JJ Abrams' Star Trek

**YellerDog** · 11 May 2009, 08:14 PM

**Will** · 11 May 2009, 10:49 PM

Originally Posted by YellerDog

I like this one as well:

Anyway I really enjoyed it.

All of the actors were very good and filled out their roles very respectfully. Pine's Kirk was perfect in that it didn't try to be Shatner but still carried out what made Kirk so cool. Quinto's Spock is also a little more antagonistic than what I remember the Nimoy Spock to be and they don't really have quite the chemistry that Shatner and Nimoy had but towards the end they do form a relationship that comes a little closer to the show. Karl Urban as Bones surprised me the most and reminded me a lot of Deforest Kelly but not to the point where I thought he was doing some sort of parody.

Uhura was great and was given quite a bit of spotlight and her relationship with Spock was kind of strange since I never expected them to hook up and was more going into the movie expecting Kirk to be involved with her. Dug Sulu and his action sequence with the sword and in general received some very good screen time. I liked Simon Pegg's Scotty but he was put in at the tail end of the movie so we didn't see him do a great amount of things but the personality is there. Yelchin was decent as Chekov, I didn't mind the accent all that much really but he didn't do a whole lot for me.

As for the villain, Eric Bana did a decent job as Nero but as a villain he felt rather shallow and not all that engaging. I have a feeling that the comic filled in more information on him and made him a much more fleshed out and 3rd dimensional villain than the movie did.

The only performance that sadly left me a little cold was Nimoy's Spock, it was great to see him in the Spock outfit and he performs a very vital role in the movie but he's a lot more laid back than I expected and some of his dialogue feels a little forced to just advance the plot. Still, whenever he called Kirk "Jim" it felt really right and who can't love the "Live long and prosper" thing.

I think I got most of the references and shout outs except for the little details like actors from different episodes or more obscure easter eggs. The special effects were amazing and never had me questioning its validity, I especially loved all the Enterprise shots. Soundtrack wise I never had a problem with it, it even had some nods to the old show in various sequences and had that great closing Spock monologue. The ending also had that great bridge scene where we see Kirk donning the captain's uniform.

I had a few other problems with the movie though.

* It seems to play verrrry fast and loose with time and space as well as the behavior of black holes. Also why did the black hole that was created by all that red matter relatively the same size as the other ones? That should have been ridiculously massive.

* How does a sun going supernova threaten a galaxy? I mean yeah it'll probably vaporize planets within the immediate vicinity of its orbit but I don't think its effects are as catastrophic as the movie made it out to be.

* While the movie had great Kirk moments (save for the scene where his hands are huge) the movie kind of primarily felt like a Spock movie with Kirk being marginalized to a degree.

* Winona Ryder as Spock's mom was....weird looking. So was seeing Tyler Perry as head of Federation council. I guess they had some good performances but it just kind of took me out of the movie.

* Kirk had his ass saved quite a bit throughout, I would have liked to have seen him a little more effective.

* It seemed overboard for Spock to strand Kirk on a mostly barren ice planet. I don't know why he couldn't just hold him in the ship's prison or something. I guess it was mostly done for Kirk to meet Spock and Scotty but it felt too convenient.

* Again Nero was very one dimensional. He was mostly seething and giving commands and I felt that with someone like Eric Bana there could have been a lot more done with him to make him more compelling.

* The plot was strangely paced and felt very awkward, not a whole lot of a driving story

But all in all, I feel that this is a very cool re-invigoration of the franchise and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more movies like this.

8.5/10
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**Drewbacca** · 11 May 2009, 11:22 PM

Originally Posted by Will

* It seems to play verrrry fast and loose with time and space as well as the behavior of black holes. Also why did the black hole that was created by all that red matter relatively the same size as the other ones? That should have been ridiculously massive.

I think the effect with the black hole at the end being surrounded in a whirlwind was supposed to convey the fact that it was crazy. Not sure it really killed Nero, though. (although Kirk blasting the shit out of it may have) Nero could simply be stranded in another place in time.

* How does a sun going supernova threaten a galaxy? I mean yeah it'll probably vaporize planets within the immediate vicinity of its orbit but I don't think its effects are as catastrophic as the movie made it out to be.

Supernovas are massive.

Originally Posted by Will

* It seemed overboard for Spock to strand Kirk on a mostly barren ice planet. I don't know why he couldn't just hold him in the ship's prison or something. I guess it was mostly done for Kirk to meet Spock and Scotty but it felt too convenient.

Yeah I thought the exact same thing. It was crazy overkill to jettison him on a planet. But at that point Spock had been "emotionally compromised", unbeknown to us as viewers at the time.

**Mzo** · 11 May 2009, 11:34 PM

Isn't Nero just some dirty douchebag miner that happens to captain a technologically superior ship, seeing as how it is from the future? All he did was brute force his way through the galaxy.

Who cares if he's still alive, he's not special in any way.

So I guess Vulcan is a peaceful planet with no defenses, but Earth in the future has no way to protect itself against a really slow drill that dangles by a chain? I don't buy it.

Tyler Perry in Star Trek is worse than N*Sync in Star Wars.

Michael Runnestrand was amazing as an ensign during the last Kirk commendation scene, though. Hooray!

Anyway, I loved the movie!

**Mr-K** · 11 May 2009, 11:45 PM

Tyler Perry did take away from his scenes for me. I just kept thinking of all the horrible court room scenes from his fucking Madea movies.

Also, at the end, Chris Pine had to be standing on a box, he was about as tall as Perry in the shot, except Tyler Perry is like 6'5'' or something ridiculous.

**TODE** · 12 May 2009, 02:31 AM

New Kirk and Spock address the hardcore fans (top video)

Originally Posted by Error

I refuse to believe however that Spock would accept this new fate so willingly.

"The Vulcan Science Academy has determined that time-travel is impossible."

**youandwhosearmy** · 12 May 2009, 03:18 AM

Originally Posted by Will

* How does a sun going supernova threaten a galaxy? I mean yeah it'll probably vaporize planets within the immediate vicinity of its orbit but I don't think its effects are as catastrophic as the movie made it out to be.

Yeah it wouldn't threaten the galaxy at all. The physical explosion in all directions would only pretty much destroy shit within 10 light years and I'm being really generous with that estimate, it's probably far, far less than that. The associated GRB would be extremely narrow as well and only be lethal up to 200 or so light years.

The saddest part about that is all they had to do was upgrade the supernova to a hypernova and put the planets in the path of the horrific gamma ray burst that would come from such a thing and he could have kept it practical and made it horrifically lethal. For once the flaw in a movie like this actually turned out to be the director not thinking big enough.

cough cough 500 mile wide asteroid in Armageddon wreahhhhhhhh...

**Cowutopia** · 12 May 2009, 07:33 AM

The reason why Spock went overboard with Kirk is because he really HAD completely lost control of his emotions.

It's cool to see an emotional spock. Vulcans are super emotional by nature and that's why they changed their culture and society to focus on logic and purging emotion, because their fierce emotions were so damaging. Spock, having not completed the ritual, and being half-human, really felt right considering the circumstances he was put into. He was pushed to the brink of his self-control pretty much continuously throughout. You've seen Spock whoops ass before in other movies when he is sufficiently provoked, it's nice to see his full fury unleashed.

So I mean, at first it seemed a little strange to me that he'd do what he did to Kirk, but then later I accepted it and felt it made sense. It also makes sense that Spock would be there. I mean, they ejected Kirk on the way from Vulcan, on one of the nearest life-supporting planets, and Nero dropped Spock off there as the natural choice for the viewing point of Vulcan's destruction, so that makes sense. It would also make sense for Spock to take shelter in those caves near the outpost after witnessing the destruction. So, though it's super convenient and a little contrived, it's not beyond my ability to accept it. It does make sense.