Impressions on Star Trek, from the eyes of a n00b
I saw STAR TREK with yuukihikari yesterday and here are my impressions of it. When I'm less out of it, I'll have a post about my wanderings afterwards.
It was AWESOME. The complaint of there being "too much lens flare" didn't really apply to me (I didn't even notice it) but someone needs to take the shaky camera away from J.J. Abrams. I hopped on board with the science of it all - I have this very "so thingy x does result y? I'm in!" sort of approach to sci-fi and it helped. As long as they kind of mentioned what was going on, I was able to follow what was going on. The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" didn't bother me - it really fit with little!Kirk being a hellraiser.
Onto the meat of things, the characters. Being an absolute n00b to Star Trek, all I knew about the characters is very basic and based on popular culture: "Beam me up, Scotty!" "Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a (insert other profession here)!" and I feel it helped me look at these characters with a different set of eyes. The writers loved these characters and loved them enough to present them in new ways, keeping the ESSENCE of what made the fans of The Original Series love them in the first place and I admire that.
Yuuki mentioned how squicky it was to her about Spock/Uhura and I sympathized, but I felt that the pairing WORKED in this movie. Spock is very uncertain/wrestling with powerful emotions due to his being a "child of two worlds" and is still quite young (as are the rest of the crew) so he isn't the subdued, subtlely snarky Spock that was presented in TOS and I felt Uhura's personality rather complemented his. She could get through his somewhat "arrogant" attitude of being superior to humans (I liked the touch here - Spock tries very hard to appear above humans though he is partly one himself, also he had this little smirk throughout the movie XD) such as when she convinced him to put her on the Enterprise crew as she felt she was more than qualified for it AND HE RELENTED. But she could also be there for him when he needed to let his guard down, ie) the scene in the elevator.
[I loved the whole mini-mini subplot of Kirk trying to find out Urhura's first name and finds it out when Spock and
Uhura are saying goodbyes on the transporter XD AWKWARRDD
Kirk: ...so her name's Nyota?
Spock: -- I have no comment on the matter.
Kirk: >_> Yeah okay.]
The fact that they're all still very young and new to the Starfleet makes their characterization work, as the personalities presented in TOS are just blossoming, so of course they aren't like that yet, but it's shown where those characters "began" so to speak.
The Kobayashi-Maru test was hilarious. The apple just took the cake for me and how over-the-top not caring Kirk was about the whole thing was just <3
Kirk: Who was that pointy eared bastard?
McCoy: *shrugs*
LEONARD NIMOY. Wow, he was significant and moving in this movie and I loved his scene with young!kirk (who was baffled as fuck, lawls) and that it was him that bridged the haterarde between Kirk and Spock and the fact he totally lied to Kirk XD. There's not much I can say save for the fact I loved the scenes with him and the young version of his late friend.
I LOVE SCOTTY AND CHEKOV. <333 Chekov is so cute and high energy and ADORABLE.
McCoy: ... how old are you?
Chekov: 17 sir! ^^
McCoy: He's .. 17.That's great, he's 17.
Kirk: Let it go.
Simon Pegg as Scotty was brilliant! (Also loved the tribble in the cage behind him!) and "find scotty in the tubes before he dies!" mini-game scene was hilarious. Pegg also has amazing comedic timing:
Everyone: *quiet*
Kirk: *STARE*
Spock: *SEETHE*
Scotty: I love being on this ship! IT'S SO EXCITING!
Also, much love for Bones calling Spock a goblin XDD
The last scene with Spock Prime and this timeline's Spock was incredibly touching and poigant, though now that I know of the scene that the writers wrote for Shatner -- that being when Spock Prime spoke to his alternate self, he played a message Kirk Prime left for Spock Prime about their friendship and how it impacted him and so on -- would have fit nicely, but as we all know, Shater was a bit of an asshat and the writers cut it so cest la vie. XD
I CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE. YAY!
It was AWESOME. The complaint of there being "too much lens flare" didn't really apply to me (I didn't even notice it) but someone needs to take the shaky camera away from J.J. Abrams. I hopped on board with the science of it all - I have this very "so thingy x does result y? I'm in!" sort of approach to sci-fi and it helped. As long as they kind of mentioned what was going on, I was able to follow what was going on. The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" didn't bother me - it really fit with little!Kirk being a hellraiser.
Onto the meat of things, the characters. Being an absolute n00b to Star Trek, all I knew about the characters is very basic and based on popular culture: "Beam me up, Scotty!" "Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a (insert other profession here)!" and I feel it helped me look at these characters with a different set of eyes. The writers loved these characters and loved them enough to present them in new ways, keeping the ESSENCE of what made the fans of The Original Series love them in the first place and I admire that.
Yuuki mentioned how squicky it was to her about Spock/Uhura and I sympathized, but I felt that the pairing WORKED in this movie. Spock is very uncertain/wrestling with powerful emotions due to his being a "child of two worlds" and is still quite young (as are the rest of the crew) so he isn't the subdued, subtlely snarky Spock that was presented in TOS and I felt Uhura's personality rather complemented his. She could get through his somewhat "arrogant" attitude of being superior to humans (I liked the touch here - Spock tries very hard to appear above humans though he is partly one himself, also he had this little smirk throughout the movie XD) such as when she convinced him to put her on the Enterprise crew as she felt she was more than qualified for it AND HE RELENTED. But she could also be there for him when he needed to let his guard down, ie) the scene in the elevator.
[I loved the whole mini-mini subplot of Kirk trying to find out Urhura's first name and finds it out when Spock and
Uhura are saying goodbyes on the transporter XD AWKWARRDD
Kirk: ...so her name's Nyota?
Spock: -- I have no comment on the matter.
Kirk: >_> Yeah okay.]
The fact that they're all still very young and new to the Starfleet makes their characterization work, as the personalities presented in TOS are just blossoming, so of course they aren't like that yet, but it's shown where those characters "began" so to speak.
The Kobayashi-Maru test was hilarious. The apple just took the cake for me and how over-the-top not caring Kirk was about the whole thing was just <3
Kirk: Who was that pointy eared bastard?
McCoy: *shrugs*
LEONARD NIMOY. Wow, he was significant and moving in this movie and I loved his scene with young!kirk (who was baffled as fuck, lawls) and that it was him that bridged the haterarde between Kirk and Spock and the fact he totally lied to Kirk XD. There's not much I can say save for the fact I loved the scenes with him and the young version of his late friend.
I LOVE SCOTTY AND CHEKOV. <333 Chekov is so cute and high energy and ADORABLE.
McCoy: ... how old are you?
Chekov: 17 sir! ^^
McCoy: He's .. 17.That's great, he's 17.
Kirk: Let it go.
Simon Pegg as Scotty was brilliant! (Also loved the tribble in the cage behind him!) and "find scotty in the tubes before he dies!" mini-game scene was hilarious. Pegg also has amazing comedic timing:
Everyone: *quiet*
Kirk: *STARE*
Spock: *SEETHE*
Scotty: I love being on this ship! IT'S SO EXCITING!
Also, much love for Bones calling Spock a goblin XDD
The last scene with Spock Prime and this timeline's Spock was incredibly touching and poigant, though now that I know of the scene that the writers wrote for Shatner -- that being when Spock Prime spoke to his alternate self, he played a message Kirk Prime left for Spock Prime about their friendship and how it impacted him and so on -- would have fit nicely, but as we all know, Shater was a bit of an asshat and the writers cut it so cest la vie. XD
I CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE. YAY!