TVSquad

Glad I'm not the only one that was massively underwhelmed by the movie, given the insanely positive critical reception. The second worst Original Series movie (I liked the Voyage Home, but I concede it had problems), and similar in quality to Insurrection while worse than Generations and First Contact. Certainly not deserving of a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes in a trillion years.

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I didn't mind the concept of a series reboot, but the story was CRAP.

Forget the lack of basic astronomy - Yellow Stars do not supernova!

But come on! Sending a 170 plus year old Spock by himself to solve it? When you're the Romulan Star Empire?

GREAT ACTION MOVIE, makes no sense when you think about it. So I say don't!

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Was Sam his older brother? memory-alpha.org didn't say one way or the other, so I just assumed he was never born in the new timeline. Supposedly though, the kid that young Kirk drove the car past was Sam, but they redubbed the part so he called out some other kid's name.

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"while worse than Generations" WTH? Kirk does because he falls down and can't get up? "Oh my"?

Even if you hate this movie, at least appreciate the fact that by altering the timeline, we can now kill off Kirk in a more fitting way that that ridiculous nexus/Soran crapfest.

I personally enjoyed how this movie was true to what made TOS so fun (HINT: It's the characters, not the minutae), and not slavishly beholden to some "canon." It's a movie. Kirk rocks because he's Kirk, not because we know and the producers hold true to his brother's existence or relative age, as deduced from the space pancake episode.

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Star Trek has usually fudged on the science when used as a storytelling device (time warp anyone?), so that's nothing new. At least there wasn't any real technobabble to grate on us. Now, maybe some of you weren't paying enough attention, but the time travel element does alter established (or at least assumed) elements of the characters' backstories. It's not a contradiction if it never happened the way we expected. That's the brilliance of this reboot approach: it isn't unexplained like every other reboot. The whole threat of the film is what alters the "original" timeline so things happen in new an unexpected ways. That big moment towards the end of the first hour being a pretty clear example. Once again, no character is truly safe, and we live in an era where it's ok to kill a major character from time to time. "Beware Romulans bearing gifts..."

If anyone's confused about how Spock fits into all this, read the Countdown comics. It makes very clear what was already explained in the film (if somewhat disorienting thanks to the mind meld sound design). Plus it clarifies Nero's backstory a little more and makes his attitude somewhat more worthy of our sympathy.

Now, we could go round and round (the moons of nebulae) about best and worst in the film series, so I guess the main point is to acknowledge that everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I won't antagonize anyone for the feelings they have about the films. Me personally, Generations had a great beginning, a muddy and meandering middle, and a mediocre ending (if better than the original ending as filmed). First Contact is great, the only solid movie outing for TNG. Insurrection was another decent entry, but you could tell the tone was intended to be much darker than what we ultimately got (plus the story felt more like a glorified telefilm than a movie). Nemesis had some cool concepts, but suffered from that unending battle and some major plot holes throughout. Voyage Home was good, but despite the stakes it never felt like a really threatening story. Of the "Original TOS" movies my faves are Khan and Country.

I'm personally sold on the "reboot" concept. This was the biggest challenge for this film. They had to be slaves to continuity, either to depict what was expected or to break the cycle. With all the establishing stuff out of the way and the new timeline set in motion, Kurtzman Orci and Lindelof can spend the next film (or several, I hope) playing with Star Trek and the characters. I'm not sure yet where to put this new film on the list of "Best to Worst," but I know for sure it's only really competing with Khan and Country in my mind. At the moment, I tempted to say "Best Star Trek EVER!!!11!" but that is more the enthusiasm engendered by the entertaining nature of the film. Khan is a better villain, and Country was the most mature outing of the series. But as far as entertainment value goes, well, I've never wanted to see a Trek movie more than once or twice in a week. This one, however, has me wanting to hit the box office for viewing #3 before the weekend...

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I just saw the movie last night.

I have to say, it made me want to spend the $10+ to see it in a newer cineplex than the older one I saw it at.

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