Friday, May 15, 2009

Star Trek

New Star Trek : Old Star Trek :: Alcatraz : Harry Potter

Let me explain. Lately I have been studying for the GRE, and something I am not great at is the analogy part (remember the SAT? It's like that). So, here is my word bridge:
New Star Trek is like Old Star Trek made by somebody who knew what he was doing, just like Alcatraz is like Harry Potter made by somebody who knew what he was doing.
That is to say the new Star Trek movie was awesome. So awesome that I almost wrote AWESOME in all caps. Almost. Here's what I liked about it:

The casting was great. I worried from the previews that Kirk was going to be too much of a tool, but then I realized that Kirk being too much of a tool is basically impossible. Sylar was a great Vulcan, and the bad Spock hair cut looked right on him. Chekov was appropriately awkward (hehe..wictor...). Simon Pegg was the best Scotty ever. I mean, I think he's the best most things ever, but especially Scotty. With Uhura they sort of...well, went with the spirit of the law. She went from this:

to this:

Not that I'm complaining.

Lucas should have seen this movie before he did the Star Wars prequels. They showed pre-teen Kirk for about 5 minutes- just long enough for everybody to say "wow, that dude is kind of a badass who doesn't like authority." After that, they got the child actors off the screen.

The action was actually pretty darn good. Not really necessary for the plot, but good. It seemed like ol JJ was talking to somebody about making Star Trek and said "oh yeah? I bet I can even get in a GOOD fight scene!" And he delivered. Well done, JJ.

I think my favorite part of the movie was the fan service. It was very well done. They had basically everything a fan would need (pretty much every character said at least one line that you sweaty nerds have been waiting for, including "Damn it, blank, I'm a doctor not a blank!"), but it wasn't so much that the people who don't live in their mothers' basements couldn't have any fun. The fan service was subtle. A certain person walks on the screen in a red uniform and about half the people in the theater say to themselves "that dude's toast...". But when he dies, the other half isn't left trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

I do have a few small complaints, but since they are kind of big plot elements, I will leave them out so as not to spoil other people's fun. The only complaint I will share is that a woman on the Enterprise is sleeping with a man on the Enterprise, and that man isn't Kirk. Whaaa? How'd that happen?

As a parting thought, for all you nerds out there, check out the landscape on the planet Vulcan. If that doesn't give you a nerd-high, then I don't know what will.

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