Star Trek (JJ Abrahams)

Jack Nesky

New member
STAR TREK: 4/5

Really surprised by how much I enjoyed it even though I'm not a Trekkie :D Scottie (Simon Pegg) is funny, he provides some comic relief :D Spock and Kirk have a mismatched relationship and it was a nice touch having Leonard Nimoy turn up
as an older Spock from the future
, and in this origin story, tipping the hat to the 1968 Star Trek also.:)

Ahura (sp?) is very pretty :), how come Spock is an annoying bast*rd for most of the film?
 
I loved it and I'm not a real Trekkie, although I've watched Generations and Voyager. The guys playing Spock and McCoy have captured their mannerisms to a tee in a way that makes you remember the originals but not too much that you try and draw too many similarities from them either. (I think that sounded a bit too artyfarty :o). The guy playing Kirk was fantastic too and considering Shatner's Kirk ended up being a bit of a laughing stock, I thought this actor brought a bit more credibility back to Kirk's character.

Looking forward to the next one too!
 
It was a most enjoyable film, with only one real criticism.

How much did they overdo the lens flare? It was absolutely ridiculous at points. But apart from that, top film. Shows how to reboot a franchise.
 
Loved it, the only down side was the Red Matter.

It struck me as a filler they'd put in the script until they came up with something better, and then stuck with it.
 
Listen to the commentary and the flares are spoken of at length. They even show you filming the lens flares on the second DVD with; you will have to watch it to see.
 
I've noticed this is becoming common in films and tv programmes these days, and not just sci-fi.

It's quite distracting at times when over done.
 
The film is excellent. I've been into Trek since I was about 10 and I've seen all the series and all the movies. This is one of my fav movies. As an adult it's probably one of my most watched movies.
 
Things I loved about the film

(1) Spock telling the Vulcan Council(?) to 'go fk themselves' - well that was my reading of the scene
(2) The 'go to warp' gunshot sound - wowzers.
(3) "Does anyone have a towel" :)

But the red goop thing. iiuc Spock only needed a miniscule amount to shoot into the Sun, so why take that whopping great ball of the stuff. Like asking for ice for your bicardi breezer and the waiter dropping an iceberg on your head.
 
There is a great scene early on during the initial battle when some crewmembers get caught up in a noisy, violent explosion and are sucked out of the chaos on the ship, into pure silence.
 
I absolutely hated the Star Trek series, yet i felt surprisingly drawn to this when it came out at the cinema.

I thought it was fantastic, i never thought i'd hear myself say that about Star Trek, but it really was! I'll never say another bad word about Star Trek again...

Shame we have to wait til (at least) 2012 for the sequel - i was dying to see it minutes after coming out of the cinema the first time.
 
I was a little disappointed to be honest for I'd thought the trailer was excellent and that the films would be a return to the form of the early ones. I thought the characters were well rounded and well played, particularly Kirk and Spock whom I really liked. The supporting cast were also strong.

However, I thought the story was unnecessarily confusing with the time travel angle seemingly created just to allow Leonard Nimoy to be in the film, which he didn't need to be. This is a reworking and the characters were strong enough that you didn't need a character from the old series to validate the new one. If they are going for a refresh they need to cut the chord completely.

Also the trouble with introducing time travel is that you can't help your mind racing ahead during the film and filling in the time blanks. I mean if the Romulan planet hadn't been destroyed when Nero had come back in time, why didn't he just stop the star from going supernova this time?

There were also inconsistencies with how one minute they have the technology to beam aboard a ship travelling at warp speed yet to place one drop of red matter in a planet they have to drill from a platform suspended below the Romulan ship on a rusty chain. Small points I know but Abram's had gone some way to remove the lunacy that was in the Mission Impossible series with elements that were at least more considered or explained.

The biggest problems for me though were the continual shaky cam, which I'd hoped directors were growing out of and the regular lens flare. Ok it's a cool trick but I think it was overplayed a tad too much. There were times when the screen was virtually all white.

Half the wonder of sci fi films is seeing a directors vision of the future but when you can't see a great deal due to being blinded by flare and then having the camera bouncing all over the place, it can become a little frustrating.

I also found Michael Giachinno's score really intrusive and ill-placed. He can do computer games and TV programmes but I think he neeRAB a little more polish before being let loose on a film.

I know people will say I'm taking it too seriously but each to their own. For me it's just rare that a sci fi film would have great characters but poor action scenes. It's like Iron Man in my mind, great characters and top notch acting but the action scenes and general story a little disappointing.

If people want to see sci-fi very well done with cracking characters, a great script and decent battles (both in space and hand to hand) you really need not look any further than the wonderful film, Serenity.
 
Think it is only Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams who have been this accurate concerning sound in space (unless you count the tagliine for Ridley's Alien).
 
The time travel aspect was put into the movie to allow them to re-boot the franchise. When Nero goes back in time he creates and alternative time-line. This alternative time line basically give Abrams the scope to re-mold it in his image without being restricted by what has gone before in the prime timeline.

Before the movie came out they released a countdown comic which was set in the 24th century and had the backstory to nero and Spock and how they ended up in the 23rd century. I think it would have been good if they had shown some of this in the actual movie because I can see how it would have been confusing for people who hadn't read the comic before seeing the movie.
 
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