Trek trek trekity trek trek trek

[annathepiper]

So yeah, on Friday night, solarbird and spazzkat and I went to go have tasty sushi and see the new Trek movie. The sushi was undisputably tasty, as was the plum wine I had with it. We had a bit of a difference of opinion as to the tastiness of the movie, though!

Picoreview on my part: Big Stupid Fun. There are bits of science in it that make you go “wait, WHAT?” even by Trek standards. But here’s the thing: at least while I was watching the movie, I didn’t care. All the characters were Right and that’s pretty much what counted as far as I am concerned. Bonus points for Dara and I having fun geeking about the ramifications of events in the movie, and Dara telling me that say what you will about this new film, it’s gotten her Trekgeeking for the first time in twenty years.

Spoilers behind the cut!

Let me get this out of the way first: okay yeah fine, the big time travel mechanism in this plot is Dumb. You can travel through time by going through a black hole? Who knew? Also, WTF is “red matter”?

But I’ll put that aside because really, I had very little other quibble with this movie. I was particularly impressed that Abrams pulled off a Trek time travel plot, even one with a stupid science concept behind it, without doing a reset of the events. I really like the explanation of “this is an alternate universe/timeline” for why these are younger people who may have the same names and same basic, core qualities to their characters, but entirely different lives.

I was also really impressed that he had the guts to destroy Vulcan. We all knew some planet was getting destroyed from the trailers, but whoa hey Vulcan? Also, it must be noted that he took out Romulus with a supernova, back in Trek Universe A; one wonders how many more planets he’ll be destroying now that he’s taken over the Trek franchise. Muahaha.

That said? Killing off Amanda: *sniff!* I turned to Dara once we got home and said “I guess Journey to Babel won’t be happening in this timeline!”

I rather liked that the villain was Just This Romulan Guy who happened to go severely batshit crazy when his homeworld was destroyed, and decided he was coming after Spock with his big-ass scary-looking mining ship of Doom. And although I didn’t realize this until after I saw the review post put up by Nick Mamatas, it was rather neat that Nero went around calling Pike “Christopher” and being all weirdly casual when hailing the Enterpise. Dude’s a civilian. He has no reason to respect the niceties of military rank and every reason to despise them. So yeah, no quibbles there.

But really, the heart of this entire experience for me was seeing how well the young cast handled the familiar characters. And for the most part, for me, the answer to this question is “swimmingly”. In ascending order of Coolness:

Sulu: John Cho didn’t register much for me, but I did like sneaking in his fencing experience and letting him get all wuxia on that Romulan on the drilling platform.

Chekov: BABY CHEKHOV! I loved him! <3 I adored how he squealed "I CAN DO THIS!" and went pelting down to the transporter room.

McCoy: Karl Urban did a fabulous job for what little screen time he actually got. I lol’d at his joining Starfleet because of his ex-wife essentially kicking him off the planet, and I particularly lol’d at the sequence wherein he was chasing Kirk around with the Hypo of Doom. He did very well with the accent.

Uhura: I liked the whole setup with Kirk flirting with her in the bar leading into the bit of mystery about her name. Very nice callback to how “Nyota” had never been established on-screen. And while it would have been nice to have her more actively involved in the plot than just smoochin’ on Spock, she is a communications officer and there wasn’t much for a communications officer to do here. One hopes we’ll see her more actively involved in future films.

And while we’re on the topic, WHOA HEY UHURA SMOOCHIN’ ON SPOCK! I have this theory that Abrams or somebody on his writing staff saw that very, very early episode, before they really got their groove going, in which Uhura is actually hitting on Spock on the bridge… and that there was a bit of a stroky-beard HMM moment, and some thought of “we can work with this”.

And speaking of whom….

Spock: Zachary Quinto pretty much nailed Spock. He’s a younger, rougher Spock than Nimoy’s, of course, and one who clearly has acknowledged enough emotion to actually have a relationship with Uhura… but in the fundamentals, yeah, he’s totally Spock. Especially when Kirk provokes him into flipping out; there’s a nice echo there again to the old series, wherein Kirk had to do that. Spock is scary when he flips out in the show, and he was pretty scary here, too.

And, he’s got down the Spock snark as well. When he finally shows up at the end and requests to be Kirk’s first officer, I lol’d quite a bit at his offer to provide character references.

It was actually a little jarring to have both Original!Spock and New!Spock in this story–except when both Spocks were on screen. Then, when New!Spock calls Original!Spock on the fact that he actually bullshat Kirk about the consequences of their ever meeting, that whole scene started to work.

ETA (OH GOD how could I leave him out?!) Scotty: Simon Pegg ROCKED. I loved what little we had of him on camera, and he totally stole the show. “I like this ship! It’s EXCITIN’!” Hee! I can’t wait to see Chris Pine barking out “I NEED MORE POWER SCOTTY!” and him wailing back “Th’ engines can’t take much more o’ this!” <3

Last, but definitely not least:

Kirk: This of course was the big question for me, Kirk fangirl that I am: could Chris Pine fill Kirk’s boots? And take them off and put them on again? ;>

He didn’t start feeling like Kirk to me until the bar scene when he was hitting on Uhura–and then, because of asking her name and threatening to make one up if she didn’t fess up. A raw and unfinished version of the Kirk Smarm, but yeah, it was clearly already getting into place by then. And! I loved watching him pivot and ogle any beautiful girl that went past him, and the fact that he was getting all hot and heavy with Uhura’s Orion roommate.

I cheered that they had the Kobayashi Maru test on camera. That is of course a fundamental part of Kirk’s character and one of the things that had to be there. A bit of a snicker that Spock had actually programmed the test himself and took Kirk’s cheating personally, too.

As I said above, I loved the whole sequence with McCoy sneaking Kirk onto the Enterprise; I lol’d every time Kirk went “WOULD YOU QUIT IT?”

Seeing him start to get serious, though, really started convincing me this boy was actually James T. Kirk. He had the correct intensity, the correct daring, the correct thinking out of the box. And it didn’t hurt that he’s quite gorgeous, too.

So yeah, all in all two thumbs up and I’ll be going back for seconds some time soon. Dara and I both want to give the movie another crack, now that we know specifically that this is an alternate timeline that doesn’t get reset. I want to give the musical score another listen as well and see if I feel like buying the soundtrack.

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

Comments

[hyperbard.livejournal.com]

...sigh... see, that's the reason I don't want to see it myself -- I definitely understand the Big, Stupid Fun part (hell, it's why joe_chin and myself like TCM underground movies Friday nights), but the thing that drives me nuts about it are when I see the commercials for it on TV and by the gods, they show more advanced technology for that time period than in the first Trek movie!! Yeah, so I'm a purist, it drove me nuts. Granted, I'm still somewhat P'O'd about Jackson leaving out Tom Bombadil as well as the last half out of LOTR but I still have the movie... I guess it's a matter of opinion.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

they show more advanced technology for that time period than in the first Trek movie!

It's an alternate reality; we can infer that they've advanced faster over there than over here. That's got to be at least one reason for the reboot (as well as letting them discard any inconvenient canon).

[annathepiper]

desperance beat me to it, but yeah, this movie is very specifically an alternate reality. So that as far as I'm concerned cheerfully lets me ignore any quibbly details about "oh but Pike wasn't the first captain of the Enterprise!" or "they didn't have such and such technology when Kirk was a boy!"

[annathepiper]

I somehow knew you were going to show up with that exact icon. ;)

And yeah yeah yeah overexposed tired of reboots heard it already. ;) Be crotchety about it all you like. Me, I'm going back for seconds!

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I adored Karl Urban as McCoy. I sat for the whole movie with a big stupid grin on my face. (I've only ever seen a few original Trek episodes, but I'm currently searching out the first season so that I CAN watch them. Because this movie made me want to.)

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

I've only ever seen a few original Trek episodes, but I'm currently searching out the first season so that I CAN watch them. Because this movie made me want to.

Wow. I can't think of a better review!!

[annathepiper]

Oh wow, that's high praise indeed! *beam* And yeah, this movie just made me happy all around. :)

Do be advised that season 3 is shakier than 1 or 2, but it has some good bits in it nonetheless. And season 1 is interesting especially in the first few episodes when they clearly don't have all the concepts in place yet; e.g., it takes a bit for the idea of "Starfleet" to show up, and a couple of episodes call Spock a "Vulcanian".

[filkermanque.livejournal.com]

CBS has almost the entire original series at

http://www.cbs.com/video/?showname=classics/star_trek&showtype=classics#video

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

I notice you didn't mention Scotty. Personally I think he was a little lost: Scotty's proper place is in Engineering and he hardly spent any time there. Also that Engineering looked kinda bad - no distinguishing features at all, looked mainly like a high-school boiler room, and so nothing to set himself against.

I had some fears going in, and a couple slightly facepalmy moments, but on the whole some very nice stuff. Looking forward to a sequel.

[annathepiper]

Oh geez, you're right, I TOTALLY left him out. This is what I get for writing the review at midnight last night.

I loved what little we got of Scotty; Simon Pegg totally walked off with the show as soon as he was on camera. Mea culpa for leaving him out!

[astraether.livejournal.com]

So.... who's Amanda, and what's the Journey to Babel?

[annathepiper]

Amanda is Spock's mother. "Journey to Babel" is one of my favorite old Trek episodes; it's the one where we meet Spock's parents for the first time. It's fun. :)

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

No, black holes - singularities, actually - are mathematically linked to travel through time, just as faster than light travel is. One of Larry Niven's early stories was _Singularities Make Me Nervous_ and involves going back through time via a black hole.

[annathepiper]

And how exactly is does this math work given that black holes are also linked with spaghettifying you into nothing while you're travelling through the damn thing? ;)

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Surely they'd only work for travelling forwards? In that the closer you get to the singularity, the slower time moves for you, so theoretically lots of time could pass while you waited a few minutes to exit?

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing it again tonight! IMAX style! Woot! I'll let you know if it's worth it. :-)

[annathepiper]

I saw your review! Glad to know it held up to a second viewing! :)

[janne.livejournal.com]

Absolutely agree on all points! Never liked the original Chekov much (grouchy pre-Wesley teen), but this version was Adorable <3. And I think the only thing that prevented my brain from utterly melting down at neoSpock is that he doesn't have the Nimoy voice, otherwise utterly perfect. *Swoon*. And glad to see somebody else who liked the hypo chase, too -- had any number of people grouch at me about that for being silly. Well, yes, that's the point :D.

*squeesqueesquee*. Pity this weekend is constitution day, probably won't find time for the movies to see it over again. Don't want to delay too long either, before I know it the theatres will realize it's SF and take it off the bill or something :D

Constitution Day?

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

...can't you justify it by saying you're going to see a Constitution-class starship?

No?

[annathepiper]

Original!Chekov has his moments ("I, Mudd" comes immediately to mind!), but New!Chekov is lots more adorable. And I gotta admit, New!Spock is awfully hot. ;)

Dara and I probably won't make it back to another viewing before next weekend, but it's all good, I'm pretty sure the movie will still be there!

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Being a Doctor Who/Torchwood fan, I'm pretty well used to hand-waving the wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey stuff. XD

I *loved* this new Trek. Everyone was great, everyone was adorable, and Eric Bana makes a fabulous over-the-top Trek villain.

[annathepiper]

I totally want to go back and munch some popcorn! But it probably won't be till next weekend; this weekend is nuts for solarbird! But I'll let you know if we nail down a plan and you can let me know if you haven't seen it already again before then. :)

[magnet5.livejournal.com]

I hate the new bridge. All shiny pretty. Doesn't look right.
I did like that Uhura is apparently initiating things in the relationship. Someone pointed out to me that it's always her kissing him first.
I thought Nero's plan made no sense: Revenge, yes, but no amount of destroyed Federation planets will avert the supernova.
I've been told the Red Sphere of Black-Hole Doom is a reference to Alias.
Overall, liked it a lot.

[annathepiper]

Nero's plan in the movie doesn't bug me much, actually. Here's the thing:

Dude was clearly batshit crazy with the grief of losing not only his homeworld, but also his wife. So I can totally buy why he chose to go open up a massive can of whupass on Vulcan in particular and the Federation in general. He's out to make Spock hurt.

And in this timeline, he's still got well over 100 years before the star's going to go supernova. So he's got plenty of time to cut a swath through the Federation before he finally goes home, gets himself hailed as a hero for wiping the Federation out and giving Romulus free rein to pick up the pieces, and THEN he can casually go "By the way, our star's going to go supernova in another hundred years, we need to go conquer a new homeworld."

(But I doubt he was really thinking that far ahead; dude was, as I mentioned, clearly batshit crazy. ;) )

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

Somehow I totally missed this post, but then, my summer saw me missing a bunch of time online. As far as Trek cannon goes, this movie is really bad about going against it, but if it's taken totally as an alternate universe then it works out well.

I do agree with you about the parts being right for McCoy, Scotty and Chekov. I was concerned that Karl Urban wouldn't be able to live up to my expectations of McCoy, who happened to be one of my two favorite charaters from the series. Oddly enough, Simon Pegg did a wonderful job as Scotty, who was my other favorite character. I loved the hypo-spray chase scene and the scene where Chekov runs down saying "I can do this".

It's been awhile since I saw the movie and I only saw it once in the theater, so my recollection of it is a bit rusty. I plan on getting it once it's released, if I can.

[annathepiper]

There's no question of this movie being an alternate universe. They say so right in the movie. So it's supposed to break canon, that's the entire point. ;)

I had my doubts about Karl Urban, yeah, probably unfairly since after all I'd only seen him before as Eomer in the Lord of the Rings films. But he did a beautiful job.

And I absolutely expected Simon Pegg to be awesome, since I'd seen him in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, both of which were hysterical. For that matter, I'd also seen him in Doctor Who. So I knew he was good!