Review of the Star Trek movie - contains spoilers under the cut.
You've been warned - there will be spoilers under the cuts...
Some of you may not know I am a Star Trek fan (although I'm sure many of you could have assumed based on my love of Patrick Stewart). I used to watch the series almost every night when I was growing up...I would watch repeats of both the old and new series with my dad on a nightly basis, plus the latest show for TNG when that was still being produced. Anyway...the movie...
The movie overall was great, and I really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. I will say that I went into the movie not having done any research into it, all I did was watch the previews. I think this made the movie very enjoyable, although the storyline is a bit complex, I was able to follow it.
Actors and acting - I was really impressed with the majority of the choices for actors, as well as the actor's ability to portray their characters. They managed to pay reverence to the original characters, while making the characters their own. Some of the voice subtleties were very well done, especially with Bones, Kirk and Spock. I also loved Uhura, and Simon Pegg for Scotty was a great choice. The only actor I had a problem with was Chekov. The guy had a horrible, horrible accent. Then I saw his name was Anton Yelchin...so, maybe he was a Russian actor? Or a Russian actor trying to "do" a Russian accent?? No, looking into it, Anton immigrated from Russia when he was 6 months old. So, he's basically American, although maybe his parents speak Russian and he knows is. That doesn't really explain why his accent was so bad though. That really doesn't matter though - I'm disappointed that they didn't pick an actual Russian actor for this role....the fact that Roddenbury HAD a RUSSIAN actor in his show during the COLD WAR, was what make the original show historic. They should have done the same for the movie out of reverence to him.
Effects - The special effects were really great. I loved the shot of the Enterprise being built. The black hole and space scenes were great. The fight scenes were great. The one thing I really HATED about the movie was the lighting. OMG, it was annoying. Unless maybe you like bright lights constantly being flashed in your face or feeling like you are looking at thing through a very reflective window. It looked like they Photoshopped the whole movie, and there was really no need for it. It was just a stylistic choice that I didn't agree with.
Ships/Creatures - The Enterprise was beautiful - it looked like it should, just better built (compared to the scale model used in the series) - So was the Kelvin and the futuristic "rescue" ship. I gotta agree with Rich though that the Romulan ship didn't make sense. It didn't look like a ship at all, or have any reference to Romulan ships seen in the series. Then there were the alien creatures. I loved the long faced guy in the bar. The red crab on the snow-covered plant made no sense though - that animal would not live on that plant. I liked Scotty's alien buddy, but he seemed to be thrown into the story superfluously for the sake of having a cute alien in the film (hey, there's merchandise to make here!).
Storyline - Not much of this story really was accurate to the original series. That, if anything, will make real Trekkies dis-avow this movie as part of the series. The backstory on Kirk's father - Spock's first years in Star Fleet - Bones and Uhura going to school with Kirk - the destruction of the plant Vulcan - all of those things were incorrect. I understood that this was supposed to be an "alternate" reality, but even that wasn't very "Star Trek"....this movie threw the Prime Directive out of the window, basically. (or was there not an alternate reality - just a shift in time? that was kind of confusing. [of course, any shift in time might cause an alternate reality, right? ;-)]) However, if you threw all Star Trek past history out the window, the storyline was pretty good. It was exciting, had good character development, mystery, conflict, revenge...a good plot for a modern day movie, by all accounts. Also, it's amazing how a Vulcan Mind Meld can move along a story line...lol! Here again I do need to agree with Rich - there wasn't a very good Star Trek resolution to the movie - no "righting the wrong", "making amends", "saving a race"...all of these things could have been part of the ending, but instead the movie ended with destruction and a successful battle - definitely in line with modern day movies, but not with the series.
The other part of the story line that I didn't like was the love interest. That wasn't part of the original story, and it would have made the original story a lot less effective for both characters if it had been. So yeah, that kind of pissed me off too, but you know, you can't have a good movie without hot people kissing.
I will say that they did a pretty good job or incorporating the old "classic" lines into the movie at appropriate times - times when you were expecting them, but not any time when they felt awkward ("Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a..." "I'm giving it all I've got, captain!")
Oh yeah, and the product placement? LAME. Sure, the original communicators looked like cell phone's, but to show a cell phone commercial before the movie and then have *that* modern day cell phone in the movie...LAME.
In any case, the movie was great - it was great to see these characters again - I would have liked it if they paid a bit more reverence of Roddenbury's original idea behind the series and worked within that history. Like I said, they are going to push a lot of the real Trekkies away from this movie. However, all of YOU should go see it! You'll enjoy it!
Some of you may not know I am a Star Trek fan (although I'm sure many of you could have assumed based on my love of Patrick Stewart). I used to watch the series almost every night when I was growing up...I would watch repeats of both the old and new series with my dad on a nightly basis, plus the latest show for TNG when that was still being produced. Anyway...the movie...
The movie overall was great, and I really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. I will say that I went into the movie not having done any research into it, all I did was watch the previews. I think this made the movie very enjoyable, although the storyline is a bit complex, I was able to follow it.
Actors and acting - I was really impressed with the majority of the choices for actors, as well as the actor's ability to portray their characters. They managed to pay reverence to the original characters, while making the characters their own. Some of the voice subtleties were very well done, especially with Bones, Kirk and Spock. I also loved Uhura, and Simon Pegg for Scotty was a great choice. The only actor I had a problem with was Chekov. The guy had a horrible, horrible accent. Then I saw his name was Anton Yelchin...so, maybe he was a Russian actor? Or a Russian actor trying to "do" a Russian accent?? No, looking into it, Anton immigrated from Russia when he was 6 months old. So, he's basically American, although maybe his parents speak Russian and he knows is. That doesn't really explain why his accent was so bad though. That really doesn't matter though - I'm disappointed that they didn't pick an actual Russian actor for this role....the fact that Roddenbury HAD a RUSSIAN actor in his show during the COLD WAR, was what make the original show historic. They should have done the same for the movie out of reverence to him.
Effects - The special effects were really great. I loved the shot of the Enterprise being built. The black hole and space scenes were great. The fight scenes were great. The one thing I really HATED about the movie was the lighting. OMG, it was annoying. Unless maybe you like bright lights constantly being flashed in your face or feeling like you are looking at thing through a very reflective window. It looked like they Photoshopped the whole movie, and there was really no need for it. It was just a stylistic choice that I didn't agree with.
Ships/Creatures - The Enterprise was beautiful - it looked like it should, just better built (compared to the scale model used in the series) - So was the Kelvin and the futuristic "rescue" ship. I gotta agree with Rich though that the Romulan ship didn't make sense. It didn't look like a ship at all, or have any reference to Romulan ships seen in the series. Then there were the alien creatures. I loved the long faced guy in the bar. The red crab on the snow-covered plant made no sense though - that animal would not live on that plant. I liked Scotty's alien buddy, but he seemed to be thrown into the story superfluously for the sake of having a cute alien in the film (hey, there's merchandise to make here!).
Storyline - Not much of this story really was accurate to the original series. That, if anything, will make real Trekkies dis-avow this movie as part of the series. The backstory on Kirk's father - Spock's first years in Star Fleet - Bones and Uhura going to school with Kirk - the destruction of the plant Vulcan - all of those things were incorrect. I understood that this was supposed to be an "alternate" reality, but even that wasn't very "Star Trek"....this movie threw the Prime Directive out of the window, basically. (or was there not an alternate reality - just a shift in time? that was kind of confusing. [of course, any shift in time might cause an alternate reality, right? ;-)]) However, if you threw all Star Trek past history out the window, the storyline was pretty good. It was exciting, had good character development, mystery, conflict, revenge...a good plot for a modern day movie, by all accounts. Also, it's amazing how a Vulcan Mind Meld can move along a story line...lol! Here again I do need to agree with Rich - there wasn't a very good Star Trek resolution to the movie - no "righting the wrong", "making amends", "saving a race"...all of these things could have been part of the ending, but instead the movie ended with destruction and a successful battle - definitely in line with modern day movies, but not with the series.
The other part of the story line that I didn't like was the love interest. That wasn't part of the original story, and it would have made the original story a lot less effective for both characters if it had been. So yeah, that kind of pissed me off too, but you know, you can't have a good movie without hot people kissing.
I will say that they did a pretty good job or incorporating the old "classic" lines into the movie at appropriate times - times when you were expecting them, but not any time when they felt awkward ("Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a..." "I'm giving it all I've got, captain!")
Oh yeah, and the product placement? LAME. Sure, the original communicators looked like cell phone's, but to show a cell phone commercial before the movie and then have *that* modern day cell phone in the movie...LAME.
In any case, the movie was great - it was great to see these characters again - I would have liked it if they paid a bit more reverence of Roddenbury's original idea behind the series and worked within that history. Like I said, they are going to push a lot of the real Trekkies away from this movie. However, all of YOU should go see it! You'll enjoy it!