I thought the new Star Trek was REALLY well cast - except for Chechov.

[HopeHoops]

All of the other characters looked and acted the part. Chechov just didn't fit. He played the roll well but I just couldn't get my mind wrapped around him as a young version of the Chechov I grew up with.

Oh, and the movie was far better than I expected, but that wasn't the purpose of this post.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Yes, I agree. nt

[NewJeffCT]

2. The only way they could have done better for McCoy

is if they had his clone. Karl "Eomer" Urban was dead-on perfect.

[sarge43]

5. Indeed. He looked and acted like Kelley's grandson.

Also John Cho nailed Sulu.

[HopeHoops]

8. That was easily the closest match.

I thought Spock was pretty close also, and Nimoy's appearance at least suggested his approval.

[canadianbeaver]

3. Yes...he was trying to hard with the accent.......eom

[sarge43]

4. Third that. Yelchin came across too hyper.

Koenig always played Chekov as very gentle, calm, almost repressed when compared to the rest.

[HopeHoops]

6. He just looked like a young kid with a perpetual woodie. Not the same character.

[Bucky]

7. Yeh, but that Kirk-as-VanWilder approach still got on my nerves.

Not as bad as the incredibly dumb plot, or the resolution of the story that undermined everything Roddenberry's Star Trek stood for, but still bad.

[HopeHoops]

9. I decided to put aside inconsistencies on the grounds that they are launching a new movie series.

I had to do the same thing with the new batman movies, but that's another flame war of months past.

In particular, Kirk's dad and Spock's mother being killed, and the Uhura/Spock romance, messed with the story line from the previous movies. They used the space-time continuum argument to justify a new path but I was disturbed. Nimoy's apparent approval, by virtue of his appearance, made me reconsider. As with any remake, if you stick to the previous story line you are simply rehashing something everyone has already seen. They're "boldly going where nobody has gone before". I'm looking forward to what they will come up with.

That said, the best scene in the movie was young Kirk in the Corvette - "Is there a problem, officer?"

[sarge43]

14. Agree

First viewing I was irked about altering the time line, but upon consideration it was a smart move. Keep the basic persona of the characters; turn them loose in a new world and see what happens.

My favorite: Spock kicking Kirk's butt all over the bridge. That was long overdue and deserved. Kirk needed a big can of whoop dumped on him.

(typo)

[NewJeffCT]

15. I heard on the timeline change

is that the next two movies will be them undoing what happened - so, it will eventually be set right. I could be wrong, though.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. It was well cast, I'll give it that. It was poorly directed and even more shittily written.

But it was well cast.

Except, as you say, for Chekov - though I think that was less a problem with the actor than with what was, more than likely, the direction of the director. It was such a bad performance, I can't imagine it was for any reason except that's what the director wanted.

[HopeHoops]

11. Oh shit no! The problem wasnt with the casting or the actor - it was with OUR EXPECTATION!

Bones was perfect. Sulu was perfect. Spock was almost perfect. Kirk at least fit. Scotty and Uhura were clear matches. Chechov just didn't fit what we expected. He played the role perfectly and if there had been no previous Star Trek movies/TV shows, he would be what we expect. He just didn't fit our expectations.

On another note, I would LOVE to bitch-slap whoever cast George Clooney as Batman. What the FUCK were they thinking?

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. I actually liked Clooney as Batman - I totally fucking hated the movie he was in,

and it was unfortunate that he had to play such a god-awful Batman- but I still felt that Clooney COULD have made a fantastic Batman if the story had been written properly.

[HopeHoops]

13. The idiot can't talk without wagging his head around and smirking.

I hate to say it, but Ahnold was the only thing that saved the movie.

[NewJeffCT]

16. I agree on Clooney as Batman

He has the onscreen intensity and presence to pull off Batman perfectly, but everything about the movie - script, direction, plot - just sucked so fucking badly that they could have had Olivier at his finest in the role and it wouldn't have mattered.

[WolverineDG]

20. I heard they made the actor adopt that stupid accent

he really is from Russia & doesn't sound anything like that. Wish they had given him some lead to work with the Chekov character like they did with the others.

To be fair to the actor in the movie, Checkov always was a young prodigy, hence he looks & acts younger than the others. It was never overtly stated in TOS, but the character was pretty young to be a bridge officer.

dg

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

17. They tried to turn him into Wesley Crusher.

No, thanks.

[Randall Flagg]

18. At least he is a real Russian.

I kind of liked him for change. Karl Urban's McCoy was so dead on that any other spot-on portrayal would have come across as a lame attempt at trying to really recreate the series.

Me? I'm worried about Gwen and Captain Jack. :)

[LibertyLover]

19. Finally got around to watching the movie last night

and I agree that the Chekov character, while well played, just didn't fit. In the original series, Chekov is a young man - much younger than Kirk - an ensign pretty much fresh from the Academy and on his first major deployment. In interviews Roddenberry said that he had developed and cast the character with Davy Jones of the Monkees, then a young man of 22 or 23, in mind and that the character was for young girls to have a crush on. The Chekov character in this movie was good, but somewhat jarring. I also remember a somewhat different scenario for the Kobayashi Maru, although it may have come from one of the novels and not a Star Trek movie or show - basically Kirk reprograms the computer to have the Klingon commander immediately back down when he hears Kirk announce his name - more amusing than the new movie's take on it, although the apple eating was a fun touch.

[WolverineDG]

21. That's why Koenig had a Monkees haircut nt

[One_Life_To_Give]

22. Checkov was straight out of the academy in S2 of TOS

I would of expected him to be in Junior High or Elementary at that time.

[hunter]

23. I enjoyed this Chechov. I thought the casting was excellent all around.

But the "Red Matter," that really, really pissed me off. It was just so fucking STUPID and beyond any suspension of disbelief. It was like the death grinder maze in Galaxy Quest.

"What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway. No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, why is it here?"