But will they bring back the wedding chapel??

Mall owner: 'Star Trek' attraction still on track for Vegas

Tags: sci-fi
Mood: hopeful

On Star Trek

I think perhaps whoever's saying "the less you know about Star Trek, the more you will like the movie" is right. Not that I disliked Star Trek -- I did enjoy at least half of it, and it was incredibly well made -- but the departures from canon and/or the Star Trek "vision" stick out a tad more for me.

Probably some of this has to do with expectations - since I was out of town for my birthday (fitting that day was its debut!), I only saw it yesterday, which was 5-6 days out. So I'd heard all the reviews from friends and media (which were all pretty positive), so I let my expectations rise. It's possible that had I seen it on May 8^th with everyone else, I would've been so glad the prequel wasn't a flop that I would've been singing its praises a little more highly.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy it - Don't get me wrong.

I thought the movie did really well in protagonist character development. All TOS characters were believable. Kirk was a bit like "Zack" from Saved by the Bell, but then, I can actually see Kirk's younger self being exactly like that. See, I just never really liked Kirk as a character - that's just me. They still did an excellent job in casting, particularly with McCoy (arguably the most difficult role to pull off). Really, everyone - good choices in all of them. Well, except Chekov now has curly hair...?

The first half of the movie I really enjoyed, apart from the two minutes of unnecessary Beastie Boys soundtrack. Um, really, WTF? Then we figured out that the baddies were actually Romulans from the future and that's where my nerd continuity alarms went off.

I'll spare you the details (so there'll be no talk of the ships, the red matter, or any physics involved)!

Suffice it to say I got tired of the baddies halfway through the movie - for like 5 seconds they made attempt to paint the baddies in a more nuanced light, but quickly switched them back to the moustacio-twirling variety. Yawn. I sorta wanted the baddies to hurry up and off themselves so we could get back to the protagonists.

Also the action-to-plot ratio was a bit too high for my tastes - towards the end, people were running around doing stuff and I really wasn't entirely sure as to why or how they knew to do these things. Action is great, I love action - but not for action's sake (see my "I don't like movies" paragraph). Most of the movie interspersed the action and plot points in a believable fashion, but there were parts that were a little gratuitous. Although I did love how the Red Shirt joke was done - subtle enough that less in-the-know viewers might even miss it.

I'm not sure how I feel about the alternate universe deal (Vulcan is destroyed, Kirk's father is killed) though. It's a giant cheat to be sure -- but not one that rules out a great alt-franchise down the road. I suppose the crux is if there are going to be any further movies, that the alt-ness is an integral part of the new universe rather than a vehicle/excuse for cranking out more movies.

On movies in general - I'm going to be very unpopular here and say for the most part I don't like the in-theatre "movie" format. To me a lot of movies are contrived and pandering, with elements such as CGI/fight scenes forced in to snag ticket sales (or in the case of comedies, low brow or unimaginative jokes). I also think they offer limited time for character development and plot. That's why I much prefer series TV - less pressure, more time. It's a format better suited to storytelling, IMO.

But, that's just all the more reason to interpret an "I didn't hate it" rating all the more favorably!

Tags: sci-fi
Mood: busy

ST:TE WTF

Star Trek: The Experience is closing 1 September??

Damn, that sucks. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, as there's been no series out for some time now, but you'd think with the movie coming out next year, that'd be reason to hang on a bit longer?

Mood: crushed