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Posted by Ben in Scifi Fandom on May 11th 2009 @ 6:04am GMT
I saw Star Trek tonight. I thought it was spectacular. Fantastic. Outstanding. Superb. Bloody brilliant from start to finish. I had exactly two problems with it - the science was ridiculous, but then we've never watched Star Trek for the science before; and there wasn't enough Scotty.
A third problem, more a personal one than a judgment of the film itself, is that it was nail-bitingly tense. I mean this literally - I've spent most of the last few months trying to quit biting my nails, and in the last few weeks I thought I'd cracked it. Two thirds of the way into the film I noticed that I'd bitten the nails on my left hand down to ridiculous lengths, and had started nibbling on one of the fingers on my right hand. D'oh.
I wonder about the more serious Trekkies out there who will hate this film solely on the basis that it nulls most of the franchise's 43-year canon. There's no two ways about it - this film is a reboot. It's a reboot that, quite bizarrely, managed to keep Star Trek: Enterprise, probably the most reviled of the five television series, in canon (although I still hold Enterprise in much higher regard than Star Trek: Red Dwarf... uh, sorry, I mean Star Trek: Voyager). Some Trekkies, I'm sure, will take exception to that.
However, what they should remember is that this film doesn't invalidate the previous films, or the series. We can still go back and watch them in the same way that we can still go back and read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy after the 2005 movie. They're still there, and they're still mostly brilliant. In fact I plan to watch Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country on DVD tonight.
A lot of people I've spoken to consider this to be the second-best Star Trek movie, right behind The Wrath of Khan. I enjoyed Khan, but it felt bloated. It had pacing problems. It stuttered and stalled, not quite to the extent of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but it still felt rigid to me. The reason for this is because I was born in 1986 and consequently have never seen the theatrical version. The VHS and DVD versions of Khan are extended, including scenes not seen in the original release. Perhaps when I see the theatrical version (which, incidentally, is now out on Bluray and is on my Amazon.com Wishlist) I'll see what people mean.
For now, I can firmly say with my hand on my heart that Star Trek is the best of the movies to far. I eagerly anticipate the sequel.
A third problem, more a personal one than a judgment of the film itself, is that it was nail-bitingly tense. I mean this literally - I've spent most of the last few months trying to quit biting my nails, and in the last few weeks I thought I'd cracked it. Two thirds of the way into the film I noticed that I'd bitten the nails on my left hand down to ridiculous lengths, and had started nibbling on one of the fingers on my right hand. D'oh.
I wonder about the more serious Trekkies out there who will hate this film solely on the basis that it nulls most of the franchise's 43-year canon. There's no two ways about it - this film is a reboot. It's a reboot that, quite bizarrely, managed to keep Star Trek: Enterprise, probably the most reviled of the five television series, in canon (although I still hold Enterprise in much higher regard than Star Trek: Red Dwarf... uh, sorry, I mean Star Trek: Voyager). Some Trekkies, I'm sure, will take exception to that.
However, what they should remember is that this film doesn't invalidate the previous films, or the series. We can still go back and watch them in the same way that we can still go back and read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy after the 2005 movie. They're still there, and they're still mostly brilliant. In fact I plan to watch Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country on DVD tonight.
A lot of people I've spoken to consider this to be the second-best Star Trek movie, right behind The Wrath of Khan. I enjoyed Khan, but it felt bloated. It had pacing problems. It stuttered and stalled, not quite to the extent of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but it still felt rigid to me. The reason for this is because I was born in 1986 and consequently have never seen the theatrical version. The VHS and DVD versions of Khan are extended, including scenes not seen in the original release. Perhaps when I see the theatrical version (which, incidentally, is now out on Bluray and is on my Amazon.com Wishlist) I'll see what people mean.
For now, I can firmly say with my hand on my heart that Star Trek is the best of the movies to far. I eagerly anticipate the sequel.
2 Comments
Posted by Ben on May 11th 2009 @ 9:37pm GMT
I'd love to go and see it again, and hopefully I'll get the chance before it finishes its run. It's all about when I can afford to see it, though. 
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This is the first time I've gone to see a film more than once since The Two Towers.