Pike: This is Captain Christopher Pike of the USS Enterprise.
Nero: Hi Christopher. I’m Nero.
Was funny on the big screen, with delivery.
Oh! I am so lame. I liked that part when I saw it yesterday, and today I couldn’t even remember it.
Luckily I’m likely to be seeing the movie again tomorrow, so it will be more fully remembered.
I liked it a lot; Abrams is playing to the general public, not the hardcore fan base, and it’s absolutely the right thing to do. And isn’t it ironic that they made Trek better by making it look more like Battlestar Galactica?
That said, there were some problems:
–The Kirk-Spock-McCoy dynamic is supposed to be Ego/Superego/Id. Instead, we got Ego/No Charisma/Bad Rich Little Act. Spock needs to be someone you’d root for and McCoy needs to be “a sensualist,” someone you’d troll for green-skinned shorties with. Fix it for the sequel.
–Chekhov? This early? This smart? And without a Beatles haircut? He looked like Marc on Ugly Betty. I wish they’d had Reilly in the chair instead, but whatever.
–Didn’t recognize Winona Ryder. To be fair, the last movie I saw her in was animated.
–Scotty’s little rock troll buddy? Sick of him already.
Those are extremely reasonable, mature expectations. So why in the world would you expect to get any of that from a modern sci-fi or comic-book movie?
When ever anyone says about a movie that “the special effects were great,” I know that the movie is crap, because it obviously has no character depth or development. (The Spider-Man films were a surprising departure from this general rule, although only in the case of Peter Parker. The rest of the characters were cardboard.)
That said, I enjoyed Star Trek as basic, mindless entertainment with some inside gags that I, as an old-time TOS fan, got and enjoyed. (I was 11 when it came out.) I didn’t expect character development or logic, so I wasn’t disappointed. I just had a good time at the movies. Expecting depth from Star Trek is… illogical.
But WTF is the deal with the water on the floor of the Romulan ship?!?
Also, although I can grant that maybe Nero could hold on to a grudge against Spock for 25 years, but don’t you think that somewhere around year 17 or 18, at least one or two members of the crew would have said, “Hey, Nero. How about we go see if maybe a few Romulan babes somehow survived the destruction of our home planet?”
Little troll buddy reminded me of one of the carbonite crew in Empire Strikes Back. In a good way. Snow dinosaur, not so much good way.
I think it’s kind of silly to nitpick technical details and plot holes when many things about the canon are ridiculous to begin with. If you’re going to accept warp drives and transporter beams, and a universe where every planet has earth-like atmosphere and gravity, everybody speaks English, and every species on every planet can interbreed with every other species, then you really surrender any right to be indignant about Starfleet protocol (the idea of a starfleet in itself is absurd) or black hole physics or implausible plot contrivances.
I went in knowing I was watching nonsense and had quite a good time. I liked the characterizations of all the Baby Star Trek characters. I would have liked to see a Baby Khan. Maybe in the next movie.
Yeah, but, “I’ve got your gun.” was funnier.
I wish they hadn’t restarted it, but I’ll not whine like the Bond fans.
I didn’t like using Scotty as comic relief. He was at his best as I’ve only mentioned 1,000 times in Friday’s Child.
And we must disagree, Skald. Spock and Uhura fellated. Sulu and Uhura would make some sense.
“I’ll save you, fair maiden!”
“Sorry, I am neither.” 
First two don’t happen. Your forget the Universal Translator.
Baby Khan? In a test tube. As a toddler, beating up the kindergartners.
Luckily, hard-core Trek fans comprise 0.0002% of the population. The rest of us, who merely like Star Trek a whole bunch, will love this film.
I thought it was a blast.
As I predicted, Mrs. Plant hated it. Her daughter and I were trying to walk faster than she from the theater, until someone snidely told her, “That’s why they call it science FICTION”, and I thought I may have to delay this asshole with my entire 125 lbs while she escaped.
Actually, it’s worse than that. You’ve forgotten that they were over 100 years in the past by then - Romulus still exists. Surely by year 5 at the latest his crew members would’ve assassinated him and just gone home.
I don’t know. I have to agree with Skald, there were just too many coincidences all happening in such short order, to bring everything to where it’s supposed to be, and solving everyone’s problems that it just seemed lazy. Everything just seemed like it was an excuse…an excuse to have a ninja sword, an excuse to bring in Leonard Nimoy, an excuse to make Kirk captain, an excuse to have a giant dinosaur chase, an excuse to have a Khan replacement out for personal vengeance, etc. It just seemed like a stream of unconnected scenes put together for no particular reason beyond that they seemed cool. And there was no obvious reason to do it that way. Why not have a plausible story about Kirk and Spock in Starfleet academy, or simply just make them already be in place on the Enterprise?
Aww, it was great fun. The thing is, all Star Trek has ever been was B-Movie level science fiction with some money thrown at it. It got lucky by having great characters with good chemistry and a few good ideas every now and then. This movie nailed the tone and aesthetic of the original, but with a 21st century upgrade. I even loved the anamorphic lens flares. This was the shot in the arm the franchise needed, and I’m thrilled the movies are going back to the original crew of the Enterprise. Next Generation, or any of the others just don’t have the gravity like the original does for a feature blockbuster.
True, the story, in and of itself, could have been better, but everything else worked so well, it didn’t matter as much. This is the Star Trek I always knew it could be. It had power, energy and motion. Highly entertaing, and not disappointed in the slightest. It’s been a long time since I felt that “movie magic” I did when I was a kid. Next time, I do expect sharper writing… right Damon?
Appropos of nothing, but that actress playing Uhura was hotter than fire.
Look, wiping the table clear and being able to start fresh with a time travel bit is cheating … but at least they made fun of themselves for doing it - when Kirk asks Spock the Elder (paraphrasing) “Isn’t going back in time to change things cheating?” (Which actually Spock had not done.) And Spock said “yes but I learned to do that from an old friend” And yeah, cheating is in the character of Kirk and of Star Trek. A fun movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I enjoyed it.
Black holes…I thought you had to get the Red Stuff into the core to make a black hole. But what drill bit is long enough and strong enough to get to the core of a planet?
Don’t dis Mr. Scott. He’ll beam you from the shower to the subway.
Regarding canon and continuity, what about the Eugenics wars? What about the Romulan War, fought with out video? No one knows what these guys look like.
I wonder if they will change the bios at Trek.com to fit this new movie; for example, the dates the crew members attended the academy.
That’s the same chick that’ll be James Cameron’s Na’vi alien in Avatar, BTW.
And I agree.
Granted, the story isn’t the strongest, and the plot has a few problems, but holy shit this was a breathtaking thrill ride! Maybe you had to see it in IMAX. This movie was hella fun, super exciting, and visually astonishing, from the action to the effects to the sets to the aliens. All the other stuff was either good, or not bad enough to distract from the excellent aspects. The only part that I didn’t feel was done well was the Orion slutty roomate - she just didn’t look quite right to me.
Can’t wait to see it again!
You did see the movie, right? The “drill” was a giant energy beam that blasted/vaporized a hole into the earth.
I totally agree with this. Even down to the Orion green chick. She looked she was dunked in some Paas Easter Egg coloring.