Star Trek *SPOILER WARNING*

[Phoenix]

Saw this today and I was pretty impressed with what JJ Abrams did to the franchise.

At points there was some disappointments but that is the fan in me and the expectation looking for more.

For performances, the new cast of the original crew was virtually spot on, the two who I thought were hit and miss were Sulu & Chekov, particularly as Chekov's accent is alot strong than what Walter Kroenig did back in the day. Pine's performance as Kirk was very reminisant of Shatner's day, the only thing that would make people question why there's difference, purely it's because Pine is playing Kirk before responsibility came in.

Simon Pegg is more a funny man and I didn't think his role as Scotty was the best casting choice, hopefully a second film might give him time to fill the role out better.

Best two performances were Quinto as Spock and Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, Urban gets the nod because he nailed DeForest Kelly's performance to a T, I really felt Kelly had been honoured by this performance.

Ok in terms of the plot, the big question is how would they make the prequel without affecting canon or really screwing things up, the fact is, they didn't.

Spoiler: As to why it's not affected

Abrams has been really clever with this plot and has given this restart purely through a parallel timeline which is an affect from a time travel from the time after Nemesis.

I am impressed that they managed to get it done really well and I think should a sequel be on the cards (pretty certain it will be), they will make a damn good job about it. Alot of shocks and twists that I won't give away because they really will suprise you. The sad part was that I was hoping everything would be resolved (purely as a Trekkie) but I am happy that this restart could be what the franchise needs and I think Abrams has started something new.

In terms of other Treks, it's not Wrath of Khan or First Contact, more around the level of Insurrection. In short, Star Trek is on its way back and JJ Abrams has done it without disturbing what previously exists. Great job and a film worth watching above Wolverine (in my opinion).

Main annoyance - the interior of the engineering deck was a fooking factory!

 

[Lee]

As someone who knows a bit about Star Trek but not obsessed with it, I loved the movie. The guy who played Chekov, I saw an interview with him and he said he found it hard as he had to be Russian, yet still do Kroenig's non Russian, Russian accent!

The thing that made me mark out (aside from Nemoy) was when they got in to go to the drill and there was Kirk, Sulu and the guy in Red...I just thought it was funny! The way they did the Spock story was brilliant, a good wholesome movie!

 

[Shua]

I just finished watching it. I certainly don't consider myself a trekkie. In fact, I've probably only seen a handful of TNG episodes, along with Generations and Nemisis.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great action flick.

P.S. The chick that play Uhura is friggin' sexy.

 

[Razor]

Spoilers people, Spoilers

It was fantastic. Chekov was perfectly Russian. I mean, the whole thing about Star Trek was that everyone's backgrounds were exaggerated. Bones was the Hardline Southerner, Uhura was the sexy, no nonsense black woman, and Kirk was the daring Mid-Western American boy at heart that always knew what was right despite the obstacles in his way. Same went with Spock as the quintessential Vulcan (meh...he had some difficulties with emotions every now and again, but he IS half human), and you never saw an alien who only sorta embodied their race. So why shouldn't the Russian have a really Russian accent? And why shouldn't Zulu be the fencing Asian?

One thing. Simon Pegg as Scotty was awesome. He nailed the Irish (or was it Scottish? I can't seem to remember now) engineer and he was one more source of humor. And good humor at that. I laughed the most when Simon Pegg was on screen, and I never once felt he took away from the film. He only added to it, honestly.

Abram's "I got this, black hole bitches" answer to the canon issue was fantastic. Though it took me a while to get used to it, especially Uhura and Spock getting it on. That, and when Spock's mother died. I distinctly remembered her being alive in the series, and I was all confused. It clicked soon though, and I instantly appreciated the genius.

 

[X]

Finally got around to seeing this yesterday, and I was just blown away. In my opinion, it's the best Trek movie to date (yes, even better then Khan).

Abrams did what I thought was impossible; he reinvented and breathed new life into a franchise that seemed all but dead. After the abortions that were Insurrection and Nemesis, I thought there was just no way a new Trek movie could be good, at all. But low and behold, Abrams has done it. That crazy bastard, can he do no wrong?

Few small things I'll mention because everyone else has already gone over how great the cast was...

1. I loved the fact that for the first time in any Trek film or show, the Enterprise actually feels like the giant starship that it is. In every other film and show you only ever see maybe four or five rooms on the ship at most usually, and all of those rooms are never very big. In this film we get to see some of the cargo bay for example, and just how totally massive it is. I'm glad we finally get the epic feeling we should when seeing a starship.

2. The battles looked like actual battles! One of my biggest complaints about Trek over the years has been just how incredibly awful the space battles have been. They usually always consist of some awful CGI-looking lasers going "pfft pffft pffft" out at another ship, which then shakes a little bit and is fine. That sums up most Trek space battles(except for the epically awesome destruction of the Enterprise in the third film)

But finally we get to see explosions and fire, and chunks of the ship flying off. I was so excited just to finally see Trek embrace some great special effects work. The opening destruction of the Kelvin was just epic.

And the phasers! Another thing that I always hated about Trek was how unbelievably stupid the phasers looked. They looked like little remote controls that shot light out at someone, not like a weapon. In this film they look like actual guns/weapons and the lasers are bouncing off of walls loudly, slicing through people's chests. They actually look like the painful weapons they should be!

My only complaints were that Chekov's "Wussian" accent was just a bit too thick for my tastes, and the Spock-Uhura romance seemed forced. Aside from that, an amazing film.

 

[Razor]

My only complaints were that Chekov's "Wussian" accent was just a bit too thick for my tastes, and the Spock-Uhura romance seemed forced. Aside from that, an amazing film.

I can dig. Chekov's accent was extremely thick. Though I hold it was to help with the cartoonish portrayal of ethnicities in Star Trek, I got ya.

I know! Spock-Uhura suddenly making out on the elevator was craziness. Especially considering they were what, teacher/student just days before? Meh. So in this alternate timeline Spock and Uhura hook up to have interracial/interspecies babies.

Once again, I thought the movie was fantastic. The one thing I would nit-pick was Abrams' seemingly willy-nilly use of "It's space, so there's no sound." The first scene with a chick getting sucked out into space everything was silent, but two minutes later phasers and photon torpedoes were making enough noise to wake the Devil. But that's the Engineer in me talking.

 

[pyrusane]

I just saw this last night, and I will admit to being overall impressed. I spent the first half of the movie repeatedly saying "What the hell, that's not right!" And when Vulcan was destroyed I nearly lost it, seeing as how an episode of the original series (not to mention a major portion of the Search for Spock) took place on that very planet. The whole parallel timeline theory was actually a relief, which is weird as I would normally call this a cop-out.

A couple of moments that really stood out for me...when Kirk tells Spock he offered to save the Romulans because it seemed like the logical choice and he thought Spock would appreciate it, and Spock just replies "Not this time..." I laughed my ass off. This was the first point where I saw a glimmer of the relationship that Kirk and Spock would have later. Also, being a fan of the series Enterprise, I loved it when Scotty mentioned that he tested his transporter theory on Admiral Archer's beagle...classic. Poor Porthos. And of course, Nimoy's use of the "I have been, and always shall be, your friend" line tied the old perfectly to the new.

All in all, I give this movie an A-. Some great moments, but the sheer difference due to the black-hole timeline change makes it a little hard to digest on one viewing.

 

[X]

I just saw this last night, and I will admit to being overall impressed. I spent the first half of the movie repeatedly saying "What the hell, that's not right!" And when Vulcan was destroyed I nearly lost it, seeing as how an episode of the original series (not to mention a major portion of the Search for Spock) took place on that very planet. The whole parallel timeline theory was actually a relief, which is weird as I would normally call this a cop-out.

Yeah, I had some pretty big problems with the whole Vulcan being sucked into a black hole thing, but it didn't irk me as much when later on in the film Future Spock said that he was going to repopulated a new Vulcan planet in the end. I mean, that doesn't fly in the face of the classic episode "Amok Time", one of my personal favorite episodes of Trek ever. It's plausible that the new planet was just renamed Vulcan again, might explain the general lack of other Vulcans in the original series if a large portion of their species was killed off.

Just a thought.

 

[shazam]

Yeah, I had some pretty big problems with the whole Vulcan being sucked into a black hole thing, but it didn't irk me as much when later on in the film Future Spock said that he was going to repopulated a new Vulcan planet in the end. I mean, that doesn't fly in the face of the classic episode "Amok Time", one of my personal favorite episodes of Trek ever. It's plausible that the new planet was just renamed Vulcan again, might explain the general lack of other Vulcans in the original series if a large portion of their species was killed off.

Isn't this a new timline b/c Spock and Nero went back in time, meaning that anything that happens now doesn't have anything to do w/ the past Treks.

I saw this movie last night and I'm going to boldy go where no one else has gone before, and say that I really didn't care that much for this movie. I'll first admit that my Star Trek knowledge is as close to nothing you can get. I know the characters, the classic plots, and have seen very few episodes. So I went into this w/ somewhat of a clean slate when it came to comparing it to past adventures.

Now I don't know exactly didn't like about it b/c when I think about it the action was pretty sweet. From what I was expecting from the classic characters getting a new look they did that fine too. And even though I think that the story was alittle confusing it was still a good story and I think a great way to be able to go off and do their own thing and a great way to get Nemoy into the movie w/o it being a weird or stupid cameo.

I guess that my only problem is that there would be times that I was sitting there and would have to almost stop paying attetion to figure out why what was happening was happening. But, if that's my biggest complaint I guess it couldn't have been that bad. One reason or another the experience just didn't sit well w/ me and I was a little let down.

I would like to see it again in a better state of mind.

 

[Leeds Guy]

I loved it, I thought that they portrayed the characters perfectly. Maybe Chekovs accent was a bit strong but thats only a minor criticism. It took me a while to work out that it was an alternate reailty and props to JJ for that. Kinda figured it out around the destruction of Vulcan and the death of Spocks mother. The cast seemed to work well together especially Kirk and Spock and i thought Simon Pegg was brilliant as Scotty. The space battles were more explosive than in previous films and it was good to see a Star Trek with updated special effects.

 

[Shadowmancer]

This Star Trek invalidates all Star trek series and movies apart for the one that is a prequel the all of the Star trek series. i can't remember what it is called.

But here is the epic thing about Star Trek it shows the enterprise flying upside down. The first time that a ship is ever shown upside down in any of the series, movies. It shows a growth beyond what is known in to the deeper reaches of trek-dom. Looking forward to the Klingons in the next movie. It would be awesome because that would result in a larger Klingon language for people to learn and theoretically put it into the unicode for the letters.

And yes X JJ Abrams has done wrong in the past, he wrote the script for Armageddon.

 

[X]

This Star Trek invalidates all Star trek series and movies apart for the one that is a prequel the all of the Star trek series. i can't remember what it is called.

But here is the epic thing about Star Trek it shows the enterprise flying upside down. The first time that a ship is ever shown upside down in any of the series, movies. It shows a growth beyond what is known in to the deeper reaches of trek-dom. Looking forward to the Klingons in the next movie. It would be awesome because that would result in a larger Klingon language for people to learn and theoretically put it into the unicode for the letters.

And yes X JJ Abrams has done wrong in the past, he wrote the script for Armageddon.

I forgot about that. Dammit, why must you remind me of that awful, awful movie? But hey, Abrams also did the classic film Gone Fishin' with Danny Glover and Joe Pesci as homoerotic fishing buddies. Best. Movie. Ever.

And by that I mean it's the worst movie ever.

Everyone usually makes some shitty things at the start of their career anyways.