# Star Trek (2009)



## BushMogulMaster (May 17, 2009)

Who saw it, and what did you think?  I'm particularly curious to hear from those who would not consider themselves lifelong Star Trek fans.  Likewise, those who _are_ Trekkies/Trekkers, what did you think about JJ's approach?


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## bvibert (May 17, 2009)

I thought it was pretty good.  I was a bit disappointed by the story line though.  I don't consider myself a Trekkie, but I have enjoyed watching all the different series (including _Enterprise_, which I was sad to see end so soon) and movies.


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## severine (May 17, 2009)

I am not a Trekkie. I liked it. It's been a long time since I found a movie that interesting. The special effects were pretty good (I'm always looking for the seams in the scenery and they were not really obvious). I did find myself wondering what would happen next a few times, which is a bonus for me. Brian knew enough to see flaws in the story line (even though he says he's not a Trekkie  ); I do not. I did watch _Next Generation_ in the late 80s/early 90s and _Enterprise_ when it was on, but I was not an avid viewer of either program. I do like this one more than the other more recent Trek movies that have come out.


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## bvibert (May 17, 2009)

severine said:


> I am not a Trekkie. I liked it. It's been a long time since I found a movie that interesting. The special effects were pretty good (I'm always looking for the seams in the scenery and they were not really obvious). I did find myself wondering what would happen next a few times, which is a bonus for me. Brian knew enough to see flaws in the story line (even though he says he's not a Trekkie  ); I do not. I did watch _Next Generation_ in the late 80s/early 90s and _Enterprise_ when it was on, but I was not an avid viewer of either program. I do like this one more than the other more recent Trek movies that have come out.



I didn't say I saw flaws, I was just disappointed by some things.


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## thorski (May 17, 2009)

Well made movie, diora baird was great.
Should have had more action with the spaceships. Enterprize should have had a bigger role with phazers, photon torpedos and the BAM of space battle. The badguys ship was not good at all.Not having the old romulan bird of prey was like a ski mountain without a small to medium sized halfpipe=LAME   
Time travel ruined this movie. Should have let the new versions of the original cast stand on their own. They did not need to bring in nimoy to legitimize this movie. 
Grade = B-


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## Philpug (May 17, 2009)

Pretty much says it all.


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## RootDKJ (May 17, 2009)

The secret romance between Spock and Uhura didn't fit in well with the "bigger picture" story lines.


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## BushMogulMaster (May 17, 2009)

RootDKJ said:


> The secret romance between Spock and Uhura didn't fit in well with the "bigger picture" story lines.



That one left me scratching my head...




My thoughts are as follows: well produced movie, by movie standards.  Mediocre by Trek standards.  I will proudly admit to my status in Trekdom: I am an avid Trekkie.  And a picky one at that.   But I was more than willing to watch JJ's film with an open mind.  I think he succeeded in one big way... he reinvigorated to the franchise (>$100MM opening weekend!), to the extent that the future is wide open for tons more Trek.  However, the movie certainly plenty of disappointments and headscratchers.  I'll sum it up in a table below.

*Pros:*

>Solid Acting (especially Urban as Bones... absolutely phenomenal!)
>"Big" -- attracted a wide audience with its "bigness"
>Tastefully updated Enterprise, both inside and out (they had to do it, obviously)
>Vulcans remain logical as ever, perhaps even moreso than in TOS
>Regardless of the now alternate timeline, Kirk, Spock, Bones, & company are all stationed on the Enterprise.  The crew we know and love lives on.
>Good visual effects
>Characters were probably closer to Roddenberry's original sketch than TOS
>Most importantly, people enjoyed it - it was fun, and exciting
>Some great humor
>Some other emotional moments... George Kirk's death was stirring, for example

*Cons:*

>Too much action/too fast paced - So much happened so quickly and so loudly, it was almost annoying at times
>Nimoy's part could have been written better.  He was too soft.
>Kirk was too adventuresome and wild, to the point that it was no longer believable (a 60s Corvette into a quarry that looked like the Grand Canyon?  Really?  No.)
>Spock & Uhura?  Not sure here...
>Almost a little too "Star Wars-ish" at times
>WTF was up with the engine room on the Enterprise?  Doohan's Scotty would be pissed.
>I really hate the "Nemesis-esque" Romulans.  Speaking of which, I'm just kinda sick of Romulan storylines.  Let's get back to Klingons and such.






I could elaborate more, but that'll do for now.


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## snoseek (May 17, 2009)

Philpug said:


> Pretty much says it all.





Indeed, good stuff!


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## RootDKJ (May 17, 2009)

Great assessment BMM.  Good to see more Pro's then Con's.  Hopefully all the lurkers in Hollywood will be reading this and take notes for the next movie 

Pros - 
Operational details  
Scotty's entrance

Cons -  
Too much time traveling,  At least they didn't fly around the sun backwards while hopping on one foot and singing "Camptown Races" to "correct the time line".


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## BushMogulMaster (May 17, 2009)

RootDKJ said:


> Great assessment BMM.  Good to see more Pro's then Con's.  Hopefully all the lurkers in Hollywood will be reading this and take notes for the next movie




You joke about it, but Bob Orci spent hours on the discussion posts at Trekmovie.com, and even took the time to respond to a lot of comments, questions, discussion, etc.  They may not care what we think, but at least they're listening!


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## RootDKJ (May 17, 2009)

BushMogulMaster said:


> You joke about it, but Bob Orci spent hours on the discussion posts at Trekmovie.com, and even took the time to respond to a lot of comments, questions, discussion, etc.  They may not care what we think, but at least they're listening!


The door is VERY wide open at this point.  Hopefully something good will happen.  

I'd love another quality series, but I'll take a movie every couple of years.


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## Vortex (May 18, 2009)

I really liked it.  As soon as we got out my wife, son and I  wanted to make plans to see it again.  I enjoy all the Star Trek shows and Movies.  Glad to see a bit of a tie to the past in the movie with Spock.   Might not ever see that again.  Originals cast are old or passed on.  Fun to watch how the characters developed.  I loved it.


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## Philpug (May 18, 2009)

I understand that the main crew are signed on for 3 movies. It is great to see this series has been reinvented a la James Bond. I can't wait to see what the Klingons are like.


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## severine (May 18, 2009)

Philpug said:


> I understand that the main crew are signed on for 3 movies. It is great to see this series has been reinvented a la James Bond. I can't wait to see what the Klingons are like.


That's the key for bringing in a new generation of viewers. I found the original series to be incredibly boring. While I am not an action fan normally, I did enjoy this one. I would see it again.


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## thorski (May 18, 2009)

severine said:


> That's the key for bringing in a new generation of viewers. I found the original series to be incredibly boring. While I am not an action fan normally, I did enjoy this one. I would see it again.



The original series boring????
Put your dunce cap on and go sit in the corner for the rest of the day, and do not speak.   :dunce:


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## severine (May 18, 2009)

thorski said:


> The original series boring????
> Put your dunce cap on and go sit in the corner for the rest of the day, and do not speak.   :dunce:


The acting was _terrible_, the fight scenes were woefully poorly performed, the scenery blah. I don't think I'm alone in this opinion.


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## Vortex (May 18, 2009)

I loved the original.  Sci fi is one of the few things I watched when I was a kid and still do now.  That and cartoons.


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## dmc (May 18, 2009)

All Star Trek rules....  All of it...  

And in true DMC fashion...  I love the series everyone hates... Deep Space 9...  And Enterprise...
I own the DS9 DVD set...  total geek... admit it...  

Live long and prosper...


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## BushMogulMaster (May 18, 2009)

severine said:


> The acting was _terrible_, the fight scenes were woefully poorly performed, the scenery blah. I don't think I'm alone in this opinion.



Almost all of these problems were budgetary constraints.  They couldn't afford the good effects or the good stunts actors.

And some of the acting was pretty good.  Bill Shatner was always over the top, but that's part of what defined his character.  Nimoy settled into the role by the second season, and was quite a dynamic actor.  I thought DeForest Kelley and Jimmy Doohan always played their roles well (Bones and Scotty), and Nichelle Nichols was a great as Uhura.


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## severine (May 18, 2009)

BushMogulMaster said:


> Almost all of these problems were budgetary constraints.  They couldn't afford the good effects or the good stunts actors.
> 
> And some of the acting was pretty good.  Bill Shatner was always over the top, but that's part of what defined his character.  Nimoy settled into the role by the second season, and was quite a dynamic actor.  I thought DeForest Kelley and Jimmy Doohan always played their roles well (Bones and Scotty), and Nichelle Nichols was a great as Uhura.



It may be a generational thing for me. I understand the budgetary restraints and the time in which it was filmed. Still, I'm of the generation that grew up with Next Generation and so the original Star Trek, by comparison, just doesn't seem all that good. I understand that it made great strides for the time, and what a contribution it is in the grand scheme, but to take the individual episodes for what they are, they are not anything I would seek out to watch.


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## bvibert (May 18, 2009)

dmc said:


> All Star Trek rules....  All of it...
> 
> And in true DMC fashion...  I love the series everyone hates... Deep Space 9...  And Enterprise...
> I own the DS9 DVD set...  total geek... admit it...
> ...



I could never really get into DS9, that's the one series I didn't watch a whole lot of.  I did really like Enterprise though.


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## Philpug (May 18, 2009)

Consider the time that the original series was on TV...it was so far ahead of its time. TNG was a great TV series, we used to play the CCG for a year or two, that was fun. As far as the movies II, III and IV was a great little trilogy. 

Q was a blast.


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## severine (May 18, 2009)

Philpug said:


> Consider the time that the original series was on TV...it was so far ahead of its time.


That's why I said I think it's a generational thing for me. Hard for me to completely understand that time period when I was born in the late 70s.


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## hammer (May 18, 2009)

Well done movie, good characters and acting, good action scenes (although a bit over the top like many movies nowadays)...didn't appreciate the "alternative time line", guess I'm a little too much of an original Star Trek purist to appreciate it.


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## dmc (May 18, 2009)

severine said:


> That's why I said I think it's a generational thing for me. Hard for me to completely understand that time period when I was born in the late 70s.



For us born in the early 60's... it was amazing!!!

Some facts...  the sparse sets were due to no $$...  and the transporter was dreamed up to save money - rather then expensive outside ship shots... they just transported people...  The background of the transporter is made out of drumset covering...  Drumsets were pretty psychedelic back then...

Star Trek was very much a "red headed step child" of prime time TV back then...  It didn't last long and didn't become popular until it was in reruns...


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## dmc (May 18, 2009)

bvibert said:


> I could never really get into DS9, that's the one series I didn't watch a whole lot of.  I did really like Enterprise though.



DS9 really required a series investment...  It advances the Star Trek Mythology very nicely with a spiritual twist where you don't really know if your dealing with spirits or aliens.....  so - the episodes were intertwined so it wasn't easy to jump in..


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## SkiDork (May 18, 2009)

dmc said:


> All Star Trek rules....  All of it...
> 
> And in true DMC fashion...  I love the series everyone hates... Deep Space 9...  And Enterprise...
> I own the DS9 DVD set...  total geek... admit it...
> ...



dmc - did you like either of Space 1999 and/or UFO?


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## thorski (May 18, 2009)

William shatner is one of the greatest actors of all time. Everything he touches turns to gold. wether it be tj hooker with plenty of heather locklear or priceline negotiator ads. Kirk whooped picards lame ass. Picard was only good in excalibur and x-men.  Shatner is the greatest captain of them all. He is "common people."


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## thorski (May 18, 2009)

SkiDork said:


> dmc - did you like either of Space 1999 and/or UFO?



Space 1999 had the staple guns for lazers. very cool


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## bvibert (May 18, 2009)

dmc said:


> DS9 really required a series investment...  It advances the Star Trek Mythology very nicely with a spiritual twist where you don't really know if your dealing with spirits or aliens.....  so - the episodes were intertwined so it wasn't easy to jump in..



I started watching it from the beginning, when it first came on.  I wanted to like it, but lost interest after a season or so.  It may have been the timing of the show that was it's downfall for me, I was a Junior or Senior in high school when it first came out.  I was probably more interested in hanging out with friends.


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## Beetlenut (May 18, 2009)

Saw the movie Friday with my son. I enjoyed seeing where the early characters came from, and how they developed their chemistry. I especally liked Kirks childhood and enterance into Starfleet! I think I liked Chekoff's character the best. As one who watched Star Trek from the first show on, I thought they did a good job with the movie.


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## RootDKJ (May 18, 2009)

I liked DS9 up until the point where the singer dude in the casino became the focal point of a lot of episodes.


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## dmc (May 18, 2009)

SkiDork said:


> dmc - did you like either of Space 1999 and/or UFO?



yes...and Time Tunnel, Outer Limits, Lost In Space, etc....


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## SkiDork (May 18, 2009)

dmc said:


> yes...and Time Tunnel, Outer Limits, Lost In Space, etc....



I had never heard of Time Tunnel before.  Just read the wikipedia page.  Sounds like something worth looking into...


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## Philpug (May 18, 2009)

It


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## Philpug (May 18, 2009)

Is true


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## Philpug (May 18, 2009)

Shatner was


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## Philpug (May 18, 2009)

the best!


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## dmc (May 18, 2009)

SkiDork said:


> I had never heard of Time Tunnel before.  Just read the wikipedia page.  Sounds like something worth looking into...



There's another one I used to watch..  i think it was called Land of the Giants...

we had a lot of good(campy by todays standards) sci-fi on TV when we were kids...


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## Beetlenut (May 18, 2009)

SkiDork said:


> I had never heard of Time Tunnel before. Just read the wikipedia page. Sounds like something worth looking into...


 
Time Tunnel was da Bomb! Great show! Along with Twilight Zone.


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## Beetlenut (May 18, 2009)

dmc said:


> There's another one I used to watch.. i think it was called Land of the Giants...
> 
> we had a lot of good(campy by todays standards) sci-fi on TV when we were kids...


 
Remember on Saturday mornings, if you woke up too early before cartoons started, you had to suffer through that lame puppet show "Thunderbirds" until cartoons came on? And lets not forget Wild Wild West!


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## SkiDork (May 18, 2009)

what about Rat Patrol and Daktari?


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## dmc (May 18, 2009)

SkiDork said:


> what about Rat Patrol and Daktari?



Daktari was cool...


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## Vortex (May 18, 2009)

I saw few episodes of time tunnel not that long ago, Might have been encore mystery channel. I liked that show.


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## Paul (May 19, 2009)

Beetlenut said:


> Saw the movie Friday with my son.



I loved Friday!!!

Smokey, what you doin' down there, man? You takin' a shit?


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## GrilledSteezeSandwich (May 19, 2009)

Paul said:


> I loved Friday!!!
> 
> Smokey, what you doin' down there, man? You takin' a shit?



ahahahaha..best movie ever..we watched it in the bus on the way to Montreal Freshman year..


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## MRGisevil (May 20, 2009)

Paul said:


> I loved Friday!!!
> 
> Smokey, what you doin' down there, man? You takin' a shit?



Playing with money is like playing with my emotions, Smokey.


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## ERJ-145CA (May 20, 2009)

Philpug said:


> Consider the time that the original series was on TV...it was so far ahead of its time. TNG was a great TV series, we used to play the CCG for a year or two, that was fun. As far as the movies II, III and IV was a great little trilogy.
> 
> Q was a blast.



Did the movie have Q in it?

Anyway I figure I'll see the movie on DVD, I just find it hard to get out to the theater to see movies these days.  I started watching Star Trek in 2000 when Voyager was still on.  I was away for 3 months at flight school and the only channel we got was UPN so I started watching Voyager every night and I got hooked, when I got home my wife asked me what happened to me and said I used to be cool, but she's seen all the Voyagers now too since I have the whole series on DVD.  She actually filled me in with some of the back story because her parents were into Trek so she knew the backgrounds of some of the races and the Federation.  I also really like TNG now too but I think DS9 and Enterprise are just OK.

Oh yeah, all the Friday movies were great but the first one was the best.


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## RootDKJ (May 20, 2009)

I was really into Voyager.  When that series was on, I was seriously broke and didn't even have cable, just rabbit ears.  UPN was one of the stations I could pick up really well so I vcr'd a lot of episodes.


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## riverc0il (May 20, 2009)

thorski said:


> William shatner is one of the greatest actors of all time. Everything he touches turns to gold. wether it be tj hooker with plenty of heather locklear or priceline negotiator ads. Kirk whooped picards lame ass. Picard was only good in excalibur and x-men.  Shatner is the greatest captain of them all. He is "common people."


I couldn't even bring myself to be that sarcastic. Shatner is quite possibly the most famous worst actor of all times. We are rewatching TOS right now via Netflix and it is laugh out loud funny sometimes. Funny as in "that was painful to watch" funny. When I watched TOS growing up, I had no appreciation for Bones but Kelly is perhaps the best actor on TOS and the McCoy/Spock interplay is excellent and well played.


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## Johnskiismore (May 20, 2009)

Probably going to see the movie on Monday.  So far, all good reviews from people I've talked to


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## thorski (May 21, 2009)

riverc0il said:


> I couldn't even bring myself to be that sarcastic. Shatner is quite possibly the most famous worst actor of all times. We are rewatching TOS right now via Netflix and it is laugh out loud funny sometimes. Funny as in "that was painful to watch" funny. When I watched TOS growing up, I had no appreciation for Bones but Kelly is perhaps the best actor on TOS and the McCoy/Spock interplay is excellent and well played.



The odinson was not being sarcastic. Shatner is not only a great actor but also one of the best singers ever. His cover of "common people" is brilliant. BRILLIANT!!
As far as the star-trek commercial that says star-trek is this generations star wars well thats just silly. 
This 2nd installment of this generations star wars rolls out 6-24-09


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## bvibert (May 21, 2009)

ERJ-145CA said:


> Did the movie have Q in it?
> 
> Anyway I figure I'll see the movie on DVD, I just find it hard to get out to the theater to see movies these days.  I started watching Star Trek in 2000 when Voyager was still on.  I was away for 3 months at flight school and the only channel we got was UPN so I started watching Voyager every night and I got hooked, when I got home my wife asked me what happened to me and said I used to be cool, but she's seen all the Voyagers now too since I have the whole series on DVD.  She actually filled me in with some of the back story because her parents were into Trek so she knew the backgrounds of some of the races and the Federation.  I also really like TNG now too but I think DS9 and Enterprise are just OK.
> 
> Oh yeah, all the Friday movies were great but the first one was the best.



Voyager was a good show.  IIRC my wife was even into it.


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## Beetlenut (May 21, 2009)

thorski said:


> The odinson was not being sarcastic. Shatner is not only a great actor but also one of the best singers ever. His cover of "common people" is brilliant. BRILLIANT!!



While I don"t agree that Shatner is a great actor, I thought he was great on Boston Legal!


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## severine (May 21, 2009)

bvibert said:


> Voyager was a good show.  IIRC my wife was even into it.



How did I forget that in my original listing? Yes, I thought that one was pretty good.


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## wa-loaf (Jun 14, 2009)

Finally saw this tonight. Really liked it. Although I'm not too sure about the alternate time line thing. Kinda odd not to have the Vulcans around anymore.


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## BushMogulMaster (Jun 14, 2009)

wa-loaf said:


> Finally saw this tonight. Really liked it. Although I'm not too sure about the alternate time line thing. Kinda odd not to have the Vulcans around anymore.



Oh, they'll still be around.  They'll just have to get busy and re-propagate the species!


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## ERJ-145CA (Jun 14, 2009)

BushMogulMaster said:


> Oh, they'll still be around.  They'll just have to get busy and re-propagate the species!



They can only get busy once every seven years.


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## BushMogulMaster (Jun 14, 2009)

ERJ-145CA said:


> They can only get busy once every seven years.



They'll just have to be certain to take full advantage of each Pon Farr!


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## wa-loaf (Jun 15, 2009)

BushMogulMaster said:


> They'll just have to be certain to take full advantage of each Pon Farr!



Spock's gonna need to dump Uhura if he wants to help out. He needs to find a nice Vulcan girl to hook up with.


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## ERJ-145CA (Jun 26, 2009)

Speaking of Shatner here's the clip of him mis-pronouncing "sabotage" and then not admitting he's saying it wrong.  I actually heard it a bunch of years ago but I finally found it on the internet.  It's great:


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## hammer (Oct 20, 2010)

This is available to stream on Netflix...watched it again a few times.  Getting a little more comfortable with the alternate timeline approach.  Guessing that this will be the basis for any sequels...hoping they stop TNG sequels, after First Contact the TNG movies really weren't that interesting.


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## Geoff (Oct 20, 2010)

I own it on Blu Ray.   It's not a great movie but it shows well on the home theater.   I'd watched the DVD a couple of times when I had it as a Netflix rental.   When it became cheap as a Blu Ray on Amazon, I picked it up.


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