[Vallery]

Originally Posted by Tberry

The two had very different acting challenges. Spock is very still, and Quinto had to get things through that stillness. Kirk on the other hand is very animated and boisterous, and Pine had to show depth beneath it. The beauty of both performances was in the small details.

Yes yes yes! I completely agree. I think that's all I was trying to point out. Not to mention the fact that they worked so well together on screen....it was marvelous!

[Samuel]

Well for all of you Pine 'enthusiasts' he made it onto People mags top bachelors list. If you read People.

[Maxum]

Originally Posted by Samuel

Well for all of you Pine 'enthusiasts' he made it onto People mags top bachelors list. If you read People.

Yeah, I heard he was #2 on the list. Number one was some guy name Chace whom I've never heard of, frankly.

Chris certainly deserves the honor. Good for him.

[dholleyuk]

Thought he played Kirk very well, and made the character his own,

[I-Am-Zim]

I can't fault Pine on his performance. He was pretty good. But he was playing a vastly different James Kirk than we're used to seeing. The funny thing to me was that I didn't see any of the real Kirk in his performance until the very end. When he walked out of the turbolift onto the Abramsprise iBridge and said "Bones. Buckle up." At that one single moment, his mannerism and swagger were pure Shatner. My wife the uber-non-trekkie even noticed that. But that was it. Nowhere else in the movie did the original Kirk show through. And I guess that's okay since this Kirk isn't the one we know. So he didn't have to play him the way we know him.

[horatio]

So you want Pine to emulate Shatner playing Kirk because only ShatKirk is the "real Kirk"? (I won't comment on this real/fake thing ...)
That's like someone who has seen Laurence Olivier playing Hamlet and demanding that every future actors does not play Hamlet but plays Olivier playing Hamlet.

By the way, this comparison is not arbitrary. I find it great that the original characters have become classics. And classics get played again and again and again.

[I-Am-Zim]

Hamlet was one play written by Shakespear. It was done in the written word. It can, has, and will be interpreted in the way the actor portraying the role wishes. Because there is no original template to compare it to since the character was written on paper.

Star Trek, on the other hand, is in the visual realm. We have 79 episodes and 6 movies depicting these characters as they were created to be. We can actually see the original versions of these characters as they were created by the talented actors who portrayed them.

In the case of Kirk, Shatner is Kirk. His mannerisms and acting style has defined Captain James T. Kirk for 40+ years. I had absolutely no expectations that Pine would emulate Shatner. And I really didn't want him to. Knowing that this was an alternate reality version of the real Captain James T. Kirk made it a given that Pine wouldn't play the part as if he were the original. The last scene was kind of an easter egg to us TOS fans because there was that itty bitty bit of the real Kirk in there. It was actually pretty cool.

[horatio]

Getting used to new actors naturally takes some time and no one would deny that Nimoy and Shatner defined their characters much more than the producers or script writers. They are the first, the original ones and no new interpretation can take that away.

I think the only big change character-wise was transferring the comic relief role from Chekov to Scotty. And of course Uhura because, thank God, the role of women has changed during the last 40 years.

I understand the demand for a tighter director who would order his actors to study their predecessors ... but I wonder whether that would have lead to the great acting in ST09. I dislike many things about the movie, but the acting was perfect.

[Samuel]

Familiarity vs New.

Hate to say it but every time I see arguments like this I sometimes think of the people who loudly complained when R2D2 and Yoda were digital instead of the mockup and the muppet.

[Maxum]

Originally Posted by horatio

Getting used to new actors naturally takes some time and no one would deny that Nimoy and Shatner defined their characters much more than the producers or script writers. They are the first, the original ones and no new interpretation can take that away.

Getting use to new actors in iconic roles is a difficult thing. The best we can hope for, as fans, is that the new actors continue to make the characters as likeable and fantastic as we remember them. I think Pine and the rest of the cast pulled it off beautifully. When I left the theater, I was loving James Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty and Chekov (and Pike). That's basically all you can ask for from a new cast. These actors have brought interest to non-Trek fans to check out the original TOS series, and the original cast. That's quite an accomplishment, and it's a great compliment to the original crew.

I still love Shatner as Kirk, but I'll admit that I am enjoying Pine more, and maybe it's because it's just great to see the Kirk character really kicking butt again, but I also like that this Kirk has some baggage and loss in this new timeline. I think it gives him an edge that will be interesting to watch in the next sequel.