10 things from my second viewing of Star Trek
Because the first time I really couldn't get much past the squee! factor :)
1. I really am in awe of how brilliantly the main cast pulls off inhabiting the characters without resorting to mimicry. IMO Karl Urban's performance is amazing -- omg Cupid! Caesar! Hero of Rohan! -- and yet I totally believed him as the world weary, slightly broken hearted country doctor. Fantastic.
2. I wasn't sure if I liked the music the first time, but I think I really do. And I love keeping the Alexander Courage theme at the end.
3. Vulcan had to be destroyed to give some weight and urgency to the story. Sorry, Vulcan. We hardly knew you.
4. Was that Rachel Nichols from Alias in the green Orion girl makeup!? Totally missed that before :) I did catch Carrie from Alias (Marshall's wife) on the bridge.
5. I really like the design and overall aesthetic, inconsistencies included. Yes, in the future, there will be super-awesome high tech starship bridges, but there will still be old cars playing the Beastie Boys. And there will be backwater outposts with flickering lights and bad food, and slightly dodgy bars (with motion menus) near military bases. The future won't be all pristine, but it won't all look like Alien or Blade Runner either. It will be a little of both.
6. I love competence, and for all that our four "secondary" characters didn't get quite as much on the backstory/character front, they all DID impress me with how good they are at what they do. Love that. And Sulu really did get the best hand-to-hand fight, with bonus gymnastics! Awesome.
7. Bruce Greenwood was really kind of awesome himself. He pulled off both the weighty moments and the slightly goofy ones. "Is the parking brake on?" Hee. (Seriously, if I were flying the Enterprise? I would TOTALLY leave the parking brake on.)
8. Wow, those lens flares!
9. Spock (prime) blowing off the temporal prime directive at the end made me happy, because I hate the idea of him staying totally isolated for the rest of his life.
10. The red matter makes more sense to me now. The Vulcans invented it in response to the threat, ~120 years in the future, to a supernova that was going to destroy the galaxy. (And I'm guessing it was a total hail-mary pass, because they would have seen the very obvious weapons potential.) The idea was to shoot the red matter into the supernova, so it would get all sucked up by the black hole. They were too late and Romulus was destroyed, but the supernova did get all sucked up. The singularity causes Spock's and Nero's ships, which were in close proximity, to travel back in time (that part seems pretty dicey, but ok.) Anyway. The red matter was still in Spock's ship, captured by Nero, who came through first and had to wait decades for Spock. ETA: Oh, duh -- there is apparently a prequel graphic novel that explains all of this.
Did I say 10? I meant 11 things.
11. The magnificent seven are indeed magnificent. Apparently, I'm not all done yet with the squee!
1. I really am in awe of how brilliantly the main cast pulls off inhabiting the characters without resorting to mimicry. IMO Karl Urban's performance is amazing -- omg Cupid! Caesar! Hero of Rohan! -- and yet I totally believed him as the world weary, slightly broken hearted country doctor. Fantastic.
2. I wasn't sure if I liked the music the first time, but I think I really do. And I love keeping the Alexander Courage theme at the end.
3. Vulcan had to be destroyed to give some weight and urgency to the story. Sorry, Vulcan. We hardly knew you.
4. Was that Rachel Nichols from Alias in the green Orion girl makeup!? Totally missed that before :) I did catch Carrie from Alias (Marshall's wife) on the bridge.
5. I really like the design and overall aesthetic, inconsistencies included. Yes, in the future, there will be super-awesome high tech starship bridges, but there will still be old cars playing the Beastie Boys. And there will be backwater outposts with flickering lights and bad food, and slightly dodgy bars (with motion menus) near military bases. The future won't be all pristine, but it won't all look like Alien or Blade Runner either. It will be a little of both.
6. I love competence, and for all that our four "secondary" characters didn't get quite as much on the backstory/character front, they all DID impress me with how good they are at what they do. Love that. And Sulu really did get the best hand-to-hand fight, with bonus gymnastics! Awesome.
7. Bruce Greenwood was really kind of awesome himself. He pulled off both the weighty moments and the slightly goofy ones. "Is the parking brake on?" Hee. (Seriously, if I were flying the Enterprise? I would TOTALLY leave the parking brake on.)
8. Wow, those lens flares!
9. Spock (prime) blowing off the temporal prime directive at the end made me happy, because I hate the idea of him staying totally isolated for the rest of his life.
10. The red matter makes more sense to me now. The Vulcans invented it in response to the threat, ~120 years in the future, to a supernova that was going to destroy the galaxy. (And I'm guessing it was a total hail-mary pass, because they would have seen the very obvious weapons potential.) The idea was to shoot the red matter into the supernova, so it would get all sucked up by the black hole. They were too late and Romulus was destroyed, but the supernova did get all sucked up. The singularity causes Spock's and Nero's ships, which were in close proximity, to travel back in time (that part seems pretty dicey, but ok.) Anyway. The red matter was still in Spock's ship, captured by Nero, who came through first and had to wait decades for Spock. ETA: Oh, duh -- there is apparently a prequel graphic novel that explains all of this.
Did I say 10? I meant 11 things.
11. The magnificent seven are indeed magnificent. Apparently, I'm not all done yet with the squee!