Star Trek
Went to see the new Star Trek movie tonight with scififreak. Beware spoilers.
Generally, I liked it. I thought it was handled very well. There were scenes that had my rolling my eyes in disbelief and I think more than once I commented on an alternate course of action for the characters to take that would have made more sense but perhaps been less actiony. Still, it was quite intriguing. Some people might complain about it being in an alternate universe, but I think that makes it far superior to what it would have been if it had attempted to just be a prequel. Besides, now they can make many more movies with this cast without being restrained by TV canon. (Or rehashing it.)
I didn't like Quinto's Spock as much as I wanted to, but I still thought he was rather good. Pine's Kirk will probably grow on me, and I didn't dislike him as much as I had expected, ahahaha. I was rather fond of the guy playing McCoy, though I wish he were older. Fortunately, it's a role he can grow into. Uhura was lovely both acting and in looks. I would have liked to have seen more women in the show, though. There were some, but it seemed to be in places I didn't like: Spock's mother (who dies) and a green Orion girl Kirk sleeps with are the ones that come to mind. There were places for a powerful female character (the head of the Vulcan Science council, for instance, or the one giving the speeches at the Starfleet Academy), but they went to men, which I thought was ashame.
Chekov was wonderful and lovely, though I very much missed his Beatle-cut hair. Sulu was great. I laughed at Simon Pegg's Scotty, but I'm not really sure I liked him.
This was very much a movie that introduced the characters and as such had very little time to flesh them out or give any of them a real chance to shine. Even Kirk, Spock and McCoy are kind of on tenterhooks. McCoy doesn't really get to do anything in the movie, which hurts because I feel that despite it now being a "cast ensemble" the Kirk, Spock and McCoy trio needs to be preserved. I had a hard time as well, seeing McCoy at academy at the same time as Kirk (and Spock for that matter). I felt like he and Spock should have already been there, or serving on a ship and joined Kirk later. It gave them more screen time/dynamics at academy this way, but it was also more unrealistic. (McCoy was also picked up in Iowa, as was Uhura, which . . . was weird. Who knew Iowa was such a popular place to recruit cadets?)
I also don't really understand the purpose of the kid!Kirk scene (or why they picked a towhead kid for the role). I didn't mind a bit of "life as a kid" but I felt Kirk's scene went on a bit too long. There's one bit where he's driving recklessly and after a while I sighed and said, "Okay, move it along." I would have much rather cut down/removed that ten minute "pod race" sequence and used it to show Kirk, McCoy and Spock bonding/not bonding at the actual academdy. Short of the session where we saw baby!Spock studying in his little hole, I don't think we got any actual academy antics, just them walking up/down the same flight of stairs... Ah well, small quibbles, really.
My biggest complaint is probably the visual changes. I don't understand why the bridge of the Enterprise had to look so different. I understand updating it, but it was completely unrecogniable which made me sad. I also really don't like the fabric of the new uniforms. They look like they're made of jersey material, and the gold looks green under most lightly. I realize that velour never really made much sense as a practical fabric for a uniform, but I still feel like the one they went with is too dissimilar.
But Leonard Nimoy was awesome (even though Kirk randomly falling into his cave and finding him was absurd, as was the idea that Scotty was on the moon and seemed to have no idea about Vulcan being destroyed. Also, why destroy Vulcan? Seemed sort of pointless in the long-term, IMO. Just to give Spock some angst? Geez. Sorry, tangent). It was very action packed and there were several times where I was like, "ho shit that's awesome." Mostly visual effects that I thought were done well. There's a scene of the Enterprise rising up out of the atmosphere of Titan with Saturn framed in the back of it that was cool, and one where the ship comes in guns blazing that looked far more awesome than anything they could ever pull off in the original series.
I didn't feel a lot of slash potential between any of the characters, unfortunately, though I'm sure there are shout outs enough to please the Kirk/Spock and Spock/McCoy fans. (I also saw a few Kirk/McCoy moments, but I know I'm the only one in the world to ever ship that so, sigh.) I think the ones with the most potential are old!Spock/Kirk, but I like this Kirk less than Shatner (no, really...), so it interests me less. I'd be far more interested in old!Spock's side of things, and how being old affects his emotions, especially getting to see Kirk again after all these years. (And McCoy, who they didn't show him talking to in the movie, but who I imagine he met anyway.) Lots of potential for that, in fic anyway, since he stays. The was unexpected Spock/Uhura, though, which I don't actually mind. Also, it gave me the thoughts of old!Spock/old!T'Pol, who'd be about his age now, ahahahaah. Yay crack.
They also beamed Porthos (or another of Archer's beagles) to another planet AND LOST HIM. :( All for a joke line. Poor dog. Stupid Scotty. X/ Oh well.
Still, enjoyed it. Highly recommend seeing it. It has more substances than most flashy movies do these days, which is nice, and makes a great platform for future films. My dad asked me to rate it on a scale of one-to-ten and to compare it to another movie that I felt it was similar to. My answer was a 7.5 and that I found it similar to Starship Troopers. It's got a very similar vibe, and is as different from the Trek TV series as Starship Troopers is from the novel. (They even have a "space jump," which was very Starship Troopers to me.)
Okay, want to hear all your thoughts now!
All in all, it mostly makes me want to watch some more DS9. But not tonight. I am too tired.
Generally, I liked it. I thought it was handled very well. There were scenes that had my rolling my eyes in disbelief and I think more than once I commented on an alternate course of action for the characters to take that would have made more sense but perhaps been less actiony. Still, it was quite intriguing. Some people might complain about it being in an alternate universe, but I think that makes it far superior to what it would have been if it had attempted to just be a prequel. Besides, now they can make many more movies with this cast without being restrained by TV canon. (Or rehashing it.)
I didn't like Quinto's Spock as much as I wanted to, but I still thought he was rather good. Pine's Kirk will probably grow on me, and I didn't dislike him as much as I had expected, ahahaha. I was rather fond of the guy playing McCoy, though I wish he were older. Fortunately, it's a role he can grow into. Uhura was lovely both acting and in looks. I would have liked to have seen more women in the show, though. There were some, but it seemed to be in places I didn't like: Spock's mother (who dies) and a green Orion girl Kirk sleeps with are the ones that come to mind. There were places for a powerful female character (the head of the Vulcan Science council, for instance, or the one giving the speeches at the Starfleet Academy), but they went to men, which I thought was ashame.
Chekov was wonderful and lovely, though I very much missed his Beatle-cut hair. Sulu was great. I laughed at Simon Pegg's Scotty, but I'm not really sure I liked him.
This was very much a movie that introduced the characters and as such had very little time to flesh them out or give any of them a real chance to shine. Even Kirk, Spock and McCoy are kind of on tenterhooks. McCoy doesn't really get to do anything in the movie, which hurts because I feel that despite it now being a "cast ensemble" the Kirk, Spock and McCoy trio needs to be preserved. I had a hard time as well, seeing McCoy at academy at the same time as Kirk (and Spock for that matter). I felt like he and Spock should have already been there, or serving on a ship and joined Kirk later. It gave them more screen time/dynamics at academy this way, but it was also more unrealistic. (McCoy was also picked up in Iowa, as was Uhura, which . . . was weird. Who knew Iowa was such a popular place to recruit cadets?)
I also don't really understand the purpose of the kid!Kirk scene (or why they picked a towhead kid for the role). I didn't mind a bit of "life as a kid" but I felt Kirk's scene went on a bit too long. There's one bit where he's driving recklessly and after a while I sighed and said, "Okay, move it along." I would have much rather cut down/removed that ten minute "pod race" sequence and used it to show Kirk, McCoy and Spock bonding/not bonding at the actual academdy. Short of the session where we saw baby!Spock studying in his little hole, I don't think we got any actual academy antics, just them walking up/down the same flight of stairs... Ah well, small quibbles, really.
My biggest complaint is probably the visual changes. I don't understand why the bridge of the Enterprise had to look so different. I understand updating it, but it was completely unrecogniable which made me sad. I also really don't like the fabric of the new uniforms. They look like they're made of jersey material, and the gold looks green under most lightly. I realize that velour never really made much sense as a practical fabric for a uniform, but I still feel like the one they went with is too dissimilar.
But Leonard Nimoy was awesome (even though Kirk randomly falling into his cave and finding him was absurd, as was the idea that Scotty was on the moon and seemed to have no idea about Vulcan being destroyed. Also, why destroy Vulcan? Seemed sort of pointless in the long-term, IMO. Just to give Spock some angst? Geez. Sorry, tangent). It was very action packed and there were several times where I was like, "ho shit that's awesome." Mostly visual effects that I thought were done well. There's a scene of the Enterprise rising up out of the atmosphere of Titan with Saturn framed in the back of it that was cool, and one where the ship comes in guns blazing that looked far more awesome than anything they could ever pull off in the original series.
I didn't feel a lot of slash potential between any of the characters, unfortunately, though I'm sure there are shout outs enough to please the Kirk/Spock and Spock/McCoy fans. (I also saw a few Kirk/McCoy moments, but I know I'm the only one in the world to ever ship that so, sigh.) I think the ones with the most potential are old!Spock/Kirk, but I like this Kirk less than Shatner (no, really...), so it interests me less. I'd be far more interested in old!Spock's side of things, and how being old affects his emotions, especially getting to see Kirk again after all these years. (And McCoy, who they didn't show him talking to in the movie, but who I imagine he met anyway.) Lots of potential for that, in fic anyway, since he stays. The was unexpected Spock/Uhura, though, which I don't actually mind. Also, it gave me the thoughts of old!Spock/old!T'Pol, who'd be about his age now, ahahahaah. Yay crack.
They also beamed Porthos (or another of Archer's beagles) to another planet AND LOST HIM. :( All for a joke line. Poor dog. Stupid Scotty. X/ Oh well.
Still, enjoyed it. Highly recommend seeing it. It has more substances than most flashy movies do these days, which is nice, and makes a great platform for future films. My dad asked me to rate it on a scale of one-to-ten and to compare it to another movie that I felt it was similar to. My answer was a 7.5 and that I found it similar to Starship Troopers. It's got a very similar vibe, and is as different from the Trek TV series as Starship Troopers is from the novel. (They even have a "space jump," which was very Starship Troopers to me.)
Okay, want to hear all your thoughts now!
All in all, it mostly makes me want to watch some more DS9. But not tonight. I am too tired.