Star Trek

[mangaluva]

I'm not going until Wednesday, so no spoilers please!

[Stopwatch]

I'm not going until Wednesday, so no spoilers please!

Another Friday watcher here. Don't worry, spoiler tags'll be used .

[Conan-chandesune]

Off to see it. My heart is pounding!!!

[Conan-chandesune]

I wont use words. It was perfect. Ben kicked ass, so did Zachary, Chris, (names everyone in the film). Everyone gets his moment. It's really awesome. Damn, i used too many words. Will eagerly await discussion.

[mangaluva]

So I derped and locked myself out of my flat today, and given that it was cold, raining and I had three hours to kill until any of my flatmates got back, I went "screw it, gonna see a movie." End result, I ended up seeing this earlier than planned. Main thoughts below the spoiler box, but two non-spoilery thoughts to deal with first.

Benedict Cumberbatch is not the prettiest man in the world, I'll admit (only on the big screen can you truly appreciate the bizarre things he does with his mouth while emoting, and suddenly I understand the bad British teeth stereotype after seeing him having a shouting match with a lot of shiny Hollywood teeth), he does look DAMN good in tight black clothing. Or long flowing coats. Or both. And unkempt hair. Hhhhhnnnnnnnnggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh BENEDICT

Also, Wrath of Khan was something that my dad used to drop everything to watch whenever it was on TV when I was a kid, and the rest of us generally ended up watching it with him, so Wrath of Khan is kinda the only part of the Star Trek franchise that I'm aware enough to fully appreciate the parallels, inversions and allusions to.

Spoiler:

Okay. So if you're reading this having not seen the movie yet, you just don't care about spoilers, be warned. Bring all of the tissues. They do THAT SCENE. And they hyping invert it for maximum emotional damage. Basically, how I remember it going is this:

Scotty: We'd be dead before we make the climb!

Jim: You're not gonna make the climb. *knockout*

Me: Oh no is this what I think it is

*Jim climbs the reactor, visibly dying*

Me: OH SHIT IT IS WHAT I THINK IT IS

*Spock safe on the bridge, trying to save the crashing ship, unaware that Jim is dying*

Me: OH MY GOD JIM IS DYING JIM IS GOING TO DIE WAIT WAIT WAIT THEY SHOWED BONES INJECTING THAT TRIBBLE WITH KHAN'S BLOOD THEY WOULDN'T DO THAT FOR NO REASON THERE MUST BE A REASON IT WAS A DEAD TRIBBLE IT'LL COME BACK TO LIFE KHAN'S BLOOD SAVED MICKEY'S DAUGHTER IT WILL BRING JIM BACK TO LIFE
Phew. Thank you, foreshadowing recognition. It's all gonna be okay.

Scotty: You better come down here, Spock. Better be quick.

Me: It's... it's gonna be okay... it's...

Jim: I'm scared, Spock... how do you shut down your feelings?

Me: NOPE THIS IS NOT OKAY

Spock: I-I do not know... right now... I am failing... *single tear*

Me: NOPE NOPE NOPE

Jim: I want you to know... why I came back for you...

Spock: Because you are my friend.

Me: GUYS YOU CAN STOP NOW I'M SOBBING SERIOUSLY

*hands on the glass*

Me: STARTING TO DEHYDRATE NOW GUYS

*Jim dies*

Spock: .... KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Me: SPOCK NO YOU STOP THAT DON'T BREAK THAT THAT'S MY HEART I NEED THAT

*Spock storms around bridge shouting orders in angry, tearful voice*

Me: *dead*

Khan: *alive and climbing out of wrecked ship*

Me: *revives* Did somebody say Benedict Cumberbatch in tight clothing, jumping around and getting all sweaty in unkempt hair?

Seriously, though, everyone in the cinema screamed along with him. I mean, goddamn. That inversion was masterful, it really was, swapping the hot-blooded Kirk into the stoic death and the stoical Spock into the intensive emotional response. Just... damn. Everyone knew exactly what was going to happen and it still HURT.

They did play with your expectations very well. You all know Khan, he's a genocidal maniac! But wait, is that him saving Kirk and co? Fishy things going on with Starfleet high command, and only Khan is telling the truth about everything? He's connecting emotionally with Kirk? He's CRYING? IS MAYBE KHAN THE GOOD GUY IN THIS AFTER ALL?!

...lolnope you expected a reboot twist but he's still a genocidal maniac, it's just that Starfleet command is not okay either.

It was a gorgeous movie all around, though. Beautifully made, played with your expectations well, visually stunning and of course a fantastic villain. The main cast were all great as ever. Sulu as acting Captain was great ("Remind me never to piss you off indeed"; we saw what he could do with "fencing" in the last movie), Scotty was made of epic as ever, and oh Bones. Bones, Bones, Bones XD Kirk, Spock and Uhura go without saying, I'm sure. I loved the fistfight between Spock and Khan. It was TENSE. but maybe shirtless in mud with Chris Pine as well next time?

Basically, it was good, go watch it, go love it.

On a somewhat unrelated note, if they continue making reboot movies, I kinda want them, as a little injoke or tribute, to have Sulu end up in a relationship with another man. Do it, guys. You can these days.

[Stopwatch]

I thought that was Mickey, but I wasn't entirely sure. Glad to know I wasn't just imagining things :x.

I will say I predicted several events before they happened and the blondie didn't fit in much, but overall I kinda loved it. I mean, it had TOS references (and *that scene* was leaning on meta with some of the lines :x) and Quinto and Cumberbatch especially were brilliant IMO. Plus, "Jim"? Though, Bones has been somewhat demoted in terms of main character status, even more than in the first film IMO; such potential wasted. Eh, the humour was pretty awesome too.

These are my spoiler-free(ish) impressions. I'll post a more spoileriffic thing in the morning (under spoiler tags of course) when I've calmed down somewhat and before I give in to the urge to go to the TV Tropes page on it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the special effects were pretty good IMO. The warp trails and the 'volcano' (that's not too spoilery, right?) especially.

[mangaluva]

Every time they went to warp, with the sound and the 3D effects, it was like a punch to the face. In a good way. The 3D was well utilized for scale and vertigo, I felt. Also, that scene at the beginning with Bones and the spears... XDXDXD

[Conan-chandesune]

So I derped and locked myself out of my flat today, and given that it was cold, raining and I had three hours to kill until any of my flatmates got back, I went "screw it, gonna see a movie." End result, I ended up seeing this earlier than planned. Main thoughts below the spoiler box, but two non-spoilery thoughts to deal with first.

Benedict Cumberbatch is not the prettiest man in the world, I'll admit (only on the big screen can you truly appreciate the bizarre things he does with his mouth while emoting, and suddenly I understand the bad British teeth stereotype after seeing him having a shouting match with a lot of shiny Hollywood teeth), he does look DAMN good in tight black clothing. Or long flowing coats. Or both. And unkempt hair. Hhhhhnnnnnnnnggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh BENEDICT

Also, Wrath of Khan was something that my dad used to drop everything to watch whenever it was on TV when I was a kid, and the rest of us generally ended up watching it with him, so Wrath of Khan is kinda the only part of the Star Trek franchise that I'm aware enough to fully appreciate the parallels, inversions and allusions to.

Spoiler:

Okay. So if you're reading this having not seen the movie yet, you just don't care about spoilers, be warned. Bring all of the tissues. They do THAT SCENE. And they hyping invert it for maximum emotional damage. Basically, how I remember it going is this:

Scotty: We'd be dead before we make the climb!

Jim: You're not gonna make the climb. *knockout*

Me: Oh no is this what I think it is

*Jim climbs the reactor, visibly dying*

Me: OH SHIT IT IS WHAT I THINK IT IS

*Spock safe on the bridge, trying to save the crashing ship, unaware that Jim is dying*

Me: OH MY GOD JIM IS DYING JIM IS GOING TO DIE WAIT WAIT WAIT THEY SHOWED BONES INJECTING THAT TRIBBLE WITH KHAN'S BLOOD THEY WOULDN'T DO THAT FOR NO REASON THERE MUST BE A REASON IT WAS A DEAD TRIBBLE IT'LL COME BACK TO LIFE KHAN'S BLOOD SAVED MICKEY'S DAUGHTER IT WILL BRING JIM BACK TO LIFE
Phew. Thank you, foreshadowing recognition. It's all gonna be okay.

Scotty: You better come down here, Spock. Better be quick.

Me: It's... it's gonna be okay... it's...

Jim: I'm scared, Spock... how do you shut down your feelings?

Me: NOPE THIS IS NOT OKAY

Spock: I-I do not know... right now... I am failing... *single tear*

Me: NOPE NOPE NOPE

Jim: I want you to know... why I came back for you...

Spock: Because you are my friend.

Me: GUYS YOU CAN STOP NOW I'M SOBBING SERIOUSLY

*hands on the glass*

Me: STARTING TO DEHYDRATE NOW GUYS

*Jim dies*

Spock: .... KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Me: SPOCK NO YOU STOP THAT DON'T BREAK THAT THAT'S MY HEART I NEED THAT

*Spock storms around bridge shouting orders in angry, tearful voice*

Me: *dead*

Khan: *alive and climbing out of wrecked ship*

Me: *revives* Did somebody say Benedict Cumberbatch in tight clothing, jumping around and getting all sweaty in unkempt hair?

Seriously, though, everyone in the cinema screamed along with him. I mean, goddamn. That inversion was masterful, it really was, swapping the hot-blooded Kirk into the stoic death and the stoical Spock into the intensive emotional response. Just... damn. Everyone knew exactly what was going to happen and it still HURT.

They did play with your expectations very well. You all know Khan, he's a genocidal maniac! But wait, is that him saving Kirk and co? Fishy things going on with Starfleet high command, and only Khan is telling the truth about everything? He's connecting emotionally with Kirk? He's CRYING? IS MAYBE KHAN THE GOOD GUY IN THIS AFTER ALL?!

...lolnope you expected a reboot twist but he's still a genocidal maniac, it's just that Starfleet command is not okay either.

It was a gorgeous movie all around, though. Beautifully made, played with your expectations well, visually stunning and of course a fantastic villain. The main cast were all great as ever. Sulu as acting Captain was great ("Remind me never to piss you off indeed"; we saw what he could do with "fencing" in the last movie), Scotty was made of epic as ever, and oh Bones. Bones, Bones, Bones XD Kirk, Spock and Uhura go without saying, I'm sure. I loved the fistfight between Spock and Khan. It was TENSE. but maybe shirtless in mud with Chris Pine as well next time?

Basically, it was good, go watch it, go love it.

On a somewhat unrelated note, if they continue making reboot movies, I kinda want them, as a little injoke or tribute, to have Sulu end up in a relationship with another man. Do it, guys. You can these days.

I felt the exact same things in the exact same order in your spoiler box. EXACTLY.
Also, it was my mum who used to drop everything to watch the Wrath of Khan. She's a trekkie. She liked STID too. I also loved the fistfight. Especially the nerve pinches. I also saw it in IMAX, hence i felt that the Nibiru were throwing the spikes at lil ol me. The Enterprise rising out of the ocean/sky scenes were GREAT. Everyone screamed at that point. However, there is something i had just a teeny tiny problem with.

Spoiler:

Khan is still referred to as Khan Noonein Singh, hence, he's still an Indian solider, right? So, why is Ben playing him? I mean, he IS a great actor. But it feels like a discontinuity.

[mangaluva]

Yeah, I thought about that. Well, presumably, so far in the future, human races are a lot more mixed than they are now... he could conceivably be of a British family that had moved to India generations before or vice-versa. I dunno. Maybe it's just because the fashion these days is for the only English guys in space to be evil and you might as well nitpick why the Korean-American John Cho is playing the Japanese Sulu or the English Simon Pegg is playing Scotty. (Although at least he bothers with a naw bad rendition of the accent.)

EDIT because I just realized an unrelated thing

Spoiler:

so in one of my filmography classes we talked about how expensive every frame of a movie is, and how literally everything onscreen is there for a reason. We talked about how in The Avengers, when Loki's having his "mewling quim" rant at Natasha, his own reflection is clearly visible in the glass, signifying that he's talking to himself as much as her and can we hug him now?

And I realized that when Khan is spinning his story about how he's an innocent man who just wants to protect his crew to Kirk, Kirk's reflection is visible laid over Khan... but Khan cannot see his own reflection over Kirk. An early marker that the similarities between them are lies spun by Khan...?

[Conan-chandesune]

What's got me more worried is that J.J. is directing STAR WARS next year and over a dozen people except the man himself said he wouldnt return. That is soooooooo sad. Paramount said that they have plans for a sequel in 2016, the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.But everyone said J.j. wont do it. So, i am confused. Who will do it? Will it be that good?

[Conan-chandesune]

Yeah, I thought about that. Well, presumably, so far in the future, human races are a lot more mixed than they are now... he could conceivably be of a British family that had moved to India generations before or vice-versa. I dunno. Maybe it's just because the fashion these days is for the only English guys in space to be evil and you might as well nitpick why the Korean-American John Cho is playing the Japanese Sulu or the English Simon Pegg is playing Scotty. (Although at least he bothers with a naw bad rendition of the accent.)

EDIT because I just realized an unrelated thing

Spoiler:

so in one of my filmography classes we talked about how expensive every frame of a movie is, and how literally everything onscreen is there for a reason. We talked about how in The Avengers, when Loki's having his "mewling quim" rant at Natasha, his own reflection is clearly visible in the glass, signifying that he's talking to himself as much as her and can we hug him now?

And I realized that when Khan is spinning his story about how he's an innocent man who just wants to protect his crew to Kirk, Kirk's reflection is visible laid over Khan... but Khan cannot see his own reflection over Kirk. An early marker that the similarities between them are lies spun by Khan...?

Khan's origins are of Northern India (a Sikh), in the 21st century. As it predates the time-rift of the first movie, the events must be the same as the orignal series. And here's where the confusion comes in. I cant think of any explanation, can you? Not that i mind Benedict Cumberbatch becoming a half-Indian Britisher. That will be another similarity we share.

[Stopwatch]

Yeah, I thought about that. Well, presumably, so far in the future, human races are a lot more mixed than they are now... he could conceivably be of a British family that had moved to India generations before or vice-versa. I dunno. Maybe it's just because the fashion these days is for the only English guys in space to be evil and you might as well nitpick why the Korean-American John Cho is playing the Japanese Sulu or the English Simon Pegg is playing Scotty. (Although at least he bothers with a naw bad rendition of the accent.)

EDIT because I just realized an unrelated thing

Spoiler:

so in one of my filmography classes we talked about how expensive every frame of a movie is, and how literally everything onscreen is there for a reason. We talked about how in The Avengers, when Loki's having his "mewling quim" rant at Natasha, his own reflection is clearly visible in the glass, signifying that he's talking to himself as much as her and can we hug him now?

And I realized that when Khan is spinning his story about how he's an innocent man who just wants to protect his crew to Kirk, Kirk's reflection is visible laid over Khan... but Khan cannot see his own reflection over Kirk. An early marker that the similarities between them are lies spun by Khan...?

Khan's origins are of Northern India (a Sikh), in the 21st century. As it predates the time-rift of the first movie, the events must be the same as the orignal series. And here's where the confusion comes in. I cant think of any explanation, can you? Not that i mind Benedict Cumberbatch becoming a half-Indian Britisher. That will be another similarity we share.

Spoiler:

I think Khan was originally played by a Mexican or something anyway. Besides, as someone else pointed out, I don't think he ever gave his full real name; just "Khan" so he could be a relation (Khan Junior ) or just another genetically engineered Khan. Somehow.

[mangaluva]

Yeah, I thought about that. Well, presumably, so far in the future, human races are a lot more mixed than they are now... he could conceivably be of a British family that had moved to India generations before or vice-versa. I dunno. Maybe it's just because the fashion these days is for the only English guys in space to be evil and you might as well nitpick why the Korean-American John Cho is playing the Japanese Sulu or the English Simon Pegg is playing Scotty. (Although at least he bothers with a naw bad rendition of the accent.)

EDIT because I just realized an unrelated thing

Spoiler:

so in one of my filmography classes we talked about how expensive every frame of a movie is, and how literally everything onscreen is there for a reason. We talked about how in The Avengers, when Loki's having his "mewling quim" rant at Natasha, his own reflection is clearly visible in the glass, signifying that he's talking to himself as much as her and can we hug him now?

And I realized that when Khan is spinning his story about how he's an innocent man who just wants to protect his crew to Kirk, Kirk's reflection is visible laid over Khan... but Khan cannot see his own reflection over Kirk. An early marker that the similarities between them are lies spun by Khan...?

Khan's origins are of Northern India (a Sikh), in the 21st century. As it predates the time-rift of the first movie, the events must be the same as the orignal series. And here's where the confusion comes in. I cant think of any explanation, can you? Not that i mind Benedict Cumberbatch becoming a half-Indian Britisher. That will be another similarity we share.

My best guess there is that he's from a British family who remained in India post-colonial times and probably intermarried a little and Khan ended up with all of the British DNA.
As Stop said, though, Khan's original actor was Mexican anyway

[Conan-chandesune]

Also, i think we should view and discuss one episode of the orignal series every 2-3 days, starting with The Man Trap. Whatdya think?

[mangaluva]

Also, i think we should view and discuss one episode of the orignal series every 2-3 days, starting with The Man Trap. Whatdya think?

Post a link to view it online and I'd be up for chat. I never watched the original series so I'm not particularly familiar with it beyond Wrath of Khan.