Star Trek the Movie - a Fan Review - SPOILERS!

Hello,

 

Saw the movie this afternoon and had to stop and get my Burger King Kirk glass on the way home...

 

I LIKED IT

 

Now, if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know anything about it before you do--go away and read this again after you have.  If spoilers don't bother u - read ahead.

 

It's not perfect but neither were any of the other movies--so I'm content.  It will not replace the original series in my heart and love, but I will find a nice warm spot to nuzzle it tenderly.

 

Actors:

 

Chris Pine - LOVED him!!  Was REALLY worried about him portraying the essence of Kirk but I think he pulled it off.  His Kirk is rougher around the edges, but he grew up without a stable family/father to guide him and we are seeing him nearly 10 years earlier than we saw WS's JTK.   Nature versus Nurture in a vacuum.   I can easily see him growing into the same captain I love.  Chris played up some of the Kirkisms--namely his roving eye(s) but I found it pretty damn funny.  He needs to buff up just a bit for the sequel--it's a torn shirt requirement.  And can someone buy the boy some dark Calvin Kleins--Tighty whities gotta go.

 

Zachary Quinto - Freaking Awesome!  Not the Spock we see in The Cage or even Where No Man Has Gone Before but every bit as believable--maybe more so.  He is stoic yet conflicted and it works beautifully onscreen.

 

Karl Urban - Take Me!  I'm Yours!  He steals the screen whenever he's on it.  From the shuttle diatribe about death to his "I'm a Doctor, not a ..." to his tossing of insults at Spock--he is priceless.  We now have Canon that McCoy went to space because he lost Earth in the divorce...~lol

 

Simon Pegg - May not look anything like our lovable Jimmy Doohan but he does a great job in the minimal screen time he gets.  Sarah will hate me for it but I can accept Simon in the role.

 

John Cho - He endeared me with the ship leaving the starbase and then won me with the battle on the drilling rig.  I would have him on my bridge crew any day.

 

Anton Yelchin - I even liked Chekov--Imagine that!!??  He's totally there as comedic relief, much as our Pavel was, but I thought him cute--and believe me--I was not going into the movie with a warm fuzzy about him.

 

Bruce Greenwood - Such a leader.  And ruggedly fine too.  He knew exactly how to challenge Kirk and get him to SFA.  Again, a true example of what a Captain should be.

 

Zoe Saldana - Overall I liked her performance--especially at the bar.  I didn't like her temper tantrum to get transferred to the E--although I can certainly understand it.  She also reinforced why shipboard/CoC romances are frowned upon if not outright banned.  You don't mess with a guy's mind as he's about to beam into certain death.  Nor should his thoughts be wandering to what he needs to say to her when he's about to risk his life to save Earth.  Their moment in the elevator was tender and poignant and I was cool with.  Kissing on the transporter pad in front of God and Country--and Kirk and Scotty and somebody else--I forget--rang a sour note to me.  Why was she even in the transporter room???  She was supposed to be on the bridge.  Is duty just something you do when you got nothing better to do?  Where is the military TA when you need him???  She's an officer first and a woman second or she wouldn't be on my ship.  

 

Believe me, I want some fodder to give me ideas of how to write a good shipboard romance--it's just Bob and Alex missed on this one.  One of the best things about good ol' sexist 60's TOS - there was no gender on the bridge. Much to my chagrin WS gave me freaking little to work with on that score.  I don't care about their youth, the stress and the odds and the risk or any of that BS--their interaction in the transporter scene was too much. But excluding that scene, I think Zoe gave a strong performance--if one that acted like she was the captain's woman a big part of the time.

 

Leonard Nimoy - Again, while I loved him being in the movie it did seem a bit forced at times.   At way over a hundred I guess he can forget about being uptight and being uber Vulcan, but I wanted/expected to see the Spock of the later movies and I didn't.  It was more like LN doing an interview for the press than LN being Spock.  LN stated they had to film the pivotal scene between Spock and Spock Prime on the first day and I think it shows.  He talked to young Kirk like they knew each other and he should have known better.  Again that is a writer's issue not LN's.  I did like that he put voice to their close friendship and what it had always meant to him.

 

Eric Bana - He was good and subtly sympathetic in an EVIL sort of way.

 

Special Effects:

 

The lens flares will never be a fav of mine but I tolerated them.  The ships are "shiny" yet very realistic in an industrial sort of way.  The Kelvin was the most military--it made them all seem very real life--liked the snap to attention when the captain goes by.  I had no problem with the E looking some different, she is basically the same to a non-ship shipper.  I don't care what color her nacelles glow--in fact I forgot to even look until the last shot and then you have no choice but to see them.  The Narada was freaking awesome but I do not understand her size or firepower--does she haul ore too and do all Romulan ships pack military firepower as a matter of culture?  And I want a shuttle--everybody had one or twenty or thirty....enough to evac a whole crew it would seem. Shaky cam didn't bother me--not sure I noticed it--However, seeing every pore, blemish and hair follicle made it VERY up close and personal.  No beautiful golden Kirk skin here.

 

Plot:

 

Opens immediately to action.  Captain Robau is a freaking cool captain--you would ship out with him any day.  George makes you appreciate where JTK gets his courage and his name.  And keep a napkin clean from the popcorn butter because you will need it....

 

Loved the bar scene--all of it--especially the man to man between Jim and Pike.

 

The kid has some really cute lines and you understand exactly why he's a rebel. And also by being so adrift, why he goes to the Academy so late.

 

Spock's retraining after the Fal tor Pan is not so mysterious now.

 

Shipyards - awesome.  Still no idea why it's in Iowa but hey, I can live with it.  And it was the E being built if I read my call letters correctly.

 

liked Spock's parents - would like to know why Sarek is not so upset about Spock joining SF in this timeline.

 

Shuttle ride in - Mr Cool bangs his head--McCoy is a techno phobe--gotcha

 

SFA - Not a lot of scenes there but enough to establish Jim and Bones as fast friends.  Uhura still blowing him off and you see his hatred at losing.  Orion chick didn't seem alien/alluring - more like just a girl in green body paint.  Honor court scene was very good.

 

Shipping out - excitement builds - the plot point kinda muddy but hey, its popcorn time.  Where is the rest of the fleet?  Where?? and how far away is that?  Ship out the whole Academy?  No Problem because one of our planets is missing......  This is where McCoy takes control of my laughter button and doesn't turn it loose.  Chris is VERY good being sick.

 

Too much running up and down the corridors - first one was cute--then Chekov, then Uhura - can't they use the freaking intercom?  Ok - Chekov couldn't I guess...

 

Too much going into warp inside gravity wells, but hey, it's not been totally proven one can't do it--just that Einstein and Asimov frown upon it..

 

Drilling Rig sky diving was way cool - great CGI.  Kirk saving Sulu after Sulu saved him was so typical Kirk.

 

Loved it when Spock told Kirk to get out of his command chair...talk about balls

 

I think I heard McCoy tell Nurse Chapel to give him a sedative

 

The first fight on the bridge should have put Kirk in the Brig--not an ice planet.  Sheesh!  Talk about off with his head...Cinemagic license that Spock Prime just happens to be there to save the boy wonder.  Loved the running from the monsters bits though.  Did I hear Kirk scream like a girl??

 

They tried to give Scotty an Ewok--that should not continue in the sequel.  No-never.  But he can keep the tribble. Another sort of transparent aluminum moment - this time courtesy of Spock - but he gets them where they need to be.

 

Again - REAL vague explanation of how a sun going Supernova will destroy the "galaxy" and then it goes nova and eats a planet, and does the galaxy remain or not?  I guess that is for another time...

 

Second fight on the Bridge should have got them both in the brig but somebody had to be the damn captain and we all took a vote and said it couldn't be Chekov... Liked the believable choke marks around Pine's neck...

 

Now we know the reason why Kirk got promoted to First Officer by Pike when he wasn't even a member of the crew officially.  Cos he's psychic ~lol

 

Fight on the Narada was the beginnings of a beautiful relationship.

 

Loved the warp to Saturn.  Loved the come out and kick butt when they got the chance.  Loved Scotty pulling a miracle out of his ass to save the E.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed the ending even if a bit hokey and happily ever after--but hey--it IS Trek after all.

 

I look forward to a sequel and will go back and watch this one several more times with Bubbles and a few coworkers.  Of course it will be mine on dvd in some form or another.

 

The movie is exciting, sad, funny (the whole sickness bit just made my day) dramatic, touching and certainly shows how adversity brings them all together--regardless of which reality they live in.  It's definitely a different timeline--from the massive ripples of the Kelvin's destruction--a new adventure is born.

 

Go on and watch it--you'll like it in spite of yourself.