Star Trek ftw May 10, 2009
Posted by faranaaz in Movies.Tags: 2009, Star Trek, X-Men Origins: Wolverine
trackback
A day after seeing this film and I still can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t know when last I enjoyed a movie this much.
There have been a lot of good origins/bad origins comparisons with the Wolverine film and I can understand why. They’ve both come out around the same time, both are sci-fi-y, have reams of backstory, and massive followings. And I find myself making the same comparison.
After Wolverine, I just thought “Meh, adequate”. Nothing stood out for me. Hours later I couldn’t remember a single memorable line or fight scene. No offense Gavin Hood, but you didn’t really blow us out of the water with this one.
After Star Trek, I thought “Oh my god, we have to watch that again!” The movie was just so much fun, so completely gratifying. You really couldn’t ask for anything more.
The casting was spot on. The actors captured the essence of the characters without impersonating. The Spock/Kirk relationship is still central to the entire show and after all these iterations, Bones and Scotty still make me laugh the most. And action sequences — shazam. Loved the fight on the massive drill thingy and a dangling off a bridge thingy scene with punchline which I won’t spoil. Also, the final Spock scene re: Live long and prosper (trying not to spoil here), classic. 
This movie was just generally great and basically, everything you could ask for from a reboot.
I’m linking to an Onion spoof of fan-reactions to the film, that I picked up from Wil Wheaton’s twitter feed. So funny.
I totally agree! Much better even than the original sequels…
Action packed and powerful, unpredictable and yet uncannily familiar, from scene one through to the end.
In Gavin’s defense, Wolverine was going to be a mess regardless of director – big name directors aside. He had to deal with a lot of studio interference and had very little script control – hence the million mutant cameos.(John Wraith, really?!)
Xmen is a “Franchise”. The movies are adverts for toys and merchandise.
This “Franchise” phenomenon is happening everywhere. Look at Transformers 2. Allowing toy manufacturers/car makers to have direct input into the making of the film… A wise decision? Clearly not. It shows that first priority is not to make a good film, but to move more merchandise.
Star Trek was able to overcome this, because JJ Abrams is not only a good film-maker, but also a has a lot of fan goodwill and Trek has never really lent itself well to toy merchandising.
What? Are you trying to say kids don’t want to play with bald guys in jumpsuits and space-ships that have oversized saucer heads? Sacrilege, sacrilege!