Sunday, May 10, 2009

What a summer for fun movies! I went to see Star Trek today, and treated myself to a cherry slushie since it's Mother's Day. Now, I didn't love this like I loved Wolverine, but that's okay. I didn't expect to. In fact, I was quite prepared to hate it if necessary, to erase the whole thing from my memory. Fortunately, I don't have to.

First and foremost, I have to say that the actors portraying Baby Kirk, Baby Spock, Baby Bones, and Baby Scotty (which is how I keep thinking of them) were amazingly good match-ups for those characters' original incarnations. Chris Pine, who played Baby Kirk, had Bill Shatner down pat. The swagger, the grin, the cocky smirk, the captain's-chair-sprawl-and-lean -- he did everything but imitate Shatner's oft-mocked dialog delivery. Of course, since Jim Kirk has ever been my favorite character, I may have been paying a wee bit more attention to details like those, both in the original series and in this ;-) I'd say I was second-most impressed with Karl Urban as Baby Bones. I've loved Urban ever since he played Eomer in the Lord of the Rings, and I have to admit I was really curious about this casting. But he had Bones' drawl, laconic attitude, and perpetually worried expression in spades. Zachary Quinto and Simon Pegg were also great as Baby Spock and Baby Scotty, and also had ther moments where they were spot-on perfect, but they had a lot of help from prosthetics or a strong accent to get them into their characters.

Baby Uhura was a beauty, Baby Chekov was cute and smart, and Baby Sulu got a nifty sword. They were all acceptable. Bruce Greenwood made a lovely Capt. Christopher Pike, and I wish he'd had more screentime.

The real surprise in the cast for me was Eric Bana! He acted! Honest! I'm usually bored to tears by him, but he was actually having fun as the renegade Romulan -- he totally needs to play villains from now on.

As for the plot... it's about time travel. I tried hard not to think about it too much. Leonard Nimoy had a nice chunk of screentime and I was happy for him. Oh, and I probably should mention they had me in tears before the opening credits. Never after, though. I did laugh quite a bit, as did lots of others in the theater. And we clapped at the end :-D

A bit of spoilage:

So, um, Baby Uhura and Baby Spock? Yeeeeeah, what was up with that? I really felt like they just threw that in to spice things up a little and not let Baby Kirk get all the kissing scenes. Totally unneccessary, IMHO, and I wish they hadn't gone there, as it has all sorts of implications and repercussions that I don't want to think about. Now, Baby Uhura catching Baby Kirk hiding under her roommate's bunk in his tighty-whities? That worked for me, because sometimes Uhuhra does get this glint of amusement in her eye when interacting with Kirk, and this works as what she could be remembering.

And, they're sooooo going to have to do another one, because Amanda Greyson is still alive in the series. Yeah, need to fix that. Also, Jim needs a brother. And a dad. Ahem.

So anyway, if I hadn't had my yearly slushie, I'd have given it two Warheads, because it got a bit soggy in that bit where Baby Kirk was running around the Ice Planet Hoth.

Oh, a note about the Romulan ship and Spock's shuttle -- was anyone else thinking Firely? The Romulan ship really reminded me of something the Reavers might fly, and Spock's shuttle's rear section was really remeniscent of Firefly-class ships like Serenity.

So, I'd totally see this again on DVD, and I'm all psyched to rewatch the original series now. I believe I can watch all of them for free on cbs.com, so I may just start going through the series from the beginning -- there are actually quite a few eps I haven't seen, even though I've loved Classic Star Trek for a couple years longer than I've loved Combat! (not that I've seen all the eps of that, either). Also, I might see if I can get this soundtrack, cuz it had lots of percussion and horns, which I love.

10 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed it!! It's funny how opposite we are on things like Chris Pine's portrayal and Eric Bana. Where I liked him in Troy and Munich, I thought he couldn't have been more one-note boring in this film.

    I also wish they hadn't gone there on your first hidden spoiler. On your second one... (more spoilers follow for any readers who haven't seen the movie, so stop reading now!) nope, they don't. They dispensed with the ST universe as we know it and split off on an alternate timeline when Nero arrived in the opener. Mom's gone, Vulcan's destroyed, no brother... we ain't in Kansas anymore. You know, I actually spent a good portion of the movie thinking, "okay, just relax, all this wrongness will be straightened out at the end when they go back in time and fix the first disruption and we get back into the world of the series and the characters stop behaving like jerks and turn into what they're supposed to be." But, no. They didn't do that. For better or worse, we're stuck in an alternate timeline/history. It gives the filmmakers the freedom to do whatever they want, but it'll never tie into the series any more. And I find that incredibly depressing. :-(

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  2. On the second spoiler -- you're right, I think. And shouldn't you be a bit happy about that? If all this is an alternate reality, then you can feel free to disregard it, since you disliked it.

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  3. Yes, I can (and have) disregarded, but why would an alternate reality make me happy? Never to see this new stuff tie in to the ST universe I love? To see the universe I love so easily discarded? This AR is no different from a "it's all a dream!" cheat. And that just makes me rather sad. They can boldly go into new realms with new characterizations without worrying about past shows or movies... And even that I would love and accept (because I want to so badly)... if they'd only write a decent story.

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  4. why would an alternate reality make me happy?Okay, maybe 'happy' was the wrong word choice. I just meant that for me, I find it a lot easier to disregard something I don't like if I can say, "It's an alternate universe -- it doesn't count."

    Of course, it would make you much happier if it all tied into the original and fit your own views of the characters perfectly, etc. But since it doesn't....

    On a happy note, here's an idea: what if you and I started rewatching the original series? Either watching some "together" via IM or else each watching the same ep per week and sending each other notes? Cuz I want to start watching them myself, they're online for free... email me if you wanna discuss.

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  5. I think you should have given up the "Baby X" naming convention when the babies started stripping. Ew.

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  6. Of course, it would make you much happier if it all tied into the original and fit your own views of the characters perfectly, etc. But since it doesn't... Now I'm the one clearly not using the right words to describe my issues with this movie, hee! But we can take that offline. :-D

    Would it surprise you to know I'm going to see it again with my sister?

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  7. Noumenon -- Lol, should I take it that you've seen it, then?

    DKoren -- Yes, it would surprise me very much! Consider me surprised :-D

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  8. Naw, I don't see movies. I can't say that because I watched What Happens in Vegas last week. Put it this way: I don't necessarily see movies even if I'm interested in them.

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  9. Hmmm.... I've been thinking about trying this out, after your review I think I will :)

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    Replies
    1. I was really amused to re-read this post after you commented just now. I like it less now than I did originally, though it's still quite fun. Not a movie I want to own, but I did see it again on DVD.

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