to boldly go...
I saw Star Trek today. To disclaim, I am not a Star Trek fan. I haven't seen much of the original series, but I've always found the spinoff series (especially Next Gen) kind of flat and boring and plastic-- the characters don't have enough personality and the world just doesn't feel real to me.
That said... THIS FILM IS INCREDIBLE. It's thrilling, it's moving, it's funny, it's got big splodey action and gorgeously nuanced characterization coexisting perfectly... it's probably the best time I've had at the movie theater in years.
The casting was pretty much perfect and I fell in love with almost every single character... it had what past Treks have lacked for me, they all felt real. I expected Chris Pine to be a boring generic pretty boy, but he was a really charismatic Kirk, and Zachary Quinto made me totally forget about Sylar within his first ten minutes onscreen (though I did wince when his first scene was with his mother... noooo!). Sulu kicked ass, Chekov was super adorable, Scotty and Bones were hilarious, Uhura could've had more to do but was pretty awesome in her own right... I just adored all of them.
And of course I'm a whore for J.J. Abrams so I loved spotting his little touches. Slusho reference! And the time-travel/alternate universe talk reminded me a lot of what's happening on Lost right now... and I swear whoever designed that ice monster lifted inspiration from the Cloverfield monster, though that might just be me, but those long bent legs are pretty distinctive. Also, one of the random women on the Enterprise crew was played by Felicity's roommate. I loled.
I guess my only complaint would be the villain, Nero... I just could not take him seriously. Every time he talked I wanted to crack up. I think it was something about Eric Bana's inflection... it just wasn't believably alien, I guess, though I don't actually know anything about the Romulans, but he had a way of almost drawling his lines that was very modern and very American and it was jarring. Just wasn't very impressed by him, but the character stuff was interesting enough that having a kind of crappy villain didn't matter that much.
(Oh, and even though I'm not really sure how I feel about adding canon romance, can I just say how much I love the fact that the ads totally faked us all out into thinking there was going to be Kirk/Uhura and then it ended up being Spock who got the girl? Logic is hot. :D)
I highly recommend you all go see it ASAP, whether you're a Trek fan or not. I already can't wait for the next film, and I'm not sure anything else coming out this summer can possibly even come close to topping this one for me. (Though is it sad that I want to see the G.I. Joe movie because it looks big and dumb and shiny and it has Christopher Eccleston as a bad guy?)
That said... THIS FILM IS INCREDIBLE. It's thrilling, it's moving, it's funny, it's got big splodey action and gorgeously nuanced characterization coexisting perfectly... it's probably the best time I've had at the movie theater in years.
The casting was pretty much perfect and I fell in love with almost every single character... it had what past Treks have lacked for me, they all felt real. I expected Chris Pine to be a boring generic pretty boy, but he was a really charismatic Kirk, and Zachary Quinto made me totally forget about Sylar within his first ten minutes onscreen (though I did wince when his first scene was with his mother... noooo!). Sulu kicked ass, Chekov was super adorable, Scotty and Bones were hilarious, Uhura could've had more to do but was pretty awesome in her own right... I just adored all of them.
And of course I'm a whore for J.J. Abrams so I loved spotting his little touches. Slusho reference! And the time-travel/alternate universe talk reminded me a lot of what's happening on Lost right now... and I swear whoever designed that ice monster lifted inspiration from the Cloverfield monster, though that might just be me, but those long bent legs are pretty distinctive. Also, one of the random women on the Enterprise crew was played by Felicity's roommate. I loled.
I guess my only complaint would be the villain, Nero... I just could not take him seriously. Every time he talked I wanted to crack up. I think it was something about Eric Bana's inflection... it just wasn't believably alien, I guess, though I don't actually know anything about the Romulans, but he had a way of almost drawling his lines that was very modern and very American and it was jarring. Just wasn't very impressed by him, but the character stuff was interesting enough that having a kind of crappy villain didn't matter that much.
(Oh, and even though I'm not really sure how I feel about adding canon romance, can I just say how much I love the fact that the ads totally faked us all out into thinking there was going to be Kirk/Uhura and then it ended up being Spock who got the girl? Logic is hot. :D)
I highly recommend you all go see it ASAP, whether you're a Trek fan or not. I already can't wait for the next film, and I'm not sure anything else coming out this summer can possibly even come close to topping this one for me. (Though is it sad that I want to see the G.I. Joe movie because it looks big and dumb and shiny and it has Christopher Eccleston as a bad guy?)