The “alternate universe/time shift” assumption is very well (and thankfully quickly) explained. For true fans of the original, think of when Leonard Nimoy played an evil Spock with a beard in the original TV series. Once you get past that, the rest is pure enjoyment, because suddenly you accept Pine, Urban, Quinto, Pegg, Saldana, Cho, and reluctantly Yelchin as the original TV/movie characters you’ve known and loved over the years.
The action and special effects are spellbinding and LOUD.
What I Didn't Like
The action and special effects are spellbinding and LOUD. The theater where I saw it played the movie at a near-deafening sound level. I actually began plugging my ears during the battle scenes. To my astonishment, a mother ushered her four young children out of the theater within ten minutes of the opening. I’m not sure if it was a particularly violent scene that caused this, or the kids putting their hands over their ears. That said, this is not a movie for kids under 12 years old.
Sorry folks, but as Star Trek bad guys go, Eric Bana as Nero is no Khan. The intense and passionate hate, plus the driven obsession with revenge that Ricardo Montalbán so excellently put on the screen made Bana’s Nero look only mildly pissed off.
I’m a huge fan of movie music, which in a lot of cases can be as important as the script. Alexander Courage’s original TV theme or even those time-honored “eight notes” are to be found nowhere in the body of the movie. I say this for those who are like-minded and anticipating them. Oh, you’ll forgive the omission even before you leave the theater, but in my opinion it is still a nearly unpardonable sin.
Chris Pine needs to work on his Shatner impression. I didn’t mind that his performance isn’t an out-and-out imitation of the man, but it seemed to me that Pine went out of his way not to be Shatner, and after all Bill did originate the part. The other actors are true to themselves (as they should be,) but still pay grateful homage to those who brought them to the honored stage where a very select few are permitted to stand.
For a senior officer to have a love affair with one of the crew desperately needed a rethink before it ever made it to the screen. While everyone (including me) loved Sulu having an excuse to have a sword in his hand, whipping out a rapier in the middle of a mid-air fight with phaser-armed Romulans probably wasn’t a good script idea and frankly a bit contrived. Anton Yelchin’s Russian accent is just so damned over-the-top heavy, even the Enterprise computer didn’t like it. It becomes more of a distraction than anything and makes it hard to accept him as Chekov.
Article comments
1 - Jet Gardner
One of my favorite movie reviews of all time is Opus from "Bloom County" who wrote a blistering and heartless review that completely trashed every aspect of a flick....
and then ended it with
"Well.... Maybe it wasn't THAT bad-but Lord it wasn't good!"
I think of that every time I write a review and try to make it balanced... :)
2 - Jet Gardner
This one wasn't balanced E.B.??
3 - Paul
worth seeing i think
4 - Jet Gardner
Absofuckinlootly-2 or three times Paul
5 - Jet Gardner
What irks me is that I was told to edit out Spock Prime's part of the movie, Young Spock's affair with Uhura, and the fact that the movie is about Spock Prime trying to save Earth from the Romulans because the article was too much of a spoiler.
6 - roger nowosielski
I still think the young Spock looks remarkably alike to the original.
What do you think of I, Robot, by the way? I thought it was a great movie.
7 - Jet Gardner
I didn't want to but I liked it a lot.
8 - Jet Gardner
In case you missed where the promised tribbles made an appearance, check out the scene where Kirk and Spock Prime meet Scotty for the first time.
9 - Jet Gardner
Perhaps with the large number of reviews Star Trek has had, we should start a new section just for them before we're all lost in the crowd?
10 - Jet Gardner
THEY FIXED FRESH COMMENTS! It's under that word "More" up there!
11 - Jet Gardner
According to MTV, Writer/producer Alex Kurtzman revealed that his favorite "Trek" secret is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment from the scene where the Enterprise comes out of warp speed and into a battle above Vulcan. "When they arrive and all the debris is flying at the Enterprise, take a very close look at the debris," he explained, saying a cool Easter egg is in there. "You'll have to watch it on DVD, because it goes by very fast. But take a close look at what's floating in the debris."
12 - Pirate Spice
Seriously? You think Roddenberry is smiling upon this film? Gene Roddenberry was a pacifist, and deliberately kept the violence in Star Trek to a minimum when he had any kind of control over it. This travesty of a movie missed all of the major themes of Star Trek (y'know, things like moral dilemmas), and turned a beloved legacy into a popcorn film about explosions and fistfights. Roddenberry is turning in his grave right now.
13 - Jet Gardner
MSNBC: Astronaut to watch ‘Star Trek’ film in space-Mission Control uploaded new film to International Space Station.
LOS ANGELES - “Star Trek” really is going to the final frontier.
NASA astronaut Michael Barratt will watch the film while aboard the International Space Station, 220 miles above Earth, NASA said in a statement to Access Hollywood.
Paramount Pictures gave the film to NASA’s Mission Control in Houston, which uploaded it to the space station last week.
“I remember watching the original ‘Star Trek’ series and, like many of my NASA coworkers, was inspired by the idea of people from all nations coming together to explore space,” Barratt said in a statement to Access. “‘Star Trek’ blended adventure, discovery, intelligence and storytelling that assumes a positive future for humanity. The International Space Station is a real step in that direction, with many nations sharing in an adventure the world can be proud of.”
It won’t be the “Trek” franchise’s first appearance about the station. Former station astronaut Greg Chamitoff and his crewmates made viewings of the original series a weekly standby.
And NASA astronauts aren’t the only fans of the new film, which has earned high marks from audiences and critics alike " even President Barack Obama praised it in a recent interview.
“’Star Trek,’ we saw this weekend, which I thought was good,” he told Newsweek, raising his hand in a Vulcan salute. “Everybody was saying I was Spock, so I figured I should check it out.”