kd7sov: (brains)
A sufficiently desperate amalgamated waffle sorter ([personal profile] kd7sov) wrote2009-05-23 04:18 pm
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Trek! (mark II)

So! Saw Trek last night. 3.5/4 stars.

Let's start with the previews, shall we? They were for Up (will see), 9 (probably will see, but perhaps not in theaters), Transformers 2 (might see, but likely not in theaters), G.I. Joe (might see, might not), Year One (not likely), and... I don't remember any others.

For the movie itself, my biggest gripe is the timeline. Yes, all right, there was a Romulan ship of the fyooture that showed up once and then apparently wandered off for a long time, but Chekov and probably Sulu should've been rather too young for their roles. Also the Feds knew way too much about the Romulans. I wasn't following Enterprise much, but I had the distinct impression that they were continuing to allow Kirk&co. to be the first to see a Romulan. Spock knowing that they shared ancestry with Vulcans, Pike claiming their language was similar to Vulcan: implausible.

Speaking of which, how did they know it was a Romulan ship? It was far beyond the abilities of anything anyone in the area had at the time, it had no distinguishing marks that I saw at any point, and yet everyone accepted without question that it was of Romulan make.

I didn't like how they did Scotty. In TOS he was a little gruff, although not as much so as McCoy. This movie made him a kid in a candy shop. Not happymaking for me.

Quinto!Spock was an interesting case. During the movie I didn't like him - Single Point Of Correspondence, you might say - but on reflection his lines were consistent with Nimoy!Spock. I've come to the conclusion that what I don't like is that his mannerisms and the structure of his voice are Quinto's rather than Nimoy's. On the plus side, I can now distinguish what of Sylar's characterization is Sylar, and what is Quinto.

Kirk and McCoy were spot-on. No complaints there, although I was wary after the first scene with Bones in it.

Uhura's roommate was clearly just there - or at least, just the way she was - for the Green-Skinned Space Babe trope, and she didn't do it very well. The only green race I know of in Trekverse is the Orions, who've just about always been a background-hostile group.

Chekov was pretty good, although I don't have nearly as good a handle on his voice as on any of the others. He didn't say anything about Russian Inwentions, but he's always been a comedy character and he did that well here.

But come now, Mr. Abrams. Spock/Uhura is just not on. You had someone mention Nurse Chapel; she's Spock's romantic interest. What you did was jarring.

In all, quite good. And they've done something very interesting: left themselves a completely blank slate (except for the smudge where Vulcan used to be) where they can put any sort of future projects in any medium. Bravo there.