When the Fourth was with you (dang, the joke doesn’t work well in the past tense), we asked about your favorite lightsaber Yoda Wookie scruffy nerf-herder Star Wars movie. 53% of you were overtaken when the Empire Struck Back, reeling from the revelation that Vader was Luke’s father (OMG spoiler). 19% voted for the original, A New Hope for science fiction. Rounding out the original trilogy was Jedi with 12%. Clone Wars, the one that didn’t quite fit with the others anyway, got only 1% of the vote.
Over the weekend, I caught the newest entry in the battle between Star Wars and Star Trek, as the Federation Strikes Back with the new update, featuring a rebooted franchise and cast (with one exception). I was not alone in this, as many showings were sold out as everyone and their mother (literally) sought out the new adventures of Kirk and Spock.
I enjoyed the film, and felt that the new actors slipped into their roles very well. The two main stand-outs were Simon Pegg playing, well, Simon Pegg, but who doesn’t want more of that? (And thus it was a bit disappointing that he doesn’t appear until most of the way through the movie). Chris Pine as Kirk played up a rebellious nature that was more restrained in Shatner, and it worked in the context of the story. I felt that the movie did a good job as an origin story movie with a fast-paced action-adventure plot that was definitively Star Trek in its scope and technobabble. There were plenty of winks and nods to fans (there was really only one classic line that was missed out on), and it showed a lot of respect to everything that came before while saying “we’re going to tell some new stories, now.” With all the money it made this weekend, combined with all the positive reviews, you know there’s going to be a sequel (or five).
Thus, for all you new and old Trek fans alike, to balance the scales of last week, I present to you the following query…
[poll id=”124″]
I’ve chosen to make it 2 to balance out the newness factor of the just-released film and get a sense of what other Trek films are popular as well. Let us know what you like (and if you saw it, what you thought of the new one), and live long and prosper.
P.S. (slight spoiler): Romulans are my favorite race in Star Trek, and I love when they get to be a decent bad guy.
I have to go with the latest and Wrath of Khan. The rest never really did it for me, often feeling too small or without a decent threat.
Khan, however, has nostalgia and one of the greatest enemies ever, on screen.
Star Trek, imo, though, reboots the series in ways I did not expect, not only giving me nods to the characters as we knew them, but adding many facets to each that were all-together a welcome surprise. I’ll bet this one handles the test of time very well and continues to become a solid franchise.
Ktulu´s last post: Chapter XXV: Secret of a Blue Star
Haven’t seen the new one yet (have plans to this Friday). It was a close race for second between Undiscovered Country and First Contact. Star Trek: The Motion Picture has also grown on me with each subsequent viewing.
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Here’s my thought: I think it did a great job of putting TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and all ten previous movies into a nice, neat temporal box — alternate universe, right? Lots of precedent for that in ST, and by doing that they accomplished two important things: first, they preserved all that those series and movies did, in terms of story, without any silly deus ex machina yoga; and second, they removed any future need to twist or contort this storyline so it fits with those established already. They are now completely free to develop the story as they wish. And if the Trekkie grognards take a moment and think about it, in terms of story elements (the temporal thingy), they’re well within canon.
The only thing they didn’t deal with, and have no need to, was the piece o’ crap series, Enterprise. It predates all the action in ST, and so it can be ignored as the turd that it was.
Maybe that’s more than two cents. I consider myself one of those ST grognards…went to my first convention in the 80s sometime (got Nichelle Nichols’ autograph!), so I figure that if I like it, and put that much thought into it, well, you should like it, too.
Now go see it.
@Jeremy –
Actually, they did discuss Enterprise, when Kirk and Scotty were talking about the teleportation thing.
Scotty: “I tested it on Admiral Archer’s prized beagle.”
Kirk: “Did it work?”
Scotty: “I’ll tell you… if I ever find him.”
.
Also, I probably will lose my geek cred for this, but I really enjoyed Enterprise, for what it was.
Possibly more for my being a fan of Bakula than anything else, but still.
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Like Ktulu already stated, Khan is one of the greatest enemies Star Trek ever saw. So that got my first pick.
My second pick is going to make people cringe…The Voyage Home. While definitely not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination,(the only good parts were Scotty’s humor) it was the first one that I remember as a kid seeing. I mean, transparent aluminum, Scotty says, “how do I know he didn’t invent it.” You can mess with time, isn’t ignorance bliss?
I also have not seen the new movie.
@Blumpkin: I almost voted for the Voyage Home also, for the same reason, it’s the one I liked most as a kid probably entirely for the cloaked klingon war bird landing on a trash can scene.
I saw the new Star Trek on sunday, and found myself actually wishing a 2 hour movie was a little bit longer. The pacing was fantastic!
@Graham: You’re right! I guess that, after the emotional trauma that Enterprise caused for me, I had simply blotted out all memory of the dreadful specifics of that show, including its characters. Wow. Great call. I only wish it’d been Adm. Archer who’d been transported far and away….