Star Trek: Summer movie review from Newsweek

[BuccinA]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/195082

Theres a LOT of reading here so I will just put in the first few paragraphs






On a February weekend in 1974, when I was 11 years old, I went to the happiest wake I've ever attended. It was called the International Star Trek Convention. Held in a bunch of overcrowded ballrooms in New York City's Americana Hotel, where anxious fire marshals kept interrupting the festivities to clear the aisles, it was a charming, amateurish, collegial celebration—one of the earliest in what became a torrent of Trek conventions over the next few years. I went with my older brother and my dad, and what had brought us and 10,000 others together at five bucks a head was the beautiful corpse of a great TV show that had been off the air for nearly five years. We went to screenings of favorite episodes, watched a parade of people dressed up as "Trek" characters and sat rapt at reminiscences delivered by some of the show's cast, including a surprise visit from Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy. (William Shatner, a.k.a. Captain Kirk, hadn't yet acquiesced to participate in the convention-scene carny, though he soon would.) You could get away with smoking in hotels back then, and I remember an area called the "dealers' room"—a space where sellers trafficked in comic books, Super-8 home movies, sci-fi books and magazines, and oodles of "Trek" memorabilia—reeking of tobacco.

But it was the company, not the second-hand smoke, that made me lightheaded. I was surrounded, for the first time, by like-minded "Trekkies." (Later that term took on a pejorative ring, and fans coined "Trekkers" instead. Potay-to, potah-to.) We were largely a band of pasty-faced mouth breathers, many wearing thick, black-framed glasses and sporting long, stringy hair. Still, I don't remember feeling a trace of shame. I'd found my people. We spoke the same language. We loved the ritualistic invocation of our favorite catchphrases—"Beam me up," "Warp factor 10," "Set phasers on stun," and Dr. McCoy's perpetual declaration, "He's dead, Jim"—though the clear favorite, uttered by chief engineer Scott, was, "I canna change the laws of physics, Cap'n." We knew the product better than the people who'd made it. More important, we'd begun to push what had been marginal movie-genre ephemera—science fiction, fantasy, costumed-superhero stories—into the mainstream. I couldn't see it then, but we were pioneers in a techno-nerd meritocracy that people like Bill Gates would come to embody. We were witnessing the gestation of a new brand of fan culture, and on our way to a paradigm that would redefine geek as chic.

[BuccinA]

First showings is tonite at 7pm at the Citrus Park Mall!
Ive waited for this movie for about a year and was soooooo pissed when they postphoned the original Opening at the Thanksgiving holiday.

[Axe]

I hope to see it tomorrow

[tmservo]

Wow. That's $6 I will never get back. I'm glad the reviews are so positive... the story never came together for me and some moments were -really- stupid. This film could have been about 30 minutes shorter and you wouldn't have lost a single thing... and WTF is up with having the Nokia phone commercial in the middle of the movie at the beginning? Kirk picks up a Nokia phone in his antique car, WTF?

[BuccinA]

I believe all those glorious reviews were written by Trek newbies
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would put it as a 6.
It went soooooo far against Trek canon by Gene Roddenberry that I know die hard Trekkers/Trekkies will not be happy with this version, in spite of Leonard Nimoy's handing the baton over himself.
The Romulan Nero is a '"WTF' is this guy about ?" type.
They gave the obligated " Im a Doctor not a physicst " " I canna go against the laws of physics Captain"" The Planet Woolcan Mr Spock" which drew some laughs and that it was Mr Spock who laid the Vulcan sausage to Uhura at the Academy.
I could go on forever on how they screwed up the Trek past in this one movie but Im not going to go into it.

[tmservo]

Here's all that needs to be said:

Scotty inadvertently is beamed into the system coolant chamber.. which is I guess just water, and cool, because somehow he survives that (??) And then he gets sucked through tubes like he's that kid who eats chocolate from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory..

This is a really brainless action film. Probably is, even the action isn't that good.

[BigLebowski]

I thought the plot was kind of stupid (I mean cmon who the hell is Nero, and why the hell is he being such a douche...I mean, it makes no sense). However, I loved the characters and Scotty was amazing.

Its obvios why the writers used time travel as the focal plot device. The story in the film is now an "alternate timeline and universe", as Spock stated in the film, so the sequels don't have to adhere to traditional Star Trek canon.

[tfree32]

I saw it last night and really enjoyed it. I think obsessing over whether it's canon is a little silly. Can't a movie just be entertaining? The character development was well-done, it combined a good mix of action and humor, and will have a lot more wide-soread appeal that the typical Star Trek movie.

[Stymie]

Of all of the reviews, opinions, etc. I've seen, I think the guy who wrote this review (LINK) says it better than anyone:

So what the filmmakers do here is come up with a story that allows them free range to recombine the essential Trek DNA in a way that does not invalidate the “later” stories so many viewers will have spent half their lives memorizing. It is audacious and new, borderline blasphemous and utterly reverential.

He also includes a lot of spoilers, but there are plenty of "You've been warned!" warnings before you scroll down to them.

This is not a "Star Trek" for my generation who grew up on the original TV series. And this is also meant to appeal to a summer audience who want their movies loud, fun, action-packed and not too deep.

If you understand those things in advance, and you check your inner Trekker -- please, not Trekkie -- at the door, then you just might enjoy it. But I'll have to wait until next weekend -- opening weekend is always too crowded; plus I have my son this weekend, and while he likes the commercials for the movie, there are obviously some things in the movie that his 6-year-old eyes are not yet meant to see.

[mathman]

I grew up watching the original Star Trek. I was and still are very into Sci Fi. I liked the film. To me it had the feel somewhat of the original Star Trek. Not the look but it was a good film. It was a different time when the original star trek was on. We were trying to go to the moon. Horizons were being expanded. Star Trek was an extension of the times for kids and adults at the time. These days we are jaded and focused on ourselves. Very little these days that will evoke the same feelings as at that time.

[Axe]

I Liked it!!!