Star Trek

[tealin]

So ... I [finally] saw it.

Aaaaand it was awesome.

Yes, did you hear that? It had egregious scientific errors and logic gaps and whatever, but it was so much fun I didn't care.


1. All L.A. filmmakers (and actors) intending to make a film that features a frozen wasteland or, indeed, any severe wintry conditions should be required to spend a week in Winnipeg in January. Get a feel for what real cold is like. Familiarize yourself with how it slaps you in the face when you open a door. Learn how to breathe when you can feel every molecule of air freezing the inside of your nose. Wear a hat.

2. Sherlock Holmes quote! [high-five J.J. Abrams]

3. I think someone saw Treasure Planet and thought 'I could do way better than that.' I mean, not the whole thing, but Troubled Daredevil Young Jim and Let's Surf The Explosion From Inside the Black Hole are ... kind of ... familiar.

4. You know what I don't care about? Sound in space. I mean, I do care about it, and yes it was inconsistent in this movie, but every time the choice presented itself – sound or no sound – they went with the choice that would have the most dramatic impact. I respect that.

5. Stranding a 'Scott' on an ice planet ... I like it. Perhaps it was unintentional but I like it anyway.

6. CHARACTERS = YES. Except perhaps Uhura who seemed to be there mostly for the same reasons as Lupin in the last three books of the Harry Potter series: exposition, hugs, and giving other characters motivation. I might find this disappointing but there were so many other really great characters that I ... just ... really don't care. Nice casting, whoever was in charge of casting! (And I don't just say this because they cast Simon Pegg.) I didn't recognize many names, so I hope this movie launches all their careers.

7. A couple times I got distracted by my own thought process about last-minute changes on Frog (the sort of thing my brain can gnaw on for hours, uninterrupted) but the movie pulled me back in. That's how fun it was.

8. A thought occurred to me when I saw Star Wars for the first time, which occurred to me again tonight: I wonder how much a good score that takes itself seriously can counteract what might otherwise be perceived as hokeyness in a movie. Take away the John Williams score and Star Wars is, in many ways, just another corny mid-century scifi flick – if Star Trek did not have Michael Giacchino, would it have had the dramatic integrity that it did?

9. Okay okay okay, you know what's awesome? The new warp ... thing! The way they go 'neeeeooooowwwwww ... PK!' and they just GO! Like, with one or two frames favour just to let you know they're moving forward, but you can feel the force, it's so cool.

10. That little green dude with the wrinkly head could so have been the annoying-voiceover sidekick. But it WASN'T! Mr Abrams, I could kiss you! (... if I were Uhura. Which I am not.)

Comments

[conga-chili.livejournal.com]

OOOH that's where you were! HM and I were looking for you at din din time. Glad you enjoyed it, much more fun than sitting at a desk which I am in right now.

[conga-chili.livejournal.com]

And yes: their snow felt warmer than Winterpeg snow. Or even snow in Vancouver. Plus it never melted, that annoying one on his lip.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Maybe it wasn't real snow; maybe it was some sort of flaky outer space mineral that just looked like snow. Or maybe it was a styrofoam planet! A real styrofoam planet, in a hilarious parody of the corny cheap sets from the original series! ... No?

[soloproject.livejournal.com]

HAHAHHAHA, I was so excited by the sound effects and the lasers and chirping communicators + the whole Dolby Digital Surround sound thing, my cousin and I kept twisting in our seats trying to follow the noises XD Great fun.

YAY FINALLY :D

[putri-nih.livejournal.com]

Re: Snow.
Now that you mention it--considering that Kirk is a guy raised in a mid-western American dessert, shouldn't he be more shocked with the cold...

Re: Scottie
SIMON PEEEEGGGG <3

Re: Uhura
She's probably there for the sexy. (btw what did you think of Sulu or Chekov? I should say, did you see aimo's hilarious Chekov fangirl comic?) Also, romance was kind of...HERES YOUR ROMANCE QUOTA HERE HAPPY NOW. Thoughts?

I LOVE THAT MOVIE THOUGH :D

[renshai.livejournal.com]

Ha! I saw it on Father's Day, and as a veteran of winters from Winnipeg to Calgary and all points in between I spent my time wondering how Spock kept the tips of his ears. My brother, sitting beside me, went "Don't get out of the pod! Did you not look at the weather?!"

Re: YAY FINALLY :D

[putri-nih.livejournal.com]

ALSO OMG BONES :DDD HE IS SO AWESOME.

[infiniteviking]

*SECONDS THAT SO DARNED MUCH* 8DDDD

[infiniteviking]

I saw it twice and McCoy blew me away both times. And it's rejuvenated the fandom and it's shiny and AU and doesn't supplant TOS and has new and interesting territory to explore and EEE AWESOME.

*cough* I liked it, rather. ^___^

[stevie-roch.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I really like the fact that they used the whole multiverse time travel thing to "preserve" the original series, while still being able to use the same characters.

And oh my god Bones.

[leia-grace.livejournal.com]

BONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Time Travel: It'll make your life easier, or else FIENDISHLY COMPLICATED. :)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

He kept making me think of Nathan Fillion.

Re: YAY FINALLY :D

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Actualy Iowa has pretty darn cold winters. In the present. Before global warming turned it into a dusty landscape that may have been somewhere in California because they didn't want to shoot in Iowa, I dunno.

Oddly enough the romance didn't bother me so much, I mean at least it accomplished stuff plot/character-wise and wasn't just doey eyes and gauze filters. And never lasted more than about 3 minutes at a time.

Chekov was so cute in his boyish enthusiasm, that's the sort of character you don't get much these days. Sulu ... don't really have many thoughts on Sulu besides 'You took your helmet off to swordfight?' I know it makes for better acting but the whole time I was thinking 'Helmet! Helmet!' Granted I think the same thing during those cop shows where there are people hiding behind cars and shooting at each other. I guess I am just overprotective of my noggin.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

THE SOUND WAS AWESOME!! Definitely worth seeing it in the theatre just for the sound.

Next!

[seancovernton.livejournal.com]

New assignment: go see Drag me to Hell

[anathelen.livejournal.com]

I heartily agree that the movie was so fun that it made one willing to gloss over the silly parts. I was fresh from a semester of general relativity equations and could've winced at the whole black hole thing at the end... but no, I was enjoying myself too much to grumble.

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

YES! YES!

1.) Yes. I did not think that Kirk was effectively expressing with his physical reaction how FREAKING COLD cold can be.

2.) YES! I totally forgot about that! I turned to Marc and gaped and giggled right after, "Didju - didju know that Sher-"

"Shut up."

"Aw."

6.) Yes. I was totally in to what happened with Uhuru and Spock. But a better fleshing out of character would have made her seem even more deserving. When what happened happened (*casting eyes about wearily for anyone who hasn't... seen the movie* = zero) I was like, "YAY SPOCK!" And not, "YAY SPOCK and UHURA!"

Besides. She's not an ENTP. So it'll never last:

KIRK!SPOCK!4EVR OTP baby

Tho, I wish she Uhura had the hair she had in the original series. That was hot.

9.) Oh yeah - warp was awesome! I actually flew back in my seat, heeee.

10.) YES - I agree. And, while I know Scotty is, well, Scottish - does that thing not remind you of... a leprechaun..?

Re: YAY FINALLY :D

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

I was totally in to the romance and I hate romance. Maybe it's just that I like to see cold calculating bastards get conquered. Mwuhuhuh *much rubbing of hands* nyehehehe...

About that - I was 100% behind the first kiss. But then, the making out before being transported? My first gut reaction was: "This is too much." But upon further analysis, I have decided that overwhelming flows of emotion would be a plausible given the extreme circumstances.

Yes, Chekov seemed to me to be the 2-d fanboy 'paste your face here' character. But very cute.

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

...everybody is in love with McCoy...

This has to be an S thing. What do you think?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I, personally, don't get the McCoy thing. I mean, he was a good character who was acted quite well, but ... I don't get it.

Re: YAY FINALLY :D

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh I dunno, most of the fanboys I've ever met have been much more cynical. There are no Chekovs on the Ain't-it-Cool message boards.

And the making-out on the transporter – I thought that was done mostly for Kirk's benefit. :) Thankfully it was very short, considering Hollywood precedent.

[(Anonymous)]

I finally saw it on Monday, and I agree that it's friggin' awesome!

1) I agree with Kirk's lack of reaction to something so obvious, and I'm from Texas, so I can legally agree about the body reacting to the slightest change of temperature after being born/stuck in arid and humid environments that have triple-digit temperatures for one year on Earth. Either send those actors to Winnipeg, or maybe send 'em as far as Alaska, get a feeling of 'freezing cold' with the polar bears :)

4)Another thing you can compare to the "sound-in-space problem" is with Star Wars. More things blow up in that series than any other American film in existence! But nobody cares about whether it can be heard or not, 'cause it doesn't matter!

9)Another thing that all sci-fi fans love is Warp-Speed! Wooooohoooooo! I'd love it if they had put this in IMAX theater, so everyone can get the feeling of melting into your seat as the ship hits GO time!

I'm probably going to see it again, it's so much fun to watch the second time!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I think this might be because it wasn't about the science ... the science (or lack of it) just gave the characters some external stimuli. If the focus had shifted away from the people or the action and towards the world-building, the logic gaps would have compromised the foundation of the movie a lot more. As it was, they did build a world, and built it confidently and effectively enough that they could set their characters loose in it and have it be totally convincing without having to explain it so much.

[beckychan.livejournal.com]

I saw it opening weekend! It was so much fun! I was never much of a Trekki (are you aware that that's the only word in the English language that rhymes with Becky?), but I really enjoyed it for what it was. All the characters were well-cast and so delightful, and they even did away with the random red shirt. XD How very entertaining that movie was. I may be forced to own it later.