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Michael Giltz
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Posted: January 5, 2010 07:20 PM
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Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyIs There Finally Some Oscar Hope
for Star Trek ?"
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Read More: Academy Awards , Animation , Claudette Colbert , Dvds , Movies , Oscar , Pixar , Robert
Altman , Star Trek , Tv , Up , Entertainment News
We're well into Oscar season and I've been despairing
for Star Trek, a sensational reboot of the sci-fi
franchise that offers the smart, broadly appealingentertainment that Hollywood does best. it's garnerednary a peep despite being one of the best reviewed
movies of the year. (Rotten Tomatoes shows a 94%
overall and 92% from Top Critics .)
I know, I
know. It's
sci-fi, it'sa long-
running
franchise, the cast is mostly unknown, helmer J.J. Abrams is from TV, the plot is very geek-centric andso on. The Dark Knight had many of those strikes against it but unlike that nihilistic film, Star Trek is
positive and fun. The film has been out for a few weeks on regular DVD ($29.99; Paramount) and in a
BluRay Special Edition ($39.99; Paramount but only $20 on sale at Amazon and just $5 more than thestandard DVD) that is well worth the price. And now the Producers Guild has wisely named Star Trek
one of the 10 best films of the year. Here's hoping Academy members will pop in the DVD or go to a
screening, even if they're not a Trekkie. They're in for a shock.
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For one thing, an amazing thing happens in the first few minutes of the film: you feel emotionally moved.
Now I've watched Star Trek the TV series many times as a kid and dove into Star Trek: The Next
Generation and all the films and (with decreasing interest) the numerous spin-offs and prequels and
sequels. I've sometimes been very entertained. But I've almost never been moved.
And yet, in the first few minutes of the film we watch a young crew member plunged into crisis and
sacrificing himself to make certain the rest of the crew (including his wife, in the midst of childbirth) can
abandon ship. Remarkably, the scene is also funny and plugs right into the Star Trek mythology since we
get to see how future Captain James Tiberius Kirk got his name. (A DVD extra shows how Spock got his
name, BTW.) It's textbook screenwriting. And then your heart gets stuck in your throat. Whoa, I thought.I didn't expect that to happen.
After that the film just hurtles along, thanks to a marvelous cast. Chris Pine as Kirk gives an action film
performance worthy of Harrison Ford circa Indiana Jones. (That's the highest compliment I know.)
Zachary Quinto (of TV's Heroes and whose casting I wrongly bemoaned) brings exceptional depth to
Spock. And straight down the line the cast is great: Bruce Greenwood is a sturdy Pike, Zoe Saldana is asexy and smart Uhura, Simon Pegg is enjoyably scenery chewing as Scotty, John Cho and Anton Yelchin
are distinctive in their small roles of Sulu and Chekhov and Karl Urban is a great Bones. And they're sexy.From Kirk to Chekhov. (And yes, I've freeze-framed the Green Girl scenes. I'm not ashamed to admit it.)
The screenplay is sleekly efficient: we see Kirk and Spock as alienated kids and quickly sparring at
Starfleet Academy. The bad guy (a serviceable Eric Bana) is set up without any muss or fuss. The stakes
are raised and raised again. And it all barrels along to a bang-up finale.
I have quibbles. The scene of a very young Kirk driving a car off a cliff (and almost killing himself) is
idiotic and utterly out of whack with the rest of the film. It should have been left in the teaser trailer. One
too many scenes of people dangling off the sides of cliffs or over an abyss are repeated. The snarky little
alien sidekick for Scotty is better soon forgotten. But these are indeed quibbles.
Abrams and his team created a film wonderfully faithful to a beloved franchise but gave it new life and
reached out to a broader audience than ever before. They also launched what might be a star in Chris
Pine. (If nothing else, he's got a great few Trek films ahead of him.) There's a moment towards the end
when Uhura confronts Kirk angrily and says, "I hope you know what you're doing" and Kirk quietly
responds, "So do I." It's a moment of humbleness and vulnerability (in the middle of terrific action, I
might add) that brings an entirely new dimension to the character and the series as a whole.
I've watched it three times in the theater and twice on DVD and just want an excuse to watch it again.
The BluRay extras certainly provide them, such as deleted scenes, very good commentary and much
more. J.J. Abrams has shown a knack for launching TV shows like Felicity and Alias and Lost and then
not seeming to know what to do with them after the first season. I'm hoping that means he has about six
good Star Trek films in him before he hits a wall. Hollywood should encourage him by rightly nominating
the film as one of the ten best of the year. It won't win of course. (Neither will Avatar .) But it's exactly
the sort of film the Academy expanded its list to include. Any voting members who doubt me just need towatch the film.
ALSO OUT RECENTLY (HEY, THE HOLIDAYS CAN REALLY TRIP YOU UP)
WINGS OF DESIRE ($39.95 regular or BluRay; Criterion) -- Some films are so powerful and moving,
so special to me, I don't like to watch them that often. Sure, I can dive into Casablanca or Close
Encounters Of The Third Kind at the drop of a hat. But Wings Of Desire? The story of angels listening in
to our deepest fears and desires is so distinctive and wonderful, I don't want to spoil the magic by
entering its world too often. Criterion, of course, provides a great reason for doing so. The top-notch
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transfer does justice to this gorgeous film with one of the most striking (and significant) sound designs in
film history. A second disc offers extras on top of the usual commentary track with Wenders: a 2003
documentary about the film, a German TV special made back in 1987 when it came out, deleted scenesand other intriguing odds and ends. If you've never seen this film before (easily one of the best of the1980s), I envy you.
UP ($45.99 on BluRay but only $18 on sale at Amazon; Disney) -- I'm not much for watching individual
scenes or skipping back and forth in movies or TV shows. If I want to watch a movie, I typically watchthe movie from beginning to end, the way the filmmaker intended. But the minute I saw Up at Cannes, I
was dying to get my hands on a DVD so I could watch the lovely, heart-wrenching little short casuallyembedded into the beginning of the film. In about five minutes, we see an entire marriage of a couple,
from their wedding to old age and it's done with such delicacy and feeling that it takes your breath away.
Up is at heart an adventure tale, with an old man and a young kid as the odd couple thrown together into
the search for a near mystical waterfall, all of it held aloft by balloons and the grumpy old man's love forhis lost wife. Almost as an aside, the film depicts what it's like to be old and alone with more insight and
feeling than almost any other film of the year. And it's funny. Another Pixar masterpiece, which is fast
becoming a redundant phrase.
ON THE ROAD WITH CHARLES KURALT SET 1 ($39.99; Acorn) -- I have very little patience for
folksy tales with heartwarming messages. But newsman Charles Kuralt slides by my Cornpone Alert
Warning System because his stories about the byways of America and the people who inhabit them are so
fascinating and sincere. He's like an Errol Morris without the fancy camerawork. People really arewonderfully odd and Kuralt captured that in story after story, like the ones about the woman who talked
to geese, a pothole festival and an honest to goodness one-room schoolhouse. The set also includes some
updates and a bio of Kuralt but you'll be too busy watching the six hours of stories.
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INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS ($34.98; Universal) -- Here's another Oscar hopeful, though for some
reason it too has lost some steam. Actually, I'm surprised here too. This was Quentin Tarantino's biggest
box office hit to date in the US and worldwide. (It grossed $319 million all told. If you count the two KillBill films as one movie, they edge it out with a total of $330 million.) And personally I thought the WW II
setting kept a lid on Tarantino's more excessive traits to excellent effect. But it's funny: person after
person I spoke to insisted it wasn't all that. But then I'd ask them about one of the films remarkable set
pieces. What about the scene in the barn, I'd ask? Oh, that was great. What about the scene in the bar?
Oh, that was great too. The Jew Bear? Hilarious. Christoph Waltz? Tremendous. Diane Kruger?
Wonderful. And on and on. I think it's his most mature film since his debut, Reservoir Dogs.
TAXI FOURTH SEASON AND TAXI FINAL SEASON ($39.98 each; Paramount) -- I learned a lot
from Taxi , the quirky, critically acclaimed sitcom that held on for five slightly off kilter seasons. Never
walk away from a good TV series with good writing. (Hey Jeff Conaway.) Treat your offbeat secondary
characters with seriousness and heart and they won't take over the show or turn it into a cartoon. (Hey
Latka, Simka, Rev. Jim and Louie.) Beware of network programmers, who dumped the show from ABC .(NBC picked it up after HBO toyed with the idea.). Best of all, I learned that the names behind thecamera (like James L. Brooks) could tell you a show was worth watching even more than the stars in
front of it.
THE NEW YORK YANKEES 2009 WORLD SERIES COLLECTOR'S EDITION ($79.95; A&E) --
You can buy a single disc look at the World Series or a Yankeeography look at the entire season. But why
would anyone want those when you can dive into this delight? (A delight, at least, for Yankees fans.) You
get all six games of the World Series with optional radio commentary (a real blessing, that one, given the
lackluster work of Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Ken Rosenthal -- though Yankees announcers are solame I listen to the Philly radio guys.) You also get the ALCS Game Six, player interviews, all the post-
game hoopla and more. Sports fans should expect no less for any major sport's season finale.
FOLLOW HUFFINGTON POST
LORNA'S SILENCE ($28.96; Sony Pictures Classics) -- I consider the Dardenne brothers the directors
of the last decade (roughly speaking). They had a string of brilliant films: 1996's La Promesse was
exceptional and proven no fluke when in the waning days of 1999 they released the Palm d'Or winner
Rosetta . In 2002 came The Son and in 2005 The Child , both featuring their trademark hand-held
camera work that hovers practically on top of their actors for a sense of immediacy and peril that is quite
remarkable. Actually, Lorna's Silence -- in which a woman is marrying a Russian mobster so he can get a
green card but panics when she realizes a drug addict must die for the plan to work -- is the firstDardenne film I didn't love. But many others did, and it certainly has intelligence and good acting to
spare.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST ($34.99; Warner Bros.) -- It's pretty remarkable. Even people who don't
know a thing about movies have heard of Alfred Hitchcock; his name still has exceptional pull. And every
film buff I know appreciates him and loves at least some of his films. Yet I think we're only beginning to
appreciate how masterful he really was. Is that possible? I know for some reason the artificiality of NorthBy Northwest -- the ultimate James Bond film, though without James Bond -- used to be off-putting for
me. But I like it more and more all the time (though it may never catch up with Notorious, The LadyVanishes, Rear Window, Psycho, etc.) It's pure entertainment and so technically brilliant (in an almost
invisible yet showy manner) that you spot new details every time. This new BluRay edition comes in anifty package, sort of a hardcover book with 45 pages of colorful info and then the film itself. (I do wish
they'd keep the dimensions the same as every other BluRay however.) Top-notch.
BALLAST ($29.95; Kino) -- One of my favorite films of 2008, Ballast is a signal achievement by writer-
director Lance Hammer. He has the name of a porn director (or perhaps action films or of coursehorror), but Hammer delivers a quiet, lovely look at a mother and son who stumble into the orbit of
Lawrence, a man still grieving over the death of his twin brother. Simple, direct, beautifully shot, grippingand ultimately hopeful without being cheery or falsely optimistic, this is genuinely independent cinema
about shattered lives that can be glued back together again, with luck. But don't pretend the cracks won't
still show. Since the film features a cast of mostly non-pros and Hammer developed the film via improv,we may finally be looking at the American answer to Mike Leigh.
ANDY BARKER, P.I.: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($24.99; Shout) -- It's amazing but true: Andy
Richter as starred in not just one but two very good sitcoms. First Andy Richter Controls The Universe
and now this whimsical tale of an accountant who takes over the office space of a retired detective andsoon finds himself solving crimes. Utterly winning in its silliness, the show was dumped by NBC (to put itmildly) and never stood a chance. Now Richter is happily ensconced on the Tonight Show as Conan's
sidekick again (Conan helped create this show). But how many actors can claim two well-received serieson their resume? Precious few. And anyone looking for sweetly goofy entertainment with twice the laughsof Murder She Wrote and even less suspense over whodunit, here's your show.
A CHRISTMAS TALE ($39.95 regular or BluRay; Criterion) -- I'm not a fan of Arnaud Desplechin. Butmany terrific actors are. (I've also seen this film mentioned not on just a best of the year list but on a best
of the decade list, so others clearly disagree.) In this typically overstuffed soap opera, the great Catherine
Deneuve is the matriarch of a family who oh so politely would like a bone marrow transplant from one ofher children, thank you very much. Everyone descends on the home for Christmas and even for a French
film the casual manner in which affairs are treated is a bit laughable. Still, the cast is excellent (including
Mathieu Amalric and many others), Desplechin deploys his usual tricks (like ending scenes with an irisclosing in a la old silent films) and the expected Criterion extras are of the usual high quality, includinginterviews and a documentary about the sale of Desplechin's family home.
ULTRAMAN: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($14.98; Mill Creek) -- Even as a little kid, I realized
Ultraman was a very silly cheap little show with the finale usually involving Ultraman squaring off with a
"monster" (ie. some guy in a rubber suit). But it's amazing how a show I barely remember can beimprinted on my brain. I don't think I watched it compulsively, but how do I explain the instantrecognition of so many of the 39 episodes on this set? Like the series itself, this is a bargain basement set.
But the cover is nifty looking and you do get every episode for an exceptionally reasonable price. Go in
with eyes wide open and you'll be happy. Will your kids like it? Yes, if you watch it and laugh and enjoy it
along with them.
THE GENERAL ($34.95 on BluRay; Kino) -- You can have your Pandora and its 3-D effects. Nothing
can make an audience gasp as completely and delightedly as Buster Keaton's genuine stunts on a moving
train in The General, one of the funniest and most heart-stopping comedies of them all. (It's actually kind
of fascinating how the best silent comedies combined amazing stunts with humor, something almost
entirely missing from movies today.) Kino has done an excellent job putting the film out on DVD in thepast. So this BluRay is a notable improvement but not one that puts their previous 2 disc set on regular
DVD to shame. There's no denying that the added resolution of BluRay provides even more definition to
the backgrounds in the movie. And if you are buying this classic for the first time, by all means make thisyour first choice. It contains all the extras of that earlier set. But either one is a top-tier edition to yourmovie library.
THE CLAUDETTE COLBERT COLLECTION ($49.98; Universal) -- I've never been a huge fan of
Colbert: she always seemed too prim to be sexy, too uptight to let loose. And yet you can't argue with
success. (Artistic success, that is. I can argue with commercial success plenty.) Colbert had a lot of it,
from It Happened One Night to Midnight and many more. This Universal set is a grab-bag of movies
with one corker. Three-Cornered Moon (1933) is an oddball pre-Coder about a struggling family; Maid
Of Salem (1937) is a ham-fisted look at the Salem witch trials, I Met Him In Paris (1937) is a diverting
romantic comedy about a famous designer desired by three suitors -- diverting in a 3 in the morning,
TCM sort of way; No Time For Love (1943) is an ok romantic comedy with her regular co-star Fred
MacMurray; and The Egg And I (1947) is a Green Acres precursor that launched the Ma and Pa Kettle
series. But by far the best of all is the Ernst Lubitsch film Bluebeard's Eighth Wife from 1938, with Gary
Cooper as the much-married Bluebeard and Colbert as his not-so-blushing bride. You know you're in
Lubitsch territory when they meet at a department store where he wants to buy only the tops to some
pajamas and she is willing to buy only the bottoms. Worth the price alone.
THE EXILES ($29.95; Milestone) -- This long-lost independent film is a landmark work rescued by
author Sherman Alexie and indie hero Charles Burnett. Made in the late Fifties and early Sixties on a
shoestring by Kent Mackenzie, it looks at Native Americans looking to stake a claim in Los Angeleswithout losing a sense of community. In general, it's the sort of film notable for what it is and what itcaptured rather than as a dramatic film itself. The acting is mostly rudimentary, with the voice-over
narration of the people we're watching rather flatly stating the obvious. But two elements keep this from
a mere curio. One is the many glimpses of Los Angeles we get in the film, which are fascinating. The
other is the fact that this is one of the most dynamically and excitingly shot films I have EVER seen, indie
or otherwise. I kept thinking of Touch Of Evil, the camerawork was so good. I'm tempted to credit
Mackenzie mainly since he was the driving creative force and three different names are credited as
cinematographer. But they all deserve mention for an exceptional job: Erik Darstaad, Robert Kaufman,
and John Arthur Morrill. Credit also to film editor Warner Brown and the uncredited Sven Walnum, who
according to the notoriously undependable IMDB at least, worked the camera and helped with theediting. Amazing work.
RUMBA ($26.98; Koch Lorber) -- Maybe you're a fan of westerns. Not many of them get made, so when
one pops up you are just happy to see the horses and the horizon and the shoot out at the end. The same
goes for musicals (though happily, those are relatively in vogue at the moment). Well, Guy Maddin isn't
the only filmmaker who can plumb the past for inspiration. The team of Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordonand Bruno Romy delight in silent film antics and have produced a followup to their gem L'Iceberg. In
Rumba , a couple that excels in ballroom dancing is thrown into turmoil when a car accident leaves one
without a leg and the other without their memory, none of which can keep them from their destiny to
rumba together. There's no denying this isn't the sheer delight of L'Iceberg (by all means, rent it), but
fans of that will enjoy this one too. Their gags are sometimes so simple and sweet, you can't help smiling:
a shot of students pouring out of a school with joy after the last bell seems to go on too long; all the kids
are gone and yet the camera doesn't move until suddenly you hear more whoops of joy and then
suddenly the teachers are rushing outside just as giddy with delight. Can't wait to see them at it again.
WALLACE & GROMIT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION ($29.99; Lionsgate) -- That's the
complete shorts collection, since this includes four shorts but not the feature film Curse Of The Were-
Rabbit. "A Matter Of Loaf & Death" is probably lesser W&G, especially since we're comparing it to the
perfection of "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave," three classic shorts. It's
almost counter-intuitive to see the delights of stop-motion animation in BluRay, but the chance to see
the characters and all the details of their sets in such clarity is lovely. Exceptionally funny.
--30--
Thanks for reading. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of
celebrity interviews and his weekly music radio show at Popsurfing and enjoy the weekly pop culture
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Up was anything but.
I usually go for any high quality animation film as something I can watch with my daughter. I
never thought I would end up thinking Shrek and Shrek II were great movies. But something
about Up (can't even say why, just a feeling) makes me wonder if its as good as everyone
says, haven't seen it yet but probably will, what didn't you like about it?
It's a very good movie. Unfortunat ely, since it's a Pixar movie, I compare it to other
Pixar movies, and "very good" is disappoint ing. It may be an unfair barometer to
gauge against, but "Up" needed more color and a bit more intelligen ce to it. The
denoument of the film occurs because of a character' s lifelong ignorance, and that
was a large quibble.
It still is a very good movie.
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martinchill 02:29 AM on 1/07/2010
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JGatsby 09:52 AM on 1/07/2010
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equivocator 10:03 AM on 1/07/2010
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SILVANUS 04:43 PM on 1/06/2010Comments are closed for this entry
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435 Fans
0 Fans
435 Fans
185 FansJust go ahead and nominate Transforme rs?
Time to dump the Oscars anyway. They have rarely meant anything.
STAR WARS was sci-fi with a largely unknown cast, too; it was also a Best Picture nominee and
one of the first movies slated for eternal priority preservati on by the Library of Congress.
A deleted scene showed that the 'Vette had been Kirk's dad's, and he destroyed it get back at hisdrunken jerk of an uncle who'd annexed the thing and chased off Kirk's brother Sam (that hitchhiking kid). And I liked Keenser because he kept infuriatin g Scotty, and I hope he's in the sequel.
I'm absolutely baffled that Star Trek could be considered "textbook" screenwrit ing, much less a Best
Film candidate. In the first 10 seconds, there are reports of the looks of something in space, we are shown it, it isblinding the bridge crew, and then we are told it is "out of visual range". The Kirk name discussionand "sacrifice " mentioned in this review largely takes place after all helm and fire controls on the
ship are inoperable , and there is absolutely no reason not to evacuate, instead George Kirk commits
a senseless suicide while chatting away with a wife being ignored by the medical team, having justdelivered a baby. Throughout this film, villains and heroes actions go from magically powerful tocriminally ignorant featuring dialog that, with only minor breaks, is contradict ory, non-sensic al, or
simply wrong. "Catering to geeks" suggests scrupulous attention to either Star Trek canon, scientific reality, or both
- yet this film is replete with glaring errors as measured not only by either of these standards, but
also by the film's own premises over which they had complete control. Additional details can befound at the blog "Structure dDream".
If one does not care about profound, continuous flaws in a film that's a personal choice, but to makeobjective claims regarding its quality that do not address the hundreds of instances which appear toinsult audience intelligen ce strikes this viewer as inappropri ate.
"Senseless ?" George was buying time for his crew to escape from a ship that was as
technologi cally far removed from his own as an AH-64 Apache is from a medieval destrier-
-and that was just a mining ship; a D'Deridex- class warbird would've summarily incinerate d
the Kelvin in about five seconds. He even did a point-defe nse shootdown of one of the
same cluster missiles that shredded his ship that was going to obliterate the medevacshuttle Winona was on. They were outgunned right at the start with zero backup, theautopilot was broken, who knows how far from the bridge the nearest escape pod was, andwho knows how fast and nimble said pod would be, so ramming the thing was the onlymove left.
Incidental ly, the film's writers were Trekkies, but they were trying to make it accessible to
non-Trekki es.
"Incidenta lly, the film's writers were Trekkies, but they were trying to make it
accessible to non-Trekki es."
How? By making it incomprehe nsibly stupid?
A SuperNova capable of destroying an entire Galaxy? Really? In what Universe?A starship with a water-duct system with pipes so large that they can hold an full-
grown human being, and just happen to be convenient ly transparen t in the partsPermalink | Share it
BlackJAC 02:39 PM on 1/06/2010
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BurntSynapse 09:18 AM on 1/06/2010
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BlackJAC 03:34 PM on 1/06/2010
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LaughingMan 12:49 PM on 1/07/2010
0 Fans
62 Fans
237 Fanswhere we're supposed to be able to see said human being flowing through the
pipes?
Or maybe a villain so dimwitted that he would use time-trave ling capability to seek
revenge against the guy that tried to save his planet, - instead of using that time-
trave ling device to actually save said planet from being destroyed in the first
place?
How exactly were they trying to make it more accessible to non-trekki es? Unless
they were trying to say that Non-trekki es are so inexplicab ly stupid, and this was
the only way to make it comprehens ible to them.
It was a terrible movie. By Star Trek standards.
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Please re-watch the battle and check my objection regarding George's suicide:
after setting the collision course, acting Cpt. Kirk does not touch the helm or doanything for over a minute.
As for the "point defense", this was supposedly performed by one single man on
an exploding ship, with the bridge in ruins and out of control fires that couldn'teven maintain life support. Why didn't the Kelvin do this when she had a full,seasoned staff at their battle stations? If we want to discuss canon: since whencould lightspeed phasers hit torpedoes which are supposed to travel at Warp 9?
Let us use the analogy of the Apache/des trier face off, and ask: How far do we
think a knight would get in attacking an Apache if he gave up on arrows and
decided to ram the Apache on a wounded horse? In this case, the Narada doesabsolutely nothing to avoid a collision at pitiful impulse speeds. Ridiculous .
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I agree. This film was awful. I mean it looked great and had great special effects, I'mbeginning to think that is all we can hope for from Hollywood these days.
But the plot and characters made no sense. Spock doesn't like something Kirk is saying so
he... decides to throw him out the ship in an escape pod and leave him abandoned on anice planet?! Another example, somehow a mining ship is able to destroy every ship in StarFleet. The main villain was a joke, no depth, no nuance, just an evil insane completely badguy. It made me miss the acting subtlety of Ricardo Montelban. And why is the bad guy soobsessed with getting back at Spock? All Spock did was try to save the bad guy's homeplanet and failed. Why doesn't the bad guy try to prevent the disaster that destroys hisplanet when he goes back in time rather than take revenge on Spock?
The best Star Treks envisioned amazing technology but still had some internal consistenc y
and believabil ity to the plot and to the characters ' motivation . This was just an excuse for a
bunch of special effects and bad gags.
You've echoed a few of the problems I had with the film.Like so many other films today, there was just too much going on at the same time
for too much of the film. It lacked some of the subtle and cerebral qualities thatTrek has become famous for. That's good for the ADD generation but not so muchfor serious film goers.
I also felt they took too many liberties with Trek history. Yes, I know it's an
alternate timeline, but in the end it's too much of a cop out.Permalink | Share it
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Estreet1964 10:23 PM on 1/06/2010
237 Fans
435 Fans
383 FansDon't get me wrong, I felt that it was a great action film, just not a very good Star
Trek film. (Not that many of the others were that good either.)
I feel like there's a lot of potential here however. I hope that in the future they can
avoid pulling a George Lucas and flesh out some good character based storiesthat don't get lost amidst the desire for more extreme spectacle.
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Incidental ly, I never would have thought it was possible to find someone more
annoying than the original Chekov, but they managed to pull it off.
Keep Scotty's little friend, blow Pavel out an airlock.
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It was a late-24th- century mining ship up against mid-23rd-c entury combat ships;
the average Dodge Ram pickup could take on the average Confederat e infantry
division and win due to the same technologi cal disparity. And Nero's demented
plan was intended to stop the destructio n of Romulus, or so he believed because
he was just a regular schlub overwrough t with inconsolab le grief. Spock was also
dealing with the simulatneo us pressures of being Vulcan, being in command,
watching his home get destroyed, and being second-gue ssed by a subordinat e, so
he removed what he thought was an infection to the smooth running of the ship.
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Agree. It was a fun movie to watch, but it had gaping holes in the plot. And honestly, it's
not really a "Star Trek" movie. Abrams and the screenwrit ers took the Star Trek characters ,
took out the intelligen ce and the scientific curiousity , sense of wonder, acknowledg ement of
societal problems and all the other things that made Star Trek so unique and so cool, thenmade a Star Wars movie.
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Michael Giltz
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Posted: January 5, 2010 07:20 PM
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Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyIs There Finally Some Oscar Hope
for Star Trek ?"
What's Your Reaction:
Read More: Academy Awards , Animation , Claudette Colbert , Dvds , Movies , Oscar , Pixar , Robert
Altman , Star Trek , Tv , Up , Entertainment News
We're well into Oscar season and I've been despairing
for Star Trek, a sensational reboot of the sci-fi
franchise that offers the smart, broadly appealingentertainment that Hollywood does best. it's garnerednary a peep despite being one of the best reviewed
movies of the year. (Rotten Tomatoes shows a 94%
overall and 92% from Top Critics .)
I know, I
know. It's
sci-fi, it'sa long-
running
franchise, the cast is mostly unknown, helmer J.J. Abrams is from TV, the plot is very geek-centric andso on. The Dark Knight had many of those strikes against it but unlike that nihilistic film, Star Trek is
positive and fun. The film has been out for a few weeks on regular DVD ($29.99; Paramount) and in a
BluRay Special Edition ($39.99; Paramount but only $20 on sale at Amazon and just $5 more than thestandard DVD) that is well worth the price. And now the Producers Guild has wisely named Star Trek
one of the 10 best films of the year. Here's hoping Academy members will pop in the DVD or go to a
screening, even if they're not a Trekkie. They're in for a shock.
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For one thing, an amazing thing happens in the first few minutes of the film: you feel emotionally moved.
Now I've watched Star Trek the TV series many times as a kid and dove into Star Trek: The Next
Generation and all the films and (with decreasing interest) the numerous spin-offs and prequels and
sequels. I've sometimes been very entertained. But I've almost never been moved.
And yet, in the first few minutes of the film we watch a young crew member plunged into crisis and
sacrificing himself to make certain the rest of the crew (including his wife, in the midst of childbirth) can
abandon ship. Remarkably, the scene is also funny and plugs right into the Star Trek mythology since we
get to see how future Captain James Tiberius Kirk got his name. (A DVD extra shows how Spock got his
name, BTW.) It's textbook screenwriting. And then your heart gets stuck in your throat. Whoa, I thought.I didn't expect that to happen.
After that the film just hurtles along, thanks to a marvelous cast. Chris Pine as Kirk gives an action film
performance worthy of Harrison Ford circa Indiana Jones. (That's the highest compliment I know.)
Zachary Quinto (of TV's Heroes and whose casting I wrongly bemoaned) brings exceptional depth to
Spock. And straight down the line the cast is great: Bruce Greenwood is a sturdy Pike, Zoe Saldana is asexy and smart Uhura, Simon Pegg is enjoyably scenery chewing as Scotty, John Cho and Anton Yelchin
are distinctive in their small roles of Sulu and Chekhov and Karl Urban is a great Bones. And they're sexy.From Kirk to Chekhov. (And yes, I've freeze-framed the Green Girl scenes. I'm not ashamed to admit it.)
The screenplay is sleekly efficient: we see Kirk and Spock as alienated kids and quickly sparring at
Starfleet Academy. The bad guy (a serviceable Eric Bana) is set up without any muss or fuss. The stakes
are raised and raised again. And it all barrels along to a bang-up finale.
I have quibbles. The scene of a very young Kirk driving a car off a cliff (and almost killing himself) is
idiotic and utterly out of whack with the rest of the film. It should have been left in the teaser trailer. One
too many scenes of people dangling off the sides of cliffs or over an abyss are repeated. The snarky little
alien sidekick for Scotty is better soon forgotten. But these are indeed quibbles.
Abrams and his team created a film wonderfully faithful to a beloved franchise but gave it new life and
reached out to a broader audience than ever before. They also launched what might be a star in Chris
Pine. (If nothing else, he's got a great few Trek films ahead of him.) There's a moment towards the end
when Uhura confronts Kirk angrily and says, "I hope you know what you're doing" and Kirk quietly
responds, "So do I." It's a moment of humbleness and vulnerability (in the middle of terrific action, I
might add) that brings an entirely new dimension to the character and the series as a whole.
I've watched it three times in the theater and twice on DVD and just want an excuse to watch it again.
The BluRay extras certainly provide them, such as deleted scenes, very good commentary and much
more. J.J. Abrams has shown a knack for launching TV shows like Felicity and Alias and Lost and then
not seeming to know what to do with them after the first season. I'm hoping that means he has about six
good Star Trek films in him before he hits a wall. Hollywood should encourage him by rightly nominating
the film as one of the ten best of the year. It won't win of course. (Neither will Avatar .) But it's exactly
the sort of film the Academy expanded its list to include. Any voting members who doubt me just need towatch the film.
ALSO OUT RECENTLY (HEY, THE HOLIDAYS CAN REALLY TRIP YOU UP)
WINGS OF DESIRE ($39.95 regular or BluRay; Criterion) -- Some films are so powerful and moving,
so special to me, I don't like to watch them that often. Sure, I can dive into Casablanca or Close
Encounters Of The Third Kind at the drop of a hat. But Wings Of Desire? The story of angels listening in
to our deepest fears and desires is so distinctive and wonderful, I don't want to spoil the magic by
entering its world too often. Criterion, of course, provides a great reason for doing so. The top-notch
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transfer does justice to this gorgeous film with one of the most striking (and significant) sound designs in
film history. A second disc offers extras on top of the usual commentary track with Wenders: a 2003
documentary about the film, a German TV special made back in 1987 when it came out, deleted scenesand other intriguing odds and ends. If you've never seen this film before (easily one of the best of the1980s), I envy you.
UP ($45.99 on BluRay but only $18 on sale at Amazon; Disney) -- I'm not much for watching individual
scenes or skipping back and forth in movies or TV shows. If I want to watch a movie, I typically watchthe movie from beginning to end, the way the filmmaker intended. But the minute I saw Up at Cannes, I
was dying to get my hands on a DVD so I could watch the lovely, heart-wrenching little short casuallyembedded into the beginning of the film. In about five minutes, we see an entire marriage of a couple,
from their wedding to old age and it's done with such delicacy and feeling that it takes your breath away.
Up is at heart an adventure tale, with an old man and a young kid as the odd couple thrown together into
the search for a near mystical waterfall, all of it held aloft by balloons and the grumpy old man's love forhis lost wife. Almost as an aside, the film depicts what it's like to be old and alone with more insight and
feeling than almost any other film of the year. And it's funny. Another Pixar masterpiece, which is fast
becoming a redundant phrase.
ON THE ROAD WITH CHARLES KURALT SET 1 ($39.99; Acorn) -- I have very little patience for
folksy tales with heartwarming messages. But newsman Charles Kuralt slides by my Cornpone Alert
Warning System because his stories about the byways of America and the people who inhabit them are so
fascinating and sincere. He's like an Errol Morris without the fancy camerawork. People really arewonderfully odd and Kuralt captured that in story after story, like the ones about the woman who talked
to geese, a pothole festival and an honest to goodness one-room schoolhouse. The set also includes some
updates and a bio of Kuralt but you'll be too busy watching the six hours of stories.
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INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS ($34.98; Universal) -- Here's another Oscar hopeful, though for some
reason it too has lost some steam. Actually, I'm surprised here too. This was Quentin Tarantino's biggest
box office hit to date in the US and worldwide. (It grossed $319 million all told. If you count the two KillBill films as one movie, they edge it out with a total of $330 million.) And personally I thought the WW II
setting kept a lid on Tarantino's more excessive traits to excellent effect. But it's funny: person after
person I spoke to insisted it wasn't all that. But then I'd ask them about one of the films remarkable set
pieces. What about the scene in the barn, I'd ask? Oh, that was great. What about the scene in the bar?
Oh, that was great too. The Jew Bear? Hilarious. Christoph Waltz? Tremendous. Diane Kruger?
Wonderful. And on and on. I think it's his most mature film since his debut, Reservoir Dogs.
TAXI FOURTH SEASON AND TAXI FINAL SEASON ($39.98 each; Paramount) -- I learned a lot
from Taxi , the quirky, critically acclaimed sitcom that held on for five slightly off kilter seasons. Never
walk away from a good TV series with good writing. (Hey Jeff Conaway.) Treat your offbeat secondary
characters with seriousness and heart and they won't take over the show or turn it into a cartoon. (Hey
Latka, Simka, Rev. Jim and Louie.) Beware of network programmers, who dumped the show from ABC .(NBC picked it up after HBO toyed with the idea.). Best of all, I learned that the names behind thecamera (like James L. Brooks) could tell you a show was worth watching even more than the stars in
front of it.
THE NEW YORK YANKEES 2009 WORLD SERIES COLLECTOR'S EDITION ($79.95; A&E) --
You can buy a single disc look at the World Series or a Yankeeography look at the entire season. But why
would anyone want those when you can dive into this delight? (A delight, at least, for Yankees fans.) You
get all six games of the World Series with optional radio commentary (a real blessing, that one, given the
lackluster work of Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Ken Rosenthal -- though Yankees announcers are solame I listen to the Philly radio guys.) You also get the ALCS Game Six, player interviews, all the post-
game hoopla and more. Sports fans should expect no less for any major sport's season finale.
FOLLOW HUFFINGTON POST
LORNA'S SILENCE ($28.96; Sony Pictures Classics) -- I consider the Dardenne brothers the directors
of the last decade (roughly speaking). They had a string of brilliant films: 1996's La Promesse was
exceptional and proven no fluke when in the waning days of 1999 they released the Palm d'Or winner
Rosetta . In 2002 came The Son and in 2005 The Child , both featuring their trademark hand-held
camera work that hovers practically on top of their actors for a sense of immediacy and peril that is quite
remarkable. Actually, Lorna's Silence -- in which a woman is marrying a Russian mobster so he can get a
green card but panics when she realizes a drug addict must die for the plan to work -- is the firstDardenne film I didn't love. But many others did, and it certainly has intelligence and good acting to
spare.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST ($34.99; Warner Bros.) -- It's pretty remarkable. Even people who don't
know a thing about movies have heard of Alfred Hitchcock; his name still has exceptional pull. And every
film buff I know appreciates him and loves at least some of his films. Yet I think we're only beginning to
appreciate how masterful he really was. Is that possible? I know for some reason the artificiality of NorthBy Northwest -- the ultimate James Bond film, though without James Bond -- used to be off-putting for
me. But I like it more and more all the time (though it may never catch up with Notorious, The LadyVanishes, Rear Window, Psycho, etc.) It's pure entertainment and so technically brilliant (in an almost
invisible yet showy manner) that you spot new details every time. This new BluRay edition comes in anifty package, sort of a hardcover book with 45 pages of colorful info and then the film itself. (I do wish
they'd keep the dimensions the same as every other BluRay however.) Top-notch.
BALLAST ($29.95; Kino) -- One of my favorite films of 2008, Ballast is a signal achievement by writer-
director Lance Hammer. He has the name of a porn director (or perhaps action films or of coursehorror), but Hammer delivers a quiet, lovely look at a mother and son who stumble into the orbit of
Lawrence, a man still grieving over the death of his twin brother. Simple, direct, beautifully shot, grippingand ultimately hopeful without being cheery or falsely optimistic, this is genuinely independent cinema
about shattered lives that can be glued back together again, with luck. But don't pretend the cracks won't
still show. Since the film features a cast of mostly non-pros and Hammer developed the film via improv,we may finally be looking at the American answer to Mike Leigh.
ANDY BARKER, P.I.: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($24.99; Shout) -- It's amazing but true: Andy
Richter as starred in not just one but two very good sitcoms. First Andy Richter Controls The Universe
and now this whimsical tale of an accountant who takes over the office space of a retired detective andsoon finds himself solving crimes. Utterly winning in its silliness, the show was dumped by NBC (to put itmildly) and never stood a chance. Now Richter is happily ensconced on the Tonight Show as Conan's
sidekick again (Conan helped create this show). But how many actors can claim two well-received serieson their resume? Precious few. And anyone looking for sweetly goofy entertainment with twice the laughsof Murder She Wrote and even less suspense over whodunit, here's your show.
A CHRISTMAS TALE ($39.95 regular or BluRay; Criterion) -- I'm not a fan of Arnaud Desplechin. Butmany terrific actors are. (I've also seen this film mentioned not on just a best of the year list but on a best
of the decade list, so others clearly disagree.) In this typically overstuffed soap opera, the great Catherine
Deneuve is the matriarch of a family who oh so politely would like a bone marrow transplant from one ofher children, thank you very much. Everyone descends on the home for Christmas and even for a French
film the casual manner in which affairs are treated is a bit laughable. Still, the cast is excellent (including
Mathieu Amalric and many others), Desplechin deploys his usual tricks (like ending scenes with an irisclosing in a la old silent films) and the expected Criterion extras are of the usual high quality, includinginterviews and a documentary about the sale of Desplechin's family home.
ULTRAMAN: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($14.98; Mill Creek) -- Even as a little kid, I realized
Ultraman was a very silly cheap little show with the finale usually involving Ultraman squaring off with a
"monster" (ie. some guy in a rubber suit). But it's amazing how a show I barely remember can beimprinted on my brain. I don't think I watched it compulsively, but how do I explain the instantrecognition of so many of the 39 episodes on this set? Like the series itself, this is a bargain basement set.
But the cover is nifty looking and you do get every episode for an exceptionally reasonable price. Go in
with eyes wide open and you'll be happy. Will your kids like it? Yes, if you watch it and laugh and enjoy it
along with them.
THE GENERAL ($34.95 on BluRay; Kino) -- You can have your Pandora and its 3-D effects. Nothing
can make an audience gasp as completely and delightedly as Buster Keaton's genuine stunts on a moving
train in The General, one of the funniest and most heart-stopping comedies of them all. (It's actually kind
of fascinating how the best silent comedies combined amazing stunts with humor, something almost
entirely missing from movies today.) Kino has done an excellent job putting the film out on DVD in thepast. So this BluRay is a notable improvement but not one that puts their previous 2 disc set on regular
DVD to shame. There's no denying that the added resolution of BluRay provides even more definition to
the backgrounds in the movie. And if you are buying this classic for the first time, by all means make thisyour first choice. It contains all the extras of that earlier set. But either one is a top-tier edition to yourmovie library.
THE CLAUDETTE COLBERT COLLECTION ($49.98; Universal) -- I've never been a huge fan of
Colbert: she always seemed too prim to be sexy, too uptight to let loose. And yet you can't argue with
success. (Artistic success, that is. I can argue with commercial success plenty.) Colbert had a lot of it,
from It Happened One Night to Midnight and many more. This Universal set is a grab-bag of movies
with one corker. Three-Cornered Moon (1933) is an oddball pre-Coder about a struggling family; Maid
Of Salem (1937) is a ham-fisted look at the Salem witch trials, I Met Him In Paris (1937) is a diverting
romantic comedy about a famous designer desired by three suitors -- diverting in a 3 in the morning,
TCM sort of way; No Time For Love (1943) is an ok romantic comedy with her regular co-star Fred
MacMurray; and The Egg And I (1947) is a Green Acres precursor that launched the Ma and Pa Kettle
series. But by far the best of all is the Ernst Lubitsch film Bluebeard's Eighth Wife from 1938, with Gary
Cooper as the much-married Bluebeard and Colbert as his not-so-blushing bride. You know you're in
Lubitsch territory when they meet at a department store where he wants to buy only the tops to some
pajamas and she is willing to buy only the bottoms. Worth the price alone.
THE EXILES ($29.95; Milestone) -- This long-lost independent film is a landmark work rescued by
author Sherman Alexie and indie hero Charles Burnett. Made in the late Fifties and early Sixties on a
shoestring by Kent Mackenzie, it looks at Native Americans looking to stake a claim in Los Angeleswithout losing a sense of community. In general, it's the sort of film notable for what it is and what itcaptured rather than as a dramatic film itself. The acting is mostly rudimentary, with the voice-over
narration of the people we're watching rather flatly stating the obvious. But two elements keep this from
a mere curio. One is the many glimpses of Los Angeles we get in the film, which are fascinating. The
other is the fact that this is one of the most dynamically and excitingly shot films I have EVER seen, indie
or otherwise. I kept thinking of Touch Of Evil, the camerawork was so good. I'm tempted to credit
Mackenzie mainly since he was the driving creative force and three different names are credited as
cinematographer. But they all deserve mention for an exceptional job: Erik Darstaad, Robert Kaufman,
and John Arthur Morrill. Credit also to film editor Warner Brown and the uncredited Sven Walnum, who
according to the notoriously undependable IMDB at least, worked the camera and helped with theediting. Amazing work.
RUMBA ($26.98; Koch Lorber) -- Maybe you're a fan of westerns. Not many of them get made, so when
one pops up you are just happy to see the horses and the horizon and the shoot out at the end. The same
goes for musicals (though happily, those are relatively in vogue at the moment). Well, Guy Maddin isn't
the only filmmaker who can plumb the past for inspiration. The team of Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordonand Bruno Romy delight in silent film antics and have produced a followup to their gem L'Iceberg. In
Rumba , a couple that excels in ballroom dancing is thrown into turmoil when a car accident leaves one
without a leg and the other without their memory, none of which can keep them from their destiny to
rumba together. There's no denying this isn't the sheer delight of L'Iceberg (by all means, rent it), but
fans of that will enjoy this one too. Their gags are sometimes so simple and sweet, you can't help smiling:
a shot of students pouring out of a school with joy after the last bell seems to go on too long; all the kids
are gone and yet the camera doesn't move until suddenly you hear more whoops of joy and then
suddenly the teachers are rushing outside just as giddy with delight. Can't wait to see them at it again.
WALLACE & GROMIT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION ($29.99; Lionsgate) -- That's the
complete shorts collection, since this includes four shorts but not the feature film Curse Of The Were-
Rabbit. "A Matter Of Loaf & Death" is probably lesser W&G, especially since we're comparing it to the
perfection of "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave," three classic shorts. It's
almost counter-intuitive to see the delights of stop-motion animation in BluRay, but the chance to see
the characters and all the details of their sets in such clarity is lovely. Exceptionally funny.
--30--
Thanks for reading. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of
celebrity interviews and his weekly music radio show at Popsurfing and enjoy the weekly pop culture
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Up was anything but.
I usually go for any high quality animation film as something I can watch with my daughter. I
never thought I would end up thinking Shrek and Shrek II were great movies. But something
about Up (can't even say why, just a feeling) makes me wonder if its as good as everyone
says, haven't seen it yet but probably will, what didn't you like about it?
It's a very good movie. Unfortunat ely, since it's a Pixar movie, I compare it to other
Pixar movies, and "very good" is disappoint ing. It may be an unfair barometer to
gauge against, but "Up" needed more color and a bit more intelligen ce to it. The
denoument of the film occurs because of a character' s lifelong ignorance, and that
was a large quibble.
It still is a very good movie.
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435 Fans
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435 Fans
185 FansJust go ahead and nominate Transforme rs?
Time to dump the Oscars anyway. They have rarely meant anything.
STAR WARS was sci-fi with a largely unknown cast, too; it was also a Best Picture nominee and
one of the first movies slated for eternal priority preservati on by the Library of Congress.
A deleted scene showed that the 'Vette had been Kirk's dad's, and he destroyed it get back at hisdrunken jerk of an uncle who'd annexed the thing and chased off Kirk's brother Sam (that hitchhiking kid). And I liked Keenser because he kept infuriatin g Scotty, and I hope he's in the sequel.
I'm absolutely baffled that Star Trek could be considered "textbook" screenwrit ing, much less a Best
Film candidate. In the first 10 seconds, there are reports of the looks of something in space, we are shown it, it isblinding the bridge crew, and then we are told it is "out of visual range". The Kirk name discussionand "sacrifice " mentioned in this review largely takes place after all helm and fire controls on the
ship are inoperable , and there is absolutely no reason not to evacuate, instead George Kirk commits
a senseless suicide while chatting away with a wife being ignored by the medical team, having justdelivered a baby. Throughout this film, villains and heroes actions go from magically powerful tocriminally ignorant featuring dialog that, with only minor breaks, is contradict ory, non-sensic al, or
simply wrong. "Catering to geeks" suggests scrupulous attention to either Star Trek canon, scientific reality, or both
- yet this film is replete with glaring errors as measured not only by either of these standards, but
also by the film's own premises over which they had complete control. Additional details can befound at the blog "Structure dDream".
If one does not care about profound, continuous flaws in a film that's a personal choice, but to makeobjective claims regarding its quality that do not address the hundreds of instances which appear toinsult audience intelligen ce strikes this viewer as inappropri ate.
"Senseless ?" George was buying time for his crew to escape from a ship that was as
technologi cally far removed from his own as an AH-64 Apache is from a medieval destrier-
-and that was just a mining ship; a D'Deridex- class warbird would've summarily incinerate d
the Kelvin in about five seconds. He even did a point-defe nse shootdown of one of the
same cluster missiles that shredded his ship that was going to obliterate the medevacshuttle Winona was on. They were outgunned right at the start with zero backup, theautopilot was broken, who knows how far from the bridge the nearest escape pod was, andwho knows how fast and nimble said pod would be, so ramming the thing was the onlymove left.
Incidental ly, the film's writers were Trekkies, but they were trying to make it accessible to
non-Trekki es.
"Incidenta lly, the film's writers were Trekkies, but they were trying to make it
accessible to non-Trekki es."
How? By making it incomprehe nsibly stupid?
A SuperNova capable of destroying an entire Galaxy? Really? In what Universe?A starship with a water-duct system with pipes so large that they can hold an full-
grown human being, and just happen to be convenient ly transparen t in the partsPermalink | Share it
BlackJAC 02:39 PM on 1/06/2010
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BurntSynapse 09:18 AM on 1/06/2010
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BlackJAC 03:34 PM on 1/06/2010
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LaughingMan 12:49 PM on 1/07/2010
0 Fans
62 Fans
237 Fanswhere we're supposed to be able to see said human being flowing through the
pipes?
Or maybe a villain so dimwitted that he would use time-trave ling capability to seek
revenge against the guy that tried to save his planet, - instead of using that time-
trave ling device to actually save said planet from being destroyed in the first
place?
How exactly were they trying to make it more accessible to non-trekki es? Unless
they were trying to say that Non-trekki es are so inexplicab ly stupid, and this was
the only way to make it comprehens ible to them.
It was a terrible movie. By Star Trek standards.
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Please re-watch the battle and check my objection regarding George's suicide:
after setting the collision course, acting Cpt. Kirk does not touch the helm or doanything for over a minute.
As for the "point defense", this was supposedly performed by one single man on
an exploding ship, with the bridge in ruins and out of control fires that couldn'teven maintain life support. Why didn't the Kelvin do this when she had a full,seasoned staff at their battle stations? If we want to discuss canon: since whencould lightspeed phasers hit torpedoes which are supposed to travel at Warp 9?
Let us use the analogy of the Apache/des trier face off, and ask: How far do we
think a knight would get in attacking an Apache if he gave up on arrows and
decided to ram the Apache on a wounded horse? In this case, the Narada doesabsolutely nothing to avoid a collision at pitiful impulse speeds. Ridiculous .
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I agree. This film was awful. I mean it looked great and had great special effects, I'mbeginning to think that is all we can hope for from Hollywood these days.
But the plot and characters made no sense. Spock doesn't like something Kirk is saying so
he... decides to throw him out the ship in an escape pod and leave him abandoned on anice planet?! Another example, somehow a mining ship is able to destroy every ship in StarFleet. The main villain was a joke, no depth, no nuance, just an evil insane completely badguy. It made me miss the acting subtlety of Ricardo Montelban. And why is the bad guy soobsessed with getting back at Spock? All Spock did was try to save the bad guy's homeplanet and failed. Why doesn't the bad guy try to prevent the disaster that destroys hisplanet when he goes back in time rather than take revenge on Spock?
The best Star Treks envisioned amazing technology but still had some internal consistenc y
and believabil ity to the plot and to the characters ' motivation . This was just an excuse for a
bunch of special effects and bad gags.
You've echoed a few of the problems I had with the film.Like so many other films today, there was just too much going on at the same time
for too much of the film. It lacked some of the subtle and cerebral qualities thatTrek has become famous for. That's good for the ADD generation but not so muchfor serious film goers.
I also felt they took too many liberties with Trek history. Yes, I know it's an
alternate timeline, but in the end it's too much of a cop out.Permalink | Share it
BurntSynapse 06:06 PM on 1/07/2010
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JGatsby 03:38 PM on 1/06/2010
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Estreet1964 10:23 PM on 1/06/2010
237 Fans
435 Fans
383 FansDon't get me wrong, I felt that it was a great action film, just not a very good Star
Trek film. (Not that many of the others were that good either.)
I feel like there's a lot of potential here however. I hope that in the future they can
avoid pulling a George Lucas and flesh out some good character based storiesthat don't get lost amidst the desire for more extreme spectacle.
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Incidental ly, I never would have thought it was possible to find someone more
annoying than the original Chekov, but they managed to pull it off.
Keep Scotty's little friend, blow Pavel out an airlock.
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It was a late-24th- century mining ship up against mid-23rd-c entury combat ships;
the average Dodge Ram pickup could take on the average Confederat e infantry
division and win due to the same technologi cal disparity. And Nero's demented
plan was intended to stop the destructio n of Romulus, or so he believed because
he was just a regular schlub overwrough t with inconsolab le grief. Spock was also
dealing with the simulatneo us pressures of being Vulcan, being in command,
watching his home get destroyed, and being second-gue ssed by a subordinat e, so
he removed what he thought was an infection to the smooth running of the ship.
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Agree. It was a fun movie to watch, but it had gaping holes in the plot. And honestly, it's
not really a "Star Trek" movie. Abrams and the screenwrit ers took the Star Trek characters ,
took out the intelligen ce and the scientific curiousity , sense of wonder, acknowledg ement of
societal problems and all the other things that made Star Trek so unique and so cool, thenmade a Star Wars movie.
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Estreet1964 10:29 PM on 1/06/2010
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BlackJAC 10:27 AM on 1/07/2010
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JimR 10:14 AM on 1/07/2010
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