The new Star Trek movie

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Just came back from watching the new Star Trek movie
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I like my Star Trek, I have everything on DVD except the cartoon and the 10<SUP>th</SUP> movie
But I am not a fanatic, I do not speak fluent Klingon
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I cannot say I went to the theater with high hopes
The pictures on that I had seen on the internet did not excite me, but I was willing to give the movie a go
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On the positive side
The effects were amazing
Uhura is a babe
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But, on the negative,
(I do not want to spoil it for those who are planning on watching, so I will not post everything)
They use the excuse of ‘time travel’ to explain away the differences between this universe and the Star Trek universe that we have been seeing for the last 42 years
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Starships being built on the ground, rather than in space
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That the interior of the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comEnterprise</ST1</st1:City> looks like, and uses the same construction methods as factory
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The virtual elimination of 2 Star Trek cultures
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The first time J T Kirk steps on board the <st1:City><ST1Enterprise</ST1</st1:City> and the entire crew (that will be with him for the next 30 years) is basically on board
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We see JT Kirk take the famed Kobayashi Maru test, it comes across as JT Kirk being a smart arse, and not worthy of a commendation
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Lastly, contrary to media reports, I never felt that these new actors were ‘channeling’ the original crew
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If it was a new crew manning a different ship but still in the Star Trek universe, I may have liked it
But in the end there is only one man who can play James Tiberius Kirk, William Shatner

 

[mrschultz]

I've been going back and forth about if I want to go see it.

I've read lots of mostly positive reviews, and debates on other sites...

Growing up the original series was huge, my neighbor built the Enterprise bridge out of cardboard in his basement.... In the mid 70s when it was at it's peak in reruns I'd watch it 3 or 4 times a night since it was on so many channels.

Just got the remastered season 1 blu-ray set. Man they did a good job on the restoration, too bad the optical printing process used on the original effects caused so much grain that those shots look terrible in hi-def. But the new effects are in the spirit of the original show, at first they look too plastic but you get used to them quickly, after hitting the angle button to compare it's really hard to watch the old effects on a big screen. One thing I notice on every episode I've watched so far is how much color they used, blu-ray really brings out all the different colors.

Trek has been pretty well driven into the ground, Next Generation had a few good seasons. I watched DS9 but never really liked it. Voyager had a good episode here and there. And Enterprise had a good cast and good looking ship, but needed better writing. So for me the last good Trek was First Contact.

Glad to see a dissenting opinion on the new kids channeling the original cast, sure hasn't looked that way in the trailers. Only one that seemed like a young version was McCoy.

Anyway, is the time travel hook enough to divorce this from all previous Trek? Enough so you're not sitting there going, "that's not what Kirk would do", or Spock, etc... Even if it is I'm not sure I want to see it.

 

[Pop Bumper Pete]

It is difficult
I do not want to say anything in case I spoil it for somebody who would otherwise enjoy the re-boot

The movie takes place before the orginal series
You know from the orginal series that we have not yet meet the Romulans, yet in the movie the bad guy is a Romulan

Chekov is not in season 1, yet he is in this movie (plus he looks more like O'Brian (DS9) than Chekov)

Starfleet in ever other Star Trek is alway shiney and new, other than the bridge, the rest of the ship, shuttles, shuttle hangers are vary dirty and used


Plus,

Spoiler

with the time travel, they do not reverse the effects, we remain at the end of the story in an alternative time line

 

[GravitaR]

Grrr double post!

 

[GravitaR]

Good movie, barely. Worth seeing ok, Uhura = HOT HOT HOT!

 

[mrschultz]

The movie takes place before the orginal series
You know from the orginal series that we have not yet meet the Romulans, yet in the movie the bad guy is a Romulan

They already messed that up in Enterprise, in several episodes they had a Romulan ambassador.

The explanation was that the events in First Contact changed the past a little bit, so some stuff was a little different.

It was always kind of strange to say they had a war, set up the neutral zone, but never met face to face. But it was a good dramatic tool for Balance of Terror, one of the best episodes of all Trek.

Really seems kind of pointless to do this kind of reboot, if you're going to change everything what's the point of reusing the same names? Would have been better to really change the timeline and use all new names. Or do a true reboot and simply start over, worked really well for the Batman movies...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

thanks for the reviews. i'm not going to pay to watch a star trek movie, but i am interested in seeing it when it comes on the movie channels or whatever.

fan movies like "star trek aurora" will tide me over in the meantime:
http://www.auroratrek.com/episodes.html

it has its flaws, but at least it gets away from the tired old 'gunship / exploratory vehicle with starfleet staff' model.
i mean, if the studios are going to keep beating the dead horse of the star trek universe, can't they add some interest value by exploring it from a non-starfleet POV?

 

[mrschultz]

thanks for the reviews. i'm not going to pay to watch a star trek movie, but i am interested in seeing it when it comes on the movie channels or whatever.

fan movies like "star trek aurora" will tide me over in the meantime:
http://www.auroratrek.com/episodes.html

it has its flaws, but at least it gets away from the tired old 'gunship / exploratory vehicle with starfleet staff' model.
i mean, if the studios are going to keep beating the dead horse of the star trek universe, can't they add some interest value by exploring it from a non-starfleet POV?

They still haven't finished that... Last time I looked was a year ago, looks like there's only one extra part done. That's one thing about the fan shows, they take forever to get them done.

Have you seen "Phase II", bunch of fans built full sets and even get actors from the series to play parts:

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/

Episode I is not all that bad.
Episode II is terrible.
Episode III is interesting, better than II but worse than I.

Looks like they are about half way done with IV.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

as a matter of fact, the latest aurora episode (III) came out just a day or two ago. but since it's just one guy doing everything except for 2-3 of the voices, i cut him a lot of slack for his slow work.

i did watch a few "phase II" episodes around a year ago and posted some kind of review at VPF. although i admired the effort, for the most part i found them pretty hard to watch, starting with the actors who looked even less like the original characters than the actors did from the new movie. i found the actor who plays kirk (IIRC he is also the creator / producer) terrible, unfortunately. little details also irritated me, such as almost everyone in the cast having raven, spock-colored hair when with a little hair dye or a wig they could easily have looked more authentic.

i guess it just goes to show that when a show obtains a certain level of familiarity and mileage it becomes virtually impossible to replace the original actors with new ones. situations in the movies such as lt. saavik changing actresses or a new actor being brought in to play a youthful picard are different.

btw, did you ever see this?
YouTube - Stone Trek- EP.1 The Deadly Ears part 1

if you're going to beat a dead horse (star trek), stuff like this seems like a more profitable use of one's time. a couple good voice actors and some decent CG or humorous animation recreate the original characters far more effectively IMO.

 

[Kiaininja]

They should just recycle the old episodes and make it into new ones, that way no-one complains about the new actors not living up to the originals.
<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/kcRg2RiLKzo&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1 width=445 height=364 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></EMBED>

 

[sleepy]

Fractured Cinema!
Yeah, I'd pay a dollar for that! :)

 

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Mrschults
Just heads up, I bought the first six Star Trek movies on Blu-ray on the weekend
They are the theatrical release, not the directors cuts that came out on DVD a few years ago
So STTMP has the original effects shots not the new (half of them were an improvement) digital ones

 

[mrschultz]

Mrschults
Just heads up, I bought the first six Star Trek movies on Blu-ray on the weekend
They are the theatrical release, not the directors cuts that came out on DVD a few years ago
So STTMP has the original effects shots not the new (half of them were an improvement) digital ones

Yea, since getting somewhat burned by the massive noise reduction used on Patton, I wait for sites like The Digital Bits to comment on image quality before buying the more expensive movies or sets.

From what I understand it's the extra footage in STTMP that was made only for SD video that has to be remade in HD before they will release the extended cuts. So might be a while before we get them. Almost the same thing with the upcoming Lord Of The Rings Blu-Rays, they will be theatrical only since all the HD extras they wanted to do for the extended cuts will not be ready in time.

I hear there's good stuff on the bonus disk of the 6 movie set, but since it's only the theatrical cuts I went with the 3 pack of II, III, IV. I've owned every version of II that has come out on different video formats, so have to keep that streak going. Besides, I never thought III and IV were any better in the special editions, the special edition of II was improved slightly, but still awesome as theatrical.

Later,
Marty