Star Trek (2009) Retrospective/Review - Star Trek Retrospective, Part 16

throughout the 1990s star trek was in a golden age multiple hit television shows a slate of feature films and a vast worldwide fan base but by the early 2000s things had changed pop culture had apparently left star trek behind with star trek nemesis of box office bomb and star trek enterprise dying a slow death on its fledgling network while a loyal but small group of fans continued to appreciate the franchise it was effectively dead for wider audiences but for the powers that be star trek wasn't dead it was merely resting it was inevitable the franchise would someday return and when it did it did so with a bang [Music] [Applause] following the cancellation of star trek enterprise in 2005 the star trek franchise quickly faded into obscurity attractions like star trek the experience closed its doors the official star trek magazine was discontinued and the official star trek website was left to wither the only remaining new star trek releases came in the form of the quite brilliant post-nemesis continuity novels while they were made best sellers thanks to fans few others paid them any attention however even in this environment some veteran cast and crew as well as some newcomers believe they had the winning idea for the next star trek installment producer writer rick berman the de facto head of star trek since the 90s worked with writer eric jenderson to develop a new feature film project titled star trek the beginning this film would follow a new set of characters including james kirk's ancestor tiberius chase during the earth romulan war set just after enterprise however rick berman's association with both nemesis and enterprise meant studio execs simply weren't interested in any more star trek led by him and so they passed on the project and berman moved on from the franchise jonathan fricks proposed a television show following riker and troy aboard the uss titan and michael dorne attempted to get the ball rolling on a captain wharf series paramount turned both proposals down david rossi doug mirabello and jose munzo pushed for star trek to continue as an animated show titled star trek final frontier but this never got off the ground christopher macquarie brian singer and robert meyer burnett created a pitchfork star trek federation a new series set in the year 3000 following a new crew aboard a new enterprise setting out to save a weakened federation from collapse however this pitch never made it to paramount one of the most fascinating unmade ideas came from famed babylon 5 creator j michael strzinski strzinski proposed a full reboot of star trek set in an alternate timeline his concept re-imagined star trek as a hard sci-fi series which would apparently completely rethink the setting technology characters and look of the wider universe it's unclear just how far this idea got in development but it was also never picked up a large obstacle to anyone attempting to get their own star trek show off the ground was the corporate reshuffling underway with paramount pictures the details of this reshuffling are extremely complex but what's most relevant is paramount's owner viacom separating from the newly formed cbs corporation which was a different entity to the cbs corporation which had originally created the first incarnation of viacom back in the 1950s and as i said it's complicated but the consequences for star trek were the television and feature film rights becoming split between paramount pictures and cbs corporation however despite everything that had happened to the star trek franchise in the early 2000s many executives at paramount still saw star trek as their crown jewel property gail berman no relation to rick berman then president of paramount was able to convince cbs to give paramount 18 months to develop a brand new star trek movie otherwise paramount would lose the film rights another major obstacle to getting new star trek made was its pop culture image at the time good one it's pretty strong words for tricky okay a trekkie is derogatory at this point in the game trekker is what we're called their trekker although properties like star wars lord of the rings and many superheroes had been lighting up the box office star trek for whatever reason was still regarded as something far too nerdy for the mainstream it was seen by many as a cheap and slow series more concerned with technobabble and philosophical monologues than telling an emotionally gripping story or thrilling viewers with action of course anyone who had actually watched star trek knew this wasn't the case but the image of a trekkie as a basement dwelling social outcast stuck any new star trek project needed to shake off this image if it was to avoid the same fate as nemesis or enterprise star trek needed to feel fresh and exciting for lack of a better word star trek needed to be cool and to achieve this goal the franchise needed new blood to this end gail berman approached writing duo alex kurtzman and roberto orsi to write the screenplay the two had become a hot commodity in hollywood after steven spielberg had tapped them to write the highly anticipated transformers movie and the two had also written paramount's then recent hit mission impossible three when the two writers expressed interest berman orsi and kurtzman also approached mission impossible 3's director j.j abrams to produce the next star trek in contrast to the likes of rick berman and brannon braga figures like jj abrams were seen as absolutely having their fingers on the day's cultural pulse abrams had worked his way up through television creating writing and producing in part or in whole hit shows like felicity alias and lost through his bad robot production company he landed the director's chair on mission impossible 3 purely because tom cruise was a fan of alias initially he joined star trek only in a producer role to help kurtzman and orsi enlisting the help of his longtime collaborators damon lindelof and brian burke while orsi kurtzman and lindelof were already fans of star trek abrams and burke were only vaguely familiar with it just like previous newcomers nicholas meyer and harv bennett they were certainly aware of star trek but had never really clicked with the actual shows or movies therefore in developing this new star trek film the team's goal was to fashion a story which would appeal to all of them if they all liked an idea they believed they were on the right track to satisfying long-term fans and casual viewers alike early in development the creative team decided to bring back the iconic trio of kirk spock and mccoy as it was thought they were the most recognizable star trek characters for general audiences albeit played by new actors as far back as 1968 the idea of a prequel story depicting the first meeting of these three characters was proposed by gene roddenberry later harv bennett conceived of a similar idea during development of star trek vi the undiscovered country while this idea was rejected at the time it seemed to be the right direction to go in for this new movie expanding upon this the team decided to set this new movie and its possible sequels in an alternate timeline either by direct inspiration or pure coincidence the motivation to do this was identical to j michael strzinski's own reasoning to preserve the continuity of the previous shows and movies but have enough creative freedom to do something new to establish this new continuity orsi and kurtzman settled on a time travel plot which would create this new reality though they acknowledged time travel had been overdone in later star trek they saw it as essential in sidestepping the prequel problem where the audience already knows the outcome of events their primary inspirations from previous star trek were episodes like balance of terror and yesterday's enterprise as well as the movie the wrath of khan for more in-depth details however the duo also took inspiration from star trek novels prime directive spock's world and best destiny these novels provided the names for kirk's parents george and winona the novels also helped justify the choice to depict the enterprise being built on earth with technobabble explaining the ship's artificial gravity and inertial dampening needing to be calibrated while inside a gravity well this image of the enterprise being built on earth was largely inspired by a piece of fan art which orsi had sent to abrams the image demonstrated to abrams how the star trek universe could feel grounded and realistic abrams also envisioned the shot of a young kirk watching the enterprise being built in iowa as this film's equivalent of luke skywalker staring at the twin suns on tatooine by 2007 with the script nearing completion paramount offered abrams the director's chair which he gladly accepted though he wasn't a fan when he joined the project since then he had binged many episodes and movies feeling he had finally got star trek as an adult where he had missed it as a child he said after reading the script i would be so agonizingly envious of whoever stepped in and directed the movie i didn't love kirk and spock when i began this journey but i love them now [Music] another longtime abrams collaborator scott chambliss was brought on board as production designer chambliss hired a number of concept artists to help create the look of the film including ryan church and star trek veteran john eaves ryan church was the primary artist responsible for the new look of the uss enterprise abrams told church he wanted to keep the overall shape of the ship but make it sleeker like a hot rod version of the iconic vessel to this end church made the design less strictly modular than matt jeffrey's original design instead blending the saucer section engineering hull and warp nacelles into each other a little more church also took inspiration from both the original series and motion picture designs he used the larger cylindrical nacelles of the original design replete with spinning rotors inside the busard collectors he also adjusted the deflector to retain the radar dish-like shape of the original design however the silvery gray color of the hull and the paneling details was taken from the motion picture refit design for the interiors of the ship chambliss chose to keep the overall layout of the bridge but with brighter colors to reflect the optimism of star trek he also changed the view screen to a floor-to-ceiling window which images would be projected onto to make the outer space environment feel more tangible while some apple store comparisons were made the primary aesthetic influence was artist pierre cardin's famous work on 2001 a space odyssey in contrast to the other areas of the ship the engineering scene in the enterprise is much more industrial abrams was heavily inspired by the rms titanic a sleek luxurious looking ship with an incredible gut in his words costume designer michael kaplan and prop master russell bobbitt also updated the uniforms tricorders and phasers according to abrams this was a tremendous challenge saying we all have an iphone which can do more than the communicator i feel like there's a certain thing you can't really hold on to which is kind of the kitschy quality that must go if it's something that you believe is real to this end bobbitt collaborated with nokia to create a new communicator the tricorder was reduced in size and the phasers were given a spring-loaded mechanism which would spin the barrel when switching from stun to kill to avoid the pajama look sometimes associated with the original uniforms kaplan added in more fine detail by having the starfleet emblem patterned onto the material and the rank insignia stripes made up of silver and gold for the romulans they were envisioned as a space pirates in contrast to the pristine starfleet ships and characters for the narada chambliss was heavily inspired by architect antoni gaudi making the ship seem as if it was made up of bones and ligaments a working industrial ship as opposed to the presentable exploratory enterprise for the romulans themselves it was decided to return to the look of the original series minus the forehead v-shape seen in the next generation complementing the pirate motif the romulans were given facial tattoos and tattered clothing finding new younger actors to take over from such icons was no doubt an unenviable assignment however first and foremost the team needed leonard nimoy the team had all agreed if nemoy turned down the offer they would delay filming and rewrite the script before production they met with nimoy at his house explaining their vision for the film but also how much nimoy himself meant to them when the filmmakers left nimoy allegedly remained in his chair for some time overwhelmed with emotion he recalled this was the first and only time i had ever had a filmmaker tell me we cannot make this without you and we won't make it without you the script had me genuinely excited by its scope and the details of the characters especially spock we have dealt with spock's being half human half vulcan but never with quite the overview that this script has of the entire history of the character the growth of the character and the arrival of the character into the enterprise crew after some careful consideration nimoy was happy to reprise his most famous character for the villainous role of nero australian actor eric bana landed the part he was an enormous fan of star trek the original series and was thrilled to be part of the production while banner got his start in comedy dramas like the castle and chopper he was a familiar face to blockbuster audiences at the time having appeared in blackhawk down hulk and troy as well as the thriller munich in the role of christopher pike the captain of the enterprise before kirk canadian actor bruce greenwood was cast his casting was largely influenced by his performance as john f kennedy in the 2000 film 13 days it was believed greenwood could bring a 60s swagger but also a much needed gravitas to the role additional cast members included ben cross as spock's father sarak and winona ryder as spock's mother amanda kirk's parents were played by a pre-thor chris hemsworth and jennifer morrison to play pavel chekhov russian-born american actor anton yelchin was cast although according to yeltsin chekhov's tendency of mixing up v's and w's is something more common with polish accents he chose to retain that trait for his performance though the rest of his accent was more inspired by his parents what i loved about chekhov is that he's so weird like he's he's to me is the weirdest member of the crew there's an episode where they go to a planet it's called the apple everyone's doing work and chekov spends pretty much the entire episode macking on his girlfriend before star trek anton yelton had already made an impression as the lead in the drama film hearts of atlantis as well as appearing as a regular in the series huff yeltsin would later go on to act opposite patrick stewart in the thriller green room for the role of hikaru sulu heroes actor james kyson lee expressed interest but abrams was instead leaning towards casting korean-american actor jon cho at first abrams was unsure about casting a korean american to play a japanese-american but george takei gave the casting his blessing and so cho landed the part up until star trek cho was mainly known as a comedic actor famously one half of the harold and kumar duo however he also won a claim in indie films such as yellow and better luck tomorrow he saw his role as sulu as a great opportunity to branch out into action and trained for two months to do justice to sulu's knack for fencing from the original series english actor simon pegg had already worked with jj abrams in mission impossible 3 and was offered the role of montgomery scott via email peg being an unabashed trekkie jumped at the chance for the character's accent peggy drew inspiration from his scottish wife maureen and the film's own assistant director tommy gormley both from glasgow although james duin originally based his accent on aberdeen pegg believed achieving an east coast accent was more within his grasp as a scottish person myself i think his accent is pretty good simon pegg got his star in british comedy shows like big train before starring in space which he co-created with jessica stevenson he made his break into feature films with the edgar wright-directed sean of the dead and hot fuzz completing the acclaimed cornetto trilogy in the world's end and he continues to appear in the mission impossible series to this day sydney tamiya poitier had auditioned for uhura but abrams was more keen on zoe saldana for the character saldana had never seen star trek but was intrigued by the offer and met with nichelle nichols to discuss the character i really wanted to do it justice because michelle nichols was just amazing i was very nervous to meet her because she's such a pioneer for what she's done for women in hollywood [Music] i remember feeling my heart pounding because i just didn't know what she was going to expect of me or demand of me and it was completely the opposite she was just so happy and and honored i'm like ma'am this is such an honor to meet you like this is amazing what you did the doors that you opened and people like me walked right through it and now i'm able to say that i am a part of you this is a fun experience for you fun is is a too small a word it's um eerie and exciting i've just been sitting there all that time talking to myself up until this point the character's first name had never been revealed and so roberto orsi suggested nyota meaning star in swahili first used by william roster in his 1982 book star trek ii biographies another crucial element in this new version of the character was her romantic relationship with spock inspired by a number of scenes in the original series in which uhura and spock flirt with one another tell me how your planet vulcan looks on a lazy evening when the moon is full [Music] vulcan has no moon i'm not surprised mr spock saldana had steady work in the early to mid 2000s in various films and television shows but often the projects she landed were not box office hits this is with the exception of pirates of the caribbean curse of the black pearl in which she played anna maria and the steven spielberg directed drama the terminal where she played funnily enough a tracky apparently steven spielberg was the one who taught her how to do the vulcan salute the same year star trek saw its release saldana also portrayed nate tierry in james cameron's avatar and more recently she joined the marvel cinematic universe as gamora new zealand actor carl urban actively pursued the role of dr mccoy when he first heard of the part urban had been a huge star trek fan since he was seven years old he was already familiar with orsi and kurtzman as they both worked on xena warrior princess in which urban portrayed both cupid and julius caesar he was offered the role after only his first audition urban had won great acclaim in new zealand for his comedic performance in the price of milk and his dramatic performance in out of the blue his break into hollywood came following his appearance as eomer in the lord of the rings after which he landed villainous roles in the bourne supremacy and the chronicles of riddick similarly zachary quinto also pursued the role of spock stating his interest in the role in a newspaper interview which abrams was made aware of quinto found the character of spock truly fascinating during his audition quinto got into character by wearing a blue shirt taping his fingers together to practice the vulcan salute shaved his eyebrows into shape and dyed his hair he also worked in several physical characteristics from nimoy's performance such as holding his hands behind his back and his perfect posture although academy award winner adrian brody was also considered quinto eventually won the role zachary quinto worked steadily as a guest star and recurring star in numerous television shows such as csi charmed in 24 but he shot to stardom as the super-powered serial killer siler in heroes at the time he auditioned for star trek he was aware leonard nimoy had casting approval and so was enthused to know he had won the role with nimoy's blessing and the two would strike up a close personal friendship during production william shatner also had casting approval for the new james t kirk names that were considered included mike vogel ryan gosling sam rockwell and joshua jackson matt damon was often rumored to be a front-runner but the actor has since said he was never actually approached for the part eventually the actor who won shatner's and the filmmaker's approval was chris pine however he described his first audition as awful thankfully jj abrams never saw this audition and was convinced by pine's agent to see his second audition which he did with quinto the two already knew each other as they worked out at the same gym only after pine received a written approval from william shatner did he secure the role pine's early career is characterized by romantic lead roles such as in the princess diaries 2 and adjust my luck however his far more interesting work can be seen in the action film smoking aces where he portrays a psychopathic hitman what won him early praise though was his stage work in both los angeles and new york which he continues to do frequently to this day i i won't lie it's been incredibly overwhelming to to step into the role that mr shatner created it is such an iconic specific role in like the canon of film and tv history i talked to jj about it in in the beginning of the process and we kind of made a a mutual uh decision that it would be a mistake to cut to try to recreate what uh mr shatner had done um and to kind of forge a new path and there's certain qualities of kirk that you can't ignore and that it is in the character but to try to mimic mr shatner would just be a mistake [Music] filming began on the 7th of november 2007 utilizing locations throughout california as well as paramount studios abrams and director of photography dan mendel chose to shoot the movie on 35 millimeter film with anamorphic lenses as opposed to digital cameras a visual trademark the movie would become famous for was the abundance of lens flares this was a deliberate choice by abrams and mendel as a visual signifier of star trek's optimism but also an attempt to make the setting feel real the frame is literally bright but the hustle and bustle of other activity is implied off-screen using the flares on location the production used the ever-reliable vasquez rocks as well as the san rafael swell to stand in for vulcan while the skyrose chapel was used for interiors sat on vulcan california state university stood in for starfleet academy with some cg set extensions and backdrops and finally bakersfield california stood in for iowa while the vast majority of the enterprise interiors were built as sets at paramount studios for the industrial look of engineering the production shot at a budweiser beer plant in van nuys california although a conscious effort was made to avoid the heavy reuse and redressing of sets common with previous star trek productions the bridge set for the uss calvin was redressed as the training simulator at starfleet academy to prevent the story leaks which plagued previous star trek productions security was extremely strict during filming some actors were only given portions of the script relevant to their character and any script reading done while on set had to be in the presence of a security guard principal photography wrapped on the 27th of march 2008. for the film's visual effects the production once again enlisted the services of industrial light and magic complemented by digital domain and some other smaller vendors this was the first film ilm worked on to use entirely digital spaceships even ilm's work on the star wars prequel trilogy utilized miniatures for several ships while ryan church had designed the new enterprise visual effects supervisor roger guyat added in some moving parts to the ship to make it more dynamic when going to warp for example the deflector dish opens up and the fins on the nacelles split open for the music of the film abrams hired his frequent collaborator michael jacquino to create the film's score unlike abrams jaquino was a star trek fan and grew up listening to the music of the shows and movies and so took a personal pleasure in scoring star trek however rather than bringing back the jerry goldsmith or james horner theme jaquino decided to create an original theme complemented by alexander courage's original series theme but reorchestrated for the vulcan related music gikino used an airhoo played by karen han to lend the vulcans a sense of age wisdom but also subtle emotion the romulans in contrast were propelled by large blasts of brass and distorted strings all in all the score required a 107 piece orchestra and a 40 person choir spirits were high and many in the cast and crew hoped their hard work would finally pay off and star trek would be a hit i've had a great time and i have not been looking forward to this day and i think you've got a wonderful movie here and and i think from the top on down uh everybody has just been fantastic i think you're a great great bunch of talented people committed and uh it's just been a very very rich and wonderful experience for me it's 18 years since the last time i've played spa 18 years hard to believe and it's 42 years since i first started so it means a lot to me to be here with all of you people tonight thank you thank you thank you [Music] to pull back the curtain a little bit here when this movie came out i was only 14 years old and lived here a remote village in the scottish highlands called kinla cleveland for the longest time our closest cinema was about an hour's drive away in the nearby town of fort william however that cinema had closed down a few years earlier and so the next closest cinema was in the town oban which was roughly a three hour round trip to see anything there but like the fort williams cinema that cinema in oban also closed down the next closest cinema was over two hours drive away which meant an over four hour round trip my family didn't have a hell of a lot of money and so those trips were pretty costly as much as i would have liked i resigned myself to having to wait until the new star trek came out on dvd to see it but a few months after its wide release i heard the screen machine was coming to the village it's this truck which drives around remote areas in scotland and unfolds into a cinema the last time the screen machine visited kinlochleven i was only about five or six years old and to my delight this time the screen machine was showing star trek it's only a small cinema screen maybe twice as big as those projection screens sometimes used in schools but that didn't really matter i went to see the film with my mum who's also a huge trackie i got my popcorn and my fizzy drink and sat down to see the new movie star trek was always something i had grown up loving i was introduced to it at such an early age i don't even know what the first episode or movie i watched was we collected the fact files bought second hand videotapes from charity shops and so on but there was always a slight sadness in that star trek was largely something that was before my time the only star trek show which began and ended during my lifetime back then was enterprise and we didn't have upn in the uk so i only ever saw the first episode of that show on a secondhand vhs tape i was barely aware of the show's existence before it was cancelled after a lifetime of loving the adventures of the starship enterprise visiting strange new worlds encountering strange new life seeing captain kirk having dust-ups with giant lizards picard making passionate moral arguments and really being instilled with a sense of wonder about the universe and optimism for the future finally there was a new star trek and i would get to see it on the big screen the light dimmed in the screen machine and the movie started by the time the title card faded in i already loved the movie i know this will be somewhat of a hot take for some people and we'll get to that but for me star trek 2009 is easily one of the best movies in the entire series i love its sense of adventure the sense of fun the familiar characters giving new spins by new actors the emotional sincerity the themes of friendship living up to one's potential and seeing the full scope of the star trek universe like never before in contrast to the previous big screen outings where paramount had tight control over the budget here they threw a hundred and fifty million dollars behind this movie and it really shows as much as i love many of the older star trek films this was the first to really do justice to the word blockbuster the visual effects are simply stunning but beyond the level of technical artistry on display there's so much that i just really love about the visual style of this movie i do really like this version of the enterprise i remember being kind of thrown by it when i first saw it all those years ago but i've come to regard it as one of my favorites i certainly have some quibbles with it but the detailing is gorgeous the silhouette is striking and it looks terrific in motion i like the bridge design well enough and most of the enterprise starfleet vessel interiors in general but i don't think engineering quite works i love the concept of a more industrial stripped-down gut for the ship but somehow i feel like there's a bit too much concrete on this spaceship and i know this may be another hot take but i love the lens flares the creative intention for why there are so many really works in my opinion even in the darkest of locations the lens flares add a lot of light to the image and succeed in implying a larger brighter universe off screen i can understand why it's not everyone's cup of tea but i personally think it really works i also love the sense of energy jj abrams always lends to his films his direction can certainly be quite sloppy at times with this awkward blend between spielbergie and long takes and michael bay dynamism but after decades of star trek movies which were all shot in mostly the same very good traditional way with little variation here jj abrams just uses more tools i especially love the way the bridge is shot with sliding dolly shots linked together by whip pants the use of handheld camera during action scenes and all the dutch angles i don't think all of it works in fact quite a lot of it is simply flashy for the sake of being flashy but then again why can't star trek be flashy for a change at least it's an attempt at trying something new which i think is very commendable michael jacquino's score is much more traditional by comparison but also brilliant the original theme he created for the movie gets instantly stuck in your head when it's first played in the opening it succeeds in capturing that alexander kurds style of heavy brass and sharp percussion for the action sequences the re-orchestration of the original series theme mixed in with the new is brilliant the best the original theme has ever sounded by far i also enjoy the smaller flourishes like the use of the erhu for vulcan and the use of choir transports the viewer to that fantastical world of star trek with ease it's comfortably one of the best star trek movie scores ever made the cast are all pretty much spot on while kirk and spock takes center stage of bones or hura sulu chekhov and scotty all get plenty to do with each one of them having some kind of standout moment in the film john cho is awesome as this quiet badass version of sulu playing up chekov's intellect and youth makes him such a fun and quirky presence zoe sildana is honestly too good an actress for how much screen time a hura gets but that just makes her scenes all the more memorable simon peck is a little cartoonish in places but he's an expert in being comic relief without being irritating and carl urban is a revelation as mccoy spot on comedic timing but with a grittiness and gravitas which prevents his performance from being a caricature i especially liked the origin story of his nickname yeah well i've got nowhere else to go the ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce like i left my bones this portrayal of james t kirk though does go overboard at times as mentioned earlier there was definitely a feeling of star trek needing to reinvent itself as cool for wider audiences and while a faster pace in action succeeded in that regard the cool elements worked into kirk's character are a little cringe-worthy stealing his stepfather's antique sports car his flirtation with uhura and the entire underwear scene these do feel very out of place and quite gratuitous that being said kirk's arrogance and cockiness is totally in line with what we've previously heard about kirk in his younger years this is a kirk who isn't weighed down by the burden of command yet he hasn't had time to fully mature as the starship captain we all know him as and so i think chris pine's performance definitely works but the writing for the character is shallow in some scenes which is why just like in the original series kirk is largely upstaged by spock in this movie zachary quinto is just excellent in the role taking over from an icon like leonard nimoy must have been very intimidating but to actually share his scene with him is a dangerous prospect and yet quinto more than holds his own just like kirk this is spock in his younger years the conflict between his vulcan and human halves is much more prevalent quinto plays the subtextual emotions of the character exceedingly well lending real power to his outbursts of anger and grief his story really is the heart of the film i always get a little choked up when sarik says this to spock you asked me once why i married your mother i married her because i loved her which is why the interplay between these two characters works so well in the film in a way they represent each other's personal struggles kirk is the human side of spock impulsive arrogant and reckless whereas spock is the ideal starfleet officer many expect kirk to be dutiful intelligent and responsible their journey from enemies to friends symbolizes them overcoming their own struggles and finding strength in their weaknesses kirk's to hell with the odds attitude shows spock how to embrace the passion of his human side to better utilize his intelligence and expertise whereas spock's ideal starfleet officer presence shows kirk what he could become if he strives to be something more than he is you really get a sense of why these two need each other and how they become such good friends later down the line that being said although these arcs work in general the plotting to get them to where they need to be can be very contrived captain pike promoting kirk from cadet to first officer because he remembered a thing from a starfleet report made years ago is pretty ridiculous it only happens so kirk can take command when spock steps down the latter plot point is fine but it's a big leap to get there what i appreciate most about the storytelling in this star trek is how daring it is i said before in my enterprise review how the temporal cold war art came across as toothless we're told established events are being altered but because we aren't familiar with these specific events and nothing that huge happens to the timeline we don't get a sense of the stakes but in star trek 2009 the destruction of vulcan is really powerful this is a huge deviation from the timeline we know and the impact of the planet's destruction is allowed to linger during spock's subsequent captains log only for this to be topped off with the revelation of a romance between spock and ahura it feels like a natural extension of the flirtation we've seen in the original series but actually following through with it is again surprising and also exciting and that's ultimately what keeps me coming back to this movie and why i rank it so highly among the other big screen outings even to this day it feels fresh and daring in its style and creative choices yet at the same time it really captured the feeling of star trek the bonds of friendship between the characters the colorful and lively universe full of strange new worlds strange new life and endless adventure even after so many years every time i finish watching this movie i'm left with a profound sense that anything is possible and that to me is at the real heart of star trek leading up to star trek's release paramount made a huge marketing push for the movie tie-in comic books video games and merchandise blanketed store shelves and screens this was combined with a viral marketing campaign inspired by the success of cloverfield the previous year also produced by jj abrams and this extra push definitely paid off star trek debuted on the 7th of may 2009 in the united states with a 79 million opening weekend with an additional 35 million dollars from overseas for a worldwide opening of over 114 million dollars it was the biggest opening for a star trek movie in the us and internationally it ended its u.s theatrical run in october of that year having grossed over 385 million dollars worldwide the highest grossing star trek movie at the time critical and audience reception was likewise incredibly strong it was acclaimed by critics with aggregate website rotten tomatoes measuring a 94 approval rating with the average review giving the film an 8 out of 10 score praise was heaped upon the lavish presentation fast pace and performances from the cast among the various hardcore star trek fan sites the reception was a little more controversial with some vocal detractors going so far as to call it a betrayal of the franchise and not quote unquote real star trek but to those detractors i say even if you didn't like this take on star trek it still introduced star trek to millions of new fans when i announced this video on my community tab a slew of commenters named this movie as the installment which got them into star trek even the quote-unquote real star trek for the first time in a long time star trek was a hit again and for the first time ever it was on the same footing as some of the franchises which often dwarfed it by comparison the success continued on home video where dvd and blu-ray sales topped the charts it was even the first star trek film to win an academy award for best makeup as well as a plethora of other accolades and nominations many star trek veterans also spoke positively about the movie patrick stewart said i loved it i absolutely loved it it was a very very odd experience to be in the cinema watching a new star trek movie that i wasn't in not only that but with the exception of leonard nimoy i didn't know any of the cast but it's star trek they've taken some quite innovative decisions but it's absolutely essential right down the middle star trek despite some of the expected backlash from vocal sex at the fanbase star trek was well and truly back in a big way but the question of whether or not this stride could be maintained would be answered in its inevitable sequel [Music] thank you for watching if you like these videos subscribe and hit the bell icon to stay up to date on my new uploads if you want to help the channel grow join my patrons or my youtube members where you can see videos early as well as some other exclusive content speaking of which i'd like to quickly thank all of my patrons and members who are now appearing on screen have a good one and as always live long and prosper

Channel: Rowan J Coleman

Views: 208,906

Keywords: star trek, star trek 2009, star trek movie, star trek retrospective, star trek retrospective review, star trek movie retrospective review, star trek 2009 retrospective review, star trek 2009 review, star trek the original series, star trek the next generation, star trek deep space nine, star trek voyager, star trek enterprise, star trek discovery, star trek picard, star trek lower deck, spacedock, trek culture, star trek retrospective part 16, rowan j coleman

Id: KVULA_FRYZA

Length: 39min 42sec (2382 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 23 2022