bryguy ([info]bryguypgh) wrote,
@ 2009-05-08 23:33:00
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Trek Review
I wanted so much to like this movie. Maybe I wanted it too much. I have to spoil a major plot element to tell you why I didn't like it unfortunately.




Seriously, don't read anymore if you don't want to know stuff. There actually are a few surprises in this film.





The casting was good. The sets and costumes were good. The special effects were... different; not especially better so I don't know why they needed an update for things like beaming, but it was different.

The dialogue was ok, better in the first third of the movie than in the remainder. They kept trying to cram all the familiar characters' catch-phrases in, and it was... indulgent. I suppose they had to do it, I guess I wish I didn't feel so patronized by it.

Oh, and they managed to do product-placement. In a Star Trek movie. Seriously.


At least it wasn't as bad as Phantom Menace. Instead of Jar Jar we got... the old man. It was almost as bad as watching Dick Clark at New Years. Things were going fine until he showed up. Well, not fine exactly, there were massive plot holes explained away by the effects of black holes on space-time, but that's kinda par for the course with Trek I guess.

The villain was lame. Khan was a great villain, hence Wrath of Khan is widely regarded as the best Trek movie. Christopher Lloyd played an amazing Klingon captain. This villain's role was counter to the old saying that there are no small parts only small actors. There was just nothing to him, the flimsiest of pretexts for his murderous ways.

I would give the movie, as viewed, 1 out of 5 stars. If you cut out every scene with the old man, the movie wouldn't make much less sense and it would be way more fun to watch. I'd give it probably 2.5 out of 5 in that case.

Oh, and Scottie's little alien buddy, wth?



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[info]sonbanon
2009-05-09 11:00 am UTC (link)
I'm with you on this one. I wonder if Scottie's alien buddy was for the kids?

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[info]lilostitch
2009-05-09 02:28 pm UTC (link)
I tried posting it this last night, but my computer got all f'd up and the internet connection died.

I actually really liked the movie BUT I never watched the original Star Trek. I watched the next generation a good bit when I was in middle school, but that's it. I only recognized a couple of the catch phrases, since I don't know many of them anyway, and I thought the little alien was funny...I didn't think he had a point, but I thought he was funny.

I do agree that the villain wasn't a very strong villain, but I found the rest of the movie enjoyable enough that I didn't much care. I didn't have much of a problem with the old man, although Leonard Nimoy had very white, very straight teeth. Those have to be dentures. I was distracted thinking about that.

I think that with any movie, when there's a loyalty to a previous version and an expectation that the new version live up, there's bound to be disappointment.

We went last night because we really didn't have anything else to do. I was worried that it would be packed, but it actually wasn't, probably because it was a hockey night in Pgh.

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[info]bryguypgh
2009-05-09 06:00 pm UTC (link)
Watching the original didn't have much to do with whether I liked it or not. If anything, I thought the cast did quite a good job channeling the older versions of themselves. It was just the spectacle of old, old, old Leonard shepherding the new generation into their own nonsensical time-space continuum plot hole that bothered me. Had that taken 5 minutes of the movie I would have looked past it. He doddered on for like an hour. He even broke up the biggest action scene in the whole movie to appear!

I generally liked ZQ as Spock, but it just now occurred to me what was wrong about it. Leonard Nimoy as Spock never smirked. It was just beneath the dignity of Spock to do so. ZQ has to go to great pains NOT to smirk, it's just the way his face is shaped.

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[info]sonbanon
2009-05-10 01:45 am UTC (link)
I didn't like ZQ as Spock because it wasn't ZQ as Spock; it was Sylar coming to the Halloween party dressed up like Spock.

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[info]bryguypgh
2009-05-10 04:30 am UTC (link)
I bet dollars to donuts Sylar shows up at a Trek Convention dressed as Spock in Heroes next season.

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[info]sonbanon
2009-05-10 10:35 am UTC (link)
Now that he's touched Spock he can simply shapeshift.

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