Star Trek

[The Notorious LOL]

was some shit right there. 9.5 out of 10.

[paul jones]

any 'tits out' scenes?

[The Notorious LOL]

I liked that element. It avoided the whole fanboy protest of CAPTAIN KIRK WOULDNT/DIDNT DO THAT complaints.

[monkey]

i want to see it again and again and again. that's not a common occurrence with most movies i see.

i loved how the actors really adopted the mannerisms of the original characters. by far, i thought bones' portrayal was the bestest.

ive never been a fan of nearly anything created after the original series, but i do LOVE that series, and this movie just hit the nail on the head. :):):)

[saz]

yep, bones and nero by far were the standouts for me. too bad though we didn't see more of bana. the romulans were really badass.

[roosta]

yeah, its great.

[nodanaonlyzuul]

I dug it.

[na§tee]

great great great film, haven't found a movie that fun in a long, long time.

i agree with the (5 star) guardian review..

You want "bromance"? I'll give you bromance - the greatest of them all. It's the bromance that flowers in this wildly exciting and enjoyable summer action movie, about the manly relationship between a mercurially talented starship commander and his mixed-race first officer, whose virile otherness is signalled by discreetly tapering pointy ears, eyebrows in a thick geometric frown and that extraordinary straight fringe, a hairdo he must maintain in front of the bathroom mirror every night with a ruler and pair of scissors.

Why have we filmgoers wasted so much of our time and attention on all those other beta-male bondings and under-par buddy hookups when the greatest friendship of all was right there under our noses? The story of Kirk and Spock is brought thrillingly back to life by a new first generation: Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, who give inspired, utterly unselfconscious and lovable performances, with power, passion and some cracking comic timing. It's a film in which my chief emotion was a kind of grinning embarrassment at enjoying it all quite so much.

This is Star Trek: The Early Years, the story of the Enterprise crew when they were teen- to twentysomethings with some serious cadet attitude. Their fledgling relationships are dramatised and interspersed with spectacular action sequences, juxtaposing the "nighttime" effect of deep space with the sunlit, parched alien planets on which the stars find themselves crash-landing. For people like me who grew up watching Star Trek movies and feeling secretly shocked at how old Shatner, Nimoy et al looked compared to their lithe selves on the TV show - well, this makes for an extra blast of pure energy.

Director JJ Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have found a cunning way of rewriting the backstory. Hateful Romulan Nero, played by Eric Bana, enraged by what he (wrongly) sees as Spock's destruction of his home planet, travels backwards in time with a mission to destroy the future authors of his people's misfortune. James T Kirk's father, who was originally to grow happily old, witnessing his son's glorious rise through the Star Fleet ranks, now dies in a Romulan attack, after he gets his pregnant wife to safety - and she excitingly gives birth to Jim in the escape module itself. And so we are given a new, parallel-universe early story of the Enterprise.

Without his dad's calming influence, Jim grows up a tearaway and a wrong 'un: there is a fantastic sequence in which he crashes his uncle's vintage sports car while pursued by a hi-tech robo-speed-cop. After being beaten senseless in a bar fight, Kirk is redemptively recruited to the fleet by a friend of his late father: wise Capt Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Meanwhile, the bookish and earnest young Spock (Quinto), is bullied by his Vulcan classmates for having a human mother - played by Winona Ryder - and made the subject of racist condescension by his Vulcan elders, who refer to his human ancestry as a disability. Incensed, Spock joins the human Starfleet and instantly becomes a star pupil.

In fact, it looks very much as if Spock, not Kirk, will be the star of the film as well, and the Kirk-Spock friendship is to ignite in rivalry and even violence. Spock has what first seems like the greater leadership potential, and to Jim's chagrin, the beautiful African-American crew-member Uhura (Zoe Saldana) seems to like Spock more. Spock also gets a powerfully surreal (and not entirely, ahem, logical) meeting with his older self: Leonard Nimoy contributes a performance of gentle, other-worldly dignity, and it is this older Spock, over the closing credits, who gets to recite the legendary words about the mission to seek out new life, new civilisations. The final words are, incidentally, politically corrected to "where no one has gone before".

What a treat it is to see the bridge of the USS Enterprise, box fresh and gleaming new: it is quite irrationally exciting to hear that strange, echoey-tweety heartbeat of the shipboard computer-system, the klaxon alarm in moments of peril, and the fsssht-fsssht of the automatic doors opening and closing. It is weird, in 2009, to see the 1960s UN-style ethos preserved, with the mini-skirt costumes for female personnel and toddler pyjama-tops for the guys. Then, as now, there's an American at the helm, but other nations, and present and former foes are generously represented: the Russian Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) and the Japanese Sulu, played by the Korean-American actor John Cho. As in the 60s, however, Starfleet unfortunately feels no great conciliatory need to include anyone from the Middle East. Britain's Simon Pegg plays the engineer Scotty, and beings his own distinctive shtick to the part, and Karl Urban is Bones, the gruff medic - of all the current cast, he seems the one nearest in age to the original.

Unlike George Lucas's massively encumbered and obese Star Wars prequel-trilogy, this new Star Trek is fast-moving, funny, exciting warp-speed entertainment and, heaven help me, even quite moving - the kind of film that shows that, like it or not, commercial cinema can still deliver a sledgehammer punch. It sure didn't feel like a trek to me.

i don't think that the characters were cheap imitations of the old ones. bones was the one that was more true to the original - i guess that's sort of because his character is a lot more mature, older. i didn't even recognise karl urban. not at all.

eric bana was the shit.

they'll keep going and going with these movies. eep. it's exciting!

[HEIRESS]

awesome. awesome. awesome.

[HEIRESS]

great great great film, haven't found a movie that fun in a long, long time.

i agree with the (5 star) guardian review..



i don't think that the characters were cheap imitations of the old ones. bones was the one that was more true to the original - i guess that's sort of because his character is a lot more mature, older. i didn't even recognise karl urban. not at all.

eric bana was the shit.

they'll keep going and going with these movies. eep. it's exciting!

karl urban should wear his hair bones-style all the time. its oddly attractive.

[rirv]

Yeah it was pretty good though I always think that an alternate reality type jobby is a poor story line because it is an excuse to do anything you want. It's on a par with "and then she woke up and it was all a bad dream".

High points of the film were all the scenes with Lt. Uhura in. She was bang tidy.

[nodanaonlyzuul]

the only thing I kinda disliked WAS Uhura ;/

She's very beautiful, but Uhura was so BANGIN in the OG version: kapow! She was kind of an idol to me, reminding me that girls that are curvy are sexy, too.

So to see a very bony gal in her place was kind of disappointing. When someone is naturally thin, that's fine, but Uhura was never that.

Whatever though, I'm just nitpicking.

[HEIRESS]

yeah. Uhura should have had a big ole bootie.

her eye-makeup was sweet though.

[funk63]

Why has no one mentioned SABOTAGE!!!! When that came on I was like.. FUCK YEAH!

[TAL]

I have never watched a whole movie or episode of any of the different series.

And I doubt I'll start now.

[funk63]

I have never watched a whole movie or episode of any of the different series.

And I doubt I'll start now.

Take it from someone thats only seen a couple or so episodes, it was an awesome movie. You don't have to be a trekkie to enjoy it.

[mathcart]

i want to see it again and again and again. that's not a common occurrence with most movies i see.

i loved how the actors really adopted the mannerisms of the original characters. by far, i thought bones' portrayal was the bestest.

ive never been a fan of nearly anything created after the original series, but i do LOVE that series, and this movie just hit the nail on the head. :):):)

Agree 100%
(y)

Bones was awesome.
:)

[rirv]

Why has no one mentioned SABOTAGE!!!! When that came on I was like.. FUCK YEAH!

What? It's not like this is some kind of fan site.

[funk63]

What? It's not like this is some kind of fan site.

Oh yeah I forgot this is Beastie-Free.

[saz]

Why has no one mentioned SABOTAGE!!!! When that came on I was like.. FUCK YEAH!

perhaps because it was a cheesy attempt to reach out to the mtv generation.

[funk63]

perhaps because it was a cheesy attempt to reach out to the mtv generation.

Well whatever, I thought it was cool.

[faz]

Well whatever, I thought it was cool.

I posted this (http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/05/13/reasons-for-sabotage-in-star-trek/) in the 2nd of 3 threads in beastie general about the song being in the movie. Quite an interesting read. Also, the car was red and it "died"? Is that just a coincidence?!

[roosta]

one question though..ok so Eric Bana got the "codes to the shields" or whatever from Captain Pike...but why was there NOTHING defending Earth when he showed up in his ship

The more i think about that, the more it annoys me. There was little-to-no defences...they wouldn't have sent everything off to Vulcan..

[saz]

i think the majority of the federation fleet was destroyed by nero at vulcan. or, perhaps when nero arrived at earth, any defence was quickly overcome and destroyed.

[BBboy20]

perhaps because it was a cheesy attempt to reach out to the mtv generation.I always thought it was more of their fandom towards the series.

[trailerprincess]

I loved the film but actually thought Bones was the worst character out of all them - I love the actor but his lines seemed soooo contrived. Best moments 'Are you out of your Vulcan mind!?' and 'I'll be monitoring your frequency' Quinto was just ace.

[Guy Incognito]

i'll give it a 6

bad points -

crap plot - time travel again abrams!!!
simon pegg dropping his keks for hollywood and a crap accent(n)
the fact that george kirk was kim in home and away and it spun me out a bit

good points -

sabotage
good performances and managed to capture original series feel
good effects,
the warp effect was top
uhuru

[Gareth]

awesome
scott's little alien buddy was the best
"get off that...it's not used for climbing!"

[Nuzzolese]

I loved it! I was prepared to be unimpressed by new hot young Kirk but you know, he did a great job of coming across the way Shatner used to; the way he would lean, drop his chin, and have a sly smile.

I thought it was a smart plotline, it frees them up for so many sequals, and although it changes the past/future of the characters from what we know, I thought that, as far as the thematic elements, it was a very Trek-style plotline.

My only criticism is that it didn't seem to have a single big climactic moment, which movies like that normally have, and which is very satisfying. It was like a bunch of things happened, and then it ended. It was visually cool at the end, but there was no giant battle of ships, no one big suspenseful moment when you think everyone is going to die. Small criticism.

I liked it overall.

[Echewta]

Yeah but Tyler Perry? Really?

Fantastic movie. Didn't do too much or too little of anything. I could have sat through another 1/2 to hour.

I also liked how things looked mechnical and "real" instead of just a smooth wall, a computer, etc.

I could stare into the eyes of that big eye'd nurse in the beginning forever...*swoon*

[funk63]

I could stare into the eyes of that big eye'd nurse in the beginning forever...*swoon*

Haha the alien girl? Seriously? Because, yeah I agree.