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Guest Matti Poutanen

An unrelated observation: I think you can see one of the flare-flashlight guys in this picture in StudioDaily article! (far left)

 

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Well, you can count me in the "too many flares" camp. It was OK most of the time, but there were a few places where they really did not seem appropriate.

 

Like David, I'm a big fan of the original series, and in fact I remember watching the special announcement that Star Trek would be back for a third season (for those who don't know, towards the end of the second season NBC announced it would be canceling Star Trek, and the fans launched a massive letter-writing campaign to save the show).

 

I was actually a little disappointed in Karl Urban's portrayal of Bones. I saw an almost identical recreation of Deforest Kelley's character, instead of seeing how Karl Urban interpreted the character. Which is fine if you're trying to recreate the original characters - but this was supposed to be a "reboot". Simon Pegg's Scotty, on the other hand, was quite different from James Doohan's Scotty, but still recognizable as the same character.

 

Overall, I did like the movie, but there were a few things that REALLY threw me.

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They fell prey to one of my pet peeves - when you're looking at a display, the contents of that display WILL NOT BE PROJECTED ON YOUR FACE! Not even if you're using Romulan technology! Why do they DO that? There are very few things that pull me completely out of a story, and that's one of them.

 

Who the hell makes a cadet fresh out of the Academy - one who stowed away on the ship and is under investigation for cheating, no less - a FIRST OFFICER?!?!? Were there no other experienced officers available? Did the crew consist of one captain, one first officer and 428 ensigns fresh out of the academy?

 

So let me get this straight - Chekhov's only 17? Was he 13 when he joined the Academy? Or did he skip the Academy and sign on as an Ensign? If he was that bright, why didn't Pike make him first officer?

 

Was anyone else yawning at the ice monsters?

 

They overplayed the "Kirk hanging over the edge of a cliff" gag. Once when he was an adolescent to set it up, and once as a payoff later would have been sufficient, IMO.

 

Turbines in a starship? OK, sure, why not? We've established that Nero has upset the timeline. But it almost felt like they were trying to move it towards steam punk at that point.

 

And as someone else pointed out - ensign to captain in one leap? Not in any military system I know of. I totally agree he needs a few years to hone his experience and become the seasoned professional we saw in the original series.

 

Now as I said, on the whole I enjoyed the movie; those were just the points that made me go "Huh?!?!"

 

I did like Sulu's "parking brake" moment, the irony of McCoy's "I like him" (referring to Spock) moment, and other moments that have been mentioned.

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I should probably be going to sleep, but I'm going to weigh-in on this one too.

 

By the way.....

 

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's think about the ensign to captain part for the moment.

 

Above all else what quality does the Captain of a Starship need to have?

 

Good Judgement. When you can manage interstellar travel in a reasonable timeframe, you've just stepped into the Great Wide Open. When you're dealing with novel and dangerous situations, your situational awareness has to reach beyond logic and understanding. Pike promoted Kirk to first officer because Kirk's instincts were spot on. By this point Kirk has also demonstrated to Pike an indomitable will and enough intelligence to back that up, barely. Kirk had also managed to have enough fortune on his side to get him on the Enterprise in the first place, which was something in and of itself.

 

As for giving Kirk the Enterprise...Maybe he did graduate between the end of the last fight and his commission, the lack of evidence does not prove a negative. Maybe they just ran out of time in the final cut. More importantly, he did just save a planet, not entirely on his own, but his part was pivotal in bringing all the people together on one ship in just the nick of time to do it...AND commanding them in a life or death situation for billions of people against odds that were most definitely not in his favor...

 

There are such things as battlefield commissions for a reason.

 

As for Checkov being 17, I think Pike had a lot of leeway in selecting the crew for his Flagship. If I was Pike and there was someone as talented as Checkov in the academy, I'd grab him too, even if he was 12, he can learn all the starfleet protocols and reg's after his shift ends on the bridge. You could argue that as a teenager he doesn't have enough life experience to really understand the situation and to that I'd argue that I don't want him to understand the situation, he'd probably freeze in terror if he did...

 

 

 

Over all I think the look and feel of space in this movie was perfect, the only movie that I felt sold it even more was "Sunshine". I thought the design of the enterprise was a more realistic 'muscle car' version. A little more beefy than the original version, much more suitable to the baddest ship that humanity could field. I really liked the way the weapons system's function was portrayed. It somehow came across that they were intelligent algorithm based sequences, like you'd program moving lights to do, but still capable of human direction. And the scene were the crew-woman get's sucked out into space through the hole in the side of the Kelvin was awesome too...The sound in this movie was definitely not overlooked.

 

The only thing I didn't like about the flares was that the CGI ones didn't quite live up to the optical ones. That was the only time I actually noticed them consciously. I agree that they should have comped in real ones.

The second time I saw it I started to notice too much extreme zooms with shaky cameras. However, when directing a movie, you have to take into account all the various mediums it will be seen on. Nowadays, a T.V. or computer screen is more than likely how the majority of the viewings will take place over the years. So I kind of think that the you have to split the difference on that call.

 

 

As for the moral questions. If the scene at the end where Kirk and Spock don't think twice about letting Nero die is in question....

hmmm...

 

They're still young and... the guy just destroyed Vulcan and was about to destroy Earth...I'm surprised they even offered. It showed a great deal of maturity for Kirk to even think of how that might help to keep diplomacy alive with the Romulans...

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