The Escapist Presents: MovieBob Reviews Star Trek

[NicolaiAndrews]

Okay, I never really have a problem with any dumb internet stuff, but I signed up just to say this is too much.

All this guy does is being too shallow and uninformed, and adding the word "fu**" every three words. Some guy badly trying to rip off ZP using poor Powerpoint presentation and a built in laptop mic does not deserve this spot.

When you said "Spock" as "Disapproving Ice Man" I just lost you. Maybe you need to pay attention to the words, and you would realize that Spock is trying to come to terms with his Vulcan bloodline, who are known for not having emotions.

At any rate, this man sucks, and I know it sounds downright crazy, but give me a chance and I'll show you how a real pro does it.

(Oh, and you may not know this, but the people that took your lunch money and beat you up are adults now, they DON'T stay 18 forever y'know...)

 

[reincarN8ed]

This MovieBob asshole sounds to me like a pissed off nerd. And when he said something about the "jocks" that would beat up nerds in high school, it sounded to me like he was talking from experience. Well I got some news for ya: get over it! EVERYONE in high school was a fucking retard asshole, even you. Sounds to me like you still are. At any rate you shouldn't bash Paramount for taking a series that was written like a goddamn encyclopedia and portrayed like a 2nd grade puppet show and turning it into an action-packed sci-fi thrill ride that captures the imagination of people from all backgrounds.
Now I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard alot of good things from alot of movie critics, except this one. And I don't think MovieBob's opinion amounts to shit because he's got one big-ass chip on his shoulder. Also, your video format is a cheap rip-off of Zero Punctuation and you should be ashamed of yourself.

EDIT: I lol'd at the Onion video!

 

[topraman517]

Good review. I enjoyed the movie, but it was pretty shallow, and certainly not amazing. Good popcorn movie though.

 

[13lackfriday]

Hmm, well that was sobering...

After all the rave reviews, I thought JJ and Paramount had done the impossible of converting a cheesy old nerd favorite into a sci-fi epic with a decent storyline to back it up.

I guess not.
It's rather unsurprising that the story and continuity would suffer for their attempts to turn it into something with a wider appeal.

I'm likely to be one of those who just enjoys it as a big-budget action movie like Transformers, since I know nothing about the original series.

That review sucked. Your taste in movies is terrible. Transformers wasnt that bad, at least it was entertaining, which is what a movie is meant to be. What the hell do you expect? Also you have an annoying, grating voice I'm sorry to say. Stop trying to be Yahtzee.

Your flaming is about as shallow as your taste in movies.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

What I hated about Transformers was the following...

I wanted a Big Dumb Movie with lots of Big Robots hitting eachother...

what I got was 1/2 an hour of Robots and 2 Hours of Megan Fox (who I do not really find hot), Army Dude, Annoying Australian Hacker Chick and Anthony Fucking Anderson. Basically 2 Hours of an over inflated cast of annoying characters who weren't giant robots blowint each other up.

Amen, brother.

 

[MovieBob]

SPOILERS IN MAIN-BODY, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

I see what you're saying, but...

Ok, agreed that the bit about him finding future Spock is eye-rollingly stupid. There are coincidences, and then there's just magic-wand plot advancement. But so what if that's how Scottie came to be on board? He had to get there somehow - maybe it was because that was the assignment he was given, maybe it's because he happened to bump into Kirk when Kirk needed his help. Does it really matter? Put another way, if we didn't know that Scottie was part of the "name" crew to begin with, it wouldn't bother you in the least how he came to be on board, would it?

They're only coincidences when viewed from the perspective of "we know that the following people wind up as the crew of the Enterprise." Is it really such a big deal that Uhura got on board by bitching to Spock or that McCoy only joined Star Fleet because he got divorced? I don't see how.

If you want to quibble about coincidences, far more unlikely is Kirk meeting Uhura and Pike in the middle of Iowa. Seriously, what was that about?

True enough, but the problem is that the only reason these characters are A.) There at all and B.) Introduced with the pomp and circumstance "requiring" coincidence is because the movie INTENDS for us to know that these people are the famous-name characters. If Scotty was just "some guy who knew tech stuff they met" there'd be no "Holy crap, it's Montgomery Scott!" stupid moment. But no, the filmmakers want to mine the goodwill/smiles/applause you get from origin/intro moments for all they're worth right off the bat, so they've set up all these dopey plot-contrivances that are only there to deliver the maximum number of "Obi Wan Kenobi, meet... Anakin Skywalker!" exchanges. It's the worst kind of blatant CYA-fanservice: "Guys? Please stop being mad about the reboot, okay? See? Look! The SHOCKING TRUE STORY of why so-and-so has their job! Isn't that nifty??"

 

[AgentNein]

Despite the hate that this review seems to have spawned, I whole heartedly agree with this review. Moviebob, despite the fact that you may not be a hardcore trekkie, I think you've succinctly and passionately represented how many fans feel. The fact that so many people disagree with you shows just how successful the tactic of mainstreaming properties is.

If anything, I think the very nature of these fan bases needs to be called out. They hold these properties up to not only impossibly high standards (with the illusion that the original property lived up to them), but create their own criteria for what objectively makes the property good (or bad).

I hear a lot about bad acting. Absolutely no one in this cast is any worse than anyone from the original cast! Don't even get me started on Kirk's ham fisted deliveries. Or the fact that this yahoo says that this Uhura doesn't live up to the original. Quite frankly this Uhura gets a more fleshed out character in one movie than the original did in how-many hours of television/film? It's looking at the past with rose-coloured glasses.

Or the arguement that this movie sacrifices big ideas for dopey fun. Completely forgetting that the original Star Trek was essentially a John Wayne western set in space. Final Frontier, right? Right. It had more than it's fare share of dopey fun, and that was part of the charm (a charm that was long forgotten after Kirk hung up his toupee). And big ideas only take you so far when they're half baked. I swear, technobabble sounds impressive when you're a kid, but once you're old enough (and smart enough) to understand even half of the words that they're using within real-world context, you realize how goofy it all is. With that said, this movie wasn't about "big half baked sci fi ideas", it was about Kirk and Spock. It gave us a simple but effective dual-character arc that stayed true to their original relationship while paradoxically taking it in a completely new direction.

And (finally), every time a fanboy complains about young attractive people being cast in 'their' property an angel gets shot in the face. Lets break this down abit shall we? We've got Kirk and Uhura cast with two attractive actors. Is this or is this not what they were going for with the original cast? Spock, Scotty, Sulu and Bones? I don't forsee tween girls putting up their posters any time soon. Am I missing anyone? Oh yes, Chekhov. Again, staying pretty close to the boyish charm(?) of the original Chekhov. Lastly, did Tyler Perry bring this movie down? Was his acting so bad that he ruined his part of the film? No. You've just got a silly hang-up.

 

[MovieBob]

When you said "Spock" as "Disapproving Ice Man" I just lost you. Maybe you need to pay attention to the words, and you would realize that Spock is trying to come to terms with his Vulcan bloodline, who are known for not having emotions.

At the risk of killing a joke by explaining it, I'll just say that... yeah, I know that. The point was that the story-proper is basically a retread of the movie "Top Gun," (rebellious guy with war-related daddy issues trains for elite military branch, butts heads with others, grows as person) with Spock filling the same spot and following the same character-arc (by-the-book hardcase who chaffes at main character's rebellious ways but then befriends him in face of common struggle) as the character from said film who's name was "Ice Man."

 

[Deacon Cole]

That's a fair point, so allow me to respond. As to "what other reason," that's just it: There really doesn't need to BE some big "whoa, so THAT'S how it happened!!!" reason for these guys to be there. These characters are in what is essentially The Navy serving on what is essentially a Battleship but in space. The only explanation NEEDED for why someone is at a post is because "it's my assigned duty." But instead we have "I'm Sulu, I'm here filling-in for another guy, coincidentally the same day that ALL the other 'name' crew members will show up and also more-or-less 'luck into' their best-known duties" and so on. It's just unecessary extra detail that in a few cases actually serves to undermine the characters - Sulu and McCoy no longer have their jobs because they're exceptional, well-trained men who've worked hard to get where they are; they have them because they were "there and still breathing" when the Enterprise stumbles into a disaster.

Emphasis mine.

Frankly, I'm giving this one a pass. I was alright with the idea of a new Star Trek movie using new actors playing the original crew. That sort of thing is not all that new of an idea [http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/] as it turns out. I was okay with the actors being younger than the original counterparts. What I was not okay with was this movie showing us how that original crew came together. And I was not okay with that idea for a very simple reason: the crew was not interesting until they came together. That's all there is to it. I did not care to see how Kirk came to join Star Fleet and eventually become captain of the Enterprise. I cannot think of a worse idea for a movie, save lesbian porn featuring the late Bea Arthur and Whoopie Goldberg.

Now, normally I would rant on how anyone who is interested in seeing those things should be put down like the mad dogs they are, and I still adhere to that view. But I will admit that, if done well, a decent story could be made out of back stories like this. The problem is that the likelihood of it being done well are as likely as your dog emerging victorious from a tank filled with hammerhead sharks. And by all accounts, that didn't happen here either. And it was utter stupidity to have expected otherwise, I think.

 

[Deacon Cole]

My post was not an ad-hominem attack because I was deliberately conveying my dislike for MovieBob himself

You realize that's essentially ad hominem, right?

Also, I think anyone who mentions Ben Croshaw in a discussion other than in a comment thread for Zero Punctuation should automatically lose the argument. Not everyone who does sardonic review videos are trying to be Yahtzee. Shut up.

 

[rayman 101]

The only time I've agreed with MovieBob's videos, was the oscar one. I didn't actually understand why he loved Watchmen so much ( yes I have read the book). Its a solid film, but no where near a masterpiece, and because of that, I don't trust his opinion about this film.

 

[darthzew]

I think I completely disagreed with this. Completely.

I thought the weakest link in the acting was Zachary Quinto, but that may have just been because Leonard Nimoy was in it to overshadow him.

And then I thought Pine did a wonderful job. Captain Kirk is William Shatner. Pine managed to make a Kirk without being "the Shat". He played the character, not the actor. As someone who has done quite a bit of acting, this isn't easy. No, Pine doesn't deserve an Oscar, but he didn't suck.

Maybe Mr. Movie Bob was onto something with the writing not being great... but it did Star Trek justice.

I thought Star Trek was spectacular and I'm looking forward to sequels.

 

[dogrum1]

Right on target, MovieBob!

Paramount pretty much ruined the franchise* and now they try to "dumb" it down for their reboot to attract more flies... I mean more audiences.

Oh, and a word to those people comparing MovieBob to Yahtzee to George Carlin: Bull. Watch those interviews with Carlin by the "Archive of American Television" on YouTube and get an education.

(* Just check out how dull and boring ENTERPRISE turned out to be - or worse - that stinker STAR TREK: NEMESIS.)

THE_ZAR.

'those damn jocks are ruining my life, them and their stupid self confidence, dashing good looks, and sweet cinnamony breath. I hate them cuz I'm such a socially awkward fuck and because they accomplished what i could accomplish if I'd stop living in my grandmothers basement continually watching star trek re-runs in the hopes capt krunch will beam me up one day. And now there giving those flies, I mean non-pimply-faced-dipshits, star trek! HOW could they do this to me! WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

 

[SageOfCalm]

I don't mind a person saying he didn't like it. But this was nerdrage. Nerdrage is unjustified and false. If he wasn't so pissed off about Transformers and being stuffed in lockers by the dumb jocks this movie was made for, he might have liked it more.

Transformers did suck though.

 

[Susan Arendt]

SPOILERS IN MAIN-BODY, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

True enough, but the problem is that the only reason these characters are A.) There at all and B.) Introduced with the pomp and circumstance "requiring" coincidence is because the movie INTENDS for us to know that these people are the famous-name characters. If Scotty was just "some guy who knew tech stuff they met" there'd be no "Holy crap, it's Montgomery Scott!" stupid moment. But no, the filmmakers want to mine the goodwill/smiles/applause you get from origin/intro moments for all they're worth right off the bat, so they've set up all these dopey plot-contrivances that are only there to deliver the maximum number of "Obi Wan Kenobi, meet... Anakin Skywalker!" exchanges. It's the worst kind of blatant CYA-fanservice: "Guys? Please stop being mad about the reboot, okay? See? Look! The SHOCKING TRUE STORY of why so-and-so has their job! Isn't that nifty??"

More spoilers follow.

Ah, I see. Your issue is less with the coincidences and more with the fanservice. Future Spock's "ZOMG, it's Scotty!", for example. Well, I can certainly see where you're coming from, but I saw it as something that was a nice nod to longtime fans, but that wouldn't alienate a completely new viewer. The movie was certainly rife with winks and nods to Trekkies (the brain bug from Khan, Captain Pike in a wheelchair, etc.) but I found them to be an endearing attempt in most cases. Let's face it, Abrams was faced with the impossible task of pleasing both long-time fans and a brand new audience; that he didn't make something as crappy as Generations is somewhat of a miracle.

 

[Squato]

Ok, first time posting (and likely my only one, not much of a visitor to these forums). Was going to ask one simple question...but after reading what others have had to say I did want to make one or two points.

First off, he is a movie critic. That means he has the job of pointing out the issues or mistakes of the movie so the world is aware of them. That is his job, and it would be remiss of him to do otherwise. Saying that, just focusing on the negative points like he did really feels overdone nowdays, more so in the way this video comes across. Overall this isn't a bad review (hell, it gave me a few fresh points, and I agree that Nero wasn't as interesting a character as he could have been), but it just feels more of the same otherwise.

As to what question I wanted to ask...what sci-fi series is that image at the 0:35 mark? The fighters kinda look like Vipers, but nothing else looks like it is from that series.

 

[SageOfCalm]

Ok, first time posting (and likely my only one, not much of a visitor to these forums). Was going to ask one simple question...but after reading what others have had to say I did want to make one or two points.

First off, he is a movie critic. That means he has the job of pointing out the issues or mistakes of the movie so the world is aware of them. That is his job, and it would be remiss of him to do otherwise. Saying that, just focusing on the negative points like he did really feels overdone nowdays, more so in the way this video comes across. Overall this isn't a bad review (hell, it gave me a few fresh points, and I agree that Nero wasn't as interesting a character as he could have been), but it just feels more of the same otherwise.

As to what question I wanted to ask...what sci-fi series is that image at the 0:35 mark? The fighters kinda look like Vipers, but nothing else looks like it is from that series.

So what if he's a critic? Why does everybody make that spurious argument? If I don't like his review I have every right to come on here and say I don't like it just like he has every right to say he didn't like the movie.

My problem was that it's seemed like he was letting personal experiences of being beat up in high school affect his review.

 

[apersonstandingbehindyou]

Review sucked. It was a good movie, you are just over thinking it, and i bet the writers you hate so much don't give a fuck what you think really cause they are still making millions.

See ya

 

[Malithar]

Not bashing him or anything, but I liked Transformers and Star Trek, and i'll tell you why, 1. I have watched transformers since I was a kid, I stopped at the mini-con stage because I thought it just got so terrible, and I think it kept going down the drain on that, I thank this new Transformers for taking it off the toilet, even if it didn't wipe of a few stains they could have cleaned off. 2. I'm not a die-hard Star Trek fan, but I do enjoy a casual TNG here and there, and the last Star Trek I saw was Enterprise, I hated Enterprise, I just did. This new Star Trek raised it into a new light to something we can all enjoy without learning klingon. It was action packed full of the little funny quotes like Bones (McCoy) saying "Damn it man, i'm a doctor not a physicist" and Scotty saying "I'm giving her all she's got captain". They were some of my highlights in the film to make me laugh. Acting was good but could have been a bit better (Except Scotty and McCoy, nailed them perfectly in my opinion.) But that is all this is, an opinion of what he thought. And my opinion says it is perfectly awesome, and i'm goin' to watch it a second time right now, cause it made me think again.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Well it's good to now scotty turned out good.