"STAR TREK" movie comments/reviews (spoilers)

[Alice Baker]

This movie makes me desperately want to take my simm into this new universe! Hehe it's so interesting with the slight changes. Idk this movie has me wanting to try it.    :cheering

Slight changes? I'd think there would be far more than slight changes. Several episodes wouldn't exist as written as would a movie or two.

lol Yea see even more reasons to jump in.

[Dangelus]

No, there was no way they weren't going to connect the two universes using Spock and it was well enough done, BUT I still contend that the film could have easily stood without it. And this is coming from someone who was not happy about the whole idea of this film in the first place! I had bought in 100% before Spock even showed up and found the whole exposition parts with him to be confusing and slowed the movie's pacing down a lot.

I agree the film could have stood on it's own without the time travel / 2 universe thing in terms of quality. The acting, special effects and story are all there. There are two problems that the producers had that having this plot device solves.

The first is that the actors are pretty young so to keep it as canonical as possible it has to be set around the time of the construction of the Enterprise. We all know Kirk would not be on the Enterprise at this stage and some other characters would not be there perhaps so something would have to engineer them all being there, hence a change in the timeline.

The second is that without timeline interference they really could not stray too far from the established 'facts' of TOS history, really tying there hands in terms of future plots / events.

The time travel / alternate universe plot device is the best thing they could have done to get this new 'era' of Trek kick started but that is not to say that it could not have been done better. The Nero side of the story was definitely the weakest in my opinion.

[starbase]

I guess I'm in the minority here. I wanted this movie to be great but the logic of what happened in the story proved to be too much of a problem to me.  Overall, it was a good entertaining movie.  Here are my points.

• Spock having a relationship with Uhura goes against everything we know about him.  He is a Vulcan first and foremost and would not show emotion to another in front of the rest of the crew unless here were married as shown by Sarek and Amanda.  Remember how he did not want the crew to see him in The Naked Time.
• The destruction of Vulcan - what was the point of that?  A plot element for no really good reason.
• Nero's anger - would he really be that upset that Spock and the Vulcan's were late in a humanitarian mission? Vulcan and the Federation did not cause the supernova.
• Nero and the other Romulans looked more like a biker gang than Romulans.  Eric Bana sounded like he was from NYC more than having a classically trained voice.  Why else would Khan and Chang be considered to of the best villains in two of the best movies?
• Crew promotions - was there no one else on the Enterprise who would have more seniority and experience who would be more deserving of being promoted to captain than Kirk at this point in time.  To go from cadet to Captain in the space of a few days is unbelievable.  The same goes for the rest of the TOS crew.  Kirk served for years on the Farragut as mentioned in Obsession.  He had to earn the big chair.
• Kirk gives Sulu and order.  He says yes.  What happened to Aye, Sir? (very minor point but it stuck with me)
• Where was Kirk's older brother Sam during the evacuation of the Kelvin?
• Delta Vega - there was no point to having monsters chasing Kirk other than to show off some cgi and then having Spock scare the monster away with a torch - pretty dumb.  Delta Vega was where Kirk tried to maroon Gary Mitchell, it wasn't an ice planet like Rura Penthe from Trek 6.
• Spock strangling Kirk - no one even tried to physically stop him. They all waited around from Sarek to say something. That wouldn't happen anywhere.
• Spock not wanting Kirk to offer to help Nero. If this happened while Nimoy was playing Spock in the series he would have said - Spock would never had said that.
• I loved the excitement of the opening.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture finally had everyone in their proper places at the end of the movie. I felt hope that now they could get started with great stories again.  I hope the same to be true in this case.  How great to have a Wrath of Khan quality story coming up next.

Here's my ranking order of all the films:
1. #2 Wrath of Khan
2. #6 Undiscovered Country
3. #4 The Voyage Home
4. #8 First Contact
5. #3 The Search for Spock
6. #11 Star Trek (this one)
7. #7 Generations
8. #1 The Motion Picture
9. #10 Nemesis
10. #9 Insurrection
11. #5 The FInal Frontier (sorry Mr. Shatner)

[Bryancd]

Again, we are dancing around the point, trying to make the round peg go in the square hole, trying to have our TOS cake and eat it too. BSG was able to completely remove it's self from the originalcanon while retaining certain qualities of story and character that made it compelling. I know, it's a TV series, it has none of the depth of canon that Trek does, but stay with me. A lot of you are arguing that they "had" to do this or "had" to do that. I felt that way during the entire lead into this film. However, after seeing it, I suddenly realized the just plain didn't need to do any of that. Every sci-fi forum is arguing the whole canon thing and no on seems to be taking a step back and realizing that the new characters, ship, universe, while familiar, have a unique twist that I for one find refreshing. Go back and watch this film and really just focus on everything prior to Spocks arrival. Imagine Nero is a crazy Romulan with a grudge. Let go of the whole time travel story. I did and it was an amazing movie with names and places I knew but had nothing to do with what I had known before.

Now, just to be clear, I loved seeing Nimoy and the time travel story did not detract from my overall love of the film. It's just that as it went on, I realized it it could have been gone entirely and this was still a great movie. So many seem to feel the need to justify the TOS connection, but I don't. Everyone seems to agree though, that it was the weakest part of the film.

[RickPeete]

Starbase:

I thought I would take a shot at responding to your points from my perspective of the movie and my own musings...

Spock having a relationship with Uhura goes against everything we know about him.  He is a Vulcan first and foremost and would not show emotion to another in front of the rest of the crew unless here were married as shown by Sarek and Amanda.  Remember how he did not want the crew to see him in The Naked Time.

Spock has shown emotions often during the history of Trek.  While I agree his relationship with Uhura was a surprise, I would submit that his assigning her to the Farragut was his attempt at keeping it a private matter.  I would also suggest that having a Human mother would make his interest in a Human female not so unusual.  It is a common belief that men are attracted to women who exhibit traits they value in their mothers.

As for public displays of emotion, this usually happens when he is under considerable stress or foreign influence which, I suggest, is exactly what is happening in the movie.  Having your mother and your entire planet destroyed was the catalyst that led to his being unable to control the torrent of emotions within him (emotionally compromised).  And I would submit that looking for comfort from Uhura would not be unreasonable (although displaying it in front of Kirk was a bit much).

The destruction of Vulcan - what was the point of that?  A plot element for no really good reason.

The entire focus of the plot centers around Nero's need for revenge against not just Spock but the Vulcan High Council who initially declined to help avert the supernova near Romulus.  (This was information only found in the prequel comic series but nonetheless offers the explanation for Nero's actions.)  And, in order for this new timeline to be demonstrated as 'different', what better way than to have Vulcans cast in a very different position in the universe than orphans without a home.

Nero's anger - would he really be that upset that Spock and the Vulcan's were late in a humanitarian mission? Vulcan and the Federation did not cause the supernova.

Again, the prequel comic series offers the explanation/backstory for Nero's mental state.  There are available for download if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch.  He is mad at all Vulcans, not just Spock.   Anger is not logical and he is not thinking clearly.  My thought on this was more along the lines of 'Why destroy the only planet with access to Red Matter?'  Even in this timeline, it is likely that the same star will go supernova and now it won't be possible to prevent it.

Nero and the other Romulans looked more like a biker gang than Romulans.  Eric Bana sounded like he was from NYC more than having a classically trained voice.  Why else would Khan and Chang be considered to of the best villains in two of the best movies?

Nero came from a different planet within the Romulan Empire and not the capital planet of Romulus.  Romulans (like Remans) do not all look alike.  Besides, have you seen how miners look here in the USA?  They hardly look like white collar workers.  So I would expect the same for miners in the Empire (or prisoners on Rura Pente).  The Romulans we are used to seeing are in their military so, of course, they will look more uniform, clean, orderly, and disciplined.

Crew promotions - was there no one else on the Enterprise who would have more seniority and experience who would be more deserving of being promoted to captain than Kirk at this point in time.  To go from cadet to Captain in the space of a few days is unbelievable.  The same goes for the rest of the TOS crew.  Kirk served for years on the Farragut as mentioned in Obsession.  He had to earn the big chair.

I have to agree with you on this point. But then, we would have no Star Trek story if the main characters were working below decks the whole movie.

If I were to attempt RetCon here, I would suggest that Captain Pike was purposefully putting Kirk in a situation where he would be able to rise to the occasion and become the officer he believed Kirk to be -- 'I dare you to do better'.  (Basically that is what happened to George Kirk)  And remember that Pike said Kirk scored 'off the charts' in aptitude testing so maybe he knows something that the audience does not with regard to Kirk's instincts/abilities.

Where was Kirk's older brother Sam during the evacuation of the Kelvin?

I would assume that his older brother was what, 10 years old at that time?  He was probably on Earth with George Kirk's brother's family or his Grandpa Jim's family, or something.  The Kelvin was not a family ship like the Enterprise-D.

Delta Vega - there was no point to having monsters chasing Kirk other than to show off some cgi and then having Spock scare the monster away with a torch - pretty dumb.  Delta Vega was where Kirk tried to maroon Gary Mitchell, it wasn't an ice planet like Rura Penthe from Trek 6.

Agreed.  Delta Vega was the planet in "Where No Man has gone Before".  But, as we know on our own planet, you can have Antartica conditions in one area and the Sahara desert on the other.  I am not sure they categorized the 'entire' planet as ice covered.  But even with that caveat, I would agree that they should have used a different name because Delta Vega was not near Vulcan in that episode.

Spock strangling Kirk - no one even tried to physically stop him. They all waited around from Sarek to say something. That wouldn't happen anywhere.

It would have taken probably three people to subdue Spock (remembering the episode when he saw the Medusan).  Remember how strong Vulcans are?

But I chalk it up to 'it was important to set up the next scene' because we needed Sarek to give Spock permission to grieve, accept having emotions, and to show he loved his son (something that did not happen in Trek until Sarek came down with Bendei Syndrome in TNG.

Spock not wanting Kirk to offer to help Nero. If this happened while Nimoy was playing Spock in the series he would have said - Spock would never had said that.

I would have to agree with you on this point.  But again, Spock was 'emotionally compromised' at the time.  I remember in The Voyage Home, Sarek saying to the Kohlinar Master "My logic is uncertain where my son is concerned".  So Vulcans are allowed to be vulnerable....


Okay, so that's all I can think of.  But I would suggest you go see the movie again.  Allow yourself to suspend belief and just enjoy the movie for the movie's sake.  I think there is much to appreciate.

[kfred]

I have to give this move a B+ ( 4 out of 5 stars).  The only ST movie, I don't really like is "The Final Frontier". 

All the movies have some excellent scenes/lines in them.

Kevin

[X]

Starbase, I was going to give you a point by point reason on each of the flaws you saw, but decided that Bryan has a point. I have another idea.

Alternate timeline.

Not just an alternate timeline, but Nero and Spock weren't just thrown backwards in time. They were thrown back and to the left. There is the Enterprise mirror universe episodes that actually set this up better. When the Defiant was sucked away, it ended up backward in time and in an alternate universe.



So going in the universe wasn't the TOS universe we would expect. Uniforms were already different. Ships were different. Our, for lack of a better word, Nero and Spock got tossed backwards into their universe.


Now to hit some of your points

- Delta Vega was an easter egg for the fans and not the same delta vega. Infinite number of planets, some might be named the same.

- Spock was emotional and he kissed his woman good bye on what he thought was a suicide mission. Kirk was NOT the captain. He was Acting Captain because Spock, who was of higher rank, relieved himself of command. Notice how he never gave Spock any orders? Spock was off the clock.

- We don't know and can more than likely assume that there was no George Kirk in this universe unless otherwise stated.

- Crew promotions - If saving your planet from imminent destruction and being the only ship to out think the enemy doesn't earn you a HUGH promotion, what does? He proved that he was the best because he was the ONLY one that saw beyond his own nose. He was the ONLY one to even notice the threat. That insight also saved the culture of Vulcan and it is not unknown for someone in a military to get a field commission and then it later stick.

-Spock not wanting to save Nero. I thought that was pretty well established. Half human that has been finally allowed to admit to his emotions. The guy killed his mother, vulcan relatives, and his planet then went after his mother's planet. That would piss me off.

- Nero's anger. He watched his pregnant wife burn, Nuff said. Spock promised that he would help and he failed, but he did use the stuff that Nero mined to save his own world. Hmm ... yeah ... that's a good enough reason for me.

[X]

One last point. I watched Wrath of Khan before seeing this one and this one, to me is better. Khan was great in it's day, but pretty slow by today's standards. Also it had as many, if not more, issues as you pointed out with the new one? Khan blaming Kirk because a planet moved? Starfleet forgetting that another planet was in the system? Should I go on?

[wraith1701]

@ RickPeete- Very well said.  :thumbsup

All I can add is that in this film, Spock is a lot younger than when we see him in The Naked Time. Remember The Menagerie/The Cage? The young Spock depicted in those episodes was a lot more emotionally expressive than the older, seasoned Spock of TOS.  

Also, while all of the characters are essentially the same, different circumstances & events in this timeline result in them being slightly different from their counterparts in the "Trek Prime" timeline.  TOS Spock had a much more adversarial relationship with his father than he does in the new film.  Not to mention the fact that in this reality, Spock has just witnessed his world and his mother murdered right before his eyes. I think that these factors help explain the slight differences in his behavior.

[Bryancd]

One last point. I watched Wrath of Khan before seeing this one and this one, to me is better. Khan was great in it's day, but pretty slow by today's standards. Also it had as many, if not more, issues as you pointed out with the new one? Khan blaming Kirk because a planet moved? Starfleet forgetting that another planet was in the system? Should I go on?

No, please, to attempt to compare continuity issues between TWOK and this film are absurd, X. I respect your opinion, but respectfully, I disagree with you in the extreme. Did you even see TWOK in theaters? Were you old enough to have experienced TOS as the ONLY Star Trek you could even imagine? To say TWOK is slow is based purely on a more contemporary, hyper visual aesthetic, I'm sorry. When TWOK came out in 1982, it was an amazing film with superb pacing, acting, and direction and I would put that quality against anything out today, this film included. You have no idea what that film was like when it was released. It was to this day, the PERFECT Star Trek film. Through your eyes it may seem different now, but to those of us that lived it and have seen everything since, nothing comes close.

Again, love you man, but that comment can not stand without challenge.

[Omra]

One last point. I watched Wrath of Khan before seeing this one and this one, to me is better. Khan was great in it's day, but pretty slow by today's standards. Also it had as many, if not more, issues as you pointed out with the new one? Khan blaming Kirk because a planet moved? Starfleet forgetting that another planet was in the system? Should I go on?

No, please, to attempt to compare continuity issues between TWOK and this film are absurd, X. I respect your opinion, but respectfully, I disagree with you in the extreme. Did you even see TWOK in theaters? Were you old enough to have experienced TOS as the ONLY Star Trek you could even imagine? To say TWOK is slow is based purely on a more contemporary, hyper visual aesthetic, I'm sorry. When TWOK came out in 1982, it was an amazing film with superb pacing, acting, and direction and I would put that quality against anything out today, this film included. You have no idea what that film was like when it was released. It was to this day, the PERFECT Star Trek film. Through your eyes it may seem different now, but to those of us that lived it and have seen everything since, nothing comes close.

Again, love you man, but that comment can not stand without challenge.

Indeed, I remember how exciting that movie was when it came out.  It was a very different world then, nothing like the ADD world the kids of today are growing up in...

As Rico has put it time and again.  Star Trek is a reflection the culture in which it is written, and I think that pretty well sums it up!

[RickPeete]

TWOK was an excellent movie.  Great plot.  Great villain.  Well produced and directed.  I still love watching that movie!  And I remember how 'sweet it was' after being disappointed by the first Trek movie which I felt was just an upgrade to The Changeling.

I have not decided where the new Trek movie fits in my movie rankings but it is definitely in the top three along with TWOK and First Contact.

The Voyage Home is fourth -- I love its character work and the writing -- with the comedy so well threaded throughout the story.

Then comes the Undiscovered Country which I enjoyed but did not think its writing was nearly as solid as the four aforementioned.  But it was a wonderful send-off for the original series cast.

[Bryancd]

Yes, i don't want to OT this thread with a TWOK debate, but I just couldn't let that stand. My bad, let's stick to the new movie, X and I can debate in another thread.  :boxing

[X]

Yes, i don't want to OT this thread with a TWOK debate, but I just couldn't let that stand. My bad, let's stick to the new movie, X and I can debate in another thread.  :boxing

Yeah, let's not debate. That's why I prefaced it with my opinion. It was a great movie, but I never thought it was the best. Before this one came out, I favored Undiscovered country. Watching the Trek special on History HD right now and my wife without any prompting rate the new one was her top, followed by undiscovered country, and then TWOK. I'm not trying to take from TWOK at all, but for me, I got more enjoyment out of XI, then undiscovered country, then TWOK. I've had the pleasure of seeing them all on the big screen, but there was just more love in Undiscovered Country for me. So let's not debate, but on terms of sheer enjoyment where would you put the movies?

There was one think about this movie that I never got with TOS. TOS told me how cool Kirk was and not someone that you should mess with. XI SHOWED me why he has that reputation. XI showed me that he was a Genius that didn't need to rely on spock, but they accent the strengths of the other. I think that's why this stands out. TOS showed me that Kirk can be kind of tricky, but they never showed how brilliant he could be. They never let him cut loose and rival Spock in IQ. He was more of a trickster than a prodigy and this changed that for me. If this was the Kirk I first saw then Kirk would have been my favorite captain instead of Sisko. Now after only a little time of viewing him, he's a damned close second to Sisko.

[Trekkygeek]

This is an exact copy of the large blog post I wrote about the movie. I was that passionate.

Well first of all I have to admit to originally being a heavy critic when I heard that they were making a Star Trek prequel movie. The franchise was already in its death throes and I really thought this was going to be the straw that broke the camels back. I mean, here was JJ Abrahms who readily admitted that he wasn't a big fan of Star Trek and he was going to "re-imagine" the longest running sci-fi franchise in the world. The alarm bells started ringing, I didn't want this to
happen. "Let me remember Kirk as The Shat played him" I cried. "Don'tmess with the timeline" I moaned. I really was against this from the time the rumours started about prequels long ago. But I should have had a little more faith in JJ Abrahms, after all, I do enjoy most of his other work.
So I went into the cinema with my pre-booked tickets in hand, a little nervous but very excited indeed. I had booked the first showing of the day to go with my buddy Andy who is also a little bit of a Star Trek fan (when I rented a room at his house we would sit back with a few beers and smokes and watch TNG all night)

The movie starts off at a very fast pace and is the best opening of any of the previous Trek movies (although Nemesis still ranks up there). Straight away I was gripped. I was transfixed as I sat looking at this new version of Star Trek. "Shiny" I thought. The Abrahms influence was obvious very early on, I have to admit to nearly choking up at the first scene. It reminded me of the more poignant moments from "Lost", it was tough but I held it together. That first scene
featured George Kirk, Jims Dad, saving eight hundred people from certain death by launching a kamikazee attack on a gigantic enemy. Truly emotional stuff. And this is all before the titles roll. The legend "Star Trek" comes on screen, the chills run down my back and the hairs on my body stand on end.....I was sold.

I'm not going to go through the whole movie scene by scene but I will tell you my thoughts in general. I thought the new actors were all brilliant,  every one of them nailed their characters perfectly with special mention to Carl Urban who plays Dr McCoy "Leonard H".

Chris Pine as Kirk? Well this was one of my biggest doubts before I saw the movie. Before this film, only one actor had ever played "Captain James Tiberius Kirk" and I was one of those naysayers who wanted history to remain that way. Unlike the characters of Doctor Who or James Bond or many other fictional heroes, the role of Captain Kirk belonged to one person, it seemed such a pity to change that. However, Chris Pine put my mind at ease within a few minutes of appearing on the screen. When he sat on the Captains chair spread-eagled like that he looked perfect.

Zachary Quinto was always going to be perfect as Spock, the guy was born to play him. The similarities are spooky. Quinto brought an emotional side to Spock that I can't ever remember seeing before and this divergence from what I have known to be Spock all these years was actually very welcome (he is half human after all).

Uhura- Oh Man, Uhura is just so gorgeous and I believe Miss Saldana has a lot to offer the role in the future. I found the relationship between herself and Spock quite interesting (again I don't remember seeing this in any of the original series, I may be wrong though). Sulu was a lot of fun and his fight scenes were well choreographed, I hope to see much more of him in the future. As for Scotty and Chekhov, I need to see more of them in action, in particular Anton Yelchin who needs to tone down the Russian accent and Simon Pegg who needs to develop his Scottish accent.

The story was satisfactory. Time travel is always a tricky subject to deal with but the whole issue in this movie was that the time-line we all knew and loved has changed forever. Abrahms has shown his genius by wiping the slate clean and starting afresh. No longer can we expect our heroes to win through every time and survive the movie, if JJ can destroy both Vulcan and Romulus, then surely he can kill off a main character.

The action scenes were incredible, the whole film (over two hours) was very fast paced and the CGI was well executed. The Enterprise was beautiful and I particularly liked the nacelles, i loved the new "chunky" look to them. This was another concern I had before seeing it but all was fine. I noticed a small homage to "The Motion Picture", when Kirk sees NCC 1701 for the first time in space dock although they didn't linger for ten bloody minutes.

I also think they were successful in the whole look of the movie. It was always going to be tough to make it look good for us die-hard Trekkies. Back in the sixties it was all about primary colours and little flicky switches. How would they manage to make it look modern yet lead us to believe that these events occurred before "Nemesis?" This I thought, would be the highest hurdle, but yet again Abrahms has delivered the goods.

In fact this film was so well made that I only had two VERY small criticisms and they were two scenes that they really could have done without. When Kirk was stranded on the ice moon. Then this monster comes out from nowhere and it just threw me. Totally out of place and unnecessary in my opinion. And when Scotty was sucked through the pipes, again this was silly and not funny although the initial beaming into the wrong place was pretty good actually. But to be fair, along with Chekhovs anoying accent, these were the only minus points and to be honest, after the second viewing Chekhovs accent bothered me less.

So to sum up.This film is bloody fantastic. It should appeal to both die-hard Trekkies and newcomers alike. Go on, all those people who have hammered Star Trek in the past should really go and see this. Even the lovely lady Sarah (my gorgeous missus) has expressed a very small interest in seeing it ( I wonder If Chris Pine has anything to do with this). JJ Abrahms has made Star Trek cool and he has breathed life back into a previously dying franchise. I believe for the next ten years, these fine new actors are going to be very busy reprising their new roles and will become household names just like their predecessors.

Mr Abrahms, I thank you for giving us this gift and I humbly apologise for ever doubting your genius.

And Mr Lucas?? This is how a prequel movie should be made.