Reaction: New Star Trek Movie
I have seen the Star Trek movie.
Now that is the way you do a reboot! Doesn't compromise canon, yet changes everything. Hello AU!! *glee* Time travel rocks! \o/
Okay, so. Wow. Random things in rough order.
Movie Theatre experience:
Due to unavoidable work crap, got to theatre ten minutes before showtime. Forgot today is Tuesday and $9.99 movie-drink-and-pop day. About 40 people in line. Foolishly decided, "What the heck, probably miles of trailers first anyway" paid for popcorn and drink, figuring everyone would be in theatres already and lines would be short. Yeah. No.
While in line-up was nearly scared to death by Jack Black poster. Am standing in line. Feel like someone is standing behind me. Glance back and see out of the corner of my eye, JACK BLACK'S GIANT FREAKING HEAD staring at me, go 'AAAH!!!!' and thereby entertain the entire snack line up. *facepalm*
Got into theatre, movie has already started, and since it's in the teeny weeny theatre now, seats are almost full. There is a seat at the back on the aisle. Man has coat on it. I try to quietly ask if it's available, he grunts no. Okay, fine. Not gonna go down into the distort-o-vision section right at the front, not gonna walk in front of people to get to a seat, so I stood.
At the back.
For the entire movie.
Well okay, not quite the entire movie, I sat down on the floor for a bit to try to juggle my notebook and the damn popcorn and drink. This would be why my butt was sticky and covered in popcorn. Also, speaking of popcorn, I have 3/4 of a bag left, which I rolled closed and shoved into my shoulder bag about half-way through because it was making me nauseous and the bag of popcorn was about two cubic feet. o.O
Oh, and the seat the guy implied was reserved? No one ever sat in it. But whatever. After a while I stopped noticing.
Movie itself:
Not sure how much I missed, when I got in, Kirk's mom was in labour and being transferred out of Sickbay and Kirk's dad was being heroic and getting everyone off the ship. Not sure why she was on the ship in the first place, but okay. Got the general gist of events to that point.
Going to be really tough to do a retroactive reaction to this due to the lack of comprehensible notes, lack of sitting (spending the last hour of the movie, standing at a very rusty 'parade rest' to keep my spine from leaping out and throttling the guy who 'saved' a seat for his coats), and lack of brain about halfway through when I could not stop grinning gap-mouthed like an idiot at the screen. So this will be scattered and random.
-Wee!Kirk in the car!!! It's awesome because the whole time travel thing making his early life quite different due to his father dying before he ever knew him, the character can be even more reckless and rebellious than original Kirk.
-*glee* at Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru! Spock authoring the Kobayashi Maru. Kirk being entirely unsurreptitious about the whole "I'm going to win it" thing. He could have been sneaky, he could have pretended to be into the scenario and win by apparent loophole in the system, but no. Kirk doesn't do surreptitious.
-The orbital HALO drop! The fact that before they hit atmosphere it was silent!!!! THE GUY IN THE RED SUIT BIT IT! \o/ And he had an accent and lines as a misdirection! Hee!
-Ninja!Sulu and the collapsible katana! \o/ So much glee!
-Holy crap, red matter is ridiculously dangerous! One drop can crack a planet! How does that even work? o.O And yet, I see a big undulating ball, I immediately think "Rover!" *shrug* The Prisoner. Yes, I'm an even bigger dork than most people know.
-Heinleinesque math-whiz Chekov!! I knew he was more than just a designated back-up victim! \o/
-Targetting system on the transporter! Screw pushing random buttons! \o/
-Spock/Uhura? Wow! Holy rare-pairing-becomes-new-canon Batman! At least I think it was a rare pairing. It was usually Spock/Chapel. Or, well, you know. ;-)
-Nero's not just making Spock pay, he's making changes to make the Romulan empire stronger, which explains everything, even Chekov being there at 17! Nero is an ambitious bugger for a guy from a Romulan mining ship! (Also, Nero, excellent acknowledgment of the old canon that for some reason, the first Romulans met in the original series had Roman names, Roman cultural elements like the title of Praetor, and a Roman mythology-based planet name. No idea whether any of that ever got explained)
-I love that time travel has made any argument about things not being like old Trek canon entirely moot. It's so awesome, I don't even care that there's so many paradoxical elements the universe should implode!
-"Get out of the chair." Heee!
-Spock frigging jettisoned Kirk onto an ice planet? Dude. That's cold. Har har. (omgyay!)
-Scotty. Censured and assigned to an ice planet. Simon freaking Pegg. Bitching about having no real food. Wearing gants. I can't even. Dude. SCOTTY!!!!! He's totally different, yet he's perfect.
-Hee at Scotty beaming out Archer's Beagle. If they do more movies (guessing that's likely) I hope the beagle turns up randomly somewhere.
-Ambassador Spock (I knew he was in it, but OMG HAI NIMOY!!) telling Kirk to go provoke his younger self into being emotionally compromised, which also crystalizes the dynamic of new!Spock more clearly, because while there have been changes on Vulcan due to Nero's influence, Spock's upbringing was likely much the same as it was before the changes. Giving Spock a tragedy of this magnitude, both on a cultural and personal level allows more dynamic in Spock's character because there is a critical incident from which emotional cracks can spread. Zack Quinto's Spock will be a very interesting character to watch the growth of.
-OMG, ENGINEERING LOOKS LIKE IT'S AN ACTUAL WORKING ENGINEERING DEPT!!! I mean wide-open spaces and clean panels and buttons and mesh and glowing tubes and stuff are fine and all but I like an engineering department to look like it's the guts of a working, actual ship, space-going, sea-going, whatever. And guts are not pristine, sterile and spacious, whether biological or mechanical.
-I cannot express my intense glee at the design of the new phasers intelligibly. It's... the whole lenses switching thing, it's almost like steam-punk. Hee!
-Rather nervous at the whole giant ball of red matter being cut loose there. I mean a drop can make a black hole that will suck up a planet. So that amount of the stuff could, what? Suck up the galaxy? Crack the universe apart? And yet they outran it, because they are the Enterprise crew and it is their job to be collectively so awesome they can outrun a universe-cracking singularity. And Scotty can make it stop.
-So much other stuff I missed. Need DVDs now.
Lists of things:
I was half keeping track of things that the rabid frothing Trek purist I know (some of you know him as that jerk 'Queeg') would find objectionable. Actually things that would make his head explode. Either like Scanners or like a Lemming on countdown mode. "Oh Noes!" *POF!* Confetti everywhere.
Queeg is a guy who refuses to hear "Enterprise" spoken of in the same breath as Star Trek because it had Imperial Klingons landing on earth in the first episode. Queeg will never ever know how awesome this movie is, because he will only see that it is not his canon, and if he does actually see the movie, he'll walk out before the whole time travel thing really kicks in, and refuse to hear anything about it, except to deride it. His loss.
Things that would make Queeg's head go *POF!*:
-Uhura knows Romulan. Actually any reference to Romulans would do Queeg in.
-The green Orion girl in Starfleet Academy.
-Chekov on board, at all.
-Spock/Uhura
-The slightest mention of Cardassian anything
-That starship with four nacelles
But I stopped keeping track, because delightful as it is to imagine Queeg's head exploding, I couldn't keep up with the awesome.
Also, since, as few of you may know, I used to be a hardcore Trekkie, several things made me misty.
Things that made me misty in the movie:
-First conversation between Kirk and McCoy. 'Coz the guy doing McCoy got him right. (Was that Karl Urban?)
-First sight of the Enterprise. 'Coz I am a sap.
-The blue, red and yellow uniform shirts. \o/
-Original Spock. Like I said, I knew Nimoy was in it due to spoilers, but... yeah.
-Scene between Original Spock and Reboot Spock. Passing the torch. That's what it looks like.
Things that made me misty other than in the movie proper:
-Majel Barrett Roddenberry's voice of computer credit.
-Oddly, Mark Okrand credit for Romulan and Vulcan language consulting.
-Dedication at the end of the credits in memory of the Roddenberrys
-A random boy of about fourteen saying fervently to his dad on the way out that he wanted to watch all of Star Trek ever made right away. I can't even explain why, but that got me.
Overall
They can do more movies in this 'verse and I will watch them, and probably buy the DVDs.
This movie? That is the way you do a frigging reboot of a long-standing franchise. Honour and acknowledge what's past, and make a new path into the future. That kicked ass.
Am I a Trekkie again? ... we'll see. If it turns out I am, I'm sure as hell not telling Queeg. :-P
Now that is the way you do a reboot! Doesn't compromise canon, yet changes everything. Hello AU!! *glee* Time travel rocks! \o/
Okay, so. Wow. Random things in rough order.
Movie Theatre experience:
Due to unavoidable work crap, got to theatre ten minutes before showtime. Forgot today is Tuesday and $9.99 movie-drink-and-pop day. About 40 people in line. Foolishly decided, "What the heck, probably miles of trailers first anyway" paid for popcorn and drink, figuring everyone would be in theatres already and lines would be short. Yeah. No.
While in line-up was nearly scared to death by Jack Black poster. Am standing in line. Feel like someone is standing behind me. Glance back and see out of the corner of my eye, JACK BLACK'S GIANT FREAKING HEAD staring at me, go 'AAAH!!!!' and thereby entertain the entire snack line up. *facepalm*
Got into theatre, movie has already started, and since it's in the teeny weeny theatre now, seats are almost full. There is a seat at the back on the aisle. Man has coat on it. I try to quietly ask if it's available, he grunts no. Okay, fine. Not gonna go down into the distort-o-vision section right at the front, not gonna walk in front of people to get to a seat, so I stood.
At the back.
For the entire movie.
Well okay, not quite the entire movie, I sat down on the floor for a bit to try to juggle my notebook and the damn popcorn and drink. This would be why my butt was sticky and covered in popcorn. Also, speaking of popcorn, I have 3/4 of a bag left, which I rolled closed and shoved into my shoulder bag about half-way through because it was making me nauseous and the bag of popcorn was about two cubic feet. o.O
Oh, and the seat the guy implied was reserved? No one ever sat in it. But whatever. After a while I stopped noticing.
Movie itself:
Not sure how much I missed, when I got in, Kirk's mom was in labour and being transferred out of Sickbay and Kirk's dad was being heroic and getting everyone off the ship. Not sure why she was on the ship in the first place, but okay. Got the general gist of events to that point.
Going to be really tough to do a retroactive reaction to this due to the lack of comprehensible notes, lack of sitting (spending the last hour of the movie, standing at a very rusty 'parade rest' to keep my spine from leaping out and throttling the guy who 'saved' a seat for his coats), and lack of brain about halfway through when I could not stop grinning gap-mouthed like an idiot at the screen. So this will be scattered and random.
-Wee!Kirk in the car!!! It's awesome because the whole time travel thing making his early life quite different due to his father dying before he ever knew him, the character can be even more reckless and rebellious than original Kirk.
-*glee* at Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru! Spock authoring the Kobayashi Maru. Kirk being entirely unsurreptitious about the whole "I'm going to win it" thing. He could have been sneaky, he could have pretended to be into the scenario and win by apparent loophole in the system, but no. Kirk doesn't do surreptitious.
-The orbital HALO drop! The fact that before they hit atmosphere it was silent!!!! THE GUY IN THE RED SUIT BIT IT! \o/ And he had an accent and lines as a misdirection! Hee!
-Ninja!Sulu and the collapsible katana! \o/ So much glee!
-Holy crap, red matter is ridiculously dangerous! One drop can crack a planet! How does that even work? o.O And yet, I see a big undulating ball, I immediately think "Rover!" *shrug* The Prisoner. Yes, I'm an even bigger dork than most people know.
-Heinleinesque math-whiz Chekov!! I knew he was more than just a designated back-up victim! \o/
-Targetting system on the transporter! Screw pushing random buttons! \o/
-Spock/Uhura? Wow! Holy rare-pairing-becomes-new-canon Batman! At least I think it was a rare pairing. It was usually Spock/Chapel. Or, well, you know. ;-)
-Nero's not just making Spock pay, he's making changes to make the Romulan empire stronger, which explains everything, even Chekov being there at 17! Nero is an ambitious bugger for a guy from a Romulan mining ship! (Also, Nero, excellent acknowledgment of the old canon that for some reason, the first Romulans met in the original series had Roman names, Roman cultural elements like the title of Praetor, and a Roman mythology-based planet name. No idea whether any of that ever got explained)
-I love that time travel has made any argument about things not being like old Trek canon entirely moot. It's so awesome, I don't even care that there's so many paradoxical elements the universe should implode!
-"Get out of the chair." Heee!
-Spock frigging jettisoned Kirk onto an ice planet? Dude. That's cold. Har har. (omgyay!)
-Scotty. Censured and assigned to an ice planet. Simon freaking Pegg. Bitching about having no real food. Wearing gants. I can't even. Dude. SCOTTY!!!!! He's totally different, yet he's perfect.
-Hee at Scotty beaming out Archer's Beagle. If they do more movies (guessing that's likely) I hope the beagle turns up randomly somewhere.
-Ambassador Spock (I knew he was in it, but OMG HAI NIMOY!!) telling Kirk to go provoke his younger self into being emotionally compromised, which also crystalizes the dynamic of new!Spock more clearly, because while there have been changes on Vulcan due to Nero's influence, Spock's upbringing was likely much the same as it was before the changes. Giving Spock a tragedy of this magnitude, both on a cultural and personal level allows more dynamic in Spock's character because there is a critical incident from which emotional cracks can spread. Zack Quinto's Spock will be a very interesting character to watch the growth of.
-OMG, ENGINEERING LOOKS LIKE IT'S AN ACTUAL WORKING ENGINEERING DEPT!!! I mean wide-open spaces and clean panels and buttons and mesh and glowing tubes and stuff are fine and all but I like an engineering department to look like it's the guts of a working, actual ship, space-going, sea-going, whatever. And guts are not pristine, sterile and spacious, whether biological or mechanical.
-I cannot express my intense glee at the design of the new phasers intelligibly. It's... the whole lenses switching thing, it's almost like steam-punk. Hee!
-Rather nervous at the whole giant ball of red matter being cut loose there. I mean a drop can make a black hole that will suck up a planet. So that amount of the stuff could, what? Suck up the galaxy? Crack the universe apart? And yet they outran it, because they are the Enterprise crew and it is their job to be collectively so awesome they can outrun a universe-cracking singularity. And Scotty can make it stop.
-So much other stuff I missed. Need DVDs now.
Lists of things:
I was half keeping track of things that the rabid frothing Trek purist I know (some of you know him as that jerk 'Queeg') would find objectionable. Actually things that would make his head explode. Either like Scanners or like a Lemming on countdown mode. "Oh Noes!" *POF!* Confetti everywhere.
Queeg is a guy who refuses to hear "Enterprise" spoken of in the same breath as Star Trek because it had Imperial Klingons landing on earth in the first episode. Queeg will never ever know how awesome this movie is, because he will only see that it is not his canon, and if he does actually see the movie, he'll walk out before the whole time travel thing really kicks in, and refuse to hear anything about it, except to deride it. His loss.
Things that would make Queeg's head go *POF!*:
-Uhura knows Romulan. Actually any reference to Romulans would do Queeg in.
-The green Orion girl in Starfleet Academy.
-Chekov on board, at all.
-Spock/Uhura
-The slightest mention of Cardassian anything
-That starship with four nacelles
But I stopped keeping track, because delightful as it is to imagine Queeg's head exploding, I couldn't keep up with the awesome.
Also, since, as few of you may know, I used to be a hardcore Trekkie, several things made me misty.
Things that made me misty in the movie:
-First conversation between Kirk and McCoy. 'Coz the guy doing McCoy got him right. (Was that Karl Urban?)
-First sight of the Enterprise. 'Coz I am a sap.
-The blue, red and yellow uniform shirts. \o/
-Original Spock. Like I said, I knew Nimoy was in it due to spoilers, but... yeah.
-Scene between Original Spock and Reboot Spock. Passing the torch. That's what it looks like.
Things that made me misty other than in the movie proper:
-Majel Barrett Roddenberry's voice of computer credit.
-Oddly, Mark Okrand credit for Romulan and Vulcan language consulting.
-Dedication at the end of the credits in memory of the Roddenberrys
-A random boy of about fourteen saying fervently to his dad on the way out that he wanted to watch all of Star Trek ever made right away. I can't even explain why, but that got me.
Overall
They can do more movies in this 'verse and I will watch them, and probably buy the DVDs.
This movie? That is the way you do a frigging reboot of a long-standing franchise. Honour and acknowledge what's past, and make a new path into the future. That kicked ass.
Am I a Trekkie again? ... we'll see. If it turns out I am, I'm sure as hell not telling Queeg. :-P