Star Trek reviews pouring in from special screening (spoilers)

[wyldwolf]

here are a few excerpts - the good and the bad:

"There's a reason why this got moved from Christmas to summer. J.J. Abrams really did it. He has revitalized the franchise. He made a movie that is smart and funny and charming and thrilling and
reverent and is totally accessible to people who previously thought Star Trek was not for them.

I thought I was one of those people. This is the kind of movie that the Star Wars prequels should have been. With this movie, the Trekkies have won the argument. Right now StarTrek is the most exciting Science Fiction franchise. And I never thought I'd say that."

------------

So what does a hard-core Trekkie think of the new movie? Well, I liked it. Much, much more than I thought I would. Sure, there are some definite issues from a "Starfleet" point of view (Kirk getting a battlefield promotion to First Officer when he hasn't even graduated the Academy? Scotty taking over the Transporter Room and Engineering 5 minutes after coming on board? Spock abandoning his post when Pike has been captured in order to rescue his parents? Seriously?) And then of course there's all the massive changes to the Star Trek continuity that take place due to that old deux ex machina of time travel. But you know what? There are so many good things in the film that it kinda didn't matter.

There are two or three "big knocks" I could shell at the film, mainly from a critic's standpoint. But really, why bother? It was fun, and enjoyable. I laughed at the funny parts, I got tense during some of the big action scenes, and I had good time. The big question on my mind right now as I type this is: "Was it Star Trek?" I'm still on the fence about this one. Parts of it definitely "felt" like Star Trek -- certainly much more than the later Next Generation films or heck, all of Voyager. Honestly, I think I need to see it again to make that judgement. But I gotta tell you, that's a personal call, and in the end it just doesn't matter -- this hard-core Trekkie still enjoyed the film.
-------------

Bana's Nero is not given enough time to become the kind of villain that Montalban's Khan was, and much of his motivation is inferred rather than developed onscreen. I have to wonder if there's a longer cut floating around in dvd release land that might provide more nuance to that performance, but until then, what we're left with his a villain more symbolic than fully realized. The other criticism actually deals with one of the film's strengths, it's incredibly fast pace. On one hand, part of what works so well about the movie is that it feels like a cinematic roller coaster. On the other hand, the banter between the cast is so incredibly entertaining and the writing so strong, that you wish the film could have slowed down to enjoy itself a little more. Further, the fast pace of the film is part of the reason the film never quite reaches the slow burn emotional height of something like The Wrath of Khan, although that movie is name checked and reference more than once in this movie.

Those criticisms aside, Star Trek accomplishes far more than I ever thought it would or could. This is on par with the Star Wars trilogy in terms of the big screen entertainment and sheer imagination on display. And while it doesn't pack the emotional punch that it could have, it does set itself up to do that in subsequent installments of the franchise. The talent involved appear to be more than up to the task, and hopefully the public will make it possible for them to do their thing with increasing freedom and confidence.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40679

--------------

And thoughts from around the web:

Trek Movie.com

/FILM has a collection of thoughts on the film from around the web.

/Film also put this together from early Twitter reports!

The tough critic Rodney Perkins at Twitch.net thought this...

This Trek Virgin attended and thought this...

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40684

[phantom power]

1. I'm gonna fly my flag on this issue:

The Star Trek universe/franchise will be able to move forward into the future only to the extent that they:

a) Are not strictly bound by The Canon.
b) Do not restrict themselves to Roddenberry's concept of sanitized human nature. Maybe this is a subset of (a).

[Orrex]

3. re: The Canon

You may be in luck there, because Roddenberry himself famously disregarded "the canon" whenever it suited him. Wiki says something to the effect that canon, to him, was whatever episode they were filming at the moment.

The various Treks have already moved away from the Roddenberry's sanitized future, so it seems likely that the film will continue this trend.

[and-justice-for-all]

2. This fllick is gonna fuckin' rock...

and Wolverine in the same month??!! holy shit!!