@frimmel:
Well we obviously didn’t see the same movie. JJ Trek was the biggest crap fest of the summer. Would you like me to trash it on a purely cinematic level or on a long time fan of Trek level?
Potential spoiler alert below
Also, I’m a new poster, so all due respect is really intended, I don’t mean to come off as a jerk, but I would like to defend this movie, also no desire to start a big debate, so I will say what I will, and if you feel like you would want to respond that is fine, but I’ll leave it at that in order to not go too far off topic.
Haha, I’m aware a lot of lifelong trek fans were dissappointed but I don’t know why. I love star trek. My favorite series is certainly DS9. I’ve literally have seen every episode that has been aired, all the movies too. (Thanks Spike syndication for the biggest chunk of that! And no thanks for CSI :P ) I’m certainly no fair weather trek fan or newb fan. I am just shy of 23 years old btw, so I wasn’t around for TOS when it first aired, I’m sure that’s important for most die hard trek fans to establish. I’m sorry I am saying all this but as a new poster I thought it was helpful to know who your talking to.
I’m sorry to see you didn’t like the film. I thought it was massively entertaining. It was a very sleek looking movie with a sexy cast (a first for trek really, minus the 1 obligatory hottie per series). It had a good pace, comic relief that wasn’t forced, plenty of nice nods to TOS, an amazing soundtrack, good FX that weren’t overbearing, good acting, and some emotionally stirring scenes as well. Also it had a lot of motion, most trek is largely dialogue driven and has very little movement on the screen, they’re often more like plays than movies, which is great! I love all trek, but its certainly nice to see our beloved characters in more than one light. The cinematography looked good to me. Each shot, all the sets, and the costumes all seem very carefully planned out to put evocative images on the screen.
The plot was something that is clearly subjective, but I must say that I liked it. While they used a pretty cheesy device to set up a semi-alternate trek universe/timeline, that was okay b/c imho it was in fact trekky of them, much of the series episode’s plots were easily as cheesy :P. Also, this film did the grunt work necessary to set up a whole series of films with this cast and setting that is just as legitimate as any other trek series, and borrows the best elements of TOS while also not being saddled down with canon and detail that is half a century old now!
But most importantly, the greatest accomplishment of this film, and the ironically the one reason why I think the real indignation and enmity amongst die hard trek fans exists towards it, is that it made the series accessible for the FIRST time to non trek fans. Someone who doesn’t know what trek is, or hasn’t seen the series can go see it and enjoy it. I don’t think that would be true even of First Contact. It was simultaneously not weighed down with plot that you had to be an “insider” to truly enjoy while still containing plenty of little bits and bobs that only trek fans would even pick up on, and the general audience was none the worse for missing.
Simply put, if you check your geeky baggage at the door when you see this movie, you will likely enjoy it very much and have a great time. That’s what a great movie really is to me.
