Star Trek
Last night I saw Star Trek with slothel and largemilk.
No joke...this movie was absolutely, balls-to-the-wall, fucking fantastic.
After watching the abysmal Star Trek: Nemesis, I was absolutely certain that Trek was dead and buried. Enterprise was soon to be canceled, and there was for the first time in my adult life no Star Trek, in any format, being produced. I was sad until I discovered Battlestar Galactica, but it still wasn't quite the same.
But oh man...they got this film *so right*. While they have created a new timeline (I'm likening it to the Multiverse in Marvel Comics parlance) they stayed true to the core of Trek, the characters, the vision...but they made it FUN again! That's what Trek had been missing for so long.
All of the new actors playing the old characters performed their roles stunningly well. I am not the first person to say this, but I cannot imagine anyone other than Zachary Quinto playing Spock. Well...you know what I mean. Karl Urban was fabulous as McCoy (sorry Slothel ;-), and even referenced his divorce which, true to the original continuity, was his reason for being in Starfleet. I love how they actually stated that Uhura was an expert in linguistics and communications, rather than her original slate as little more than an AT&T operator in space. Chris Pine got Kirk's arrogance, swagger, and tendency to shoot first and think later, while thankfully ignoring Shatner's cadence and tendency to overact. (Having Dr. Cameron from House as Kirk's mom was a nice touch!) I had a huge grin on my face during Sulu's swordfight, right after I realized that Engineer Olsen was wearing a red jumpsuit and seemed a little too overeager. Anton Yelchin was cute and fun as Chekov; he was bubbling with youthful eagerness. To Slothel: I have decided that Chekov's odd inability to pronounce the letter V has nothing to do with the Russian language, as you said that V is the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. Chekov simply has a speech impediment. Only explanation that makes sense.
I think my favorite new actor and characterization, however, has to be Simon Pegg as Montgomery Scott. Fucking wonderful. Not only is it nice to have a Scotty with an actual Scottish accent, but he's 10x funnier than Doohan ever was. Sorry, James.
The movie tackled some pretty heavy shit (Vulcan...is...GONE! I'm still wrapping my brain around this) while not taking itself too seriously, which has been the death of at least a couple Trek films. They have set up a very interesting and novel situation which to explore in the next 2 films. Yes, two: the actors are all contracted for 3 movies.
I have read several Trek fans who lament that it seems the original timeline, Picard, Sisko, Janeway and all, have been erased. I disagree. My interpretation of events is that the original continuity still exists in a parallel reality. See TNG episode "Parallels" for what I mean. So somewhere out in the multiverse, Vulcan is still there and Kirk has a daddy. We just have a new, unexplored playground of Trek possibilities to play with. And I love it.
I think I have to reorder my favorite Trek films now. This one takes the #1 spot, First Contact falls to #2, Undiscovered Country takes #3, and Wrath of Khan is now #4.
Ursa Minor, signing off.
No joke...this movie was absolutely, balls-to-the-wall, fucking fantastic.
After watching the abysmal Star Trek: Nemesis, I was absolutely certain that Trek was dead and buried. Enterprise was soon to be canceled, and there was for the first time in my adult life no Star Trek, in any format, being produced. I was sad until I discovered Battlestar Galactica, but it still wasn't quite the same.
But oh man...they got this film *so right*. While they have created a new timeline (I'm likening it to the Multiverse in Marvel Comics parlance) they stayed true to the core of Trek, the characters, the vision...but they made it FUN again! That's what Trek had been missing for so long.
All of the new actors playing the old characters performed their roles stunningly well. I am not the first person to say this, but I cannot imagine anyone other than Zachary Quinto playing Spock. Well...you know what I mean. Karl Urban was fabulous as McCoy (sorry Slothel ;-), and even referenced his divorce which, true to the original continuity, was his reason for being in Starfleet. I love how they actually stated that Uhura was an expert in linguistics and communications, rather than her original slate as little more than an AT&T operator in space. Chris Pine got Kirk's arrogance, swagger, and tendency to shoot first and think later, while thankfully ignoring Shatner's cadence and tendency to overact. (Having Dr. Cameron from House as Kirk's mom was a nice touch!) I had a huge grin on my face during Sulu's swordfight, right after I realized that Engineer Olsen was wearing a red jumpsuit and seemed a little too overeager. Anton Yelchin was cute and fun as Chekov; he was bubbling with youthful eagerness. To Slothel: I have decided that Chekov's odd inability to pronounce the letter V has nothing to do with the Russian language, as you said that V is the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. Chekov simply has a speech impediment. Only explanation that makes sense.
I think my favorite new actor and characterization, however, has to be Simon Pegg as Montgomery Scott. Fucking wonderful. Not only is it nice to have a Scotty with an actual Scottish accent, but he's 10x funnier than Doohan ever was. Sorry, James.
The movie tackled some pretty heavy shit (Vulcan...is...GONE! I'm still wrapping my brain around this) while not taking itself too seriously, which has been the death of at least a couple Trek films. They have set up a very interesting and novel situation which to explore in the next 2 films. Yes, two: the actors are all contracted for 3 movies.
I have read several Trek fans who lament that it seems the original timeline, Picard, Sisko, Janeway and all, have been erased. I disagree. My interpretation of events is that the original continuity still exists in a parallel reality. See TNG episode "Parallels" for what I mean. So somewhere out in the multiverse, Vulcan is still there and Kirk has a daddy. We just have a new, unexplored playground of Trek possibilities to play with. And I love it.
I think I have to reorder my favorite Trek films now. This one takes the #1 spot, First Contact falls to #2, Undiscovered Country takes #3, and Wrath of Khan is now #4.
Ursa Minor, signing off.