81 replies to this topic

[Maverick]

Who has the TV rights to the movies now? I haven't seen a TOS movie in years. And except for Nemesis (ugh) on AMC (?WTF?) a few months back the on TNG I see in Generations popping up on Sci Fi once or twice a year.

[zelmia]

They still play occasionally, Maverick. I remember seeing "The Voyage Home" (the one with the whales) not all that long ago on some channel or other. They probably think there isn't as much of a following for the earlier films because the technology has improved so much. But I still think the first film has held up pretty well, considering.

[Constantinople]

Recently saw the 2009 Star Trek movie.

I kept hoping against hope that Kirk would die. Young Kirk is a smarmy asshole (much more so than Shatner's Kirk), so of course he's more qualified to lead than anyone else in the entire Federation (because we all know that getting into bar fights over nothing and rhetorically giving everyone the finger are qualities sought in a starship captain). When the Romulan comes across as more likable, you've got problems.

Blowing-up Vulcan was, as far as I know, entirely inconsistent with the TV series and subsequent movies. As I recall, Vulcan was actually visited at least once during the TV series.

And the Romulan's desire for revenge struck me as entirely too Wrath of Khan like. Plus, they've already done the time travel thing about one zillion times too many.

[Split Ends]

I just saw it too, Constantinople. I know very little about Star Trek so stuff that bugged my dad -- like Spock and Uhura -- I actually enjoyed.

I remember as a kid thinking Spock was irritating and boring. I liked him much more in this movie and considered him a more interesting lead than Kirk.

I'm also glad they tried to spend less time in space. Space and spaceships are some of my very least favorite things, which kinda kills Star Trek for me.

I have to admit, I was stopped dead by the discovery that the Vulcan people live on a planet called....Vulcan. My husband turned to me and said, "you know, they're planning on changing the name of Earth to 'Dudes.'"

Edited by Split Ends, Dec 30, 2009 @ 3:47 PM.

[Limbonaut]

Blowing-up Vulcan was, as far as I know, entirely inconsistent with the TV series and subsequent movies. As I recall, Vulcan was actually visited at least once during the TV series.

Of course it's inconsistant! LOL! They even went to Vulcan in Star Trek I, III and IV and Spock's mother was alive. It's supposed to be an alternate timeline. Once Nero travelled through time he changed everything. Instead of Kirk being born in Iowa, he's born in space and Vulcan was destroyed. The old timeline is where the old TV show and movies happened and it still exists. It hasn't been wiped out.

I liked Chris Pine's young Kirk. I just found his overconfidence and bravado entertaining.

Edited by Limbonaut, Dec 28, 2009 @ 4:34 PM.

[Constantinople]

It's supposed to be an alternate timeline. Once Nero travelled through time he changed everything. Instead of Kirk being born in Iowa, he's born in space and Vulcan was destroyed. The old timeline is where the old TV show and movies happened and it still exists. It hasn't been wiped out.

Then shouldn't Spock have killed himself? If the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and Spock is dead in this time line, there's no future Spock in this time line to piss Nero off.

Which is why I think they should stay away from time travel.

[lastdaughterfk]

I quite liked it.
They respected the originals and opened the possibilities for the alternative universe ones. I agree that this Kirk is even worse than the older one, but it was nice to see Spock as captain since I always though he would make a terrific one, also Spock and Uhura have great chemistry and its nice to see him having some loving without any "love potion" I also liked the rest of the cast. So count me in for future installments! Long Live Star Trek!

[ProjectRenegade]

I can't see JJ Abrams doing a sequel anytime soon. Which is great, since I adored the film and films I adore never get followed upon.

[FoolishWanderer]

I've read in a couple of pleaces that they are planning a sequel, they just haven't settled on a plot yet.

[Tableau]

This movie felt like a very expensive pilot. I'd be really surprised if there wasn't a sequel. They've done a lot of work restarting the franchise only not to follow through.

[Vermicious Knid]

They've already stated the earliest the sequel will be out is 2012. Script is being written, production is expected to begin about this time next year.

[ethanvahlere]

While I liked the 2009 film, I do feel it was missing some of the spirit of the series. You might call it cheesy now for obvious reasons, but they took the ideas of "Space: The final frontier" and "to boldly go where no one has gone before" quite seriously, and the movie was a lightweight in comparison.

[cutecouple]

The tentative date is now June 29, 2012. The idea seems to be to allow JJ Abrams to direct (which is hard since he has a lot of projects), and to clearly establish rights over a key holiday period.

[swtrgrl]

Old Series Movies:
Hated #1...I fall asleep every time, it's so boring.
#2 is, of course, the best ever. Love me some Kahn
#3 is meh
#4 is good. I really like the whale storyline, etc... Good scifi is about social issues like the environment. Kirk didn't completely annoy me.
#5 - whatever the one with TNG cast AND Kirk in it: Didn't watch.
I loved all three TNG ones...yes, even Insurection. The Deanna/Riker moments were awesome.

I loved the Reboot. I have always hated Kirk and it was weird b/c of my Riker love (he's basically a Kirk 2.0). Now that someone who can actually act is playing him, I get it. Chris Pine can balance the whole arrogant as hell thing with some vulnerability.
I liked the alternate time line scenerio b/c it lets the classic cannon stay intact while letting a new story start with its own cannon.

[Limbonaut]

Old Series Movies:
Hated #1...I fall asleep every time, it's so boring.
#2 is, of course, the best ever. Love me some Kahn
#3 is meh
#4 is good. I really like the whale storyline, etc... Good scifi is about social issues like the environment. Kirk didn't completely annoy me.
#5 - whatever the one with TNG cast AND Kirk in it: Didn't watch.
I loved all three TNG ones...yes, even Insurection. The Deanna/Riker moments were awesome.

5 was actually "The Final Frontier" directed by Shatner. Not very good. 6 was "Undiscovered Country" about the peace treaty with the Klingons and had Christopher Plummer as a Klingon and Kim Cattrall as a Vulcan! Michael Dorn's also in it, playing Worf's grandfather. It was okay. Definitely waaaaay better than the 5. Then came Star Trek: Generations with both the old and TNG crews.

Edited by Limbonaut, Dec 30, 2010 @ 7:07 PM.

[TheSporkWielder]

Wasn't 5 the one where they meet God or something? Man, that one sucked. I always laugh when I watch 1, because of the Footie Pajama Uniforms. Ha! And it amuses me that both the parents from Seventh Heaven were in a ST film.

I really liked the new one, though I'd hoped that Kirk's Kobayashi Maru would be more like it was in that one ST novel, where Kirk programs it so when he announces that he's "Captain James T. Kirk," the Klingons are all, "The James T. Kirk? Well, let us help you! Oh, and here's a commendation from the Empire!" because that feels really IC for me; Kirk programming it so it announces how awesome he is.

[swtrgrl]

I didn't mean that was #5 movie. Sorry. I mis-typed. I think I forgot I had started out numbering the movies...then thought I was numbering/bullet listing ideas. Hee. I'm scattered.

Either way...after the whale one, I didn't like them until First Contact.

[lastdaughterfk]

.after the whale one,

The whale one was just ridiculous IMO. I mean adore eco-messages but I like my propaganda a bit subtle. One of the reasons I can't get into Narnia movies is that is pretty much Sunday school all over again. Nothing against Sunday school but come on some subtlety is necessary IMO to enjoy the story, same issue I have with that one.

I think The Wrath of Khan, First Contact and The new Start Trek Movie will be my top three. Then The whale one and Nemesis my top low as worst and then rest of the movies would be between those two in terms of enjoyability.

[TheSporkWielder]

Then The whale one and Nemesis my top low as worst

I agree that the whale one isn't that great, but there's no way the whale one is worse than the Search for God one. (Whale one gets a bit of a pass from me if only for (a)Scotty trying to use an 80's computer and (b) "He took too much LDS in college")

[Corporal Agarn]

I really love The Voyage Home and I typically hate heavy-handed story telling. I think the likability of the cast makes this one far more enjoyable than it ought to be. It seemed that all the mains were having a blast and everyone was really on top of their game. Plus, I think the probe design is neato mosquito.

The Wrath of Khan is by far the best of the films because it is so very operatic. Khan was a freaking awesome villain. I never realized this till much later when I read an interview with Montalban, but Khan really doesn't have many lines in that film, nor does he technically share the screen with Shatner. Yet their feud is so believable and the very mention of Khan's name is so menacing. Great acting all around. If I could just eliminate the conversation between Kirk and Carol in the Genesis tunnel, it would be an absolutely perfect movie.

The Undiscovered Country is also awesome. Some really great lines in there. "Only Nixon could go to China." Ha!!

I will forever unashamedly love The Final Frontier. Why? It's so bad it's awesome. It never fails to entertain me.

The new Star Trek is appalling. I hate it with every fiber of my being. Not even Karl Urban's brilliant performance can save it. Chris Pine did a nice job, too, but the rest of the movie stinks. Don't even get me started on the abomination that is New!Spock.

[IttyBittyFlavur]

The Voyage Home is to the movies as The Trouble with Tribbles is to the original series.

I don't love The Undiscovered Country, but Christopher Plummer chews scenery almost as awesomely as Ricardo Montalban.

First Contact was a kickass movie (although why not just use tommy guns on the Borg?), but Insurrection played more like a really long episode of ST:TNG. I don't recall if I've seen Nemesis all the way through, but the parts I've seen also felt rather like an episode than a movie.

[Corporal Agarn]

First Contact was a kickass movie

I like First Contact well enough. It's really well executed and has great sequences. I do have a problem, however, with the concept of a Borg Queen. I just don't like it. I think the Borg were much scarier when they had no leader. A leader gives them a vulnerability they didn't have when the Borg were just drones operating as one mind. YMMV and all that.

[swtrgrl]

Although I loved the Borg Queen (alice kreig, ftw!) I do think that having one deminishes what was so scarry about The Borg: assimilate, no compromise, no leader, collective, etc...

[Limbonaut]

First Contact is great. I love James Cromwell as Cochran, the cameos by Barclay and the hologram doctor from Voyager. I love Jerry Goldsmith bringing back the "Klingon Battle" cue from ST:TMP as Worf's theme. I love the fight outside the ship. I love the way they order the self-destruct.

[Colonel Green]

In the original film series (#1-10), I would say there are four really strong pieces of cinema (II, IV, VI, VIII), with most of the rest falling somewhere being good and mediocre, and a couple of outright bad ones. XI belongs in the same strong category with the other four, I believe.

If there's one thing I'd like them to work on for XII it's the villain. Star Trek on TV has never really been about the villains (most of the series have no more than a handful of recurring foes, though they're usually good ones), but the film format places more emphasis on them, and in eleven films there's really only been three standouts. When discussing villains, I'd divide them thus (I and IV don't really have villains, so they aren't applicable):

Great
Khan (II), General Chang (VI), the Borg Queen (VIII)

Adequate
Kruge (III), Soran (VII), Ru'afo (IX), Shinzon (X), Nero (XI)

Bad
Sybok (V)

The thing is, if you look at the actors playing the "adequate" villains, there's obviously tons more potential there: Christopher Lloyd, Malcolm McDowell, F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hardy, Eric Bana...these are all great performers, and yet the material just isn't there to be great. F. Murray Abraham I thought was probably the most egregious waste; he was Salieri, for Christ's sake. Malcolm McDowell, on the other hand, seems to have made a career out of mediocre villain performances, so maybe that's less surprising.

[Limbonaut]

Topless Robot's list of the 5 best and 5 worst things about Star Trek V.

Edited by Limbonaut, Jan 7, 2011 @ 7:18 PM.

[TheSporkWielder]

Topless Robot's list of the 5 best and 5 worst things about Star Trek V.

That "Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain" video is hilarious.

[BDArizona]

Going way back:

I kept hoping against hope that Kirk would die. Young Kirk is a smarmy asshole (much more so than Shatner's Kirk), so of course he's more qualified to lead than anyone else in the entire Federation (because we all know that getting into bar fights over nothing and rhetorically giving everyone the finger are qualities sought in a starship captain). When the Romulan comes across as more likable, you've got problems.

I've tried. I really have. I was raised on TOS. I will still sit through the worst TNG episode (well, not Code of Honor). I watched all 5 seasons of Enterprise. But I just can't get into the reboot. It's not that it's horrible. It's just not Trek. It's all about the action and effects, rather than the characters.

I don't like Kirk 2.0. Not even a little bit. Shatner's Kirk was cocky, but I didn't really feel like he was an asshole. Pine's Kirk is every bit an asshole. I didn't like new flavor Spock, either. He was my favorite character when I was growing up, kind of like Data was my daughter's favorite character. In the reboot, he was just...cold, maybe? I know Vulcan's are emotionless, but I always felt that Nimoy's Spock had his human emotions just below the surface. He still felt warm to me. This Spock was awful. Much more like the Enterprise version of Vulcans than the TOS or Voyager version of Vulcans.

I have tried to watch it about 10 times on DVD, but I have yet to watch the entire movie in one sitting. I've seen all of it, but only in bits and pieces. I just can't sit through the whole thing. I sat through fucking Insurrection and Nemesis in one sitting, so that's saying a lot.

Edited by BDArizona, May 4, 2011 @ 9:25 PM.

[vb68]

I actually really liked Pine's Kirk so much more than Shatner's. The Original is pretty much unwatchable for me because of William Shatner's over the top hamminess.