7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[Starra]

I have never seen any Star Trek.

Sci-fi just... doesn't really interest me.

[Zunu]

I forgot the most contemptible thing of all, the pointless Khan lie. Contemptible because it was a lie that could only possibly work on the most loyal, dedicated, trusting and gullible fans who went to see the movie right away, before the "secret" got out, totally on faith without reading any spoiler reviews. That's how Abrams saw fit to reward the biggest fans. Kind of the way that the LOST "no they're not dead" lie worked by suckering the most loyal, watch-every-episode fans who really believed there was some kind of amazing backstory to the whole shebang up until the very last episode.

@Amped, if you liked it, that's cool. I mean, it was in a literal sense a spectacular film. It's just, it could've been so much more, and what's worse is that there was no point to the flaws. Every single one of them could've been fixed with the tiniest bit of concern on Abrams' part for making a work of art.

[JonCC]

I didn't like the first one. Thus I never saw the second one.
I don't even think it was that bad a movie, just a bad "Star Trek" movie.
JJ tried to make Star Trek into Star Wars before he actually got the Star Wars gig.

I knew something was up when right as the movie started we get to hear a NOKIA ringtone.


It was all downhill from there.

Spoiler: show

I don't generally mind product placement, but in Star Trek it is plain wrong.
Alternate universe or not: Earth is supposed to be a paradise where money no longer exists.
People work for the betterment of all mankind, not for personal profit.

As such, I have zero expectations for the new Star Wars.
But then again Lucas basically ran that franchise into the ground with the reboots, so my connection to it has waned this last decade.
I personally feel there are far better Star Wars stories and experiences to be found in videogames (Kotor 1&2, Jedi Knight,...).

I also think a lot of people remember the original series wrong.
Sure it may have been a bit more action-heavy than its sequels but there still was a whole lot "talking on the bridge" and "analysing things" going on.

[wotakubrandon]

I've never been a fan of either Star Trek or Star Wars but I did like the first movie going in with no expectations or significant knowledge of the franchise.

[Nayoko-Kihara]

I think my dad is the only one in the house that bothered to watch the new "Star Trek" movies. Commercials and ads everywhere, as well as some of the casting choices, thankfully let me know very early on that I wanted to stay far away.

[resop2]

Kamen Rider is my Star Trek.

[stam4o]

Just finished to watch Gurren Lagann. What a great thing. Loved a lot that there were parts with lot of sense and many others with just no sense, but the concepts overall are really interesting. And the combination of all the differents styles of drawing and animating just give a hook of visual power. 10/10

[Chatin]

What happens when Glee, HSM, PLL and The Osbournes collide?

[Rm88]

Nintendo's Q2 results meeting was very interesting. Basically, 3DS is killing it Poor WiiU is bombing, but it's good to see Nintendo having almost one half of the gaming market share worldwide when they're "struggling", lol.



Japan, US, Europe, Total.

3DS is a monster. Also, Pokémon X/Y single-handedly boosted 3DS' market share in Europe by 20%, that's nuts.

[Celedam]

I saw Ender's Game.



For people who've read the book, it's brilliant. At times, perhaps even glorious. But that's because your knowledge of the book fills in the gaps. The movie is faithful to the book, but the story has been abridged (of course) to come in under two hours, so in the end it feels like there should be a director's cut with about a half-hour more.

Spoiler: show

It's difficult to get a sense of how long Ender is at Battle School and how his relationships with the other cadets develop over that time. Petra gets some love, but Bonzo is handled poorly and the others — including Bean — are lost in the crowd.

Also, Command School is abridged even more than Battle School, so the sense of grinding desperation isn't quite there. There are some meaningful looks between Ben Kingsley's Mazer Rackham and Harrison Ford's Col. Graff as they share the big secret, but that's it. The kids themselves seem fresh throughout, despite a few throwaway lines to the contrary, and the campaign against the Formics skips over the key point that the farther they go, the older and smaller their fleets become. Instead, it's passed off as normal attrition.

Furthermore, the B-story with Peter and Valentine on Earth is cut altogether. Peter appears only at the beginning, and he comes off as a simple bully rather than the future ruler of the world. I understand the need to cut the B-story and focus on Ender, but without that background (i.e., all of these children are terrifying, world-changing geniuses, they just have different ways of showing it), Ender's struggle to stay centered doesn't have much emotional weight.

Finally, they mention the ansible but they never explain it. That seems like a mistake, considering how important it is as a plot device. The ending doesn't make sense without it.

For people who have not read the book but still enjoy intelligent, semi-hard science fiction in general, the movie is still very good. Go see it, but go with someone who has read the book so that you can discuss it afterward.

For everyone else who goes in expecting just another sci-fi blockbuster (see the previous discussion about J. J. Abrams' Star Trek), you will be confused and probably disappointed. Hence the crappy rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviewers who say essentially "It's a rip-off of Harry Potter" or "It's just laser tag in space". Those reviewers aren't necessarily wrong, but they aren't the target audience.