[TGElder]

"He's dead, Jim."
That's my first thought about the new Star Trek Movie. Maybe it's time to let Roddenberry's dream rest in peace. Then a thought chanced through my brain. "My God, Bones. What have I done?" "What you always do, turn death into a fighting chance for life."

The movie had all the elements that fans go to movies for. Action, adventure, beautiful cinematography(except that damned chaos camera. If I want to watch shaky cam, I'll watch the home videos my 10 year old shot while running through the yard!), the CGI was excellent, great soundtrack and score. The characters were well played with a few exceptions. The biggest failing of this film is this. The story. Time travel again? What is this Star Trek or Dr. Who? Puhleeez! find a better plot mechanism. Besides, a black hole, being a collapsed star, or generated singularity in this case is not going to induce time travel, it'll simply crush whatever matter that gets caught in the gravity well, and destroy it. Unless Spock was able to use the gravitational pull to generate enough speed to slingshot around the singularity and break away passing through the quantum field, and back in time like they did in The Voyage Home. Now Spock might have been able to accomplish this, knowing the computations necessary. But Nero, being a mining ship captain, would not have likely been able to accomplish anything like this. Besides how designed Nero's ship. Looks like a nightmare cross between a gothic cathedral and a Ginsu knife factory that exploded. Just foolish. No discernable engines, no ore containers, just Edward Scissorhands in space.
And a total disregard for known events, like Kirk's history laid out in Star Trek:
The character was raised in Riverside, Iowa.[1] Diane Carey's novel Best Destiny (1993) identifies Kirk's parents as George and Winona Kirk.[43] Best Destiny and Carey's Final Frontier novel (1988) describe George Kirk's adventures aboard the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Robert April. James Kirk's brother, Sam, and his sister-in-law are introduced and killed in "Operation: Annihilate!" (1967), leaving behind three children.[1] Although born on Earth, Kirk for a time lived on Tarsus IV, where he was one of nine surviving witnesses to the massacre of 4,000 colonists by Kodos the Executioner (Arnold Moss).[1]
At Starfleet Academy, Kirk became the first student to defeat the Kobayashi Maru test, garnering a commendation for original thinking by reprogramming the computer to make the "no-win scenario" winnable.[1] Kirk was granted a field commission as an ensign and posted to advanced training aboard the USS Republic.[1] He then was promoted to lieutenant junior grade and returned to Starfleet Academy as a student instructor.[1] Students could either "think or sink" in his class, and Kirk himself was "a stack of books with legs".[44] Upon graduating in the top five percent, Kirk was promoted to lieutenant and served aboard the USS Farragut.[1] While assigned to the Farragut, Kirk commanded his first planetary survey and survived a deadly attack that killed a large portion of the Farragut's crew.[1] He received his first command, the equivalent of a destroyer-class spaceship, while still quite young. (this excerpt copied from Wikipedia). All of this should have taken place at some point prior to the events of this film, or have been alluded to in order to sustain the continuity of the time line. Chris Pine does a wondeful job capturing the essence of the character of a young Jim Kirk, but the writers let him down, because Kirk was a charmer, and not a horndog.
Zachary Quinto is phenomenal as Spock. He has the screen presence of Nimoy, and made me feel like I was seeing TOS on several occasions. However, Spock would never had been so illogical to have a romantic affiliation with anyone. Spock's hold on logic was such that he could not permit such an illogical action. He was as a child constantly trying to prove to other Vulcans that he was just as good as they, despite having a human mother. Sarek himself said, "So human" when he was born. (The Undiscovered Country), and Spock and he had a strained relationship for years (Journey to Babel:TOS). Spock was probably more Vulcan than most Vulcans since he was trying to prove his father wrong.(I know that isn't logical, but he is half human).
Karl Urban was the truly brightest star on the horizon. When he was on screen, I was certain that I was seeing Deforest Kelley all over again. Bones was back with all his sarcasm and attitude, and personality. Stellar performance!!
Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov, Nyota Uhura, and Montgomery Scott! All solid top notch performances by all.
This is the fighting chance for life....with this crew behind Kirk, they might just boldy go where no man has gone before. They just need to get someone to write a decent story for them. Someone who can use the internet to find out these science facts for themselves if they are too stupid to know it. There are many wonderful Star Trek novels out there that could be adapted to the screen that are about Kirk and crew before the famous five-year mission. Perhaps they can redeem themselves with a solid hard-hitting sequel that is a good bare knuckled Star Trek adventure that doesn't need a TARDIS to straighten things out in the end.


Now I will end with the only other negative that I have, while I look forward to see what the future will bring. The set designer who designed the engineering section of the Enterprise should be taken quietly by the hand and lead out behind the barn and shot. A 23rd century starship doesn't have a boiler room from a steamship. It looks like a brewery not a warp drive.



Let's see what tomorrow will bring!

[Rare Addict]

First of all, I've never been that much of a Star Trek fan. Throughout the years, I've only watched a hand full of episodes, and it wasn't until rather recently when I decided to watch Wrath of Khan, which not only thoroughly impressed me, but got me even more excited for this latest installment. Now, while it may be too early to say for certain, I'm tempted to call Star Trek one
of my all-time favorite science fiction films.



On top of this being one of the best looking movies I've seen in a long time, I was very pleasantly surprised by the action in this film. Ships aren't simply staring at eachother, waiting for somebody to fire the next shot. Here, they're swooping past eachother, and diving under chunks of ship debris; it's just a ton of fun to watch. Also, the fight choreography is top-notch, and - in some ways - more engaging than any of the ship battles in the movie. If anything, I felt that there was almost too much action in the film. Not a huge gripe, but there were a few action sequences that felt irrelevant to the story. Overall, the action, as well as the special effects, are superb.

The most impressive part of the movie, however, is the acting. Even as somebody who hasn't watched a whole lot of the orginal TV series, I felt that each of the actors nailed their respective characters perfectly. Zachary Quinto as Spock and Karl Urban as Dr. Bones McCoy were especially brilliant, from their mannerisms and nuances, to just the overall essence of their characters. The only character whose motivations I wasn't able to buy was Nero, despite being very well portrayed by Eric Bana.

Overall, Star Trek is a smart, funny, action-packed thrill ride. Whether you're a die-hard Star Trek fan or somebody who has never even heard of the series up until now, you'll have an absolute blast. This is not only my second favorite film of the year so far (with Coraline still sitting firmly at the #1 spot), but one of the finest science fiction movies I've ever seen.

9/10

[mmoore]

Originally Posted by TGElder

"He's dead, Jim."
That's my first thought about the new Star Trek Movie. Maybe it's time to let Roddenberry's dream rest in peace. Then a thought chanced through my brain. "My God, Bones. What have I done?" "What you always do, turn death into a fighting chance for life."

The movie had all the elements that fans go to movies for. Action, adventure, beautiful cinematography(except that damned chaos camera. If I want to watch shaky cam, I'll watch the home videos my 10 year old shot while running through the yard!), the CGI was excellent, great soundtrack and score. The characters were well played with a few exceptions. The biggest failing of this film is this. The story. Time travel again? What is this Star Trek or Dr. Who? Puhleeez! find a better plot mechanism. Besides, a black hole, being a collapsed star, or generated singularity in this case is not going to induce time travel, it'll simply crush whatever matter that gets caught in the gravity well, and destroy it. Unless Spock was able to use the gravitational pull to generate enough speed to slingshot around the singularity and break away passing through the quantum field, and back in time like they did in The Voyage Home. Now Spock might have been able to accomplish this, knowing the computations necessary. But Nero, being a mining ship captain, would not have likely been able to accomplish anything like this. Besides how designed Nero's ship. Looks like a nightmare cross between a gothic cathedral and a Ginsu knife factory that exploded. Just foolish. No discernable engines, no ore containers, just Edward Scissorhands in space.
And a total disregard for known events, like Kirk's history laid out in Star Trek:
The character was raised in Riverside, Iowa.[1] Diane Carey's novel Best Destiny (1993) identifies Kirk's parents as George and Winona Kirk.[43] Best Destiny and Carey's Final Frontier novel (1988) describe George Kirk's adventures aboard the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Robert April. James Kirk's brother, Sam, and his sister-in-law are introduced and killed in "Operation: Annihilate!" (1967), leaving behind three children.[1] Although born on Earth, Kirk for a time lived on Tarsus IV, where he was one of nine surviving witnesses to the massacre of 4,000 colonists by Kodos the Executioner (Arnold Moss).[1]
At Starfleet Academy, Kirk became the first student to defeat the Kobayashi Maru test, garnering a commendation for original thinking by reprogramming the computer to make the "no-win scenario" winnable.[1] Kirk was granted a field commission as an ensign and posted to advanced training aboard the USS Republic.[1] He then was promoted to lieutenant junior grade and returned to Starfleet Academy as a student instructor.[1] Students could either "think or sink" in his class, and Kirk himself was "a stack of books with legs".[44] Upon graduating in the top five percent, Kirk was promoted to lieutenant and served aboard the USS Farragut.[1] While assigned to the Farragut, Kirk commanded his first planetary survey and survived a deadly attack that killed a large portion of the Farragut's crew.[1] He received his first command, the equivalent of a destroyer-class spaceship, while still quite young. (this excerpt copied from Wikipedia). All of this should have taken place at some point prior to the events of this film, or have been alluded to in order to sustain the continuity of the time line. Chris Pine does a wondeful job capturing the essence of the character of a young Jim Kirk, but the writers let him down, because Kirk was a charmer, and not a horndog.
Zachary Quinto is phenomenal as Spock. He has the screen presence of Nimoy, and made me feel like I was seeing TOS on several occasions. However, Spock would never had been so illogical to have a romantic affiliation with anyone. Spock's hold on logic was such that he could not permit such an illogical action. He was as a child constantly trying to prove to other Vulcans that he was just as good as they, despite having a human mother. Sarek himself said, "So human" when he was born. (The Undiscovered Country), and Spock and he had a strained relationship for years (Journey to Babel:TOS). Spock was probably more Vulcan than most Vulcans since he was trying to prove his father wrong.(I know that isn't logical, but he is half human).
Karl Urban was the truly brightest star on the horizon. When he was on screen, I was certain that I was seeing Deforest Kelley all over again. Bones was back with all his sarcasm and attitude, and personality. Stellar performance!!
Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov, Nyota Uhura, and Montgomery Scott! All solid top notch performances by all.
This is the fighting chance for life....with this crew behind Kirk, they might just boldy go where no man has gone before. They just need to get someone to write a decent story for them. Someone who can use the internet to find out these science facts for themselves if they are too stupid to know it. There are many wonderful Star Trek novels out there that could be adapted to the screen that are about Kirk and crew before the famous five-year mission. Perhaps they can redeem themselves with a solid hard-hitting sequel that is a good bare knuckled Star Trek adventure that doesn't need a TARDIS to straighten things out in the end.


Now I will end with the only other negative that I have, while I look forward to see what the future will bring. The set designer who designed the engineering section of the Enterprise should be taken quietly by the hand and lead out behind the barn and shot. A 23rd century starship doesn't have a boiler room from a steamship. It looks like a brewery not a warp drive.



Let's see what tomorrow will bring!

Wow, do you people trade notes before you join up here?

[Saquist]

Originally Posted by Rare Addict

First of all, I've never been that much of a Star Trek fan. Throughout the years, I've only watched a hand full of episodes, and it wasn't until rather recently when I decided to watch Wrath of Khan, which not only thoroughly impressed me, but got me even more excited for this latest installment. Now, while it may be too early to say for certain (as I've only just come back from seeing the movie), I'm tempted to call Star Trek one
of my all-time favorite science fiction films.



On top of this being one of the best looking movies I've seen in a long time, I was very pleasantly surprised by the action in this film. Ships aren't simply staring at eachother, waiting for somebody to fire the next shot. Here, they're swooping past eachother, and diving under chunks of ship debris; it's just a ton of fun to watch. Also, the fight choreography is top-notch, and - in some ways - more engaging than any of the ship battles in the movie. If anything, I felt that there was almost too much action in the film. Not a huge gripe, but there were a few action sequences that felt irrelevant to the story. Overall, the action, as well as the special effects, are superb.

The most impressive part of the movie, however, is the acting. Even as somebody who hasn't watched a whole lot of the orginal TV series, I felt that each of the actors nailed their respective characters perfectly. Zachary Quinto as Spock and Karl Urban as Dr. Bones McCoy were especially brilliant, from their mannerisms and nuances, to just the overall essence of their characters. The only character whose motivations I wasn't able to buy was Nero, despite being very well portrayed by Eric Bana.

Overall, Star Trek is a smart, funny, action-packed thrill ride. Whether you're a die-hard Star Trek fan or somebody who has never even heard of the series up until now, you'll have an absolute blast. This is not only my second favorite film of the year so far (with Coraline still sitting firmly at the #1 spot), but one of the finest science fiction movies I've ever seen.

9/10

Wow whata review....

[Saquist]

Originally Posted by Sparky

ENJOYING the movie (Monday night 5/11) MADE me join this fine group!

(To put this in perspective, I'm one of those age-40-something-guys who can name all of the TOS episodes. I also enjoyed TNG, then stopped watching TV-Trek).

GREAT MOVIE FUN!! The advantage TOS fans will have is you get to laugh harder at quite a few of the jokes. Monday night turned out to be an excellent choice for seeing the movie and the sound was BOOMING. (I'll remember Monday night right after dinner time seems to have the least number of people. EVERYONE was VERY quiet, which seems to be rare these days.)

Scotty was a riot, Chekov was funny, and McCoy was played very well. Spock was very good and quite convincing. I began to accept Kirk more as the movie progressed. There were moments when the camera angle was just right and Kirk had certain expressions that made him actually LOOK LIKE a young (Shatner) Kirk for a few seconds several times during the movie.You get to see some of the chemistry of their relationships developing together as a team. Nice job integrating Christopher Pike into this reboot realm.

I know we're going to watch this again and again. My wife told me she used to PLAN her schedule around when TOS was on TV and saw all the episodes with her Mom. Aww, she has a little Trek love inside her!

BIG APPLAUSE and cheers from most of the audience after the movie. Most of them remained seated until the end of the credits and the house lights came on.

Here's a photo of a friend dressed as Kirk:

"Kid you are approaching MY high score! Phaser on stun."

just put the phaser down and backaway.

[Beetlescott]

Originally Posted by Rare Addict

First of all, I've never been that much of a Star Trek fan. Throughout the years, I've only watched a hand full of episodes, and it wasn't until rather recently when I decided to watch Wrath of Khan, which not only thoroughly impressed me, but got me even more excited for this latest installment. Now, while it may be too early to say for certain (as I've only just come back from seeing the movie), I'm tempted to call Star Trek one
of my all-time favorite science fiction films.



On top of this being one of the best looking movies I've seen in a long time, I was very pleasantly surprised by the action in this film. Ships aren't simply staring at eachother, waiting for somebody to fire the next shot. Here, they're swooping past eachother, and diving under chunks of ship debris; it's just a ton of fun to watch. Also, the fight choreography is top-notch, and - in some ways - more engaging than any of the ship battles in the movie. If anything, I felt that there was almost too much action in the film. Not a huge gripe, but there were a few action sequences that felt irrelevant to the story. Overall, the action, as well as the special effects, are superb.

The most impressive part of the movie, however, is the acting. Even as somebody who hasn't watched a whole lot of the orginal TV series, I felt that each of the actors nailed their respective characters perfectly. Zachary Quinto as Spock and Karl Urban as Dr. Bones McCoy were especially brilliant, from their mannerisms and nuances, to just the overall essence of their characters. The only character whose motivations I wasn't able to buy was Nero, despite being very well portrayed by Eric Bana.

Overall, Star Trek is a smart, funny, action-packed thrill ride. Whether you're a die-hard Star Trek fan or somebody who has never even heard of the series up until now, you'll have an absolute blast. This is not only my second favorite film of the year so far (with Coraline still sitting firmly at the #1 spot), but one of the finest science fiction movies I've ever seen.

9/10

You should really consider checking out the other movies and the 5 series, if you like what you saw on this movie, then you will like what some of us have had for the past 43 years!!! Welcome too!!!

[TGElder]

This was the first thought I had once I had viewed the movie. Then a thought coursed through my mind. "My God Bones! What have I done?" "What you always do, turn death into a fighting chance to live."

That is what we have here. This movie will do well. It has what moviegoers want to see. But it lacks one thing. A story!
When this cast gets a decent script then we'll truly see STAR TREK.

This story sucks from the beginning. Time travel, again? Puhleez! Is this Trek or Dr. Who? A star that goes nova threatens the whole galaxy?? Such a star would already preclude the existence of life just due to its size and output. A singularity is a point at which matter is compressed into a single geometric point. Nothing survives. Nero and his gothic cathedral/ginsu factory would have been crush into oblivion the monent they entered the black hole.
I can allow for some soft science if you really need it. Spock has already used a gravity well to accelerate a ship into timewarp(The Voyage Home). So he knows how to calculate his way through the singularity and slingshot out into the past. But Nero is a mining captain, not a Starfleet science officer. So Nero dies. Story over. history continues as it always should have.
Kirk grows up in Iowa, but relocates to Tarsus IV where he witness the execution of Kodos and later joins Starfleet and proceeds to move up in rank at a normal pace aboard the Faragut. Then later receives the command of the Enterprise.

I have nothing but praise for the cast and crew. They did a remarkable job.
But the writers messed up the characterizations. Kirk was a charmer not a horndog.
Spock spent his lifetime training to be the most logical in order to prove himself to his father with whom he always had a strained relationship. "So human" spoken by Sarek in The Undiscovered Country and referenced in TOS: Journey to Babel. This quest to be logical made him even more Vulcan than other Vulcans. He would never have been involved in a romantic relationship. It would be illogical. Not to mention unethical, since he was an instructor and she a student.
Karl Urban was Bones, It was like seeing DeForest Kelley on the screen again.

Maybe with adecent story, and one that works to acknowledge the history that was, this crew can turn death into a fighting chance to live.

[Stargazer]

I thought it was a great! I actually like the use of the time line being disrupted creating a new alternate universe. They can actually create new story lines. The old Star Trek was worn out. This is the way Star Trek was meant to be if they had the Technology when it first came out. The new Enterprise Actually looks like a star ship, the way future technology would look like. Not the 1960's plywood wall set and static displays.Wonder if they will try to make it int a tv series?

[Sparky]

'Forgot to mention in my review the new hand phasers are VERY cool, indeed. The special effects (both light and sound) make 'em sound EXTRA powerful. I'd enjoy a couple more hand phaser battles in the next movie.

[vantheman77]

This new Star Trek reboot film is going to be one that you never get tired of watching ever.