Well, My Mom Loved the New Star Trek Movie…
By stephanie - Saturday, May 30th, 2009
I am visiting my mom and she suggested that we go check out Star Trek at the theater – much to my shock, since she’s never been into sci-fi. I hadn’t gotten around to seeing it yet so I was very pleased that mom wanted to go. She loved it! She found it to be very entertaining and had a great time. A female friend of mine who is also not into sci-fi at all also just recommended the new Star Trek movie on Facebook.
And that, I think, is the greatest strength of this new Trek – it brings in people who are not sci-fi fans, particularly women, it seems. So on that front, this movie is a huge success.
Obviously, if you are a real Trek fan, you’ll know that quite a few Trekkers/Trekkies are seriously pissed off about it. Rebooting the entire Trek universe, and wiping out 40 years of Canon? Spock and Uhuru? Vulcan gone? Whaaaat???
I went into the movie totally fresh, having avoided reading any reviews of it until I’d seen it. I had no idea it was a reboot. I was sitting there scratching my head as to why Chekov was already onboard the Enterprise when finally the plot revealed that this was an alternative timeline. (I’m not so up on Trek Canon that I remembered whether Kirk’s father was alive or not.)
I totally expected everything to “reset” back to normal at the end of the film, and I was blown away when they didn’t. (This surprised my mom too!) But actually, I’d say that was one of the better aspects of the film. Having seen the Standard Star Trek Timeline Reset Plot waaaaayyyy too many times at this point (especially on Voyager), I was glad someone finally had the balls to keep things screwed up and different.
My mom and I have decided this “reboot” is not actually wiping out all the stuff that happened to the “original” Kirk and crew, but it is rather an alternative or parallel universe that the old Spock is now stuck in. Otherwise, had the original universe been wiped clean, old Spock would have disappeared as in Back to the Future. (As my mom explained, the old timeline still has to exist for the old Spock to continue existing, it is only “logical,” and since he is a Vulcan, it has to be based on logic! You go, Mom!)
Given that I’m willing to accept that this new Trek does not in any way negate Original Trek, I’m a bit more forgiving than some Trek fans over this new timeline and the events thereof (including the Spock and Uhuru thing, which will either be annoying or interesting in future sequels).
So putting that big huge issue aside, here’s my take on the rest of the film:
Loved the casting for the new Kirk and Spock – both were fantastic, and cute I might add so good eye candy for the ladies.
New McCoy kicked ass, but I wished he had some better lines in parts.
I liked the new Scottie, though some complained he was too silly…I still liked him. I was just confused as to how he got immediately promoted to Chief Engineer once arriving on the Enterprise. Where’d the original one go?
New Sulu was OK…they didn’t give him much to work with so I can’t really judge. I did love his unfolding sword though. More of that, please!
New Chekov…umm…yeah, not my favorite. Chekov was supposed to be the young hottie for the girls watching the orignal Star Trek, modeled after the Beatles and the Monkees. This new Chekov looked like he had been living in a cave all his life and had never seen sunlight. Unappealing.
New Uhuru: Pretty, but not bringing the presence that Nichelle Nichols had.
Plotwise, the writing was pretty poor, especially for a J.J. Abrams project, who has been so meticulous with Lost that I expect much more from him. But the action was definitely entertaining and the pace was quick, so you didn’t have time while watching to ponder the numerous inconsistencies and ridiculous events (such as Kirk getting dumped off at the very planet Old Spock was on). Watching all the machinations they went through to get all the characters together was downright painful at times.
Otherwise, I was entertained and enjoyed it, and felt it was certainly better than some of the worse Next Generation films. (What about that awful one where they go to the planet with eternal life? That was certainly underwhelming.)
The brightest spot for me was the appearance of Leonard Nimoy as Old Spock. Once he started speaking, I was reminded how good the original cast was. Nimoy brought so much to the screen with his performance, even at his advanced age. As good as the young Spock was, he was definitely served by Nimoy.
Overall, I give this film at B+ – to me it’s not the worst Trek movie ever but it’s definitely no Wrath of Khan.
I think that future installments (as I’m sure there will be) will actually be much better. We won’t have to deal with the awkward introductions and whatnot to get the crew together. We’ll just have our new Kirk at the helm, galavanting around the galaxy with his intense blue eyes (loved those blue eyes – sorry Shatner).
Not really true Trek, but honestly? They could have done a lot worse. I remember how upset I was when Next Generation came out. I originally hated that with a passion. This is a million times better than that first Next Generation episode, so perhaps they’ll improve with the next film and we can start over again with this being the ODD number of the new Trek movies, and number two, the EVEN number, will be good. (That’s our Trek movie luck, right?)
We can only hope.
May 31st, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Well as I have been reading some of the letters and blogs, and as any of you that have seen my letters on so many web sights know I did not like this film. As I’ve been called I have to admit there is some proof to the fact that I’m an old die hard STICK IN THE MUD fan of Star Trek. The biggest problem I’ve got with the film is that it completely goes against Star Trek canon. As some people agree with me, some do not. So I think we both can come up with a solution that will appease both new fans of this film and us die hard STICK IN THE MUDS. We die hards cant do it alone so we need you new fans help and the best part about it is any of you that don’t know anything about Star Trek shouldn’t notice a thing anyway.
I purpose introducing characters that are not considered canon but are still known to us old STICK IN THE MUDS. As well as some we didn’t get to know real well and for those of you that don’t know what I mean here some names to help you out.
ROBERT APRIL he was suppose to be the Enterprises first Captain before Pike and was the only character ever played by Gene Rodenberry himself
AREX he was a navigator in the animated Star Trek and had six limbs. With new C.G.I. he could be created vary easily
WILL DECKER he was killed in the first movie but was suppose to be in the second T.V. show witch never happened.
ILIA also killed in the first movie
M’RESS also from the animated Star Trek she was of a cat like race easy to create now
I feel a letter writing campaign would help with this and then maybe you new fan and us old STICK IN THE MUDS can both enjoy the ride the next film takes us on
July 16th, 2009 at 5:00 am
It was a great, fun ride – exactly what Star Trek often should be.
It may not have had the heavy-handed morality lesson, and that’s not a bad thing for the opening movie. The franchise is established.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see more morality appear in later movies in the series.