Star Trek!
So, here is how much of a Star Trek geek I am: when the Star Trek Encyclopedia was in its first printing, I found 70+ factual errors and wrote an indignant letter to Michael Okuda, and that is how my name came to be listed in the acknowledgments (with several hundred other eagle-eyed nerds) in the revised version. Can you say Trek nerd? I think you can. First fannish love.
I don't even know where to start! OMG I loved it! LOVED LOVED LOVED!!
Casting: perfection. Except maybe Uhura, whom I was slow to warm up to at first (possibly because of how she was introduced, as a pick-up in a bar for Kirk, EYEROLL) but she grew on me. Dear God, but Karl Urban as McCoy is stunning. STUNNING. I LOVE HIM. I also love Chris Pine, whom I was dubious about when I read of his casting, and I am totally blown away by Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock. Scotty! YAY!! Sulu! They somehow managed to insert a sword-fight in a non-ridiculous way!! Chekov! What a little cutey! So much better without Beatles haircut. *g* This was the first real team movie we've seen...well, ever, really. Without the big salaries and bloated egos to watch out for (sorry, my beloved TOS cast!), they could get to character and story and action, and SO HAPPY NOW.
Characters: BRILLIANT. Spock/Uhura makes SO MUCH SENSE TO ME. It made sense to me way back then. I SHIP IT. Yay for it being CANON. (That was a shocker!!) Kirk as raging hothead who is, unfortunately, often right: so perfect. Spock...oh my GOD, I am SO HAPPY with what they did with Spock in this. And Sarek! Sarek was hands-down my favorite character in TOS, and Ben Cross did him justice. Even Winona Ryder as Amanda was lovely, though mostly wasted as a plot point, which irritates me. That might be my primary pet peeve, actually. Original Spock! Being wonderful! PUSHING SPOCK AND KIRK TOGETHER INTO A FRIENDSHIP WHICH WILL DEFINE THEM BOTH IN WAYS SPOCK CANNOT YET UNDERSTAND. Look in your Vulcan dictionary under t'hy'la, Spock. If you saved any from when your planet blew up. *g* And Bones, with his raging paranoia about DEATH IN SPACE. eeeeeeeeeeeeee! I wish they had done just a little bit more with Uhura, but maybe in future films. I think I'm doomed to wish that about her forever. She has always been one of my faves, and I want more. Or better. More and better.
Spock and Kirk walking on the bridge side by side, Spock a tiny fraction of a step behind. As if he's always been by his side AND ALWAYS WILL. And the threads of friendship between Bones and Kirk, and Bones and Spock, and Kirk and Spock, so tentative and shiny at first, and now getting stronger. EEEEEEEEEEEE. Chemistry! Lots of it!
Callbacks to the past: Spock designed the Kobayashi Maru! WTF! That is the awesomest thing ever. *g* Retro shuttlecraft! TINY SNIPPETS OF SERIES MUSIC! There were so many things! So many lines! "I'm a doctor, not a physicist!" "I'm giving it all she's got!" AHAHAHAHA, the whole theater applauded. *g* I need to see it again to take it all away with me.
Canon mutilation: substantial. Yeah, yeah, sure, it is an alternate timeline now. An AU. It's fan fiction by J.J. Abrams, essentially. I get it. But you know, Amanda being dead, and Vulcan being destroyed, are the two hardest pills to swallow. I can get past things like the insertion of Chekov in the timeline years before he shows up, but. Whatever. At least they didn't try to make Spock the same age as Kirk, because that's where I'd have to draw the line. And future!Spock is still there! Which is...weird.
Plotline: Meh. I care not at all for Eric Bana, Tattooed Evil Romulan from the FUTCHAH. *jazz hands* But I realize there had to be something to battle against, or all is lost. As bad guys go, he ranks really low on the scale of threat or interest, I have to be honest. Also, they accelerated through all sorts of things that might be interesting to get to the good stuff, which in a way I appreciate, tho I get the feeling that all kinds of minor things have now been rewritten.
Hilarious shout-outs to other things: ON THE ICE PLANET. Kirk seeing a shape emerge from the mist! That is a straight up shout-out to Empire Strikes Back, dude! Could not be more obvious! Full of win! And "SPOOOOOOOOOOCK!" I started laughing, because "KHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" was just ringing in my ears. *g*
I know I have more. But the bottom line is, it was fantastic, and I LOVED IT, and I am all over Spock/Uhura, and the original OT3, Kirk/Spock/McCoy, the triad around which all things must revolve or it just ain't Star Trek. This? IS STAR TREK. \o/!!!!!
I don't even know where to start! OMG I loved it! LOVED LOVED LOVED!!
Casting: perfection. Except maybe Uhura, whom I was slow to warm up to at first (possibly because of how she was introduced, as a pick-up in a bar for Kirk, EYEROLL) but she grew on me. Dear God, but Karl Urban as McCoy is stunning. STUNNING. I LOVE HIM. I also love Chris Pine, whom I was dubious about when I read of his casting, and I am totally blown away by Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock. Scotty! YAY!! Sulu! They somehow managed to insert a sword-fight in a non-ridiculous way!! Chekov! What a little cutey! So much better without Beatles haircut. *g* This was the first real team movie we've seen...well, ever, really. Without the big salaries and bloated egos to watch out for (sorry, my beloved TOS cast!), they could get to character and story and action, and SO HAPPY NOW.
Characters: BRILLIANT. Spock/Uhura makes SO MUCH SENSE TO ME. It made sense to me way back then. I SHIP IT. Yay for it being CANON. (That was a shocker!!) Kirk as raging hothead who is, unfortunately, often right: so perfect. Spock...oh my GOD, I am SO HAPPY with what they did with Spock in this. And Sarek! Sarek was hands-down my favorite character in TOS, and Ben Cross did him justice. Even Winona Ryder as Amanda was lovely, though mostly wasted as a plot point, which irritates me. That might be my primary pet peeve, actually. Original Spock! Being wonderful! PUSHING SPOCK AND KIRK TOGETHER INTO A FRIENDSHIP WHICH WILL DEFINE THEM BOTH IN WAYS SPOCK CANNOT YET UNDERSTAND. Look in your Vulcan dictionary under t'hy'la, Spock. If you saved any from when your planet blew up. *g* And Bones, with his raging paranoia about DEATH IN SPACE. eeeeeeeeeeeeee! I wish they had done just a little bit more with Uhura, but maybe in future films. I think I'm doomed to wish that about her forever. She has always been one of my faves, and I want more. Or better. More and better.
Spock and Kirk walking on the bridge side by side, Spock a tiny fraction of a step behind. As if he's always been by his side AND ALWAYS WILL. And the threads of friendship between Bones and Kirk, and Bones and Spock, and Kirk and Spock, so tentative and shiny at first, and now getting stronger. EEEEEEEEEEEE. Chemistry! Lots of it!
Callbacks to the past: Spock designed the Kobayashi Maru! WTF! That is the awesomest thing ever. *g* Retro shuttlecraft! TINY SNIPPETS OF SERIES MUSIC! There were so many things! So many lines! "I'm a doctor, not a physicist!" "I'm giving it all she's got!" AHAHAHAHA, the whole theater applauded. *g* I need to see it again to take it all away with me.
Canon mutilation: substantial. Yeah, yeah, sure, it is an alternate timeline now. An AU. It's fan fiction by J.J. Abrams, essentially. I get it. But you know, Amanda being dead, and Vulcan being destroyed, are the two hardest pills to swallow. I can get past things like the insertion of Chekov in the timeline years before he shows up, but. Whatever. At least they didn't try to make Spock the same age as Kirk, because that's where I'd have to draw the line. And future!Spock is still there! Which is...weird.
Plotline: Meh. I care not at all for Eric Bana, Tattooed Evil Romulan from the FUTCHAH. *jazz hands* But I realize there had to be something to battle against, or all is lost. As bad guys go, he ranks really low on the scale of threat or interest, I have to be honest. Also, they accelerated through all sorts of things that might be interesting to get to the good stuff, which in a way I appreciate, tho I get the feeling that all kinds of minor things have now been rewritten.
Hilarious shout-outs to other things: ON THE ICE PLANET. Kirk seeing a shape emerge from the mist! That is a straight up shout-out to Empire Strikes Back, dude! Could not be more obvious! Full of win! And "SPOOOOOOOOOOCK!" I started laughing, because "KHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" was just ringing in my ears. *g*
I know I have more. But the bottom line is, it was fantastic, and I LOVED IT, and I am all over Spock/Uhura, and the original OT3, Kirk/Spock/McCoy, the triad around which all things must revolve or it just ain't Star Trek. This? IS STAR TREK. \o/!!!!!