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| Abrams Trek - the review thread; *HEAVY SPOILERS* | |
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| Topic Started: 9 May 2009, 11:24 (1,031 Views) | |
| Kevin Thomas Riley | 30 May 2009, 13:53 Post #61 |
Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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Conceptual art by James Clyne can be seen on his website here. |
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| Captain X | 30 May 2009, 15:04 Post #62 |
"Vice" Admiral
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Thought some of you might like this review
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| degra | 31 May 2009, 20:19 Post #63 |
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Rookie
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When I first watched the film so much is going on that while I saw some problems I really didn't see the deficiencies in the film to the degree I did later because everything is moving so fast, maybe too fast. But once you see the film again or you sit back and try to make sense of all the stuff in the film and actually analyze the story the film really starts to have problems. Maybe the writers thought that with the whirlwind of events that occur in the film that you wouldn't catch on but I like to examine the story especially when it comes to these films or tv series that go out of their way to cover a lot of ground as it tends to be the preferred style these days. I did love the exciting visual effects sequences--the Narada vs the Kelvin, Spock's ramming of the Narada with the ship from the future--, the epic visuals--Vulcan's destruction-- and inventive stunts like the atmospheric jump to the drill. I loved the updates on the TOS uniform. The colors were eye-popping especially with the white background of the new bridge. I didn't mind the cosmetic license the designers took with the Enterprise from either the interior or from the outside. The Enterprise was a beauty to behold as was the Narada. The only thing I might have liked was a better introduction to the ship allowing for more time to take it in. As it was it was rushed compared to the previous Trek introductions of the hero ships. All the actors were well cast. In fact, the characters were the best thing about this film. In fact, I liked them so much I would have liked them to have had more focus than they did. I thought Chekov, McCoy, Kirk, Spock and Amanda did an excellent job capturing the mannerisms and essence of their original counterparts. Uhura felt a little different but I liked that she had spunk and sass. I didn't particularly care for the Spock/Uhura romance. Granted we didn't see a great deal of it but it certainly didn't strike me as something I'd really care to see again--so in that regard it is pretty much on par with the other romances Trek attempted. Scotty was a little over-the-top for my tastes. Pegg was just so one-note. He was the weakest link IMO. One of my biggest problems was that the film tried to do too many things to the point where it felt cluttered. This was mostly jumping from one action piece to the next with little time to absorb what happened. As a result, things such as Vulcan's destruction or Amanda's death just don't work as well as they really should have. I really wanted to feel something but I simply didn't. If there was one thing that I felt was missing was the emotion. Trek is at its best when mixing its humanity with the action. Even weaker Trek films like Generations or Insurrection had those moments of reflection that were pretty much absent here. For a death to carry any weight we needed more time with her and with the two of them in my opinion. We barely got to know Amanda or the Amanda/Spock relationship. It is ironic that the writers' main goal was to make this film accessble to non-fans yet I have a feeling that they were counting on our connection with Wyatt's Amanda to carry the death of Ryder's Amanda. That might have worked out well enough for some but for me it didn't work that way. There is almost a chemistry that exists between viewers and the characters on screen. You can't just expect that the same characters played by different actors are going to automatically allow you to transfer the original bond to them. I liked these actors and characters but for me this wasn't like reconnecting with a bunch of old friends. Same goes for Vulcan. I started to come to this conclusion when I realized I had intellectually recognized that the writers did something pretty bold and destroyed Vulcan yet it didn't emotionally register. It wasn't carrying the kind of shock and impact it really should have viscerally. This is afterall a founding member of the Federation and a world that has been part of Trek since the beginning yet its destruction carried about as much resonance as a nameless planet of the week or destroying a planet in a video game. It wasn't a grim sequence a la ENT's "Twilight". It seemed the writers wanted to do something big and decided to destroy Vulcan but they didn't do enough to do the idea the justice it deserved. It was so underplayed. Heck, DS9 manged to generate more reaction from me with just hearing that Betazed was just invaded by the Dominion. As I was trying to figure out why it donned on me that there was so much else going on around it got lost in the mix--it was just one of a thousand plot points. I think they crammed too much material into these two hours. By trying to do so many things none of them really receive the kind of development they deserved. I think one way to have helped this aspect would have been to include a storyline that brought Kirk and Spock to Vulcan as part of an off-world Academy exercise and then they could work from this end to deal with Nero as he begins the attack. Nero was a plot device. Yes, the Countdown comics explored in detail his character and his backstory. It also provided some nice touches such as explaining the significance of the teral'n and the markings on the Narada's crew. But at the end of the day it wasn't in the film and it really was problematic. I knew something was missing but only did I learn of how much until I heard of the prequel comic series and read some of the summaries. Were some of these tidbits absolutely necessary for the film? No, but I think it would have added something to it. Instead, the tattoos, the teral'n, his loss all operate in a vacuum with no context. What is up with shows or films providing supplemental and critical information regarding the storyline in extraneous sources like webisodes, podcasts, comic books, interviews. BSG was bad about that. If it is important don't relegate it to someplace other than the actual film. Apparently that is what happened here. I didn't mind the time travel element. I'd be hypocritical if I complained about here since I enjoyed it quite a bit on ENT, Heroes, Lost. The problem was that if you are going to do something pretty bold as allow Trek history to be fundamentally altered permanently then you should have the antagonist be of the kind of worthy stature befitting such a shocking act. I simply didn't care for Nero. I didn't find Nimoy's Spock's inclusion to have been as sentimental as I would have hoped. It wasn't as touching as McCoy's brief cameo in TNG's pilot. It, like other things in this film, might have been handled better. Given that this in all liklihood will be the last time we ever see Old Spock I would have liked a more satisfying use of him other than as a plot device and a more satisfying sense of closure. I must admit I've never been too crazy when writers simply drop some familiar Trek name or character into a story simply for the giddiness it generates within a fan. And as such, I found a great deal of the namedropping pointless and didn't really contribute much to the story. For an excellent example of incorporating Trek elements within a story that actually adds depth I'd point to "The Forge" from ENT's fourth season. As an action film it works as a Trek film it has its issues so I'm torn. I'd probably give it 2.5 stars out of 4. For the record, I didn't care if Vulcan has red, blue or green skies. I didn't care that the designers took some liberties. I didn't care that Delta Vega was near Vulcan. I didn't care that Spock shouldn't have been able to see the destruction of his homeworld. I didn't care about the plausibility of a blackhole eating supernova. I didn't care about the transwarp tranport. I didn't care that Kirk was promoted to Captain. I didn't mind Abrams rebooting the show. None of these were things in the film that bothered me in the least. I don't hate the film. I don't dislike the film. I think it can be semi-entertaining on a certain level but I don't think it is a solid film let alone a great or excellent one. It certainly isn't better than TWoK, TVH, TUC, FC I personally think Trek works better as a tv series. Most of the time after seeing a Trek film I leave not completely satisfied. The last one that really worked was Star Trek 6. This film is okay. It's not the best Trek film ever. It has issues that prevented me from being completely engrossed in the film as it unfolded. I would even argue that there weere episodes of Trek that were better executed and more epic than this film such as "The Council/Countdown/Zero Hour" three act two hour mini-arc or the VulcAn trilogy or "Broken Bow". It's entertaining on a superficial level but it has its issues and one good thing came of the film--it made me stop by here and read the thoughts of posters I enjoyed reading back in the old days of the TrekBBS like KTR and Rigil_Kent. |
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| Jedikatie | 1 Jun 2009, 12:11 Post #64 |
Rygel's Chief Engineer, Throne Sled Maintenance and Repair
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:wavey: Hi degra! Long time no see. :) |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 1 Jun 2009, 13:27 Post #65 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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Thanks! :) Good review, even if you obviously liked it more than I did. And hello again, degra! :wave2: It's been a while. Time sure flies... |
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| degra | 1 Jun 2009, 15:45 Post #66 |
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Rookie
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Hi KTR and Jedikatie. Yes, it sounds like I enjoyed the film more than you KTR but it certainly didn't leave me looking forward to any future Trek films. In fact, it had me all nostalgic over the other Trek series and while I haven't watched any of them in a few years it made me want to rewatch all of them. ENT might not have been perfect but it did a lot more right than this film. I was actually looking forward to the idea of a new Trek series in the next few years but if it involves Orci & Kurtzman count me out. It was good reconnecting with you guys. I occasionally visit the TrekBBS but it really isn't the same anymore these days. I barely recognize the posters over there and I get a little sentimental about the ENT years when Morpheus posted spoilers for upcoming episodes, and the Xindi arc was so much fun back in 2003-2004 and then season four was a great ride and then you had your weekly grading threads for ENT and persianmouse did her funny little captions. I'm going to try to stop in here more often. |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 1 Jun 2009, 17:11 Post #67 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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Yeah, I got a bit nostaglic too (as can be witnessed by my current avatar) and started watching the old movies again. Maybe I should dive into TOS again? But I want to have DVD sets with both the original and the remastered versions.
Ah yes, the good times. Well, if you try and forget the inane shipper wars and the ENT bashers at least... Even though I've left there, there was still a reason why I managed to rise to the rank of full Admiral there in a relatively short time. |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 2 Jun 2009, 14:46 Post #68 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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Another article about the new movie. An excerpt:
JJ didn't break down that wall "a little bit". He tore it down and made something very different. Call me a snob, but I liked the old Trek with its "impenetrable wall". |
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| Captain X | 2 Jun 2009, 17:19 Post #69 |
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"Vice" Admiral
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People like that really need to get a life. After all, it's just a show, so you watch it and either like it or don't. What's this bullshit about it being "accessible"? If he could watch the show it was accessible. :rolleyes: |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 6 Jul 2009, 10:52 Post #70 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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If only... Star Trek 2009 trailer - The Original Series version |
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| Captain X | 7 Jul 2009, 09:43 Post #71 |
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"Vice" Admiral
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I'd rather see it revived as a series anyway. |
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| Jedikatie | 17 Nov 2009, 15:40 Post #72 |
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Rygel's Chief Engineer, Throne Sled Maintenance and Repair
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Saw this article online tonight... Found: R2-D2 in Star Trek |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 17 Nov 2009, 16:05 Post #73 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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^ So, does that mean that the Abramsverse and Lucasverse are now one and the same? I mean, technically it's canon after all... :P |
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| Jedikatie | 1 Dec 2009, 17:31 Post #74 |
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Rygel's Chief Engineer, Throne Sled Maintenance and Repair
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Harlan Ellison wants JJ Abrams to hire him for Trek 2 Considering this was the same guy who will sue anyone at the drop of a hat if he thinks someone is cheating him out of what he believes is owed to him, I'd tell him, 'Thanks, but no thanks' and run the other way, no matter how popular his episode on the original series was. |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 1 Dec 2009, 18:32 Post #75 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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^ Quite! :lol: |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 23 Apr 2010, 15:20 Post #76 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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I never thought I'd agree with Hitler... :lol: |
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| Jedikatie | 23 Apr 2010, 15:25 Post #77 |
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Rygel's Chief Engineer, Throne Sled Maintenance and Repair
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^ :lol: That was pretty good. What were the scenes from, Inglorious Basterds, or something else? |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 23 Apr 2010, 15:55 Post #78 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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No, it's from a German film called Downfall (Der Untergang in German), about Hitler's last days in the Führerbunker. I'm surprised you haven't seen this scene before. It's a huge Internet meme to add new sub-titles to that scene. Just look at the right side bar on the YouTube page for a sample. |
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| Jedikatie | 23 Apr 2010, 16:15 Post #79 |
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Rygel's Chief Engineer, Throne Sled Maintenance and Repair
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^ Haven't really been looking at YouTube much in the past week or so, I've been busy with trying to get together the stuff for the Adopt-a-thon at our pet store, since I'm in charge of that this year, so it doesn't surprise me that I've missed it. |
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| Kevin Thomas Riley | 23 Apr 2010, 16:31 Post #80 |
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Jolene Blalock Worshipper
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Um, it's an Internet meme that's been going on for years. There are a gazillion Downfall parodies out there. Well, it used to be, the movie studio has made threats and YouTube has started to take them down. More info here. |
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4:07 PM Jul 29
