| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
Positives:
- Verging on "hard scifi". Is perhaps to the Star Trek franchise what Batman Begins was to the Batman franchise. The setting was very ordinary, much of the time, yet futuristic. Off-duty humans wore jackets and jeans, rather than shiny tunics with oversize shoulder pads, for example. They lived in dorms or houses, and drove bikes with wheels. Bar fights.
- Great opening. Very emotional. Very powerful.
- Awesome graphics. Great use of moving camera and panorama.
- A good bit of ship redesign in line with modern technology and sensibilities, but still within range of the originals.
- Seeing how it all began. There were plenty of smirk-worthy moments, as we see the young characters exhibit their familiar traits, and mouth their familiar catchphrases.
Negatives:
- VERY non-canon. I wonder if any sequels will continue in this very different altered timeline, or reboot.
I plan to watch this on Wed. I am resisting all urges to find out more about the movie or read reviews. Just go in with no expectations and watch it.
ReplyDeletei am DEFINITELY watching this.
ReplyDeleteSoon.
Very short review: "Beam me up, Scotty!"
ReplyDeleteSlightly longer: Great show for fans of Star Trek (it was all I could do to resist clapping when the Enterprise is first shown) watching the movie (for the first half at least) brings back some of that mixture of nostalgia, exuberance, emotional twinge I felt when i first saw the Prequel trailer of TPM (until you go watch TPM and you go...ugh.)
The young Spock was excellent with the rest somewhere in between pretty good to what-were-they-thinking. I liked the angle they took with Sulu ("So what advanced hand-to-hand combat training did you do?" "Fencing")
Great story arc HOWEVER the science and believability of some aspects (gets worst as towards the end) stretches somewhat. While this is definitely a better and more intelligent science fiction film than Transformers it is still squarely in the hollywood tradition of brawn and explosions over brain and exposition.
Definitely worth the price of admission and I would love to watch it again with fellow trekkies at home.
Last note: while there are certainly treats for trekkies I felt there was a lot of room for a lot more references that would have made the whole thing that much more rewatchable. The significance of the Enterprise as the new Constitution Class or even as flagship of Federation Fleet could have been expanded upon. As well as the five-year missions. As mentioned, facts and explanations has been edited in favour of action and sex.
Ok, really last note: What the heck with the Romulans not looking Romulan like??
Watched it on the very first day it opened! couldn't wait
ReplyDeleteI liked Star Trek but was more familiar with The Next Generation and Voyager cast so Kirk's impulsiveness was pretty new to me. Also, I did not know that Mr Spock was half human.
Enjoyed Zachery Quinto's portrayal of the young Spock. Repressed, conflicted and intelligent characters are more to my flavour than the exuberant cowboy ones.
And yes, it whetted my appetite for more! and made me a bit of a fan of Zachery Quinto and J.J. Abrams.
SPOILER ahead!
Great special effects and emotional moments. I was moved by George Kirk's last conversation with his wife and the son he never saw in the final moments of his life. I was a tad disappointed initially with Jim Kirk after meeting the dad, wondered why he turned out so rebellious and what happened to mum? (I think these questions are only what the ladies watching this show would ask. Anyhow, guess this is not the genre to explore such psychological questions but to get on with the action!)
The only thing that bothered me was how they had totally created another parallel timeline by the destruction of the Romulan and Vulcan home planets, essentially rendering nuggatory whatever the TV series had portrayed. Of course, this gives the movie franchaise the legitimate opportunity to rewrite the entire series for a "new generation" of audience and avoid any unintentional conflict in storylines and character development that would irk trekkies.
This is in fact fine with me since i do not think it renders the original timeline..err nuggatory. It is now as you say an alternate timeline, the original timeline is still valid, we are merely exploring a different timeline and who is to say one timeline is more valid than another.
ReplyDeleteA bigger problem is the idea that the event horizon of a black hole is also a time-travelling device..