I effectively agree with Mr. Ebert, but found the entertainment value to be somewhat higher than his rating would indicate. He's completely dead on with the movie's approach to character handling and science.
I absolutely loved the movie, to the point I spent the $$ to go see it a second time. While there was a scene where the dialog felt forced, I felt that overall the character interaction was excellent and the film was an overall enjoyable experience.
Regarding the reviews, once more critics are showing their ability to mis-read a movie. If they say it's bad? Go see it cause it'll be enjoyable
Ebert's no exception. Did the guy even see the movie or just base his reviews on the trailers? I mean seriously, he made references to scenes that didn't happen in the way he described it, and used a plot device that's a staple to nearly every sci-fi tv show, book and movie as something to cite against this one (I.E. faster than light travel). In citing things that appeared in the movie that he didn't like, the only thing he was actually accurate on was Uhura's wardrobe.
So basically he went into it expecting Startrek II, got something else, didn't like it and and spent the rest of the movie staring at the hot chick in it.... and got paid for it. DAMN I'm in the wrong line of work!
I still can't wait to see it again. I got a free pass due to technical difficulties that delayed the start of the film by nearly a half hour (laced with moments of fun, though), so I may summon that.
Just saw it and can do nothing but agree. The actors were great, the plot was good Spoiler: and the technobabble was sub-par, all in all enjoyable, and made me want to see Enterprise again. Im still angry they canned it just before they were starting up the main storyline of the romulan war..
[QUOTE=HuntSmacker;181513]Of particular note is the guy who played Dr McCoy - He was fantastic. He even sounded like DeForest Kelley in some scenes![/QUOTE]
Last time I saw him, he was from Rohan, and irl hes from New Zealand, so that says a lot.
Spoiler: Oh, and I loved the scene where Kirk got an allergic reaction. "Dammit Jim!", they managed to not overdo it while it was funny as hell. awesome.[/Spoiler]
Saw it twice this weekend. Awesome reboot. The cast was great, effects were solid, old Spock kicked ass.
[SP]I hated the "engineering" sections of the Enterprise. It looks like they just went and shot inside an oil refinery, complete with steam pipes and valves. Didn't at all match the design of anything else on the ship. My theory: they ran out of money due to the film's modest budget. Also not a fan of the multiple warp cores "core". Blech.
Other quibbles. Entering warp from Earth orbit and arriving at Vulcan within 10 minutes was stupid. Could have used an additional time-expanding scene there. Beaming from Delta Vega, which is presumably a moon of Vulcan, to a ship which has been at warp for several hours was stupid. Beaming from Saturn orbit to Earth was silly. There were a few other minor things.[/SP]
All in all though it was a good time. Definitely among the best Trek films.
[QUOTE=Alec M;181519]Saw it twice this weekend. Awesome reboot. The cast was great, effects were solid, old Spock kicked ass.
[SP]I hated the "engineering" sections of the Enterprise. It looks like they just went and shot inside an oil refinery, complete with steam pipes and valves. Didn't at all match the design of anything else on the ship. My theory: they ran out of money due to the film's modest budget. Also not a fan of the multiple warp cores "core". Blech.
Other quibbles. Entering warp from Earth orbit and arriving at Vulcan within 10 minutes was stupid. Could have used an additional time-expanding scene there. Beaming from Delta Vega, which is presumably a moon of Vulcan, to a ship which has been at warp for several hours was stupid. Beaming from Saturn orbit to Earth was silly. There were a few other minor things.[/SP]
All in all though it was a good time. Definitely among the best Trek films.[/QUOTE]
Well, our technology has changed. It wouldn't be a "matter stream" crap that was talked about before, it would be a data stream carrying all the information. At which point, the distance you can beam is not nearly as limited.
Well you can come up with any technobabble excuse you want to justify it, but it still *feels* wrong to me. I don't want this new Trek to get caught up in the same old deus ex machina solutions to problems as we had on the later TV series, and having a warp drive of limitless speed or a transporter of limitless distance screams laziness to me. If you can beam to the Enterprsie at warp, light years away, why can't you just beam to Vulcan from Earth? Why couldn't huge numbers of Vulcans just beam off their planet, instead of evacuating in ships seen in the background of shots?
There have to be rules.
Besides, your "data stream" idea might make sense if they were beaming pad-to-pad, but they don't. It's pad-to-unknown ship room each time.
I went by myself *sniff* to see it today and I was impressed. When I first heard that this was going to be about a young TOS crew, I have to admit that I was less than thrilled. However, I am happy to say that I was completely wrong. They nailed it.
Gaffs in science? Yes. Do I care? Not really.
I think the thing I liked the most about this movie is that it actually made Star Trek [B][I]fun [/I][/B]again. Voyager and Enterprise (as well as all of the TNG movies... yes, even First Contact) felt "safe" and honestly quite boring at times. Don't get me wrong, I loved TNG and DS9, and was entertained by Voyager; but looking back on them, they feel sterile.
This movie makes Trek feel like an adventure again. I also think that Star Trek has given the franchise new life and brought it into the 21st century. It wasn't perfect, but IMHO it is what the franchise needed if it was going to be revived. With a partial reboot, sky is the limit again... I just hope they can follow it up.
^ Spot on. Anyone looking for something akin to Star Trek that came before this movie, should just watch reruns. Did anyone get any Enterprise Season 4 vibes while watching this?
[QUOTE=WORF;181541]Wouldn't Admiral Archer be about nearly 200 years old?[/QUOTE]
Jonathan Archer passed down his love of space, as well as of adorable widdle puppies, to his children and grandchildren, one of whom became an Admiral.
RubberEagleWhat's a rubber eagle used for, anyway?
Actually, Archer would have probably been about the age McCoy was in "Encounter at Farpoint" (140-150)
(in the biography on the Defiant in "In a Mirror, Darkly", it states that he "died at his home in upstate New York in the year 2245, exactly one day after attending the christening ceremony of the first Federation starship Enterprise, NCC-1701" )
Nice one Worf. I knew the plot seemed somewhat familiar. :D
I kinda liked the movie for what it tried to do, but if you expected anything along the lines of the ST movies with Kirk, Spock and McCoy, you'll run indeed the risk of getting somewhat let down.
Pros: Overall the new cast did a great job, but it somewhat lacked the charisma and experience of the veteran actors, which is understandable. The action and battle sequences were amazing, as far as I can tell, the amount of bang for the buck in scifi movies is cumulative over time. The ship design of the Enterprise is nice for the most part, with the exception of the engine room which looks like it was taken from the Wonka chocolate factory. :D Kirk, Spock, "Bones" McCoy, Scotty and Uhura were perfectly cast. Not sure why, but having a scene set on an ice planet is always a plus. While I liked seeing Leonard Nimoy reprise his role as Spock, he took away precious time from Nero (see below). Some funny moments. It's a roller-coaster ride all the way through that ends five minutes before the end.
Cons: I thought Eric Bana's Nero was underused, it's never good for a main villain to play third or fourth fiddle (I guess he could have really used the time spent on Leonard Nimoy). Furthermore, where did they find those Mad Max Romulans?? I didn't really buy the casting of Chekov (his exaggerated faked/real accent being the least of his problems as the curly haired actor is Russian) and Sulu who acted in a too generic way and didn't really get anywhere near George Takei's personality. It wasn't the actors' fault, IMHO just the wrong choice. No Klingons, 'nuff said. Of all classic ST Aliens, except for the blue ale, the Romulans are the least interesting as they come across as just Vulcans with an attitude problem. Here they just shaved them bald and gave them facial tattoos. Talk about aliens on a budget. I know this isn't supposed to be Star Wars (see Worf's clip above), but the physical effects team didn't have much to do this time. The why-the-long-face guy at the bar was very funny though. Scotty's pet Ewok with scales not so much. Some jumbled together scenes interrupted by plot pot holes. The transporters have been relegated once again, if not consistently so, to magical plot devices.
I have no doubt that the franchise still has a lot of life in it. Considering what came after ST: TMP, they couldn't really go wrong with this one. There is no going back to the original show and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It's a reboot, not a remake.
Comments
So far I haven't heard anything really bad about it. :)
Loved it though
Regarding the reviews, once more critics are showing their ability to mis-read a movie. If they say it's bad? Go see it cause it'll be enjoyable
Ebert's no exception. Did the guy even see the movie or just base his reviews on the trailers? I mean seriously, he made references to scenes that didn't happen in the way he described it, and used a plot device that's a staple to nearly every sci-fi tv show, book and movie as something to cite against this one (I.E. faster than light travel). In citing things that appeared in the movie that he didn't like, the only thing he was actually accurate on was Uhura's wardrobe.
So basically he went into it expecting Startrek II, got something else, didn't like it and and spent the rest of the movie staring at the hot chick in it.... and got paid for it. DAMN I'm in the wrong line of work!
Though the Romulan War was actually somewhat further back. They were, however, just about to pull the Kzinti out of their magic hat.
Last time I saw him, he was from Rohan, and irl hes from New Zealand, so that says a lot.
Spoiler: Oh, and I loved the scene where Kirk got an allergic reaction. "Dammit Jim!", they managed to not overdo it while it was funny as hell. awesome.[/Spoiler]
[SP]I hated the "engineering" sections of the Enterprise. It looks like they just went and shot inside an oil refinery, complete with steam pipes and valves. Didn't at all match the design of anything else on the ship. My theory: they ran out of money due to the film's modest budget. Also not a fan of the multiple warp cores "core". Blech.
Other quibbles. Entering warp from Earth orbit and arriving at Vulcan within 10 minutes was stupid. Could have used an additional time-expanding scene there. Beaming from Delta Vega, which is presumably a moon of Vulcan, to a ship which has been at warp for several hours was stupid. Beaming from Saturn orbit to Earth was silly. There were a few other minor things.[/SP]
All in all though it was a good time. Definitely among the best Trek films.
with best Regards
Chicky
[SP]I hated the "engineering" sections of the Enterprise. It looks like they just went and shot inside an oil refinery, complete with steam pipes and valves. Didn't at all match the design of anything else on the ship. My theory: they ran out of money due to the film's modest budget. Also not a fan of the multiple warp cores "core". Blech.
Other quibbles. Entering warp from Earth orbit and arriving at Vulcan within 10 minutes was stupid. Could have used an additional time-expanding scene there. Beaming from Delta Vega, which is presumably a moon of Vulcan, to a ship which has been at warp for several hours was stupid. Beaming from Saturn orbit to Earth was silly. There were a few other minor things.[/SP]
All in all though it was a good time. Definitely among the best Trek films.[/QUOTE]
Well, our technology has changed. It wouldn't be a "matter stream" crap that was talked about before, it would be a data stream carrying all the information. At which point, the distance you can beam is not nearly as limited.
There have to be rules.
Besides, your "data stream" idea might make sense if they were beaming pad-to-pad, but they don't. It's pad-to-unknown ship room each time.
Otherwise quite enjoyable too. Plot holes and stupidities were smaller than Wolverine, and not quite as jarring.
Gaffs in science? Yes. Do I care? Not really.
I think the thing I liked the most about this movie is that it actually made Star Trek [B][I]fun [/I][/B]again. Voyager and Enterprise (as well as all of the TNG movies... yes, even First Contact) felt "safe" and honestly quite boring at times. Don't get me wrong, I loved TNG and DS9, and was entertained by Voyager; but looking back on them, they feel sterile.
This movie makes Trek feel like an adventure again. I also think that Star Trek has given the franchise new life and brought it into the 21st century. It wasn't perfect, but IMHO it is what the franchise needed if it was going to be revived. With a partial reboot, sky is the limit again... I just hope they can follow it up.
Worf
Jonathan Archer passed down his love of space, as well as of adorable widdle puppies, to his children and grandchildren, one of whom became an Admiral.
(in the biography on the Defiant in "In a Mirror, Darkly", it states that he "died at his home in upstate New York in the year 2245, exactly one day after attending the christening ceremony of the first Federation starship Enterprise, NCC-1701" )
Time for something [URL="http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1910892"]funny[/URL]!
Worf
I kinda liked the movie for what it tried to do, but if you expected anything along the lines of the ST movies with Kirk, Spock and McCoy, you'll run indeed the risk of getting somewhat let down.
Pros: Overall the new cast did a great job, but it somewhat lacked the charisma and experience of the veteran actors, which is understandable. The action and battle sequences were amazing, as far as I can tell, the amount of bang for the buck in scifi movies is cumulative over time. The ship design of the Enterprise is nice for the most part, with the exception of the engine room which looks like it was taken from the Wonka chocolate factory. :D Kirk, Spock, "Bones" McCoy, Scotty and Uhura were perfectly cast. Not sure why, but having a scene set on an ice planet is always a plus. While I liked seeing Leonard Nimoy reprise his role as Spock, he took away precious time from Nero (see below). Some funny moments. It's a roller-coaster ride all the way through that ends five minutes before the end.
Cons: I thought Eric Bana's Nero was underused, it's never good for a main villain to play third or fourth fiddle (I guess he could have really used the time spent on Leonard Nimoy). Furthermore, where did they find those Mad Max Romulans?? I didn't really buy the casting of Chekov (his exaggerated faked/real accent being the least of his problems as the curly haired actor is Russian) and Sulu who acted in a too generic way and didn't really get anywhere near George Takei's personality. It wasn't the actors' fault, IMHO just the wrong choice. No Klingons, 'nuff said. Of all classic ST Aliens, except for the blue ale, the Romulans are the least interesting as they come across as just Vulcans with an attitude problem. Here they just shaved them bald and gave them facial tattoos. Talk about aliens on a budget. I know this isn't supposed to be Star Wars (see Worf's clip above), but the physical effects team didn't have much to do this time. The why-the-long-face guy at the bar was very funny though. Scotty's pet Ewok with scales not so much. Some jumbled together scenes interrupted by plot pot holes. The transporters have been relegated once again, if not consistently so, to magical plot devices.
I have no doubt that the franchise still has a lot of life in it. Considering what came after ST: TMP, they couldn't really go wrong with this one. There is no going back to the original show and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It's a reboot, not a remake.
7.5/10