Star Trek XI

[bettertomorrowamy]

My one question mark with this movie

Technically you wouldn't see Phaser fire because it would travel at the speed of light. But this is Hollywood after all... not a big deal.

How do you know Phaser fire travels at the speed of light?  Maybe it's "phased" in some manner so that it is less than the speed of light.
This is the kind of nerdy gibberish that perplexes the general public.  Besides the fact that the phaser fire is "canon" in this movie.
There is precedent for it from all the previous tv shows and movies, so you must be joking....right?  Right?

[Zandrax]

My one question mark with this movie

Technically you wouldn't see Phaser fire because it would travel at the speed of light. But this is Hollywood after all... not a big deal.

How do you know Phaser fire travels at the speed of light?  Maybe it's "phased" in some manner so that it is less than the speed of light.
This is the kind of nerdy gibberish that perplexes the general public.  Besides the fact that the phaser fire is "canon" in this movie.
There is precedent for it from all the previous tv shows and movies, so you must be joking....right?  Right?

When they phired phasers (heh heh) in just about every episode I've seen, whether handheld or from a ship, it's a beam of light energy and it's much like turning on a flashlight. Granted it's a glowing red flashlight that can kill you, but a metaphorical flashlight nonetheless. The technology is the same, just depicted in a "Hollywood " style. It's the same thing with Star Wars, their "lasers" are much slower blasts. Why? Simple, because it's more exciting to watch.

Please understand, this did not detract from my enjoyment of the film in any way, it's just something I noticed. I'm cool with it. Like you said, it's over the heads of the general public.

For people like Duck, this is what it comes down to. Yes it appears there are clashes in continuity for people who scour over plotlines with a fine tooth comb. But the truth is the vast majority of the populace doesn't do that. So who do tailor the movie to: The 1% of the people who quibble over inconsistencies, or the 99% who don't? In this movie's case, if they took the time to address all the inconsistencies you bring up, the movie would have an additional 30-60 minutes added to it, and the plot would get bogged down.

[Thrifty]

I'm not big on sci-fi / action / comic book  movies in general, or trendy movies in particular.  Once a film has been shoved down my throat as much as Star Trek has, it turns me off.  I gave this a pass and saw Obsessed this weekend instead.

[James of LinHood]

http://www.esurance.com/welcome/landing/startrek/welcome.aspx?PromoID=AOLSD0007200903_0907_STRK_728090

Are they giving away the right to burn all the copies if it bombs?

(It won't because there will be enough curious people who turn up the first weekend for them to claim a huge hit...even if not one person in the theaters were entertained)

[Moleman]

Yeah, I would have been really pissed if Uhura has ran up to Kirk instead. They'd had no chemistry up to that point and it would have been stupid as hell.

But why'd she run up to anybody though?  Why'd there have to be romance going on at that particular time and why even Uhura?  Maybe Uhura was one who was a career first kind of woman which would make sense considering all her merits.  Did she ever have a romance in the show?  Why couldn't she have just gone up to Spock and said something like:

Uhura: "You must be feeling awful now Spock.  You can let it out once, I won't tell"
Spock: "I don't understand"
Uhura: "Your people were destroyed Spock, your mother dead, if there is ever a time to express emotion it is now"
Spock: (Pause) "I have no feelings of which you speak of" (and then walks out the elevator)
(Camera looks on saddened Uhura)

This is exactly what I thought I was going to see as the scene started to happen in the movie but then she starts kissing him and shit.  Instead of throwing a random, no set up curveball that doesn't make sense they could have used that scene to show Spock is trying very hard to control his emotion.  That foreshadows to later when Kirk goads him to anger because you could see at that point he is indeed struggling.  Instead all we get is old Spock saying he's hurting now.

As I type this I just remembered that there actually was just a minor hint when Spock says he didn't assign Uhura to Enterprise as an attempt "not to show favoritism".  But that can mean a lot of different things and it certainly didn't suggest "romance" to me and I only just remembered it now.

Like I said, this was the ONLY negative I can come up with and this movie is one of the greatest movies to come out in a long time.

[dignan]

To be fair to that moment, there was the whole bit at the beginning where Spock said he didn't want to be accused of showing favoritism towards Uhura, which then made sense after the fact when she kissed him in the elevator.

But yeah, it was, you know, good. 

[Zandrax]

http://www.esurance.com/welcome/landing/startrek/welcome.aspx?PromoID=AOLSD0007200903_0907_STRK_728090

Are they giving away the right to burn all the copies if it bombs?

(It won't because there will be enough curious people who turn up the first weekend for them to claim a huge hit...even if not one person in the theaters were entertained)

I think the above already happened with Star Trek V.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

OK, I'll take a crack at a few of these, but again I'm no Trekkie.

Spoiler

   * Nero showing up changes the reality of Kirk's life since just before his birth. Including that he no longer has a brother named Sam (see the episode Operation: Annihilate!). Except that Sam was his older brother.  Ooops.  Guess they left him to die on the ship with Dad?

I had no knowledge of this. But a quick check shows that the part was cast in the movie, but the scenes were cut.

Are we saying that they sent brother Sam to live with relatives because it's too dangerous? Then what is a woman nine months along doing on there? It's all "Plot Convienence Playhouse".

   * "Spock Prime" as he's called needed this ttime's Spock to develop a friendship with Kirk...says it will make him a better person and all of that. Only how can he know that? The Kirk he knew was a man raised by his father and mother in a family with an older brother.  This reality's Kirk was raised by a Step-Dad who could be a saint or a jerk and as an only child perhaps. These two people would grow up to be the exact same person? Why? Are we back to this "Nature vs. Nuture" crap from Nemesis? Didn't we decide that it's the latter?

Spock knew Kirk better than anybody. Yes the upraising was different, but is it really unreasonable to assume that his persona would be radically different?

And there's no reason for him to just assume without question that he would be.  It's not logical.

   * Why didn't Krik just wear a t-shirt that read "I screwed with the computer program" while he was at it? How obnoxious was that? And the way that the scenario was beat wasn't even halfway clever - say a lucky shot or something programmed in. No, the simulation has a glitch and the Klingons have an unexplained brain fart and their shields are down for no reason. But then,your main character is rarely smarter than your writers (who, btw, left out all the stuff about deciding whether or not to go into the neutral zone - and if this was before the Kilingon Wars and there was none, why are the Klingons the bad guys in this?).

It was probably more for show. To be honest, I like the story of how Kirk hacked the system better in the original timeline ("THE Captain Kirk?!?) but like hinted before, this is a Kirk that is even more bragadocious and rebellious than the original.

Thank you for proving my point in the above argument - Kirk is NOT the same person as before. And could be different in a way that'a too important for Spock Prime to go telling his younger self to put his full trust in this man.

  * The change in timeline somehow turned Vulcan into Alderaan. They have no weapons, no ships of any kind even though - according to ENT which predates Nero's arrival and not effected - Vulcan gave Earth all of these things after First Contact. This Vulcan also doesn't have the brain power to figure out what's happening to it even though one can clearly see a laser boring into the planet's surface from a ship over the planet.  They call for Starfleet's help and the leaders go to a cave to pray?  How is it these people managed to travel through space to make first contact with earth to start with?

Did you not see the massive amounts of ship wreckage and other debris over the planet? Clearly there was fighting going on.

And If you were paying attention...those were all the Federation ships that arrived just before the Enterprise because Sulu screwed up and couldn't get it into warp for those few seconds.

If Vulcan had ships to fight the Romulans before then there would have been a much bigger debris field AND they would have had reports of the Vulcan fleet being destroyed and wouldn't have walked into a trap.

And - btw - if the Romulan drill working on Vulcan screws up communications.....how did Vulcan even contact Starfleet and the Federation in the first place? Remember they said that they coudn't reach Starfleet.

   * Gravity will pull someone towards a planet even when they're outside that planet's atmosphere (wont bother with the thing about the heat of re-entry involved). Really? And Romulan sensors from the future won't pick up anything launched from a shuttle coming toward their ship?

Not sure what this means.

It means that I don't see how something that leaves a ship outside of a planet's atmospher would be immediately speed to the surface of that planet without some kind of jet pack or something to propel it.  According to this movie all it took was jumping and they immediately start to fall toward Vulcan. When astronauts leave the Space Shuttle for a walk they don't have to guard against being pulled to earth, do they? That's crap.

And I can't believe that no one on the Romulan ship wouldn't have been watching the shuttle as it appoarched watching for tricks, pick up three things falling from the shuttle and shoot them from the sky just to be safe. Sorry...I just find that too freaking convienent.

   * Red still means 'dead man walking" even if it's red jump armor.

It was clearly a nod towards the Redshirt Curse.

And that wasn't a criticism on my part but an observation.

   * The Romulans that Spock promises to deal with the supernova in the mind-meld flashback look like run of the mill Romulans. Nero and all his crewmen are bald and have facial tribal tattoos. WTF?

This is explained in the prequel comic book, which admittedly is not a movie. But Nero and his crew painted/tattooed themselves after witnessing their planet dying. It was part of their transformation from miners to revenge seekers

Wow...you mean they managed to shave their heads and tattoo their faces in the two or so minutes or so between when Romulus was destroyed and when Spock Prime shot the Red Matter and caused the sinularity?  That's talent!!!    Because remember, Nero was on Spock Prime's viewer in the flashback....tattoos and alll.

   * Always remember - when you all need a marble sized amount of red matter to cause a artificially created black hole, make sure you take an amount the size of Rover from "The Prisoner". And if the guy who you know is pissed at you for not saving his planet captures your ship, don't destroy the red matter. Let him have it. He won't do anything bad with it, right?.

I think under the circumstances, Kirk and Spock were far more interested in getting to Pike and stopping Nero than getting to the red matter. Plus they destroyed his ship as it got swallowed up, thus preventing it from happening all over again in yet another time.

Not the new/fake Kirk and Spock...

When Nero captured Spock Prime in his ship. Would Spock not realize - as he knew Nero blamed him for Romulus' destruction and was after him - that letting this guy get ahold of his ship with the Red Matter was a mistake and either set the thing to self-distruct and /or ram his ship into Nero's (as the new Spock did)?  Sacrifice himself rather than let a crazy person get such a dangerous item. "The needs of the many..."

   * It is possible for a Romulan ship from the future to hide in Federation space for 25 years and only have one encounter that anyone notices?

I don't think it was explained in the movie, but Nero's ship had a cloaking device. It was also retrofitted with Borg technology so he could assimilate ships after he destroyed them. It;s why his ship was so huge and random looking.

WTF are you talking about?  If it didn't happen in the movie, it didn't happen. And if he had cloaking why didn't he ever use it during his attacks on Vulcan or Earth?  The Borg? Give me a break.

* New Spock mind-melds with the Romulan and finds out where the ship is...but somehow learns nothing about who was flying it when it's pilot had been this crew's 25 year obsession

He was already aware who Nero was, and again he was trying to find out where Pike was. Not the details of the crewmembers.

You didn't follow the plot at all, did you?

Not Nero...SPOCK PRIME!!!! They waited 25 years for him to come through the singularity in that ship that new Spock was trying to find by mind melding with him and - somehow, we're supposed to believe - that as the Romulan thought of the ship he didn't think of it as "Ambassador Spock's ship"...and new Spock didn't see this and needed the computer on the ship to give him his first clue?!?!?!?!

   * When did Ben Cross forget how to act?  He looked amazingly uncomfortable in his own skin throughout the movie

Who?

Sarek (Spock's father)

[gbeenie]

I'm not big on sci-fi / action / comic book  movies in general, or trendy movies in particular.  Once a film has been shoved down my throat as much as Star Trek has, it turns me off.  I gave this a pass and saw Obsessed this weekend instead.

See, I was all about Beyonce and Ali Larter in fabulous shoes, wailing on each other... then I found out it was PG-13, and was therefore going to be much less sexy than I had imagined.


p.s. Don't be a contrarian. Go see Star Trek; there's fuck-all coming out till the end of the month. 

[gbeenie]

http://www.esurance.com/welcome/landing/startrek/welcome.aspx?PromoID=AOLSD0007200903_0907_STRK_728090

Are they giving away the right to burn all the copies if it bombs?

(It won't because there will be enough curious people who turn up the first weekend for them to claim a huge hit...even if not one person in the theaters were entertained)

This is probably the dictionary definition of solipsism.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

http://www.esurance.com/welcome/landing/startrek/welcome.aspx?PromoID=AOLSD0007200903_0907_STRK_728090

Are they giving away the right to burn all the copies if it bombs?

(It won't because there will be enough curious people who turn up the first weekend for them to claim a huge hit...even if not one person in the theaters were entertained)

This is probably the dictionary definition of solipsism.

I certainly don't consider this board or the people on here to be a fair representation of the real world.

If I did I would then have to believe for example that MST3K was pure shit until Mike Nelson took over, that a bad movie means a bad episode of MST3K, that all black and white movies suck, Fox News isn't just the propaganda arm of the Republican Party and that the sun shines out of Joss Whedon's ass....all of which I know to be false.

There probably will be lots of people who enjoy this new Trek in the same way that there are people who actually like the Star Wars Prequels. It doesn't make them correct, IMHO.

[gbeenie]

Pathetic. Really.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Pathetic. Really.

Something else I know better to believe just because it's posted here.

[Thrifty]

I'm not big on sci-fi / action / comic book  movies in general, or trendy movies in particular.  Once a film has been shoved down my throat as much as Star Trek has, it turns me off.  I gave this a pass and saw Obsessed this weekend instead.

See, I was all about Beyonce and Ali Larter in fabulous shoes, wailing on each other... then I found out it was PG-13, and was therefore going to be much less sexy than I had imagined.


p.s. Don't be a contrarian. Go see Star Trek; there's fuck-all coming out till the end of the month. 

Who's being contrarian?  Movies are expensive.  I rarely go seen them, and when I do, I don't go to ones with trailers that don't look interesting.

I suppose you could draw that conclusion if you saw my stance against trendy movies as being contrarian in nature.  I don't agree.  I'll go if they seem compelling enough to overcome this hurdle, but Star Trek doesn't.  I resent the attitude that someone HAS to like a movie or they are objectively wrong.  I went through that shit in spades back in 2001 with the Fellowship of the Ring movie.

[Moleman]

Fox News isn't just the propaganda arm of the Republican Party

We're talking about Star Trek in this thread and you have to randomly throw that in there?

This is why I usually just stick to the iRiffs section of the forums and haven't got involved in the rest of the site.  If I did I'd probably be constantly yelling and getting myself stressed out at people like you.

What's sad is I agree with you.  Fox News is very Republican.  But are you so bigoted in your beliefs that you have to randomly throw that in there for no reason?  I don't see what that has to do with "this board is not a fair representation of the real world".  I can't even make sense of what you're saying.

I saw an article that said Star Trek went way beyond expectations which were already high in terms of sales and set a record for IMAX, beating out Dark Knight.  Sounds to me like the "Real World" wants to see this movie.  Or can it be that the "Real World" is whatever you make "Your World" to be?

This really is stupid and there's no need to argue.  Most of us here liked it, Plastic Duck hated it.  That's it.  Why keep going?  Are you so offended that are opinions differ that you have to call us out and berate us until we succumb and agree with you?  Aren't you satisfied with just having your own opinion or does the whole world have to have it too?

*puts on flame protection helmet