The Star Trek movie is out, but the Tidbits keep on coming and so we keep reporting. Today we have news the President wants to get his Trek on. Also you can check out Leonard Nimoy doing a Trekkified Top 10. Plus premiere night fan videos, lots of interviews, and more. So dive in to the opening day Tidbits.
Reminder: Tickets available online (including IMAX)
As we will begin every tidbits, we remind you that you can now buy advanced tickets (including early shows) for Star Trek at Fandango. You can also get tickets for IMAX at Fandango. And by buying your tickets from Fandango, you are supporting TrekMovie.com. For locations that don’t have tickets available through Fandango, try movietickets.com.
Another Reminder: New Reader Review Page
TrekMovie has more site reviews lined up, but what about the fans? Well we have set up a page for reader reviews, so if you have seen the movie, write your own review.
Obama wants his Trek viewing
The day after he was elected TrekMovie outed President Obama, and since then the mainstream press have picked up on it as well, and now in an article titled ‘Trekkie in chief wants screening‘ the Politco is reporting that The President wants his own screening of Star Trek at the White House. The Politico story notes how Obama has often been compared to Vulcans due to his ‘no drama’ demeanor, and even quotes Leonard Nimoy regarding meeting Obama on a couple of occasions. The last known Presidential screening of a Trek film at the White House was Star Trek III for President Reagan in 1984.
In more political/Star Trek, the Deputy Editor of US News and World Report (who happens to be a Trekkie) sends in links to a couple of new opinion piece in the magazine:
- Robert Schlesinger: Star Trek marks a shift in the national mood
- James Pinkerton: "Star Trek Review: Who Would Captain James T. Kirk vote for? JFK, of Course.
TV Guide’s Big Movie Premiere 30 minute show
The TV Guide channel has a half our show dedicated to Star Trek including interviews. Worth watching.
Nimoy reads the top 10
Leonard Nimoy was on last night’s Late Show With David Letterman, here is the top 10:
Opening night video
Reelz Channel was at the Arclight opening of Trek and got some fan comments
SEND IN YOUR PREMIERE PHOTOS!
TrekMovie wants to see your premiere experience, so send in any interesting photos to tips [@] trekmovie [dot] com.
Interviews
Chris Pine on CBS
John Cho on Jimmy Kimmel
Nimoy with Collider
Text
Talk show list updated –
The Trek stars are fanning across the talk shows and TV stations, here are the latest videos. Tune in for these upcoming appearances:
- Friday 5/8: "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (ABC) – Chris Pine
- Friday 5/8: "Tavis Smiley" (PBS) – JJ Abrams
- Friday 5/8: "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" (NBC) – Leonard Nimoy & Zachary Quinto
Finally: All of Star Trek Voyager in two minutes
Need to catch up on Voyager…watch all of it in two minutes:
Tidbits bits
Even more Star Trek stuff for you:
- Philadelphia Inquirer article on Star Trek collecting (quoting our own John Tenuto)
- Newsweek has a great narrated rare photo essay about the history of Star Trek conventions
- The UK’s Sunday Mirror will include a free copy of the special souvenir issue of Star Trek Magazine
- Google announced they are excited about ‘a certain movie’ and so they have modified Google Calendars to include stardates
Google Stardates
Thanks to all the tipsters
If you would like to see Karl Urban interviewed tune into the “Attack of the Show” weekly recap rerun.
I’m first? everyone else must be at the movies…
On G4, sorry.
At the Theatre I saw it in tonight the threate was half full, and same goes for the showing 2 hours later, I’m told. Pretty good in this economy against other films. Did about as good on Opening Day as Titanic did – which wasn’t all that great. But word-of-mouth beyond the ad blitz saved Titanic.
No real disappointments. The changes in everything including timeline and ship design were pretty well explained. Did seem to have the Starship Troopers look and feel. D.C. Fontana was indeed channeled. No “classic” music until the end credits. Much of the script was “fanboyish.” Execution of the editing was both complex and impressive. Too tightly trimmed in some areas. Give it 4 out of 5 stars (previous high for any Star Trek movie: 3 of 5). Not quite up to the “Get Smart” movie from last summer or Gran Torino from last winter, but nonetheless a movie very much worth seeing, and enjoyable for both the veteran and virgin Star Trek audience.
Where’s Science Friday? That’s why I’m really here! (no joke!)
Anthony, I sure hope you have some holidays booked in the next while, you deserve them!!
“We’ve just hit a goose!” Haha…awesome.
John–
Get Smart? Really? That movie was a piece of shit. Hey everyone–isn’t it amazing how easy it is to discredit someone’s opinion about a film when they cite what they think is a good movie in their post, but the rest of us know that the “good” movie suck’s? That’s John’s post to a “T.”
I just thought that I’d let everyone know that I posted a review for the film in the TrekMovie film review boards. The review is organized in the following manner:
First Paragraph: My initial mixed feelings going in and my very positive feelings coming out and what I liked about the film including an interesting personal connection that I made to the film.
Second Paragraph is about what I disliked about the film which is the premise of a reboot/alternate reality. That is discussed in more detail in the review.
The Final Section of the review is a complex breakdown of scores, starting with scoring each aspect of the film and the final score which is an average of the scores listed. I will post my final score here and hopefully everyone will read my review for more details.
Final Score: 8.4 out of 10. Not the best Trek ever, for gripes discussed in my review, but still an excellent one. (Final Score is computed by average of scores.)
#7 – I don’t know what you’re complaining about. I’m not into Sci-Fi and it did remind me of just as much a remake of “Starship Troopers” as “Star Trek.” Throw in a little Star Wars in the bar scene and with the furry big-eyed forrest creatures that befriend Scotty and you can almost see an inspiration of Star Wars, as well as Terminator in the RoboCop. For someone who really hates most Sci-Fi, that means that I have a different standard upon which movies are judged and once I figured out {SPOILER} that the change in the timeline happens 3 or 4 decades before TOS either in the form of THE CAGE or TOS come into being, then the progressive changes by the time we see our starship and the Universe around Star Trek are easier to explain. Once it becomes easy to dismiss the years we know as Star Trek series and movies as lost but in the memory of a prior river in time, then it becomes exciting to imagine what will come in its place. Will there be a “Prime Directive?” Will THIS version of the Enterprise be shot at by an F-104 over 1967 Omana, or was that reserved for just the “other” one. Which version of the Enterprise-E would go back in time to visit Zeffram Cochrane and to stop the Borg? These are great questions which don’t have an easy answer in the movie. Trust me, it was a great movie – especially on the heels of Nemesis despite the similar appearances and contrievances.
#8 – congrats! I can’t even get that page to load, but it’s probably being overused at the moment. i look forward to your review!
Hooray for the Trekkie-in-Chief!
What’s the matter with you Letterman??? You’re an idiot, that’s what!! I can’t stand him! Leonard Nimoy should have kicked Letterman in the genitalia for screwing up his name, and mentioning Star Wars in the same room.
My total fav was Chekov. Anton did an amazing job. I thought my fav was going to be McCoy but I was wrong. I loved it it was great.
movie was awesome. I’ve seen it 3 times so far.
The Jim Pinkerton article was somewhat surprising. While the perspective he takes is nothing new, it is unexpected coming from Mr. Pinkerton. He is definitely no “lefty hippie liberal”.
Mr. Pascale, get ready for PC right-wing blowhards that overreact to the slightest and most benign of political commentary.
#14 – Three times so far? Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen any Star Trek movie 3 times except for Galaxy Quest! I did enjoy Chris Doohan – the Assistant Transporter Officer. It was really hard for me to figure out who was supposed to be Scotty when I saw those two together. Simon has many of the same mannerisms and characterics (yet so far as I can tell, all 10 fingers) but still, Chris must have been on the set saying “deja vu” when operating the transporter with Simon.
Dave: Star Wars, starring James Blatner.
#15 … I didn’t even get the hint of politics anywhere in the movie. I did strongly object to Nimoy’s politically motivated complaints that he sees the young Kirk as Obama and thought Obama should have had this Star Trek movie more closely timed to his inaguration … in short, the only blowhards relevant to this movie so far as I can tell so far are lefties in Hollywood. But I never judge a character in a movie by its actor.
#4: “Much of the script was “fanboyish.””
I agree. I enjoyed the film; I thought it was exciting and fun and I was genuinely surprised at how well a couple of the emotional bits worked (especially the opening one, which shouldn’t, by any rights, have affected me at all but it sure as heck did; got me weepy right from the start).
… But man, there were times when it felt like it was constructed from hyper-fannish checklists of in-jokes and obligatory nods draped in the warm melted cheese of you’ve-GOT-to-be-kidding-me dialogue cliches. The plot and dialogue both danced a razor-thin line between outright parody and … subtler parody.
This made certain performances stand out, though … I 100% believed that Zoe Saldana’s Uhura was a real, living, and admirable person, for example, which is just incredible considering what her lines would look like on paper, before she brought them to life. I felt the same way about Montgomery Scott … despite knowing going in that he was basically comic relief, I felt that his performance had equal measures of humor and real, human grounding (and again, measuring this against the material he was working with, and the end result is that Simon Pegg is now a deity to me … he was funny before but now he’s frickin’ Olivier). Similarly, Eric Bana brought genuine conviction to a part that, without his contributions, would have been a cypher, a second-rate fanfic Khan knockoff complete with bugs that burrow to the brain.
I know it sounds like I’m daming the film with faint praise, but really I’m trying to damn it with sincere and somewhat gushy praise.
#19 … agreed! Okay, they moved Delta Vega about 50 light years. I think I will be talking about Wynona Rider’s and Simon Pegg’s performances (as well as Bruce Greenwood’s) for some time. The “tribute to TOS” contrievances that ironically didn’t seem “fanboyish” to me were the 2 direct rips from D.C. Fontana’s “Yesteryear,” and the fact that the Spock that we see in this film mostly comes straight out of her novel “Vulcan’s Glory.” In the case of “Vulcan’s Glory, Spock was “tripped” by the death of his Vulcan lover on the ship, and not by … I can’t even bring myself to say it.
#20: Oh, you’re right, too; shame on me for not mentioning Greenwood, in particular … Greenwood’s peformance provides the voice for the film in many ways (props to Wynona Rider, but she had so little screen time … uh, for whatever reason … that it was a darn shame).
And I think I just isolated what made Pegg’s Scotty feel absolutely real to me: it was his performances when the shite hit the proverbial fan (not to be confused with the shite hitting the proverbial fans) … Even though some of his lines, at that point, were clearly meant to bring a little levity to a scary moment, everything physical in his performance, everything his face was doing, everything his voice was doing, was genuine distress … He looked frightened, he looked frustrated, and he looked determined, absolutely determined, to set it right, to get his job done and keep the ship flying. His physical _reactions_ to crisis, more than anything (certainly more than explodey FX or toss-off nonsense about red matter) made the crisis real for me, and that made Scotty real for me.
(And lest people think I’m picking on the screenwriters, I consider this film something of a a vindication for them, since it’s proof positive that they _don’t_ write sluggish Michael Bay movies … they write scripts with Michael Bay turns _into_ sluggish Michael Bay movies)
18.
Mr. Sullivan, I should have been clearer. I was refering to political commentary on this site and not the movie itself.
However, Captain Pike does refer to the Federation as a peacekeeping and humanitarian organization. That sounds like a UN type mission statement.
Saw it for the second time – Not as intense as the first…but could be because it was just yesterday.
Still love the Kobyashi Maru sequence and the way Pine is sitting at the end of the film. – Both of these speak original kirk to me. Something about the way he wrapped things up with the test and got up out of the chair was so familiar and perfect.
During the Kobyashi Maru test my mom shouted: KLINGONS!
it´s just me or anyone else went crazy when the D7´s appeared in the simulation?
Loving every minute of being a Trek fan since 1990!
12
If you watch Letterman, you know that that’s his style of comedy. Jeeze, calm down son.
Letterman’s style of comedy STINKS! He’s a hack and a very lucky one at that!
finally saw the movie today , still in shock since i have been waiting like 3 years for this , well i love it . Have to see it at least 3 times more . This movie will be a big hit anyway thats for sure, and yes i know there will be another one ! . at least i know where to come for all the details if they make a sequal ! i love you trekmovie.com !
LEGIT QUESTION:
ok if someone can answer this for me, I will feel ALOT better about this movie, as this is the largest plot hole that I could find: Why does Nero not try to prevent the destruction of Romulus from happening once he is back in the past??? Why instead does he waste his time getting revenge when he can just contact Spock and tell him to shoot the red matter into the star just a few mins earlier ??
It was very interesting to hear my wife’s reaction to the film tonight. My wife really enjoyed Chekov, Sulu and Kirk. And she thought that although McCoy and Scotty were very good, they didn’t give them enough time in the spotlight.
Me? I thought is was all very good. Unlike my wife, I liked the unusual romantic twist in the film.
And without unleashing any spoilers, I am very satisfied with the new turn of events with Pike. Wow, 44 years, and now this….
Live long, prosper, and keep hang’n and bang’n!
#29: Beats me, but not much in the Nero side of the story makes sense to me (possibly because of all the cut scenes). A related question: after 25 years with Romulans on a big ship, is there a new generation of little Romulans onboard being raised offscreen? If not, why not (are post-apocalyptic Romulans devoid of sex drives or family-making drives? do Romulans have a 35-year gestation period? did Nero have each newborn Romulan secretly shuttle-dropped onto a Romulan colony so it could be raised with a more normal life in the old Empire and his crew could stay angry instead of settling down and getting maternal/paternal?) If so, how does that color the already-maybe-muddy morality of the resolution?
29 – because the supernova won’t happen for another 150 years and because he’s hellbent on revenge over the death of his wife, unborn child, and his entire race.
#27
Totally agree!
lol #31 those are minor issues compared to my question, but still good points
and #32 you’re right… it wont happen for another 150 years…. so that gives him plenty of time to prevent it from happening right?? Instead of getting “revenge” for the death of his race, he could prevent the whole thing from happening in the first place!!! All he has to do is sit spock down and explain to him how it goes down…. problem solved.
I loved alot of what they did in this movie, but the stuff around the villain makes no sense
So were the eel/worm things put in Pike not similar-looking to the ones in TNG’s Conspiracy. They even entered through his mouth (unlike Khan’s Ceti eels). I say this because otherwise the scene felt unnecessary. Could Nero have tracked them down? Could Pike therefore be the start of another really boring invasion? Mark my words, he’ll be scarfing down mealworms in no time. Could putting a just-graduated cadet in charge of the Federation’s flagship be part of their evil wormy/eely plan?
I’m scared. That episode was so lame.
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/startrek/images/d/d2/Parasite.jpg
star trek made 25 m on friday~
Letterman is an……wait for it…..Blow-hard creep.
29- Nero had to wait for Spock 20 years later to capture his ship and get the red matter. Then at that point he was so focused on revenge he went straight to Vulcan. Plus I imagined he thought they were invincible and of course had a lot of time (129 years) to get to it! Just my take on it.
# 39: right…. he waits the 20 years for Spock to come back…… once Spock is back, he can then tell Spock what to do in order to prevent Romulus from being destroyed. Would this not be more helpful than trying to destroy all the federation planets ?? And by the way… he shouldnt have any grudge against the FEDERATION (as opposed to Spock) as a whole at all…. and even Spock was only trying to help….
One of the Top Ten lines should have been.
“Captain, we can’t do that. It’s not canon.”
Nero’s behavior isn’t well thought out because he’s fundamentally different from most Star Trek villians. He isn’t terribly bright.
This is hinted at several times in the movie. From his “unsophisticated” speech patterns to his poor grasp of science, it is clear that this bad guy doesn’t quite have the candle power of a Khan or Chang. He’s not a general, admiral, dictator, or mad scientist. These are usual suspects when it comes to Trek antagonists. And they’re usually portrayed as clever and complex.
In contrast, Nero’s just a thuggish miner with a big drill (and a vendetta against Spock). He gets what he wants through brute force. Personally, I like the fact that we’re getting a different kind of villian in this movie. Star Trek villians have always been a little too suave for their own good. By the end of TNG, you even had them giving the “evil plan” exposition scene a la James Bond.
The top ten lines video won’t play in the UK – maybe someone over there would be kind enough to transcribe them?
SPOILER
What happens to spock in the end? he just..walks off? Does he go back to his own time?
#44: The implication of his dialogue at the end (the bit about being in two places at the same time) was that he’d be helping Vulcan rebuild, in the new timeline.
REMINDER FOR UK
‘BRING BACK STAR TREK’ – TONIGHT AT 9 ON CHANNEL 4
Hey thanks for the post! Very interesting to see the TV Guide about Star Trek!
So TREK made $26m on Friday in addition to the $7m Thursday sales. Adds up to $33m compared to (I think) $35m for wolverine.
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/star-trek-adds-another-26-million-how-high-will-it-boldly-go
So I think we will fall a bit short of wolverines $85m but word-of-mouth and the passionate trekkie-multiple-viewers should ensure that Trek has more legs in the US at least. Overseas wolverine will certainly do better. But overall enough for a sequel and for making CBS thinking of calling JJ!
OO STAR TREK DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL 4 9PM…shit i’ll be at IMAX watching the movie!
lol
#29, my understanding is that this isn’t simply a time-travel story, it’s an alternate-universe story. So Nero’s Romulus is destroyed, his wife is dead, period. The versions he would find in the new universe/reality are not the same. So there is no timeline to restore. What he cared about is gone. And so he’s p**sed.