Nerd Out and Prosper

I saw Star Trek last night with Mil, Bob, Hal, Kas, and Jay. We all had such a great time, we're planning to catch the new Terminator movie together in a couple of weeks.* And so far, as of this posting, Mil has raised $2,650 for Doctors Without Borders. Way to go, Milly!

I thought the movie was a lot of fun. It wasn't so much fun that I had a problem picking it apart about certain things, but I'm glad I saw it. And on an IMAX screen in Times Square. How cool is that?

The next part of the post CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS. And plenty of Star Trek nerd jokes, starting with this one: Shown at left is my "proof of nerdness." Good lord, the ticket price was $17.50. And it contained no gold-pressed latinum!

I really enjoyed the back-story aspects of the movie. 

I thought Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto were terrific as Kirk and Spock. And Leonard Nimoy was great, as always.

It was fun to see Winona Ryder as Spock's human mom. I'd read that she played his mother in a Bloomberg News review of the movie, which I stopped reading after only a few paragraphs because it was very plot heavy and I didn't want to know a lot about the story. I'm not sure I would have recognized her if I didn't already know it was her. FYI: Ryder is less than 6 years older than Quinto.

I liked the surprising romance between Uhura and Spock.

I didn't like the time-warped aspect of the plot. I assume that the time traveling was done solely to allow Nimoy to be in the picture as old Spock and so satisfy nerdier-than-me Star Trek fans' desire to see someone from the original cast in this movie. That trick was done in The Next Generation TV series, with Scotty, and in the movie Star Trek: Generations, with Kirk. It's so tired. Mil said the time rift frees the writers and producers of this new series of movies to do whatever they want and to not worry about whether it fits in with the established canon. I don't care about that, and those fans who do can grow the eff up already. I just want to see some great new films using the old characters. They shouldn't have to shoehorn one of the oldsters from the original TV show into this series in order to make it "acceptable," or whatever.

And while I'm on that trip, the sheer number of must-hear fan-service lines—like McCoy saying Spock is "out of his Vulcan mind" and Scotty protesting that he's doing everything he can to provide more power for the ship—was a little annoying. None was anywhere near as annoying as when Data said "Lock and load" in Star Trek: Insurrection, though. Oy.

And at the risk of sounding even crotchetier, there were too many literal cliffhangers for Kirk. (I'm sure that by the last one, the creative team was winking at the audience, but come on.) And there was never even an outcropping or anything for him to hold on to. Just dirt. Or a flat metal surface.

There were some terrific comic moments, especially involving Dr. McCoy. Intentionally comic ones—as opposed to this oh-so-cheesy scene from the first TV show.

And the special effects were quite good.

So like I said, a very fun experience overall, but, you know, it coulda, woulda, shoulda been better.

When Bob, Hal, Mil, and I were communicating by e-mail yesterday about our plans, Hal wrote to confirm that he'd be at the theater at 6 and ended his message with "Live long and prosper!" I replied, "Set phasers to NERD!" Hah!

More nerdiness: When I arrived at the theater, there was a group of guys dressed in Federation uniforms nearby. (One guy had a very nice chest, so thumbs-up to him.) And we saw a few people inside wearing Vulcan ears.

Bob used the bathroom while we were waiting in line to be seated, and he noted that, contrary to the norm though not necessarily unexpectedly in that venue, there was a line for the men's room but not for the ladies' room. Hah!

Mil said that when the Paramount stars looped around the screen at the showing he'd gone to the night before with his wife, Oksana, somebody in the audience yelled out, "We made it!" As if he'd completed a freakin' marathon or something. Geez.

In the photo above is my group of nerds outside the theater after the movie. I told the guys I was going to post the picture on my blog. Where no one would ever see it again. Hah! And *sigh*.

After the show, we subwayed down to Chelsea to eat at Nooch, a Thai/Japanese place Bob likes that's near the office building he and Mil work in.** I got the Mango Salad with onion and red bell pepper; I've been on such a mango kick lately. And for my entree, I got the Crispy Grouper Fillet with tamarind sauce and jasmine rice. I dug both dishes—and the two Sapporo beers I washed them down with.

At dinner, we talked about Star Trek, of course, but also about non-Trekkie things, like depleted uranium, Kas's peanut allergy, and which investment might become the next asset bubble. (I'm putting all of my money into offbeat root vegetables. Come on, rutabagas!) And Mil told some crazy story about a woman who's allergic to water and can drink only Diet Coke that he didn't make up, it turns out.

It was an extremely fun and nerdtastic night.

*Even though I'm pretty sure it'll suck. Let's face it, most Hollywood blockbusters do.

**Bob and Mil met while working at the same company many years ago. They don't work together anymore, but, coincidentally, their employers are in the same building.

Comments

[Milind Shah]

You ARE crotchety! :)

Was great hanging out with you.