Star Trek......

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Star Trek......

Postby Drake on Sat May 30, 2009 7:34 am

Just went, and saw the new Star Trek movie with my wife. ;D Gotta say that it was a rollicking good time with some references thrown in to pay homage to the original. We really liked it.
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Wanderingdragon on Sat May 30, 2009 11:54 am

He once flew into a black hole ... because he had never been under pressure
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Interloper on Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:11 pm

Okay, so this thread (and Star Trek) are sooooo last month. But I finally got to see it (we're on a tight budget, so movies are a rare luxury) and was kind of disappointed. The special fx and CGI were, of course, great and a fine showcase for the talent that's out there in the digital animation world. And the guy who played McCoy was just spot-on and a dead-ringer for DeForest Kelly's character, but better looking. And the young Spock was pretty good too.

[Rant]

But the writting was totally slipshod and sloppy. And the homage paid to the original should at least have included a little homework into the old series. The writers got away with a lot by using the "Alternative Reality Due to Meddling With the Space-Time Continuum" trick, as in the original series Spock's mother (who was blonde) was alive and well long after he and Kirk ran the Enterprise, and appeared on a couple of episodes; Uhura and Spock never showed any recognition toward each other that even hinted that they ever had a relationship (Where the hell did THAT come from?! In the movie, the scene just cuts to Uhura draping herself on Spock, like they'd done it before... with no prior lead-in. Makes me wonder how many Terrabytes of movie ended up on the digital "cutting room" floor); Christopher Pike was mangled in, I think, a fire-fight explosion that left him unable to speak or communicate except by using his intent (oooh! IMA!) to make a light flash once for "yes" and two for "no," and was left in the care of telepathic aliens who gave him the illusion of normalcy and life on Earth... I could go on and on.

Another annoying bit of sloppiness was having a creature totally unsuited physically for the ice planet on which it supposedly lived to chase Kirk into "Spock Prime's" cave. What were those artists thinking, or drinking?

And one of the WORST infractions, that can't be glossed over by the "Meddling With Space-Time Continuum" trick: McCoy's nickname, "Bones," was the typical nickname given to a military doctor, I think as far back as the Civil War and possibly earlier. Back then, a battlefield or ship's doctor was often employed as a surgeon, amputating the mangled limbs of soldiers. A "saw-bones," in other words, then shortened to just "Bones." But the writers here totally missed that snippet of U.S. military history and tried to think up another origin for how Kirk came up with "Bones."

The movie also reflects the trend toward Short Attention-Span Theatre, with scenes and views cutting from one to the next in fractions of seconds before the eye and brain can fix themselves on an image. Scenes and dialogue are short and rapid, and there is just a sense that no one wants to sit and watch a story play out; it has to be wham-bam action nonstop. The story and plotline are incidental and secondary to the special fx, explosions, battles and fights.

The original series, and even its sequels, spent a lot more time on stories and characters. This prequel episode was more of a caricature touching on the basic characters of the original series, but once they neatly fell into their places the movies became just a vehicle for a lot of BOOM! and flash. That's the lazy "let's make a ton of money and blow this clambake" approach to movie-making, and Star Trek deserved better.

[/Rant]

To wrap up on a brighter note: The absolutely best homage paid to the original series (besides having veteran Leonard Nimoy on hand, and the voice of the late Majel; Barrett Roddenbery, who provided the computer voice on the original series and therafter) was the tip of the hat to all of the classic episodes where some unfamiliar crewman beams down to a planet with the "regulars," and we all knew who would not be living to beam back up to the Enterprise. ;D As soon as some unknown shmoe named "Olson" got on board with Kirk and Sulu, you just knew that Olson was gonna snuff it. But at least he got some good lines. The extras who served as sacrificial alien bait on the original Star Trek rarely had spoken lines because then Gene Roddenberry would have had to have paid them more! There was a separate union/guild for extras who have lines vs. those who are just part of the unwashed crowd. ;D
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Darth Rock&Roll on Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:14 pm

Not to mention, Kirk did the get down horizontal flip flop with the green chick waaaaayyyy out of context.
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Interloper on Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:22 pm

Totally. I think a lot of stuff got edited out that might have given context to a lot of scenes. Or maybe it was just lazy writing. Whatever. The green chick comes from a planet where being a slut is a Good Thing. I forget whether they're Antareans or whatever, but in the old series one shows up in an episode or two as a seductress type. ;)
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Ian on Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:52 pm

So far this is not a good year for films, is it...

07 and 08 were good. There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Dark Knight, 3:10 to Yuma, Burn After Reading...

This year - Ice Age :P
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Orpheus on Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:23 pm

Ian wrote:So far this is not a good year for films, is it...

07 and 08 were good. There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Dark Knight, 3:10 to Yuma, Burn After Reading...

This year - Ice Age :P


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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Dmitri on Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:56 pm

Orpheus wrote:Go see "Up"

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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Darth Rock&Roll on Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:54 am

green girl that original kirk did was on a shore leave world and there was a jack the ripper character and scotty got charged with her murder.

I think...it's been a while since I saw it. lol

*edit* nope, that's wrong... I think you're right interloper, but i can't remember the episiode... hmmmn
Last edited by Darth Rock&Roll on Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby chud on Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:09 am

Interloper wrote:The writers got away with a lot by using the "Alternative Reality Due to Meddling With the Space-Time Continuum" trick, as in the original series Spock's mother (who was blonde) was alive and well long after he and Kirk ran the Enterprise, and appeared on a couple of episodes; Uhura and Spock never showed any recognition toward each other that even hinted that they ever had a relationship (Where the hell did THAT come from?!


I liked the movie overall, but I agree with you on these points, they bothered me too. Spock's mom was alive and well on the old series, and the Uhura-Spock thing was totally out of left field. Plus on the original series Kirk had no past history with Pike, only Spock did. ::)
All in all it was a good movie though, and I really liked the new McCoy. "The ex got half the planet in the divorce settlement." LOL! ;D
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Dmitri on Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:22 am

Interloper wrote:[Rant]...


Well, a movie is a movie... It's just like some die-hard fans of some comic book whine about how this or that movie that is "BASED ON" the comic is inaccurate, characters are misrepresented, etc., etc.
These movies are never intended to be exact reproductions or perfect follow-ups to the originals on which they are based... It's almost impossible. The "based on" idea is to get some money in for the producers, and provide decent (hopefully) entertainment for the audience, and Star Trek IMHO has done extremely well in both respects. So quit all yer whining and just enjoy. :P ;D

(I do see some of the points of course, I had a similar feeling about the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie that came out a couple years ago, BUT my expectations were never terribly high (they almost never are, for the reasons stated above) and so I managed to enjoy even that one. Could they have done it better? Sure they could, -- but so what, nothing's perfect.
Last edited by Dmitri on Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Steve James on Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:25 am

I think Kirk never really got down with the green girls. Off the top of my head, that was a temptation given to Pike --but he also rejected it. Well, I think the new Trek is for the new generation, not for those who grew up with it. That'll be its biggest problem, no matter how good it is on its own.

Anyway, I haven't seen it yet. I'll have to wait until one of the sons came or I went to see the grands. Otoh, I've got a big screen and a blu ray, so it's likely I'll pick ST up when it comes out. It ends up being a lot cheaper.
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Interloper on Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:38 am

Good points all around, Dmitri and Steve.
And Steve, you're right about the schism between the generations. The Star Trek franchise is looking to the future, income-wise, and will tailor its works to appeal to the sensibilities of the younger generation opening its wallet. ;)

I did like the movie, but unlike Dmitri, I think I had higher expectations than I ought to have. I'd read some reviews from 30-somethings who loved it and raved about how closely it stuck to the original. But I should have known better. They weren't around for the first-run original and probably hadn't paid too close attention to the re-runs when they were old enough to watch them. ;D
Last edited by Interloper on Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Dmitri on Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:05 am

Interloper wrote:They weren't around for the first-run original and probably hadn't paid too close attention to the re-runs when they were old enough to watch them. ;D

We need this icon: -oldman- in female form.
;D
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Re: Star Trek......

Postby Interloper on Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:27 am

Dmitri wrote:
Interloper wrote:They weren't around for the first-run original and probably hadn't paid too close attention to the re-runs when they were old enough to watch them. ;D

We need this icon: -oldman- in female form.
;D


What, you've never seen an old lady with a beard/mustache? :D I'm not looking forward to menopause!
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