Star Trek

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by JWBear

I still don't get why anyone found this tedious and porly written movie to be fun. What was it that you all found fun in this movie? I'm just not seeing it.

You mean us on this board, and 91% of critics and 96% of all filmgoers everywhere on this planet and the next?


TEDIOUS? I'll grant you poorly-written, but it seems from the comments here and my personal reaction and the reaction of the twenty-plus friends I've so far seen it with, that the infectious spirit and move-along pace and energy either detracted from or negated consideration of the screenwriting flaws.


Here's the short way to arrive at everything I found fun in this movie. Take the entire movie, subtract 50% of Alex's list of quibbles, and everything left is what I found fun and enjoyable.



Oh, I'll make it easier.

Kirk on the road to Kirk with Shatner-like Kirk at the end.

Spock on the road to Spock, being an excellent Spock even with the real Spock on hand to mock the new Spock.

Kirk and Spock.

Hysterical Dr. McCoy.

Kirk and McCoy.

McCoy and Spock.

Kirk in Green Girl's dorm room.

Kirk in his underwear.

Kirk smiling just at me in the audience.

Kirk.

The Geekship Enterprise.

Simon Peg, er, I mean, Scotty, yeah, Scotty.

Ben Cross as Sarek.

Alternate Timeline device as a shorthand for reboot with differences.

Destroying Vulcan as a short-cut to re-establishig the tortured Stranger-in-a-Strange-Land Spock of early Star Trek.

Costumes, Production Design, Special Effects.

The entire opening sequence.

The cool, nonsensical Drill of Fire and implausible but neat skydive from space for cool Kirk and Sulu male bonding fight on it.

The completely stupid stranding of Kirk on the impossibly-close-to-Vulcan sister planet to Hoth, just so that alien monsters can chase Kirk.

Kirk in obligatory bar fight in Iowa.

Spock beating the carp out of Vulan bullies. Spock baited into losing it on the Bridge and nearly choking Kirk to death. Out of control emotional Spock.

Great McCoy Dialogue.

Adorable Ensign Chekov.

Two friends of mine in so many scenes as Starfleet Cadet extras.

Smoldering Kirk and Uhura proto-romance, lesser appreciation for Uhura-Spock romance, but great love triangle jealousy pon-farr foder.

the 8th time Kirk hangs by his bare hangs over a deadly height.

Transporters actually working to rescue characters on multiple occassions instead of breaking down to keep characters in jeopardy.

Cool going to warp effect.

Way-cool new transporter effect.

Use of my alma-mater CSUN campus library as Starfleet Academy.

Cool phaser battle.

Lotsa laughs peppered througout.

Kirk.

And ... the awesome shot of the Narada with Kelvin-inflicted damage as the convoy of shuttles escape against the backdrop of a huge star, and the best strains of Michael Giaccino's score as it seques to the bitchin' Title shot.



There's more, but that's off the top of my head.


Oh, and I really liked Chris Pine as Kirk and as my new boyfriend. And loved, loved, impossibly loved Zachary Quinto as Spock.

[Pirate Bill]

What iSm said...except I don't want be Chris Pine's boyfriend. But I would help him out in a bar fight.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Alex

When GC sees it (if he hasn't) I am wondering how much the Nokia product placement (can we agree that this was truly unnecessary and really belong?) will annoy him?

I'm not GC, but I appreciated the product placement. Of course.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

You mean us on this board, and 91% of critics and 96% of all filmgoers everywhere on this planet and the next?

Where are you getting 96% of all film goers? IMDB has it at 8.6 out of 10; and if you read the User Comments, the "bad" and "mediocre" reviews far out number the "good" or "Excellent" ones.

Rotten Tomatoes has a 95% currently, but that is based on the reviews of bloggers and professional critics who are affiliated with RT. If you look at the "RT Community" tab for the reviews of regular people, it's only at 88%.

Then there are the Trek message boards and online communities.... From my informal reading, they are running about 50/50, and the flame wars are getting just nasty.

Regardless... When did "popular" ever equate to "quality" anyway?

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Actually, the whole corvette scene with Sabotage bugged me.

That did bug me a bit - two or three hundred years in the future and the Beastie Boys are still state of the art "angry driving" music?

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Andrew

That did bug me a bit - two or three hundred years in the future and the Beastie Boys are still state of the art "angry driving" music?

maybe Kirk develoed his taste for antique things at a very early age...

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by JWBear

Where are you getting 96% of all film goers?
Regardless... When did "popular" ever equate to "quality" anyway?

Oh, I made those numbers up. I never said popular equates to quality, I was just impliying with made-up percentages that the onus of what was un-fun about the movie belonged on the small minority that disliked it, rather than on the vast majority who found it fun.

I figured it kinda silly to ennumerate what was fun about it when it was 93% fun, but turns out setting it out in a list was also kinda fun.

The fun just keeps going!


And wow, I can just imagine the flame-wars among the Trekkies. Ugh, I have no desire to watch.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by JWBear

Where are you getting 96% of all film goers? IMDB has it at 8.6 out of 10; and if you read the User Comments, the "bad" and "mediocre" reviews far out number the "good" or "Excellent" ones.

It's the internet, bad reviews almost always outnumber good, especially in early going. People are far more motivated to bitch online than praise. An 8.6 out of 10 at imdb puts it in the top 40 movies of ALL TIME on imdb. The highest rated is a 9.1.

Not that I put much stock in imdb ratings seeing that that 9.1 is Shawshank Redmption (an enjoyable flick, but highest rated movie of all time? Seriously?) But even so, a 96% from the critics and an 88% from the community at RT? iSm's 96% might have been an out of thin air number, but it's not much of an exageration. Hell, Citizen Kane only has 90% from the community at RT. So yeah, I don't think it's much hyperbole to say, "Nearly everyone who's seen this movie has liked it."