Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine New Star Trek! (spoilers possible in subsequent posts)

Go and see this movie. It was very entertaining. Though certain choices in plot are quite jarring for classic trek fans.

Of course since this is a legion board you guys will all be familiar with similar type actions in the reboots of LSH.

The characters are familiar though many things are not. There is one surprising choice of romantic couples, it was amusing. Lot's of nods to the classic Trek continuity though.

I'm definitely planning on seeing it, but I have to admit, when I say this I couldn't help think about the Legion/the state of mainstream comics in general.

on the Onion.

I'm not the biggest Trek fan (barely actually) but I'm super-excited about this. It looks really good...maybe best film of the summer so far.

If traditionalist fans hate it, of course, well good, I hate those type of people

I purposely went to see it in the non fanboy friendly theatre. Premium pricing, reserved seats, no one under 19 allowed because there's in seat alcohol service, very small screening room and small screen make the fan boys run in terror.

Having seen it, I think it's set a very high bar for best action movie of the summer.

I saw the IMAX version. Awesome!

I'm a HUGEMONGOUS "original Trek" geek and this has me ALL EXCITED! All other versions and variations suck!* Shatner kicks your grampa's ASS!

I'm hoping we also see young, sexy versions of such 3rd-tier characters as Yeoman Rand, Nurse Chapel and Lt. Gallaway!


*Your opinion may vary, and keep in mind I never gave those other versions a shot, except ENTERPRISE with the hot Vulcan chick and Quantum Leap guy, and I *almost* got into it but then it was cancelled!

So do the females get to wear pants this time around? I might actually go and see it if the answer is "yes."

NO!!! Short skirts are the future! See any silver-age LSH for more proof!

For more proof of my Trekgeekdom-- I got the KIRK Burger King glass. Now I must collect the rest. And I haven't even SEEN the thing yet!

Curiosity: Anyone know how long the film clocks in at?

MLLASH wrote:

Quote

NO!!! Short skirts are the future! See any silver-age LSH for more proof!

[Wants to read that legendary fanfic where the Enterprise is overrun by anarchists who all wonder "Why are all those women running around pants-less ?"]

Less than 2 hours and 15.

Thanks! Can't wait!

I don't consider myself a Trekker, I consider myself a movie buff who loves Trek II (Wrath of Khan) and Trek VI (The Undiscovered Country).

The movie is a feast for the eyes, but it was made by a creative team who were half Trekkers and half Trek skeptics, and it shows. There was too much post-ironic winking in the movie's tone and in the performances of the younger cast members (Karl Urban as Bones the notable exception), leaving the veterans (Bruce Greenwood as Pike, Ben Cross as Spock's father, and of course, L...nah, I won't spoil it) to pick up the slack.

The most disappointing thing, even moreso than the miniskirts, is that while J.J. Abrams gave us great female characters in the TV show Alias, he doesn't give us a single interesting female character here. Winona Ryder as Spock's mother, in cheesy middle-age latex, is particularly painful to watch.

Worst of all, though, is that Eric Bana's Nero isn't fit to shine the shoes of Ricardo Montalban's Khan or Christopher Plummer's Chang.

For the visuals, pacing, and action, though, I'll give the movie an overall grade of B minus.

i agree with Stealth Karl Urban was to me the standout amongst the cast as McCoy and a close 2nd was Simon Pegg as Scotty he needed more screen time and Nero was a weak villian not enough screen time or back story on him to even feel sorry for him as his whole drive was revenge.
my non Trek friends that i went with said it was Star Trek meets Star Wars and i didn't get that vibe just because it had more action i said it was more like Star Trek with a BSG feel to it especailly in the space battles.

and Stealth Uhura's Orion roommate was interesting,..but that was for purly other reasons,...

LOL

Oddly enough, the Orion was played by Alias alumna Rachel Nichols.

I'll wait for the weekend crowds to pass. Basically, I just want to see the Enterprise flying around, but had/have high hopes that the movie overall would be good. Miniskirts seem kinda silly, but no kilt on Scotty?

Simon Pegg wore a kilt to the premier... does that count?

had a lazy Saturday so i went to go see it again.
wow i must admit i was never much of a Alias fanso Rachel Nichols was totally off my radar but she did ad an amount of "eye candy" to the film.

I just came from watching the film, and here are my categorized impressions. I'll try to hide SPOILERS as much as possible, but be forewarned . . .

1. The Reboot
If it had to happen--and it did, since we'll never have another Star Trek film with the original cast--this was a very successful attempt. Some of the early revelations were quite jarring, but they eventually do make sense (or at least most of them do). Think Zero Hour or the last LSH reboot with a particular Trek character serving in the Shikari role. I'm a firm believer in maintaining the histories of fictional universes, but even such histories have to take a back seat to telling a good story. For the most part, Star Trek tells a good story, and the reboot honors what has gone before, or at least the most important aspects of it.

2. The New Actors
The only one I found truly annoying and false was Chekov. His Russian accent was too forced, and his role as the child prodigy made him even more unbelievable. (Think Wesley Crusher with a fake accent.) On the other hand, Karl Urban shines as McCoy most of the time--even his curmudgeonly irritability wore thin after awhile. Most of the others were tolerable; I gradually warmed up to Chris Pine as Kirk, but only about halfway through the movie. Zachary Quinto lacks Spock's deep, resonant voice, as one reviewer pointed out, but otherwise evokes the Vulcan's personality. Sulu is well played, but Uhura, disappointingly, has little to do except serve as a running joke regarding her first name, and Scotty is too much of a blowhard.

There is a danger in actors trying too hard to portray characters with already well-known personalities. If the franchise continues, at what point will they be allowed to interpret the characters in their own ways? And if they are allowed, will the characters emerge as false in the eyes of fans? It's too soon to tell, obviously, but for much of the film, I had the feeling that I was watching actors portraying the characters instead of the characters themselves.

3. Plot
Much of the plot is formulaic--it involves time travel, the Romulans, and yet another attempt to destroy the earth. That said, there were several genuine surprises which I won't reveal here. Plots are usually secondary in ST, anyway; what carries the franchise is the relationships among the characters, as well as science fiction concepts and humanitarian themes. On at least two of these three, the film delivers.

4. Themes
There really are no major themes or explorations of humanity's role in the galaxy, as the best of Trek films have incorporated. But some old themes are revisited, such as Kirk and Spock's friendship and the complementarity of logic and emotions. I suppose a larger theme would be the passing of the torch and starting anew, as suggested by the meeting of two (?) characters. But ST has passed the torch so many times before that this approach doesn't add anything new.

5. Overall judgment
I went into the film with ambivalent feelings. My deep reservations about new actors taking over beloved roles were balanced by wanting to give the new film a chance. Star Trek mostly succeeds, but it is flawed in significant ways. I think I would have been more impressed by a true prequel of Kirk and Spock's first meeting or Kirk's days at the academy than a "reboot" that tried to fit in so many Trek characters and situations all at once. Of course, it would probably have taken three or four films to get us to the point where we encountered the characters in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Films don't work like TV series, and some changes were to be expected. Since we are never going to have another film with the original cast, I'm more willing to accept these changes than I was the last Legion reboot. All in all, a good story is what counts, and ST, once again, delivered. For me, this was the most enjoyable film in the series since "First Contact."

Just saw it too, with the 6-year old, who seemed to really enjoy it. Now we are playing with the toys, which I had been hiding in the back of the closet until after the movie. The movie really turns on the Kirk and (young) Spock characters, and the actors and script really work perfectly for that. I love Leonard Nimoy, but I would have preferred more Quinto and less Nimoy (heresy!). The movie is exciting, and the characters are almost uniformly excellent (Pike! Pike! Pike!) I may say more later, but as a Trek fan from birth (literally), I don't think I could be much happier.

I went in with a lot of reservations, but really loved it.

yes, there are tins for both die-hards to complain about, and things for astrophysics buffs to wince out, but the story works and I found the actors and characters quite engaging.

While the Kirk/Spock dynamic was the core, it had to be - I expected no less. Could more have been done with the others? Of course... but each of the main cast had integral parts (much more so than most of the TNG cast in the last 4 movies), enough to give us a feel for them and look forward to more.

I felt this cast had chemistry, and even though they had to start out filling the classic cast's shoes, I look forward to seeing them flesh out the roles for themselves.

I was previously leery of a 'reboot,' but it worked - and the one link to the old timeline really helps reinforce that in a counterintuitive sort of way.

Hmmm.

Well, my wife is the one that wanted to go see the movie, and I made it her mother's day gift. I like the franchise okay. Its not the greatest to me, its not the worst.

I have a lot of bruised ribs this morning from all the elbowing that my wife gave me during the movie. Each time a cast member or an "iconic" moment was played, here came an elbow to let me know about it. She was as giddy as a schoolgirl.

Okay, Bana....how does this guy continue to get work? He's like white bread toast without the flavor. He doesn't come across as truly menacing, and there are several times where he is supposed to run where it looks like he's tiptoeing...whats up with that?

Iconic moments: Okay, we've all seen the previews of "Kirk takes the chair"...no spoiler there. But, it's kinda shot by the joke just a few minutes before in the movie.

Kirk and McCoy...very humorous bits between the two. Liked them. They worked when the two are playing off each other and forget the attempts to ape their predecessors.

McCoy: Karl Urban is one hell of an actor. Whoever decided to try and have him ape DeForest Kelley's way's of talking...shouldn't have. It was jarring throughout the entire movie. Urban is good enough to find his own way that would have been close but not landing in the land of stilted parody.

Quinto/Spock: nice reveal about the character's early years, well played out. Needs more...seasoning, more timbre to the personallity. With that, he'll be fine.

Uhura: a little on the skinny side for my tastes. Ms. Nichols is a tough act to follow. Nice reveal about her as well.

Scotty: You got simon pegg in your movie and you show him...what...five minutes? Dumbass.

Sulu: a capable replacement, a little bit of light fencing...collapsable sword...Hey, your white castle partner gets to be a bad guy in the superman atrocity, at least you get more than two speaking lines and get to stab a dude in the back....and aren't killed off. Congrats.

Kirk: the guy did okay. they let him riff on Shatner's groove a little, and then tried to play him pretty straight. I thought the cockyness was a little forced, whereas shatners bravado was natural, which is probably why he was disliked by his castmates, hunh? Plus, he got to get it on with She-Hulk. Very nice.

As a reboot, I'd say it wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst. As a movie, the visual effects were really where the money went and were great, but nothing new for the franchise.

I really freakin hate "shaky cam" movies where they try to make everything more exciting by having the guy with the cam "skake". If i wanted jumpy, blurred vision, I'd try to read books up close again. It gives me a damn headache. Stop it. Just...stop.

Overall, it was a nice movie, a nice reboot...really, just....nice.

Diehards will tend to love or hate it I expect based on their varying personal attachments and personal desires for it. But, objectively speaking as someone that doesn't care one way or the other, I'd give it a solid B.

Quick question for anyone....The romulan ship was supposed to be coming out of the wormhole that was like a "lightning storm in space" right? So, it hangs out in outer space for 27 years waiting to attack again. So, why was there a "lightning storm in space" message for Uhura to intercept? The storm generated the lightning, not the ship. Just a thought.

It was the second ship coming from the future that caused the lightning storm. They captured the ship from the future, destroyed the investigating klingons, marooned the ambassador and went to vulcan in the span of a few days.

The 27 years thing is a problem. They apparently sat around waiting for Spock-Prime (yes that's what the net is calling him). But we can infer they spent the time as pirates, doing some mining, calculating when and where he would appear and preparing their plan which they probably had some trouble with since they are a crew of hard hat miners.

I really liked the Pike character. Guy must have some bad karma since he's gotten tortured in his two appearances. The visual homage to his only other appearance at the final ceremony was cute. Hope they keep the character around. The fact he's better off in the new version balances out that Kirk and Spock have more tragic back stories.

Okay here's my problem. What millitary has a huge fleet, but it's half its navy on vacation far from the base so they have to staff their fleet with cadets?

I have to say I didn't see the post-ironic winking stealth refers to. I think they went out of their way to avoid the most obvious opportunties there. McCoy doesn't say "he's dead, Jim." Nor does he really say "I'm a doctor, not <insert profession>." He comes close, but it's a natural line for the story at that point. Pine doesn't staccato/syncopate once, nor does he give a grandiose, self-congratulatory soliloquy. Quinto doesn't once say "interesting" or "fascinating." Pegg's "givin' it all she's got" actually fits the moment to a tee, and isn't lingered over for even a nano-second for post-ironic winking. Sulu's "fencing" is in fact some serious katana sword play, so while it's a nod to the original, it's hardly post-ironic and camp. Instead, it's kinda bad-a$$. The closest to the post-irony I saw was Chekov having to pronounce "v" correctly. It was genuinely funny (as was "nuclear wessels" in STIV), and let's face it, the v-chewing Ukrainian accent (as Indiana Jones would identify it) was perhaps THE defining Chekov characteristic, along with screaming like a girl (sorry, ladies). At the same time, Chekov genuinely saves the day at least twice, and reveals himself to be not just a child prodigy, but command material in the making. Again, I thought the new actors really outshone Nimoy (heresy!), who's delivery is alternately too wooden or too sentimental. His best scene is his very last in the movie, overlooking the Academy auditorium, where for the first time we REALLY sense the passing of the torch from the old to the new (kudos to cinematography and lighting for that beautiful moment). To be fair to Nimoy, it's possible the exposition-heavy parts of the story he was given would be tough to handle for anyone.

I appreciate Stealth's complaint about women characters, but you're fighting an original set of characters with only 1.5 recurring female roles. And if you had introduced a new character to balance the genders, you would have heard holy heck from fans for short changing the "real" characters (and it's a valid gripe). But again, I don't understand the complaint very well, mainly because Zoe Saldana's awesome Uhura has more screen time and more centrality to the characters and story in this movie than Nichelle Nichols had in all the previous films combined. She totally puts Kirk in his place (go, girl!), she totally necks with <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Spock</span></span> on the transporter pad, and she decodes the information necessary to save the Enterprise from a trap! I mean, isn't that pretty awesome, especialy given the character started out as the ship's switchboard operator?!?!

I really wish we had scene more of Ryder as Amanda, because I found her a fantastic replacement for Jane Wyatt. But, for the few moments she did have, you really GOT that she loves Spock fully, and that Spock KNOWS that and returns it. It makes the events of the film <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Amanda's death in the destruction of Vulcan</span></span> actually very shocking and moving. I had no idea it was coming, it hit me hard, and it made the Spock character as real to me as he has ever been. Here is a creature from a race of beings who, as the central organizing principle of their culture, supress emotion and frown on it. Yet he is half-human, and has this truly singular gift of a human mother who unreservedly expresses her love for him, <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> and she dies before his eyes.</span></span> His experience in this movie sets up wonderful dramatic possibilities for future films, as it gives him an even stronger motivation for figuring out the right balance between logic and emotion. In the like 3rd episode of the TOS, "Naked Time," we saw a Spock whose emotions were unbrideled by an alien toxin, weeping over his mother in the past tense. It was a fantastic scene, and as much as I loved D.C. Fontana's "Journey to Babel" and all the wonderful stuff that came after with Spock's parents, I never forgot the pathos of that early series episode and it's implication that it was "too late" for Spock to tell his mother that he loved her. Well done, Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman for mining all that rich material and bringing new life to it.

I agree, Doub. the events surrounding your second spoiler really catches one off-guard, because even with the time-manip elements, we really didn't expect that.

And I am glad we will/should be spared the melodrama of Nurse Chappelle trying to get Spock to open up. A doer not a fawner got there first.

My gripes were more technical. Given the proximity of the ice planet to the black hole, everyone should have been rushing to get away. When one considers how much of a head-start the Enterprise had while the whole ice planet bit was happening, I'd have rather seen a faster ship rigged (you know he coulda had it well in place, with nothing better to do for six months standed there) before the beam-aboard. If interwarp transport was really that easy over such am immense distance, they'd barely need ships.

Re: the bad guys ship: if it really was amn innocent mining ship going after Spock Prime, how was it so armed to the teeth vs. the Kelvin? okay, maybe he lied.

some of the black hole stuff didn't really work - a supernova, if I recall, should result in a black hole anyway, so if the planet was alteady fried, why not just let nature take its course?

I agree re: the cadets, but I assumed (1) like McCoy's predecessor and the guy Uhura took over from, there were some older pros on board, and (2) the set of eight new ships was a significant expansion of the fleet. While there would have been some old pros around, the sheer scope of the expansion required a lot of newbies to be deployed. With the resof of the fleet off in the Laurentian system, and the sudden emergency, one makes do with who one has available. At least it was a half-explanation for the sheer number of newbies.

Re: female characters: The door is wide open for more, but I agree with doub it would have been a bit much to both intro this new cast taking up the old roles and add in new roles, too. But since this is a reboot, there is plenty of opportunity to add - or to retune Chappelle, Rand or others into more versatile characters.

This Uhura is one you can actually believe is (or will be) 4th in command, as well. More Nichelle never got her due back in the day - the one time Kirk, Spock and Scottie were all off-bridge soem red-shirt took the helm.