April 2009

Well, I got to see last Sunday night the new Star Trek movie that comes out in a week and a half.
It was good, entertaining, but I don’t see why people are what all the fuss is about really.

The movie had a short message before it by J.J. Abrams, nothing major was said in it so don’t worry.

I should point out that I’m no Trek fan per se.

For the past few months, I have been watching TOS (The Original Series) episodes as well as a couple of the first movies. I also, just before seeing the new movie, watched a few TNG (The Next Generation) episodes as well as the Nemesis movie to prepare myself for the prequel 4-part comic that came out before Star Trek.
Anyway, given that I knew virtually nothing about Trek a year ago, I wanted to prepare and familiarize myself a bit with the Trek ‘verse.

For the Trek newbies out there, don’t worry, I should very soon make a post about stuff you should know/may want to watch to prepare for the new movie.

I must warn you guys right now: Massive spoilers ahead about the new Star Trek movie (with pics).
So if you want to stay un-spoiled, don’t look!

Now, back to the actual movie.

First, like with Watchmen, the soundtrack choice was somewhat confusing and lame.
Remember this scene from the trailer:

Now add the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage on it and you get the idea.

There’s also a similar weird music choice later in the movie.
I won’t say where just to keep your surprised laugh when you see/hear it.

Speaking of, the product placement was also pretty ridiculous.
A futuristic Nokia dashboard inside a vintage Corvette? Really?

Michael Giacchino’s score however, as always, was epic.

Regarding the actors:
They all seemed to fare fine by trying to emulate their predecessors’ way of speaking.
Quinto pulls off a great Spock while Chris Pine manages to channel the Shatner/Kirk energy.
Anton Yelchin’s russian accent however felt really forced, so I was taken a bit aback by his performance after having seen him play a few years ago Byrd Huff in Huff as well as Zack Mazursky in Alpha Dog.

Also, I really felt the focus of the movie was on Kirk and Spock and certainly not on the rest of the Enterprise crew.
Pegg has 150 seconds of screen time (give or take a few), including this scene:

Cho has a cool action sequence.

And Yelchin saves the day.

Although they all have their moments to shine, they are all really background characters in this movie at best.

Speaking of pointless characters, let’s talk about Spock’s mother for a second here.
Winona Ryder playing the mom was a poor choice. She looks so young she could be Spock’s sister.
Also, her role seems to be more in the realm of a cameo appearance than anything else.
She dies pretty quickly (more on that in a minute), so why hire her for so little time?

As for the movie’s visuals:
Remember how Snyder over-uses his pseudo-cool slow motion shots?
Well lens flares are the new slow-mo shots, only with JJ.
If you’ve seen Fringe you know what I’m talking about: those blue-ish flares that blind you.
Well JJ loves those so much that he uses them almost every scene in the Trek movie.

Abrams even admitted recently that they were “ridiculous”:

I know there are certain shots where even I watch and think, “Oh that’s ridiculous, that was too many.”

Funny how, looking back, the various trailers are incredibly spoilery.
You can pretty much guess everything that happens in the movie based on the two trailers.
Hell, all the pics here are coming from the trailers.

Now, let’s talk about the really major stuff that bothers me.
I’m of course talking about this:

If you can’t guess the planet, it’s Vulcan.

Yup, Vulcan implodes, for good, killing almost every single Vulcan in the process.
Only 10,000 or so of them are left in the entire universe says Spock.
Talk about drastic changes to the franchise…

First, Spock’s mother dies, then his entire race.
Yeah, they’re really throwing the rule book out the window.

The Vulcans going almost extinct and only having 10,000ish of their own left reminded me of another show: Battlestar Galactica.
Future-Spock helping the last Vulcans is also kind of ridiculous in my book, but whatever.

Ultimately, since the movie is an alternate timeline, they can do what they want.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with their new take on the franchise.
What I’m mostly annoyed about however is the fact that all the new Trek movies from now on will be a prolongation of this new timeline.
There is already a sequel on its way, and I’m thinking we might get a trilogy at least, if not 6 movies (like Spider-Man)!
One might even wonder if there’s going to be a new show.
Anyway, looks like it’s gonna have to be Bad Robot/JJ’s way, or the highway.

They said they wanted to introduce Trek to a new generation, but the truth is that the new generation that will first and foremost watch this movie won’t bother seeing all the other movies and shows that came prior to it since those have now become pointless and obsolete due to the drastic changes.

Crossing off everything that comes after James T. Kirk’s birth basically nullifies what came prior to this movie.
i.e.: every single Star Trek movie or show (except Enterprise).

Looks like I hated this movie right?
Actually, wrong.
I enjoyed this movie, it was fairly entertaining (which Bad Robot prods often are).
I also find interesting the fact that this is more or less the only Bad Robot production where there are no major questions/mysteries left at the end.

If you’re looking for a somewhat mindless entertaining movie, then go for it.
I still don’t get why everyone is jizzing their pants over it though.

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