(no subject)
It's times like these that I really hate only having six icon spaces because I wish I had about fifty Star Trek icons to express every facet of my pure and uncontrolled excitement over the movie. SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY. IF YOU ARE A TREK FAN, GO SEE IT. IF YOU ARE NOT A TREK FAN, GO SEE IT. IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY FOR A MOVIE TICKET, GO SEE IT. I don't know if I'd say that it was completely perfect or brain-breaking or what have you, but I really really really just enjoyed the heck out of it, and I feel compelled to share my glee far and wide.
First of all, HOLY FUUUCK I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY DESTROYED VULCAN! AND KILLED AMANDA! THOSE BASTARDS!!!!!! I'm still all !!!!!!!!!!!! about that. Just. !!!!!! Reading some interviews with JJ after I got back from the film last night, I do appreciate that the film was given actual stakes with the alternate timeline angle, so it's not just, "Oh, I roughly know what is going to happen to all of these characters, where's the surprise?" (JJ on the fate of Vulcan: I certainly wasn’t blind to that being a massive choice, but I also felt that as a filmmaker, if we don’t do something fucking mind-blowing, then the movie is just tepid. We had to go there to make the movie and push buttons and make it feel like a substantial story and that losses were felt and it was palpable. WELL, IT FREAKIN' WORKED.) Man. Poor Spock x10000000.
Actually, okay, before I get into that, brief digression about the time travel/alternate timeline -- mostly I'm glad for the separation of movieverse from TVverse so I don't have to stress as much over "ARRRRGH NO THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT HAPPENS!!" -- they can tell new stories without mussing up my old ones. This pleases me. At the same time, though, it also begs the questions of why not just tell new stories? This has kind of been an ongoing gripe between me and the Trek franchise, though; I wish it could just move on instead of going back to cover old timelines. Not that I don't love the old settings and old characters -- and obviously lots of other fans do, too, as evidenced by the appeal of making/watching this film -- but sometimes the best way to show respect and affection for preexisting incarnations is to just let them be their own thing and move on to new arcs and characters. I know I've read plenty of complaints from people who feel that Trekverse is too trapped by overwhelming canon (see: the inevitable demise of Enterprise) -- THEN MAKE NEW CANON. GEEZ. People can't bitch about, "Oh, that never happened!" if you actually push the timeline forward. JUST SAYIN'. But back to the way they did end up handling time travel in the film -- well, I am in the middle of discussing this with forgotten_llama so I'll just cheat and C&P what I commented to her:
"It's kind of interesting the way it worked in the film because actually one of the things I've always hated most about Trek was its approach to time travel -- because they'd go back in time, muck about, yet somehow manage to "fix" the timeline even though they'd screwed it up so much! So it's confusing because they try to play both paradox and non-paradox at the same time. That is -- people going back in time could actually mess with future events (as in the example you gave with City on the Edge of Forever), so the message is basically "one small change in the past completely disrupts future events." Buuuut... then somehow they can still put it all back to rights? And CotEoF always drives me NUTS because they make a huge deal out of Edith Keeler's death changing the course of history, every life counts, etc., and yet there's that poor hobo who finds McCoy's phaser and kills himself and yet nothing comes of that! So apparently your life is only important if you're Joan Collins.
But anyway, for what they did in the film -- I like that they acknowledged that time travel is really just going to leave the previous timeline completely FUBAR, so any sort of change is by necessity going to create an alternate timeline (this is more of the approach that they usually take on Stargate, and the only thing that ever makes me say, "I really prefer the way they handle this science on Stargate as opposed to Trek!"). I still don't really get how the black hole automatically equals time travel, though -- I would have liked them to maybe say more of why this particular black hole, or maybe the specific ships involved, allowed them to move through time as opposed to just getting sucked into nothingness."
...This digression is totally not brief any more. In conclusion? I think they were quite clever in their use of time travel and I much prefer the idea that this is an alternate timeline to what we already know as opposed to just "retelling" the preexisting adventures of Kirk & co. I think it'll be interesting to see how this causes character arcs to develop differently; we've already seen it in Kirk's childhood (does he still have a brother, I wonder? Or maybe his brother was older than him, I can't remember), although him ending up in Starfleet and become Captain Awesomepants seems to indicate a certain amount of "course correction"/destiny inherent in a person's life. So to return to where I left off, I think right now it seems to mean the most change for Spock. I've always loved Spock's family angst, so I thought it was interesting that they downplayed a lot of his daddy issues -- but of course it was just because they were setting him up for mommy issues! MAN. POOR SPOCK. SERIOUSLY. I AM GOING TO KEEP SAYING IT, I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF. I love Sarek and Amanda so much ("Journey to Babel" is pretty much my favourite TOS episode ever), and now... ugh. Damn. For such a fun movie it was also pretty darn depressing! I do like that it gave us that lovely Spock/Sarek moment, though ("I married your mother because I loved her." D'AWWWW), and I'd be interested to see how their relationship is developed when/if they make a sequel. And then of course this new emotional grief for Spock plays into some ~~romance~~ as well. Spock/Uhura was so unexpected BUT SO DARN CUTE OH DEAR. Before people cry OOC, seriously -- for someone with a reputation for being emotionally void, Spock gets a lot of lovin' in TOS, and Uhura was so completely badass and smart and awesome and gorgeous and perfect, and I really liked the way their characters came together.
Anyway, wow, that's a lot of preliminary blathering for a movie I mostly just want to flail about. In short: OH MY GOD I LOVED EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THIS MOVIE SO MUCH. JUST. GAAAAHHHHHHH THEY WERE ALL SO SO SO AMAZING. EVERYBODY GOT SOMETHING AWESOME TO DO, THEY ALL GOT AWESOME INTROS, THEY WERE ALL AN AWESOME TEAM BY THE END -- I AM SO IN LOVE. Honestly, this cast is what makes me hope that they make a million sequels because I could watch them run around in primary colored sportswear all day long.
Kirk: totally got the sexy jerk who's smarter and therefore also dumber than he lets on, and a total ass but a good leader (God, I looooved how well they arrived the eventual dynamic of Kirk as captain/Spock as first officer without making it all about BECAUSE KIRK IS JUST AWESOMER AT EVERYTHING, but rather about playing their specific skill sets and showing that that is how they best work off of each other). AND HE DIDN'T GET THE GIRL. AHAHAHA. Highlight for me -- Kobayashi Maru -- hilarious to the max and oh I am SO SATSFIED with that whole sequence because yes yes YESSSS so perfectly Kirk, I don't even know.
Spock: ARE THERE WORDS FOR HOW PERFECT ZQ WAS? PROBABLY NOT. BUT I WILL TRY ANYWAY. Well, and even pre-Zach -- the wee!Spock scenes were some of my favourite parts of the film (oh my God, Vulcan bullying, so simultaneously funny and heartbreaking); although, hey, deleted scene! What ever happened to that Amanda/Sarek/baby Spock clip from the trailer? It'd better be on the DVD. But anyway, God, Zach just really knocked this one out in every way. He even translated the physicality of Spock so beautifully, which is something that's sometimes easy to overlook with the character. AND HE BROKE MY HEART. AND I'M STILL SO CRUSHED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF VULCAN. I was so excited by how gorgeous it looked, too, and the backstage look at all of their cultural institutes... Man. Anyway. So yeah, in that regard I think Spock's necessary angst was -- I'm going to say it again but I just can't help myself -- PERFECT. GUHHHH. OKAY GUYS FAIR WARNING, BUT I MANAGED TO STAVE OFF THE CAPSLOCK SQUEE FOR ONLY SO LONG BUT I CAN FEEL IT COMING BACK IN FULL FORCE. I JUST REALLY REALLY LIKED THIS MOVIE, OKAY?
McCoy: HOLY CRAP MCCOY. LOVE OF MY LIFE. MY SOUTHERN HOMEBOY. SWEET SASSY MOSES HE WAS SO GREAT ON ALL LEVELS. I was a little nervous because I'd read a couple of reviews complaining that he was too over-the-top, but... pffffft. NON-BELIEVERS WHO CLEARLY FOUND THEMSELVES INCAPABLE OF FULLY HANDLING THE GREATNESS THAT IS BONES. I PITY THEIR WEAKNESS. And, yes, because I am one of those fans -- "Who is that pointy-eared bastard?" "I don't know, but I like him!" YAAAAAAAAYYYYY. God, I wish there could have been more Spock/McCoy sniping showdowns but that's mostly just because I could watch an entire movie of nothing but that and still desire more. Anyway, I could have done with some more OT3 moments but I think there was enough Kirk/McCoy (SO UNDERAPPRECIATED. They were actually my very very first Star Trek ship based on... crap... now I don't even remember which episode it was, but I saw the last twenty minutes or so of one that ends with some cute bromancin' on the bridge; of course then the next full episode I watched was "The Immunity Syndrome" which is just a giant love letter to Spock/McCoy so there you go), Spock/McCoy, and Kirk/Spock to please me. Not a single, "He's dead, Jim!" though! Or if so I missed it.
Uhura: WHAT IS THERE TO SAY OTHER THAN FLAAAAAAAIL???? GIRL CRUSH ON ZOE SALDANA IS BACK AND THEN SOME. Oh man, I was just so so so pleased with basically everything they did with her. I loved getting all the extra background on the training that goes into being a communications officer, I loved getting to see her be upfront about her professional goals and push Spock to put her on the Enterprise, I love getting a balance between being a capable officer and being able to have fun, I loved THAT SHE IS TOTALLY FREAKING HOT, I LOVED EVERYTHING.
Sulu: I expected him to be hardcore awesome (FENCING! YESSSS!) but did not expect him to be so adorable, too. Awww nervous newbie pilot.
Chekov: Actually the only character who I felt might have been a bit much, but he was still sweet and fun and, again, I liked that we got to see more of the work the crewmembers actually get to do and what sort of strengths and skills they contribute. I'm not gonna lie, though, I kind of miss the Donald Trump comb-over.
Scotty: I think I might have loved his intro most of all. Okay, I don't even think I've really mentioned it much yet, but wow this movie was just flat-out funny and not even in a "oh my WHAT this is so cracked out ridiculous ahaaaha WHAAAAAT ANTIBODIIIIIES" way. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and it's why I love TOS so much and why I love STV when everybody else hates it -- but of course it's a smart move to redirect it in a film that's supposed to appeal to general audiences and not just to people like me who thrive on badness. Anyway. So yeah, Scotty was really funny and really great and who cares if that whole set-up was totally Star Wars? IT WAS FUNNY. And therefore awesome.
So, um, I think that covers all the crew? Feel free to kick me if I'm missing anybody. (Also, man, I hope we get some Nurse Chapel/Yeoman Rand/SOMETHING in any possible sequels. As rocking as Uhura was, more female crewmembers would be great.) So other characters:
SPOCK. AGAIN: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...I have nothing else to say at this time.
Pike: So great that they kept the background between him and Spock, but I think it was interesting to throw him in as a mentor figure for Kirk, too. Big shock: I LIKED HIM. YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT, I JUST LOVE EVERYBODY, OKAY?
Random Paul McGillion role: EEEEEE!!!!
Nero: I actually did not have any strong feelings about him as a bad guy. I... hmm. Apparently there were more scenes of his background that didn't make it into the film? I'd be interested to see those and then reevaluate. I thought Eric Bana did great with what was there, but it didn't feel like we got to see him enough, just his actions which, granted, were pretty friggen HOLY CRAP ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH.
Amanda and Sarek: Awesome, as previously discussed. Also, brb, bawling gahhhhh. I do at least like that the film solicited a variety of emotional responses because, oh yeah, I totally cried (but what would a moviegoing experience be without me blubbering through it?? Yeah, exactly).
Mama and Papa Kirk: J.MO!!!! And also more parental heartbreak. Geez.
So, anyway, yeah. I've officially wasted all morning on this and there are still so many things worth flailing over. The music! The colors! The cool new effects for warping (usually I'm not a huge fan of JJ's SUPER SHAKY CAMERA action scenes, but the camera recoil after warping was totally awesome) and for beaming! The old sound effects, eeee!!!! HOW COMPLETELY FREAKING GORGEOUS THE ENTIRE MOVIE IS! And also the fact that I barely even said much about the plot, errr. Well, I'm already planning to see it again on Sunday (IMAX, even! It's our Mother's Day gift; aren't we the sweetest children?) so I'm sure I'll have time to think things over and have some more comments after that.
Weirdly, though, even though I had so much fun watching this movie, I also found myself thinking, "Man, I really wish I could be watching the show!" right in the middle of it. BECAUSE. MAN. I REALLY MISS WATCHING STAR TREK SERIES. Somebody needs to bring it back to the small screen ASAP, because as totally awesome as this film was Trek will always fundamentally be a TV series for me and wahhhh I miss it. :( :( :( Also, total lameness -- it used to be on TVLand like every single day and now it's only on once a week! What gives? Oh how I wish I had the money to splurge on the new Blu-ray sets (and then on a Blu-ray player, hurhur).
First of all, HOLY FUUUCK I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY DESTROYED VULCAN! AND KILLED AMANDA! THOSE BASTARDS!!!!!! I'm still all !!!!!!!!!!!! about that. Just. !!!!!! Reading some interviews with JJ after I got back from the film last night, I do appreciate that the film was given actual stakes with the alternate timeline angle, so it's not just, "Oh, I roughly know what is going to happen to all of these characters, where's the surprise?" (JJ on the fate of Vulcan: I certainly wasn’t blind to that being a massive choice, but I also felt that as a filmmaker, if we don’t do something fucking mind-blowing, then the movie is just tepid. We had to go there to make the movie and push buttons and make it feel like a substantial story and that losses were felt and it was palpable. WELL, IT FREAKIN' WORKED.) Man. Poor Spock x10000000.
Actually, okay, before I get into that, brief digression about the time travel/alternate timeline -- mostly I'm glad for the separation of movieverse from TVverse so I don't have to stress as much over "ARRRRGH NO THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT HAPPENS!!" -- they can tell new stories without mussing up my old ones. This pleases me. At the same time, though, it also begs the questions of why not just tell new stories? This has kind of been an ongoing gripe between me and the Trek franchise, though; I wish it could just move on instead of going back to cover old timelines. Not that I don't love the old settings and old characters -- and obviously lots of other fans do, too, as evidenced by the appeal of making/watching this film -- but sometimes the best way to show respect and affection for preexisting incarnations is to just let them be their own thing and move on to new arcs and characters. I know I've read plenty of complaints from people who feel that Trekverse is too trapped by overwhelming canon (see: the inevitable demise of Enterprise) -- THEN MAKE NEW CANON. GEEZ. People can't bitch about, "Oh, that never happened!" if you actually push the timeline forward. JUST SAYIN'. But back to the way they did end up handling time travel in the film -- well, I am in the middle of discussing this with forgotten_llama so I'll just cheat and C&P what I commented to her:
"It's kind of interesting the way it worked in the film because actually one of the things I've always hated most about Trek was its approach to time travel -- because they'd go back in time, muck about, yet somehow manage to "fix" the timeline even though they'd screwed it up so much! So it's confusing because they try to play both paradox and non-paradox at the same time. That is -- people going back in time could actually mess with future events (as in the example you gave with City on the Edge of Forever), so the message is basically "one small change in the past completely disrupts future events." Buuuut... then somehow they can still put it all back to rights? And CotEoF always drives me NUTS because they make a huge deal out of Edith Keeler's death changing the course of history, every life counts, etc., and yet there's that poor hobo who finds McCoy's phaser and kills himself and yet nothing comes of that! So apparently your life is only important if you're Joan Collins.
But anyway, for what they did in the film -- I like that they acknowledged that time travel is really just going to leave the previous timeline completely FUBAR, so any sort of change is by necessity going to create an alternate timeline (this is more of the approach that they usually take on Stargate, and the only thing that ever makes me say, "I really prefer the way they handle this science on Stargate as opposed to Trek!"). I still don't really get how the black hole automatically equals time travel, though -- I would have liked them to maybe say more of why this particular black hole, or maybe the specific ships involved, allowed them to move through time as opposed to just getting sucked into nothingness."
...This digression is totally not brief any more. In conclusion? I think they were quite clever in their use of time travel and I much prefer the idea that this is an alternate timeline to what we already know as opposed to just "retelling" the preexisting adventures of Kirk & co. I think it'll be interesting to see how this causes character arcs to develop differently; we've already seen it in Kirk's childhood (does he still have a brother, I wonder? Or maybe his brother was older than him, I can't remember), although him ending up in Starfleet and become Captain Awesomepants seems to indicate a certain amount of "course correction"/destiny inherent in a person's life. So to return to where I left off, I think right now it seems to mean the most change for Spock. I've always loved Spock's family angst, so I thought it was interesting that they downplayed a lot of his daddy issues -- but of course it was just because they were setting him up for mommy issues! MAN. POOR SPOCK. SERIOUSLY. I AM GOING TO KEEP SAYING IT, I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF. I love Sarek and Amanda so much ("Journey to Babel" is pretty much my favourite TOS episode ever), and now... ugh. Damn. For such a fun movie it was also pretty darn depressing! I do like that it gave us that lovely Spock/Sarek moment, though ("I married your mother because I loved her." D'AWWWW), and I'd be interested to see how their relationship is developed when/if they make a sequel. And then of course this new emotional grief for Spock plays into some ~~romance~~ as well. Spock/Uhura was so unexpected BUT SO DARN CUTE OH DEAR. Before people cry OOC, seriously -- for someone with a reputation for being emotionally void, Spock gets a lot of lovin' in TOS, and Uhura was so completely badass and smart and awesome and gorgeous and perfect, and I really liked the way their characters came together.
Anyway, wow, that's a lot of preliminary blathering for a movie I mostly just want to flail about. In short: OH MY GOD I LOVED EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THIS MOVIE SO MUCH. JUST. GAAAAHHHHHHH THEY WERE ALL SO SO SO AMAZING. EVERYBODY GOT SOMETHING AWESOME TO DO, THEY ALL GOT AWESOME INTROS, THEY WERE ALL AN AWESOME TEAM BY THE END -- I AM SO IN LOVE. Honestly, this cast is what makes me hope that they make a million sequels because I could watch them run around in primary colored sportswear all day long.
Kirk: totally got the sexy jerk who's smarter and therefore also dumber than he lets on, and a total ass but a good leader (God, I looooved how well they arrived the eventual dynamic of Kirk as captain/Spock as first officer without making it all about BECAUSE KIRK IS JUST AWESOMER AT EVERYTHING, but rather about playing their specific skill sets and showing that that is how they best work off of each other). AND HE DIDN'T GET THE GIRL. AHAHAHA. Highlight for me -- Kobayashi Maru -- hilarious to the max and oh I am SO SATSFIED with that whole sequence because yes yes YESSSS so perfectly Kirk, I don't even know.
Spock: ARE THERE WORDS FOR HOW PERFECT ZQ WAS? PROBABLY NOT. BUT I WILL TRY ANYWAY. Well, and even pre-Zach -- the wee!Spock scenes were some of my favourite parts of the film (oh my God, Vulcan bullying, so simultaneously funny and heartbreaking); although, hey, deleted scene! What ever happened to that Amanda/Sarek/baby Spock clip from the trailer? It'd better be on the DVD. But anyway, God, Zach just really knocked this one out in every way. He even translated the physicality of Spock so beautifully, which is something that's sometimes easy to overlook with the character. AND HE BROKE MY HEART. AND I'M STILL SO CRUSHED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF VULCAN. I was so excited by how gorgeous it looked, too, and the backstage look at all of their cultural institutes... Man. Anyway. So yeah, in that regard I think Spock's necessary angst was -- I'm going to say it again but I just can't help myself -- PERFECT. GUHHHH. OKAY GUYS FAIR WARNING, BUT I MANAGED TO STAVE OFF THE CAPSLOCK SQUEE FOR ONLY SO LONG BUT I CAN FEEL IT COMING BACK IN FULL FORCE. I JUST REALLY REALLY LIKED THIS MOVIE, OKAY?
McCoy: HOLY CRAP MCCOY. LOVE OF MY LIFE. MY SOUTHERN HOMEBOY. SWEET SASSY MOSES HE WAS SO GREAT ON ALL LEVELS. I was a little nervous because I'd read a couple of reviews complaining that he was too over-the-top, but... pffffft. NON-BELIEVERS WHO CLEARLY FOUND THEMSELVES INCAPABLE OF FULLY HANDLING THE GREATNESS THAT IS BONES. I PITY THEIR WEAKNESS. And, yes, because I am one of those fans -- "Who is that pointy-eared bastard?" "I don't know, but I like him!" YAAAAAAAAYYYYY. God, I wish there could have been more Spock/McCoy sniping showdowns but that's mostly just because I could watch an entire movie of nothing but that and still desire more. Anyway, I could have done with some more OT3 moments but I think there was enough Kirk/McCoy (SO UNDERAPPRECIATED. They were actually my very very first Star Trek ship based on... crap... now I don't even remember which episode it was, but I saw the last twenty minutes or so of one that ends with some cute bromancin' on the bridge; of course then the next full episode I watched was "The Immunity Syndrome" which is just a giant love letter to Spock/McCoy so there you go), Spock/McCoy, and Kirk/Spock to please me. Not a single, "He's dead, Jim!" though! Or if so I missed it.
Uhura: WHAT IS THERE TO SAY OTHER THAN FLAAAAAAAIL???? GIRL CRUSH ON ZOE SALDANA IS BACK AND THEN SOME. Oh man, I was just so so so pleased with basically everything they did with her. I loved getting all the extra background on the training that goes into being a communications officer, I loved getting to see her be upfront about her professional goals and push Spock to put her on the Enterprise, I love getting a balance between being a capable officer and being able to have fun, I loved THAT SHE IS TOTALLY FREAKING HOT, I LOVED EVERYTHING.
Sulu: I expected him to be hardcore awesome (FENCING! YESSSS!) but did not expect him to be so adorable, too. Awww nervous newbie pilot.
Chekov: Actually the only character who I felt might have been a bit much, but he was still sweet and fun and, again, I liked that we got to see more of the work the crewmembers actually get to do and what sort of strengths and skills they contribute. I'm not gonna lie, though, I kind of miss the Donald Trump comb-over.
Scotty: I think I might have loved his intro most of all. Okay, I don't even think I've really mentioned it much yet, but wow this movie was just flat-out funny and not even in a "oh my WHAT this is so cracked out ridiculous ahaaaha WHAAAAAT ANTIBODIIIIIES" way. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and it's why I love TOS so much and why I love STV when everybody else hates it -- but of course it's a smart move to redirect it in a film that's supposed to appeal to general audiences and not just to people like me who thrive on badness. Anyway. So yeah, Scotty was really funny and really great and who cares if that whole set-up was totally Star Wars? IT WAS FUNNY. And therefore awesome.
So, um, I think that covers all the crew? Feel free to kick me if I'm missing anybody. (Also, man, I hope we get some Nurse Chapel/Yeoman Rand/SOMETHING in any possible sequels. As rocking as Uhura was, more female crewmembers would be great.) So other characters:
SPOCK. AGAIN: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...I have nothing else to say at this time.
Pike: So great that they kept the background between him and Spock, but I think it was interesting to throw him in as a mentor figure for Kirk, too. Big shock: I LIKED HIM. YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT, I JUST LOVE EVERYBODY, OKAY?
Random Paul McGillion role: EEEEEE!!!!
Nero: I actually did not have any strong feelings about him as a bad guy. I... hmm. Apparently there were more scenes of his background that didn't make it into the film? I'd be interested to see those and then reevaluate. I thought Eric Bana did great with what was there, but it didn't feel like we got to see him enough, just his actions which, granted, were pretty friggen HOLY CRAP ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH.
Amanda and Sarek: Awesome, as previously discussed. Also, brb, bawling gahhhhh. I do at least like that the film solicited a variety of emotional responses because, oh yeah, I totally cried (but what would a moviegoing experience be without me blubbering through it?? Yeah, exactly).
Mama and Papa Kirk: J.MO!!!! And also more parental heartbreak. Geez.
So, anyway, yeah. I've officially wasted all morning on this and there are still so many things worth flailing over. The music! The colors! The cool new effects for warping (usually I'm not a huge fan of JJ's SUPER SHAKY CAMERA action scenes, but the camera recoil after warping was totally awesome) and for beaming! The old sound effects, eeee!!!! HOW COMPLETELY FREAKING GORGEOUS THE ENTIRE MOVIE IS! And also the fact that I barely even said much about the plot, errr. Well, I'm already planning to see it again on Sunday (IMAX, even! It's our Mother's Day gift; aren't we the sweetest children?) so I'm sure I'll have time to think things over and have some more comments after that.
Weirdly, though, even though I had so much fun watching this movie, I also found myself thinking, "Man, I really wish I could be watching the show!" right in the middle of it. BECAUSE. MAN. I REALLY MISS WATCHING STAR TREK SERIES. Somebody needs to bring it back to the small screen ASAP, because as totally awesome as this film was Trek will always fundamentally be a TV series for me and wahhhh I miss it. :( :( :( Also, total lameness -- it used to be on TVLand like every single day and now it's only on once a week! What gives? Oh how I wish I had the money to splurge on the new Blu-ray sets (and then on a Blu-ray player, hurhur).