Star Trek Beyond
Through a series of dubious financial maneuvers that should still let the rent clear tomorrow as long as the bank fees don't come out first, I went to see the new Star Trek movie on cheap night tonight, since I thought it was probably leaving the theatre soon (but the showing was packed and it looked like was still playing in two theatres, so now I'm not sure.)
In case anyone's interested, I have a couple things to say about it which contain spoilers.
-I love that the movie is set 3 years in to their 5 year mission, because even though the universe is rebooted and the timeline is utterly scrambled, those three years are leaving space for everything that happened in the three years of original series canon. It's a nod of respect, I think.
-Speaking of nods of respect, wow, all the integrated stuff paying homage to Leonard Nimoy's passing and integrating Original Spock's death into the plot/character development of the movie. And the photo of the original series crew; there were a few 'aw's and gasps in the audience.
-Anton Yelchin's passing was too soon to the release for them to integrate anything, but the "For Anton" at the end was a lovely touch. I was really glad to see how big a role Chekov played in everything in this movie though.
-Spock and Bones. Spoooooock and Boooooooones. Seriously. And the Spock whump. And the acknowledged non-acknowledgement between them that even though they give each other crap and attitude non-stop, they really are best friends who do care about each other. Spock laughing and McCoy freaking out. More please.
-Flipping the Enterprise saucer section like a pancake. I should have found the thorough destruction of the Enterprise painful, but mostly didn't (well, except the nacelles coming off, that was horrifying, and the main deflector dish going up, and well everything else, okay, fine, it was painful and I went ouch a lot, but would have gone ouch a hell of a lot more had the destruction of the Enterprise not featured in the trailers for the film, so I guess that might have been a mercy) because she's canonically unkillable and will be back no matter how many pieces she ends up in (she's like a great big beautiful warp-drive Winchester that way♥) and Kirk flipped the saucer section like a frigging pancake. Which I can't not laugh at. XD
-Speaking of laughing, the "you gave your girlfriend radioactive jewelry?/you gave your girlfriend a tracking device?" exchange had the whole theatre just howling with laughter. Biggest laugh I've heard in a theatre in a while.
-The space station design. I want all the schematics for that space station. ALL of them, including gravity maps. That place is fascinating, and the first time I saw it I thought "holy crap the artificial gravity must be like macrame on that thing!" and then the funky gravity was a feature of the final fight! \o/
-That's two dangling plot devices they've left lurking around now with the reboot movies: The 'eat-your-face-off' cloud monster thing that's now roaming around free and uncontrolled in space, and Khan, frozen in stasis with his crew in a bunker somewhere. I can't remember if some element was left dangling in the first movie, but at this point I'm expecting Khan and crew to get loose, find and control the 'eat-your-face-off' cloud and go on a mayhem spree across the galaxy in a subsequent movie.
-And the one thing I absolutely HAD to say; Simon Pegg wrote this script, so OF COURSE they're going to save the galaxy by surfing the ship up a wave-swarm of tiny enemy fighters that they are causing to crash into each other and explode with BEASTIE BOYS MUSIC. Yes. That plus the team as family and the snark and just, everything. Please let Simon Pegg write more Star Trek movies.
(I also made a simple Trek icon *points at icon* if you want to use it, go ahead and grab it, please credit me if you do.)
In case anyone's interested, I have a couple things to say about it which contain spoilers.
-I love that the movie is set 3 years in to their 5 year mission, because even though the universe is rebooted and the timeline is utterly scrambled, those three years are leaving space for everything that happened in the three years of original series canon. It's a nod of respect, I think.
-Speaking of nods of respect, wow, all the integrated stuff paying homage to Leonard Nimoy's passing and integrating Original Spock's death into the plot/character development of the movie. And the photo of the original series crew; there were a few 'aw's and gasps in the audience.
-Anton Yelchin's passing was too soon to the release for them to integrate anything, but the "For Anton" at the end was a lovely touch. I was really glad to see how big a role Chekov played in everything in this movie though.
-Spock and Bones. Spoooooock and Boooooooones. Seriously. And the Spock whump. And the acknowledged non-acknowledgement between them that even though they give each other crap and attitude non-stop, they really are best friends who do care about each other. Spock laughing and McCoy freaking out. More please.
-Flipping the Enterprise saucer section like a pancake. I should have found the thorough destruction of the Enterprise painful, but mostly didn't (well, except the nacelles coming off, that was horrifying, and the main deflector dish going up, and well everything else, okay, fine, it was painful and I went ouch a lot, but would have gone ouch a hell of a lot more had the destruction of the Enterprise not featured in the trailers for the film, so I guess that might have been a mercy) because she's canonically unkillable and will be back no matter how many pieces she ends up in (she's like a great big beautiful warp-drive Winchester that way♥) and Kirk flipped the saucer section like a frigging pancake. Which I can't not laugh at. XD
-Speaking of laughing, the "you gave your girlfriend radioactive jewelry?/you gave your girlfriend a tracking device?" exchange had the whole theatre just howling with laughter. Biggest laugh I've heard in a theatre in a while.
-The space station design. I want all the schematics for that space station. ALL of them, including gravity maps. That place is fascinating, and the first time I saw it I thought "holy crap the artificial gravity must be like macrame on that thing!" and then the funky gravity was a feature of the final fight! \o/
-That's two dangling plot devices they've left lurking around now with the reboot movies: The 'eat-your-face-off' cloud monster thing that's now roaming around free and uncontrolled in space, and Khan, frozen in stasis with his crew in a bunker somewhere. I can't remember if some element was left dangling in the first movie, but at this point I'm expecting Khan and crew to get loose, find and control the 'eat-your-face-off' cloud and go on a mayhem spree across the galaxy in a subsequent movie.
-And the one thing I absolutely HAD to say; Simon Pegg wrote this script, so OF COURSE they're going to save the galaxy by surfing the ship up a wave-swarm of tiny enemy fighters that they are causing to crash into each other and explode with BEASTIE BOYS MUSIC. Yes. That plus the team as family and the snark and just, everything. Please let Simon Pegg write more Star Trek movies.
(I also made a simple Trek icon *points at icon* if you want to use it, go ahead and grab it, please credit me if you do.)