'Sea Shepherd' by accident...
Look, what I'm trying to say is that every re-incarnation of this franchise has had to make a change for the current times, and on the whole, I, and the people I know who have seen this, have enjoyed this reworking.
They needed to get the film out there, but also give it a future that wasn't tied to the 60's series and the previous films, which is why the time travel and the destruction of Vulcan had to happen.
This film needs to make money to have a future, that's the long and short of it.
If it flops, noone will take the risk on number 2 (or 12, I know, I know!!) , so the masses have to be drawn in to make this happen. And to top it all off as a perfect day out, it has semi nekkid green chicks!!!
Just my opinion
D
teemudog Wrote:(like the use of my Harvard commas?)
