[miketardis]

I loved this movie. I was cautiously optimistic, encouraged by the positive word of mouth and hoping for the best. It should be mentioned that I was a casual Trekker in the '80s thanks to my mother who was slightly less casual. Last night, I had the honor of seeing this, the second (or third, because I sure do like THE MOTION PICTURE) best film in the series.

And while I sort of liked THE NEXT GENERATION crew (or at least Patrick Stewart's Picard), my interest fizzled as pulpy, efficient STAR TREK series started popping up one after another. In fact, my interest didn't return until I sat down a year or so ago with my mother to revisit the original series which has a dreamlike looseness that the newer incarnations never had.

But, man oh man, has J. J. Abrams done something amazing here! And with a fantastic script from those two TRANSFORMERS guys! Does this mean that I have to re-evaluate TRANSFORMERS!? Nah. Those ED WOOD guys wrote PROBLEM CHILD (or something), right? It just goes to show that you never can tell. Of course, that doesn't mean that I have re-evaluate PROBLEM CHILD.

Abrams has created the perfect blockbuster. He manages to re-establish a convoluted backstory in deceptively broad strokes. Even if you don't know anything about the characters or Starfleet (something which the movie never really defines except that it seems like a futuristic version of the U.S. Navy or Air Force as opposed to the planetwide fleet of a utopian Earth), you see enough in Abrams' show-and-only-tell-when-you-absolutely-have-to style that you can fill in the blanks if you care or just go with it if you don't.

So,...

...who here has seen this thing?

We have a lot to talk about.

[gbk33]

Saw it last night. Gotta agree, great film. The whole time travel thing always confuses me, but fun movie none the less.

[rickssg]

I actually saw this one twice over the Memorial Day weekend. That's quite unusual for me. I watched the original series in re-runs as a kid and I was in Junior High when the Next Generation premiered. I have to say that this film is brilliant. I absolutely loved McCoy. Karl Urban simply IS Bones. All of the main characters (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekov, Scotty, Sulu and Uhura) managed to perform convincingly as these well-established characters without feeling like they were imitating the older actors.

I have only one minor gripe about the movie, and it may be seen as a SPOILER, so be warned.










When Spock says, essentially, "If they can make a black hole then why wouldn't they also be able to travel through time," the ensuing conversation feels like a rather heavy-handed message to the audience: "So what we're saying is that we are now in an alternate timeline from what you saw in the 1960s, so if some things are different then that's OK and consistent and everything, because the timeline has been altered, and this is an alternate reality, but it's still real, just like the savage Spock in that one episode who had a goatee and was all wild and stuff, it's kind of like that, except different, because it's a different alternate reality, OK, so some things can change because of events that were not in the original series but we put them in here now to make an alternate reality that will be different from what was on TV forty years ago."








END SPOILER

But other than that one little gripe, which is completely forgivable, this was a brilliant Star Trek movie. How good was it? It made me want to go home and fire up the DVR and watch episodes of the original series. It also made me want to buy all the other Star Trek movies (yes, even Star Trek V) which were just released on Blu-Ray.

[ApolloOne]

But on the other hand, it's hard to think of a more "Star Trek-ian" way of dealing with the historical and design inconsistencies between the old show and the new film.

Want to get around canon? Travel back in time!

[rickssg]

Originally Posted by ApolloOne

But on the other hand, it's hard to think of a more "Star Trek-ian" way of dealing with the historical and design inconsistencies between the old show and the new film.

Want to get around canon? Travel back in time!

Well, let me clarify: I have no trouble whatsoever with the idea of going back in time and causing an alternate timeline from that point. You are right; this is very much in keeping with some of the ideas explored in the original series, and beyond that, it's a brilliant move on the part of the filmmakers. The issue I have is with the dialog about the alternate timeline. The scene felt awkward and unnatural. Rather than believing that I was watching a conversation aboard the Enterprise, it felt like the writer had stopped the film, stepped onto the stage, and said, "OK, just in case you're not paying attention, or if you're an idiot, there has been time travel here and it has changed things. Got it? You sure? OK, then, back to the movie." Again, I have no issues at all with the plot device. I just think that the point of an alternate reality could have been made much more subtly. As it stands, the scene took me out of the story.

Now, having said all that, it was a short scene and a minor distraction. I have exaggerated its awkwardness to make the point. The scene really belongs to the category of "could have been more subtle" rather than to the category of "ouch, stop beating me with that club."

[jblamb]

Loved it. Saw it at the IMAX and it was great!

[SVTStingRay]

i thought the movie was great, cant wait for this on bluray.

[Starscream]

it was a great movie, one of the best star trek ones to date