The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

So...

Has anyone gotten in to any of the advance screenings?

I have.

Below is the link to my review. It's mostly spoiler free, but there may be some small spoilers within.

http://www.movieweb.com/review/REr4AvwzTo7auw

I just walk out of the 7 pm showing (05.07.2009) and this is what I think. This gives Star Trek a new start. As one of the better parallel timeline-time travel stories. IMO that ST doesn't handle time travel well, unlike the other sci-fi series.

True it did rewrite 700 plus years of ST history and some would be upset. Thats understandable. I'm calling ST 2009 as ST 2.0.

The cast was well pick and they did preserve some of the ST history. The 2380's Spock still exist.

The crowed at the Gateway was pleased with the movie.

I'll be seeing it tonight. Won't be on here again until Monday.

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CONTAINS SPOILERS
CONTAINS SPOILERS
CONTAINS SPOILERS

I went into this with high hopes. After everything I had heard, I was expecting to love it. I didn't love it. I am not sure I even especially liked it. There were definitely some very good bits and I liked the visuals for the most part. I thought the casting was very good, especially Kirk, that guy got all the Shatnerisms just right without going over the top (only Shatner himself is allowed to do that). But the plot was uninteresting and kind of muddled.

The reverse-engineering of the characters and how they end up together was clumsy and heavy-handed (is it just me or did the ages of the characters not seem to line up correctly?). They seemed to feel the need to shoehorn in too much info on origins. "See? See? This is how that started!" (I kind of felt the same way about the last Star Wars movie).

It was like Star Trek Muppet Babies in Space or something.

I absolutely hated the beginning. The melodramatic birth of Kirk/death of Kirk's father, the obnoxious little kid stealing the sports car, the Nokia product placement. The scenes with Spock as a kid were kind of a amusing. I didn't start to like the movie until we had Kirk as a young man. But everything I liked was just an isolated bit; a subtle reference to the old show, or a good line. The whole thing never came together for me.

I have also been hearing how brilliant the writers were in finding a way to give the story a re-set. Uh, no. The black hole/alternate universe thing was pretty lame, IMHO. At least it didn't involve the holodeck, Geordi's visor or tachyon fields.

<feminist rant>I was very, VERY disappointed by the new Uhura. I'd heard a story on the radio that said they had tried to make her a bit more modern by making her a linguistics expert, not just a cosmic switchboard operator. But they still didn't give her anything to do and still managed to get her into her underwear and have Kirk feel her up. So now we have a smart Uhura bimbo. Great. Big improvement. I didn't buy the whole Spock-Uhura love line either. Maybe if Nurse Chapel had been there I'd have bought that. </feminist rant>

I think I would have enjoyed the overall experience more if I hadn't gone in hearing such great things about it. I actually felt kind of the same way about Cloverfield but I enjoyed that much more the second time I saw it. Maybe I'll try watching this movie again with an open mind and try to just enjoy the ride.

Did anyone else see this movie peppered with Homages to Ridley Scott? There was the oh-so Thelma and Louise-esqe scene in the car at the edge of the canyon. There was a line from Spock that was very similar to the "in answer to your query" line from Holden in Blade Runner. Then there was something about Morphology that sounded very close to a line in Blade Runner. Yes? No?

Full disclosure: I am a Trekie.

My wife (also a Trekie) and I loved this movie. Best Trek movie in years. One of the best movies period that I have seen in years. The casting was eerily good. The writing and portrayal of the characters recreated the feeling and fun of TOS. I am very glad to hear at least 2 more films will be made of this series. True the plot was weak. So what.

God is in his heaven, and James T Kirk is back in the captain's chair.

PS

I loved Uhura.

I have never considered myself a trekkie so I am not obligated to hold myself or any Star Trek movie to any standars other than my own....

...and I have to say I really liked the new STAR TREK. It was fun and the characters were great. There were several scenes where you would have swore you were watching the original actors. For STAR TREK to survive as a movie franchise this was the only good option and I think they pulled it off, I can't wait for the next movie.

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I haven't seen TREK yet, but this is a very strange equation:

"STAR TREK" + "...the plot was weak" = "One of the best movies period that I have seen in years."

That's a pretty low standard for a great movie if the plot doesn't matter. If you said "one of the most enjoyable", I could see that. After all, THE APPLE was one of the most enjoyable Marathon Movies ever, but I wouldn't call it "One of the best Marathon movies period"....

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

I am going to have to respectfully disagree with nearly everything posted by Metaluna. This was easily the best Star Trek film I have ever seen. I was riveted by the intense opening sequence which you unfortunately "absolutely hated." I find that I am more forgiving of minor flaws and inconsistencies when a movie captures me from the start like this one did.

MINOR SPOILERS


I have never considered myself much of a Trekkie. I have watched a few episodes from time to time and seen most of the movies and enjoyed a couple of them. What surprised me about this film was I discovered I am more of a fan than I thought I was. I appreciated all the references, some more subtle than others. I got goosebumps and my eyes moistened a bit at the line "I have been, and ever shall be your friend." So the film met my expectations as a piece of entertainment and surprised me that I was as emotionally invested as I was.

I also feel Abrams did a fabulous job of being modern and retro at the same time. Everything felt like it took place during the timeframe it did, unlike, say, the Star Wars prequels. While at the same time the special effects were modern and not too flashy.

While the alternate reality plot was a bit "convenient," I did not feel it was a cop out. I don't agree that the plot was "weak," but the spot-on characterizations were definitely the strength of the film. The only problem I had with the actual chain of events was that the main bad guy's motivations for revenge seemed way over the top, even for a Romulan. The one question I felt remained unanswered by the time loop was: How the heck did Hikaru Sulu end up Korean?

All-in-all, a highly recommended solid piece of entertainment.

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Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

Well I certainly don't want or expect anyone to retroactively not enjoy it. I think we agree on a lot of points, just not the significance of them.

The problem is I'd been hearing how great it was and expected to be blown away. It wasn't a terrible movie but it definitely did not live up to the hype for me. I'd been avoiding reading too much about it, but this show came on the radio Friday morning and really built up my hopes:
http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/05/star-trek

I am a pretty big Trek fan, especially the Original Series, but I am not one of those types that needs to keep everything preserved in amber. I don't freak out at the thought of re-imaginings and I can usually set aside some inconsistencies and failures in logic if the movie is good enough but it just didn't work for me here.

MORE SPOILERS....


Again, it's more that I'd heard what a fabulous job the writers had done to set up the alternate universe. I was really expecting something incredibly clever that I had never seen before. I was let down hard. I still kind of wonder if maybe they saw a different movie.


Yeah, I mean I can see Bana asking, "what's my motivation?"

"Well, Spock tried to save your planet but didn't get there in time. So now you are going to wait 25 years to kill him." Not like, go back to his home planet and maybe try to change the course of events himself or anything like that. I mean I know Romulans aren't the ones known for logic but...come on.


I will agree with you here, and this was definitely a big deal that he could pull that off. I especially thought they did well with the music, with the glaring exception of the Beastie Boys during the car chase. WTF? I thought we were going back to the 1980s for a minute there. I was expecting to see a Rubiks Cube hanging from the mirror! That really pulled me out of the movie.

Re: Uhura, I read that the actress who played Julia in "Deathproof" had auditioned for the part. I would have liked to have seen her in the role. I think she could have pulled off the Uhura attitude better. I'm thinking of the Uhura who pushed away Sulu when he had been struck with Space Madness and offered to rescue the "Fair Maiden." The Uhura that reminded him she was "neither." This Uhura just got all hissy and foot-stampy when she was upset.

Sure I suppose you could argue this was a young Uhura who hadn't gained that poise and cofidence yet, but why make excuses to show us yet another typical Hollywood version of the smart girl? It was a perfect opportunity to allow her to really shine, and would have been much more in keeping with the original intent of the show. I think it was a cop-out.

Really, I blame the writing more than the actress. It's a shame they couldn't have given her a meaningful role. And yes, she was gorgeous. I don't mind having an actress up there for a little eye candy for the guys, but would it kill them to let her actually demonstrate that she is smart and capable? If they had just gotten rid of the weird Uhura-Kirk-Spock love triangle thing the movie would have gotten at least one extra star from me. I don't expect the "majority of fans" are going to have my perspective on the Uhura character but hey, that's my take on it.

I didn't hate everything. I thought the "space drop to the giant drill" scene was pretty cool, especially Sulu showing off his fencing skills. I liked Spock's ship and hey, I'll even buy into this whole "Red Matter" thing. What the hell, it looked cool. There were lots of nice touches of humor and as I mentioned, I loved all the subtle nods to the old show.

But what the heck was that Jar Jar Binks thing that Scotty was hanging out with?

Also, is it some new trend to release comic books before the movie that set up the plot? I know this was the case with Southland Tales and apparently there was one for this movie too. I kind of like going into a movie and not have to worry if I've done my reading to prepare.

Truth be told that I'm not an Trekkie either. I'm more of an Doctor Who Fan. I can quickly sum up the history of The Master than Mr Spock.

Remember the original Star Trek Cannon still exist. According to Star Trek Wiki Memory Alpha that 2387 is the current end point of the Star Trek canon.

I would unofficially called Star Trek (2009) the start of the Alternate Cannon-timeline. While Star Trek Original Cannon still exist because Ambassador Spock of the original cannon haven't negated out of existence yet.

I wasn't to keen with Scotty alien sidekick. Plus Star Trek (2009) did out gross all previous Star Trek movies opening weekends.

Plus I feel that the Star Trek (2009) Kirk and Spock characters are more dimensional than their original cannon counter parts. Then Star Trek was better than three of four Next Generation Movies and The Next Generation series.

I absolutely loved this movie! I saw a late showing on opening night, and then I went back the next day and saw it 2 more times! The new actors stayed true to the spirit of the characters (karl urban was a fantastic McCoy) while making them relevant to the current generation of movie goers. This could make Trek popular again. Liked the original and familiar music, LOVED the new Enterprise, and really looking forward to sequels. I would say that this is my second favorite Trek movie just under Wrath of Khan.

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I thought it was solidly entertaining. It works as a good reboot for the future movies featuring our favorite crew. I thought it did a solid job of paying tribute to the old series yet was fresh enough to stand on its own.

Amusing video where someone took the classic SPACE SEED episode with Ricardo Montalban and gave it the JJ Abrams shaky cam/lens flare look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAaX8Aq6smQ

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

Finally saw it Sunday night as part pf a double feature at the Skyview down here in Lancaster. Thought the casting was very good. Wasn't quite sure what to make of young Spock and Uhura.

Didn't like the new phasers. Not sure that I liked the interior of the Enterprise very much.

I did like the story, I thought the pacing was good. I liked the level of humor.

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