Thursday, May 07, 2009

Sulu, Take Us to Maximum Reboot

Hollywood over the last few years seems to have totally lost any confidence in original thought so is turning to every other media type for tried and tested ones. When that doesn't work they go back and try one of their old ideas. Not that they aren't doing a pretty good job of it most of the time.

So the latest in the reboots has now landed in the shape of Star Trek, and once again its a successful one. I'm tempted to say on of the most successful I've seen to date. What's really interesting is that Abrams has taken the usual course of just ignoring everything that has gone before and instead did it in universe, which admittedly Star Trek is one of the few franchises that's actually possible with. Still its a reboot that manages to leave everything before it intact, makes sure you know that and sets course for a whole new heading.

The actors were fantastic as well. Although to start with some of them don't feel quite right, by the time the credits roll they are Kirk and his command crew, the film doing a great job showing how they grow into the roles they are famous for. When Kirk steps onto his bridge at the end of the movie Chris Pine IS Captain Kirk, even the character who plays Kirk's dad does an absolutely fantastic job of giving off that Kirk aura.

4 comments:

Black Hat said...

I will agree the acting was fantasic. They picked their cast very well for their roles.
I found the plot itself to be a little lacking. The whole time travel thing seemed a bit superfluous, especially with Old Spock hanging around.
But, that aside, enjoyable film. Packed to the brim with fan service. Almost too packed.
I never watched the original series. So I never had any great love for it. This means I can say this without betraying anyone. Would it kill them to just have a different crew set in the star trek universe?!

Kelvinbridge said...

One word to describe this film: Doubleplusgood!

After the steaming pile of cack that Lucas turned Star Wars into, and the dreadful state of the last few Trek film, this has really stoked the flame of Sci-Fi joy inside me!

For the first time in a long time (I think it's actually a decade!) I have seen a film at the cinema that I would happily pay ridiculous cinema prices to see again.

I sound like a breathless fanboy... Hmmm. Oh well.

The cast were superb. The plot, as far as I can tell, is not meant to be the crisis that is faced per se, but the evolution of the bonds between the characters. Something which I thought was pretty well executed.

Seeing as no-one has yet mentioned it, I loved the look of this Enterprise, the design of the bridge, the computer readouts, the view screen, engineering now looks more engineery... The new transporter effect is much more visually appealing than the classic twinkly silhouette. And warp speed now looks properly fast!

I just hope that Trek 12 can keep to the same high standard. The bar has most definitely been raised.

Unknown said...

A different crew isn't exactly new, I mean we had that for every single other version of Star Trek. After Enterprise failed spectaculary they decided to go back and see how a reboot works.

The ship does look rather nice, kinda weird cos I knew they had to update it from the old design but its still meant to be the same ship. I want to take another look at the bridge of the ship from the opening sequence. Wasn't too sure about the new teleporter fx tho.

Ed Brewster said...

The reboot was spot on. The cast did a fantastic job, though Simon Pegg (who I do worship) had a slightly dodgy accent at times. But then again James Doohan was Canadian.

I love that it was a proper reboot by changing the timeline but having it in keeping with old Trek with a few mentions here and there and of course original Spock. Hopefully more Klingons next time? Maybe ignore all the dull honour shit that bogged down the Klingons of the TNG generation.