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captainsblogI can't take credit for some of the best observations about the film. These came from the local artsweekly's review:
I will accept that Vulcans, as a specific race, have a more or less standard physiology and even physiognomy. But why do they all have to have Moe Howard haircuts?
...
Chekov is so adorable his action figure will have to be a plushie…Of course, for Chekov’s character to have the same place in the 2009 version of the crew’s racial/ethnic/rainbow mix, he should be played by an Iranian.
...
“Coming back in time, changing history? That’s cheating!”—boy, I’ll bet the screenwriters peed themselves laughing when they wrote that line of dialogue.
----
On balance, though, he liked it! Hey Scotty! And we did, too. Despite the cringes at 22nd century product placements for Nokia and Budweiser, and despite the sounds of canon crashing all about, I was damn impressed with how they managed to pull it off without, technically, BREAKING canon. The throwbacks to TOS and TOS-fan culture- especially the untimely death of Midshipman Redshirt- were awesome. And Spock Prime- as he apparently is known around the IMDB yard- brought me close to tears at the very end, as his intonations of The Words did at the end of II and Picard's did at the start of TNG.
This is the 11th time in the past 30 years that I've set out on premiere day, or at least premiere weekend, to see What They've Done To My Series, Ma. This being the first time out with only one reprising of an original actor's onscreen role (two, if you count Majel's voicework), I found the casting choices to be the most original and important, and on the whole among the best done ever. Such things forgive a multitude of appearances by our writers' favorite seaQuest 2047 cast member, Lieutenant D.X. Machina. You know: Kirk just HAPPENING to be born at the second of the first time rift? Just HAPPENING to run into half his future crew at one recruiting station? Just HAPPENING to be plopped onto Delta Vega within skating distance of both Spock Prime and Scotty? The death ray just HAPPENING to choose San Francisco harbor as its point of impact and threatening the Golden Gate Bridge with imminent destruction? (This after a series of trailers before the film, in which we watched the imminent if not outright destruction of the Lincoln Memorial, the Eiffel Tower and the Brooklyn Bridge in a series of coming-attraction previews for a summer of Death And Destruction Movies Based On Toys. Now that GI Joe and Transformers have been taken, what's left? My Little Pony: The Final Conquest?)
Minor quibbles, though. Two of the finer hours of your life which, if you're lucky, you'll get back a quarter-century from now if the rifts are surfin' just right.
I will accept that Vulcans, as a specific race, have a more or less standard physiology and even physiognomy. But why do they all have to have Moe Howard haircuts?
...
Chekov is so adorable his action figure will have to be a plushie…Of course, for Chekov’s character to have the same place in the 2009 version of the crew’s racial/ethnic/rainbow mix, he should be played by an Iranian.
...
“Coming back in time, changing history? That’s cheating!”—boy, I’ll bet the screenwriters peed themselves laughing when they wrote that line of dialogue.
----
On balance, though, he liked it! Hey Scotty! And we did, too. Despite the cringes at 22nd century product placements for Nokia and Budweiser, and despite the sounds of canon crashing all about, I was damn impressed with how they managed to pull it off without, technically, BREAKING canon. The throwbacks to TOS and TOS-fan culture- especially the untimely death of Midshipman Redshirt- were awesome. And Spock Prime- as he apparently is known around the IMDB yard- brought me close to tears at the very end, as his intonations of The Words did at the end of II and Picard's did at the start of TNG.
This is the 11th time in the past 30 years that I've set out on premiere day, or at least premiere weekend, to see What They've Done To My Series, Ma. This being the first time out with only one reprising of an original actor's onscreen role (two, if you count Majel's voicework), I found the casting choices to be the most original and important, and on the whole among the best done ever. Such things forgive a multitude of appearances by our writers' favorite seaQuest 2047 cast member, Lieutenant D.X. Machina. You know: Kirk just HAPPENING to be born at the second of the first time rift? Just HAPPENING to run into half his future crew at one recruiting station? Just HAPPENING to be plopped onto Delta Vega within skating distance of both Spock Prime and Scotty? The death ray just HAPPENING to choose San Francisco harbor as its point of impact and threatening the Golden Gate Bridge with imminent destruction? (This after a series of trailers before the film, in which we watched the imminent if not outright destruction of the Lincoln Memorial, the Eiffel Tower and the Brooklyn Bridge in a series of coming-attraction previews for a summer of Death And Destruction Movies Based On Toys. Now that GI Joe and Transformers have been taken, what's left? My Little Pony: The Final Conquest?)
Minor quibbles, though. Two of the finer hours of your life which, if you're lucky, you'll get back a quarter-century from now if the rifts are surfin' just right.
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Date: 2009-05-10 01:33 am (UTC)Bones was scary-perfect. I mean scary. I mean, everyone else was really good, but I found myself going 'Wait, isn't DeForest Kelley DEAD? And if he weren't, wouldn't he be a bit OLDER ...?'
Disappointed that there was not MOAR SIMON PEGG. Poor guy's probably rocking his geeky little nut off and then he gets ... well ... not as much time as he deserved.
There was a point in the proceedings, and I'm not entirely sure where, when I just felt it all click into old-style. Felt good, man.
Other things ... nice to see Kirk gettin' in with the green women right away. And yes, the redshirt. We were laying bets on how far he'd get ... didn't even land. Well, okay, he sorta did. I guess. Kinda.... Boom.
Looking forward to hearing my Weird Uncle's reaction. He was raised on TOS and he's going to have very high standards.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-10 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-10 01:46 am (UTC)I have to say, though, that the romance between Spock and Uhura was just weird.
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Date: 2009-05-10 02:14 am (UTC)I agree that there needed to be more Simon Pegg. I was waiting for him for almost half the movie.
But that's my only complaint. It was so good!
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Date: 2009-05-10 04:51 am (UTC)Hoping to see ST this week.
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Date: 2009-05-22 03:58 am (UTC)Although it would be perfect if you added She-Ra, Smurfs,Rainbow Brite and Popples. Ahh childhood.
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Date: 2009-05-11 01:42 am (UTC)They retconned the entire universe. Not one moment of canon will ever happen.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-11 03:31 pm (UTC)