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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
it's star trek jim but not quite as we know it, 28 Nov 2009
Every franchise, from time to time, needs to reinvent itself in order to stay fresh. Star Trek, after years of tv shows that were rehashing old stories and getting tied up in continuity and facing an ever declining audience, had come to the point where it needed to do the same. Fans would often say that the show needed new blood on it.
And that's what the studio have done. Brought in new creators who can take the whole thing in an entirely new direction. No longer on the small screen either.
Star trek movies can't make a profit if they appeal solely to the fan base. They have to be a hit with the general public as well. And to the latter, star trek is kirk and spock and crew.
So, given the age of those left from the original cast making their return impractical, the whole thing had to start afresh. Tell a tale of how kirk and his crew came to be.
In addition to doing that, it also needed to satisfy all the viewers. provide an exciting action adventure movie and deal with the existence of all the previous incarnations of the show.
And it manages to do all that and more. The tale of how jim kirk and his crew came together whilst dealing with a deadly threat from a vengeance crazed alien, this is exciting and entertaining. a superb cast manage to bring in their own fresh takes on the original characters rather than do a straight impersonation, there are references that will appeal to fans but that won't get in the way of the general publics appreciation of the film, and it also through some deft plotting manages to wipe the slate clean and leave us with no idea what will happen next to these characters. The original series continuity still exists, but this crew won't be going through it. Star trek is boldly going where no man has gone before once again. I can't wait to find out where it ends up next. And all fans should embrace this new direction in the same way.
As should any members of the general public who want to watch an entertaining film.
This is the two disc edition of the movie.
The first disc contains the film itself, plus three extras: a commentary from some of the production staff.
An eighteen minute long making of the movie documentary. this cant cover everything in such a brief running span but the technical tricks it demonstrates which the crew used to avoid having to shoot with cgi are quite fascinating.
There's also a six minute long gag reel. Like most of these it involves people pulling funny faces and making silly noises, which must have been fun at the time but gets a bit wearing very quickly when watching. there are a couple of funny outtakes in the middle of it, though.
langauges on the disc: english and english audio descriptive
subtitles: english danish dutch finnish norwegian swedish
disc two also has subtitles in french german and italian in addition to the above [but be aware these three are not on the movie on disc one]
extras on this disc: thirteen minutes worth of deleted scenes. these include a few more appearances for spocks mother and a longer version of the kobayashi maru scene and are worth a look. and when watched you can watch them again, should you choose, with a commentary from the production staff as to why they were cut.
to boldly go is a sixteen minute long documentary about the genesis of the project.
casting looks at how each actor was selected in a thirty minute long feature.
aliens looks at the prosthetics and make up used for all the aliens on display in the film and runs for sixteen minutes
and score runs for six minutes and is about the music used in the film.
all of these are pretty absorbing viewing although some might find the casting one a bit of a love in. But it was evidently a very happy set, so it's nice to see.
The extras arent the longest in the world, but they make this edition worth the extra outlay. And of course, there's a great movie to go with them
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Star Trek XI, 14 Oct 2009
THIS YEAR'S IRON MAN
I guess there are different sorts of die hard fans. I'm of the type who has lapped up everything Star Trek for 40 years. The orginal series was great and so were most of the even numbered movies. TNG was a great ride but with each successive series thereafter, the ideas got less an less original - not that the shows weren't created by hugely talented people but how could they stay hot after hundreds of episodes? By the time we limped to Enterprise, the franchise needed a shot in the arm if it was going to survive. I was hugely sceptical about Abrams' version - Simon Pegg as Scotty, come on! I mean we love him but that definately felt like credibility was being stretched.
What a true delight it was then to see a true pumped up, rock 'n' roll version of Star Trek! Abrams and his gang did a clever thing, they created their very own Star Trek leaving the original series and everything we know fully intact sat happily in its own time line. Don't misunderstand though, this is the very same Kirk, Spock, McCoy and co. we all know and love, just sent down a slightly different path. So we can take a few liberties, mix things up a bit and generally have a ton of fun.
The story does what it needs to, the casting is great (especially Spock and McCoy), the effects are fantastic and Abrams manages to do character moments on the move so there's hardly time to take a breath - oh and Simon Pegg is great as Scotty!
Overall I got a real sense of joi de vivre, hence it being this year's Iron Man something that's been missing from Trek for a long time.
Maybe the best thing is, die hards and newbies alike will all find something to like.
Buy it!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Trek gets to live long and prosper, after all, 25 Oct 2009
The latest Trek film cleverly manages to be a sequel, a prequel and a re-boot. It achieves this through the most over-used plot device in the Trek library of time travel, but for once it's justified as the result is an interesting set-up to an adventure that's a great deal of fun. Bad guys from Picard's era go back in time seeking revenge. They return to a time before Kirk and co embarked on their five-year mission, but their arrival changes the time-line, which means the established history doesn't have to follow the same course as it did previously. This is a neat idea, which you can either accept or not. I did.
I'll lay my cards on the table as being a fully-fledged Trek geek. I've watched every version many times, and yet there was nothing within the established history that was changed here that caused me any problems, but then again to my mind there wasn't much in the way of an established history that was all that important anyway. I certainly don't want to see flower people, mini-skirted Romulans and all the other aspects of a quaint 60s look at the future maintained forever. Plus, every version of Trek re-invents itself. The original series and the characters of Kirk, McCoy etc were a re-invention after the studios rejected the original pilot featuring Captain Pike. The Next Generation made peace with the Klingons. Deep Space 9 rewrote the established history for Cardassia and Bajor. Enterprise played fast and loose to allow Borg and Ferengi to appear and the crimes against good story-telling committed by Voyager are long and painful. Frankly, if we Trek fans can swallow Janeway and Paris mating after going at Warp 10 and changing into giant lizards, then there is nothing, but nothing in here to give concern.
Even when something important changes, there's always a good reason behind it. Initially, a romance sub-plot feels wrong, but then again it's a logical aspect of the characters' journey. Clearly the makers cared enough to think about what made the characters tick, and they did their homework. The best example of this is the Kobayashi Maru scene, a sacred piece of Trek law that is played for laughs. At first this felt as if it were diminishing the significance that The Wrath of Khan placed on the incident, and yet it is a valid way for Kirk to behave, and it wasn't until later that I clicked that the apple-eating was a homage. It's things like this that make the movie work for rabid Trekkies like me, but it also works for the less committed fan because the story returns to the old-fashioned values of rip-roaring space adventure that the franchise had forgotten about delivering some years ago.
In the opening ten-minute prologue Trek re-boots itself with more non-stop movement, action, self-sacrifice and corny drama than in the entire previous two movies. Once the human drama has been presented as being as important as the space battles by raising Kirk's birth to mythological levels, we get to see how the original crew meets up. Some of the crew such as Spock look like the original actor, some like McCoy have the essence of the original, and some like Scotty owe nothing to the original. But in all cases the comparison is with the actor, not with the character, and after living with them for a while all the characters feel right.
The adventure itself is as nonsensical as they ever were, but it carries the day with speed, humour, and some well-filmed action scenes along with underplayed special effects. My only complaint is the flares in which bright lights are repeatedly shone at the screen, although I think they won't be so intrusive when seen on tv. Other than that this film gets everything right, especially the big surprise plot twist, one that those who know their Trek would never expect. The fact that it's there is a brave testament to the fact that these are a new set of adventures, and they're adventures I'll be looking forward to.
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