BLAST-OFF! 'Star Trek' Opens To $25M Friday; $32M So Far; Weekend $72M Audience Wider Than Fanbase

Deadline Hollywood Daily ^ | Nikki Finke

[dragnet2]

Avoiding this POS like the plague.

How odd...My son along with 6 others I know have seen it, and every one of them thought it was a great movie.

[Centurion2000]

I’m with you. Avoiding this POS like the plague.

Not a POS at all. Actually a VERY good reboot of the series. I'd have to say that there are some thin spots, Starfleet admirals must be pretty stupid, and how he winds up with command as naval traditions seem really different than current time.

But it was and is a very enjoyable movie.

[Tolik]

"Actually, what I'd really like to see is a TV series in the New Trek universe"

With their nifty trick of creating an alternative timeline, they are free to move on from this point forward without complains about contradictions with the "old" series. I'd say go for it!

[Hyzenthlay]

Yeah, I didn’t like the camera work too much, but there were one or two moments where they did the ‘everyone leans over in their chairs and the camera shakes a bit’ thing that happened every time the Enterprise got hit by a phaser or whatever in TOS - to me, that was one of the little things that made this movie so awesome. Although, we didn’t need any more “Lost”, if the plot was any more complicated I think nobody would understand it.

And, I’ve got to admit, I was raised on the original series, and had very high expectations and, while I knew the movie would not entirely stick to canon, wanted it to be extremely close. And, I was satisfied - it wasn’t really about the plot, it was about the characters which were PERFECT (especially McCoy! I don’t have words for how amazed I am at Karl Urban’s performance here) and the explanation for the alternate timeline, including the references to the ‘other’ universe that was clearly the TOS one, was satisfactory for me.

[JamesP81]

Is Kirk going to be a real man like he was in the original series?

Saw it friday, and it looks to me like that's what they're going for. There was a great deal of subtle symbolism if you watched for it, and some of the things I picked up on were to the effect of 'no more wimpy captains'.

[JamesP81]

The touchy-feely, political correctness that dominated Star Trek from 1990-2007 is over. Long live TOS!

That's one of the vibes I got. Specifically, the conversation between young Kirk and Pike in the bar. Pike made a comment to the effect of you look before your leap, something that the fleet has lost these days. I think that was Abrams's way of informing everyone that Berman was a pansy and we aren't doing it that way anymore.

Abrams certainly went great lengths to capture the feel of the original TV show. I think he succeeded.

[Sloth]

[JamesP81]

And yeah, they got Kirk right. "Give them everything we've got!" No PC namby-pamby Jean-Luc Picard yawnfest here. Kirk's character is inclined to shoot first and ask questions later, just as he should be.

One of the things that really brought this home was the end of the movie when the enemy ship is about to be destroyed. Kirk offers assistance to them, which the enemy spits back in his face saying "I'd rather die slowly in agony than take assistance from you." The Picard response would've been a stern sad look. Kirk's response was "You got it!" and gave him everything he asked for.

[JamesP81]

McCoy is downright perfect and I think Zachary Quinto (Spock) is actually a cloned Leonard Nimoy :-).

I was struck by Quinto's performance. I don't think anyone in the world could've done a better job portraying Spock besides Leonard Nimoy as Quinto did. He talks like Nimoy did in TOS, he uses the same mannerisms and facial expressions, he even manages to walk like Nimoy did.

[Richard Kimball]

You mean the Federation.

[JamesP81]

I'd have to say that there are some thin spots, Starfleet admirals must be pretty stupid, and how he winds up with command as naval traditions seem really different than current time.

It kind of has a feel of a nation that's been established for a short time and is expanding its fleet so fast it can't keep up with personnel requirements, IMO. Speaking of things naval, however, I really, *really* like how the ship, on the interior, actually looks more like a real ship.

[Richard Kimball]

I wonder if the feud beyween Shatner and Takei had anything to do with the fact that Takei is gay.

Why would Takei turn gay over having a fight with Shatner?

[Sloth]

After exposure to enough concentrated Shatner, almost any man will feel gay by comparison. Chuck Norris, on the other hand, is the only man who could turn Shatner gay.

[chimera]

It is a kind of re-boot, but goes beyond that. It is definitely better than the old movie series. More action, less ponderous dialog (there is some but not a lot). It relies on the old time-travel-changing-history plot device, but they make it work. And in this case it will give new life to the series and more options for story development while keeping the overall framework intact.

And the interplay between the young Spock and youthfully babish Nyota I-Never-Knew-Her-First-Name Uhuru is a fun twist.

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

Good for you. Go see it twenty more times and make sure Paramount and Abrams make another million. It is everything I despise in a movie-from ‘rebooting’/’reimagining’ to young mostly unheard-of little-talent jerkoffs in the parts (as was said,”*Nobody* can play Spock,Kirk,Uhura,Checkov,Bones and Scotty other than the originals any more than John Travolta can play Atticus Finch. “-Gay State Conservative-FOUR-STAR POST ****)

I also despise J.J. Abrams and everything he’s ever done. I felt Every movie after The Undiscovered Country sucked. Never paid to see another one. Felt DS9 was the only acceptable/halfway worthwhile series after the original, only due to decent characters. And yet you expect me to pay to set through it. No Thanks. Oh, and Don’t forget to buy your kids all the cereals, toys, and tie-in products, which is the real reason it was made. Ta Ta. I’m sure you’re also awaiting the latest Terminator CGI crapfest &Transformers 2.

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, if you do a Google search for Chuck Norris, it just comes back and says, "NO! Chuck Norris searches for you."

BTW, I saw an interview with Shatner, and he was talking about the time after TOS was canceled. He was divorced, none of the other series were on the horizon, he hadn't made that much money from the series (there's a lot of information on how DesiLu screwed the original cast) and he was living in a camper-trailer, watching the first moon landing. Interesting story.

Couple of other trivia notes: In TOS, McCoy's medical tools were originally designed to be futuristic salt and pepper shakers. Nobody could tell what they were, so they became McCoy's medical tools and they just used regular salt and pepper shakers. The automatic doors on the show preceded real automatic doors, and they had stage hands slide them open and closed. There were several outtakes where cast members walked into the doors when the stage hands missed their cues. The original transporter effect was done by putting the characters against a blue screen, reversing the cut out, and making the sparkle effect by blowing a fan over long strands of Christmas tinsel. Desilu demanded that their studios make all the props, and charged a little over $500 for each communicator, and close to a thousand for the tricorder. This was one of the screwings they gave to the original producers, by requiring them to buy all their props from Desilu.

One of the reasons making the movie took so long was because many of the actors never received royalties from the original series, and therefore demanded much larger salaries. Desilu did some VERY creative bookkeeping where they would bill the Series budget every time it was shown in reruns, by making the series budget pay the prop department, distribution services, etc, each time TOS was shown. They were able to make it look like they lost money every time the show was shown in rerun. This kept the contract clause that gave the cast a payment after the series showed a profit from ever kicking in.

[dragnet2]

Good for you. Go see it twenty more times and make sure Paramount and Abrams make another million

You seem angry. I clearly said I've not seen it yet, but others I know have, and all said it was a great movie, best they've seen in while.

Feel free not to see it. lol..

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

Nope, not angry, just not watching this. As I said, by all means, Help yourself and go twenty times. See it as your duty.

[Centurion2000]

Nope, not angry, just not watching this.

Well, I guess you can go have fun watching Pride and Prejudice or Atonement or some other piece of crap adult drama. Thank God for America right?

We'll be watching movies where people are blowing sh%# up and wasting bad guys. Terminator IV looks like it's going to have a LOT of good wholesome violence as well.

Tally Ho and all that.

[Duke Nukum]

With their nifty trick of creating an alternative timeline, they are free to move on from this point forward without complains about contradictions with the "old" series. I'd say go for it!

That's one thing I liked about Enterprise but a lot of people didn't seem to like the time war arc.

I saw the movie on Saturday and loved it. It seemed like it was only the good stuff, like you know sometimes you watch a trailer and think, wow! that looks great, then you see the movie and realize they put all the good stuff in the trailer. Well, this was like that trailer, only it was the whole movie!