Star Trek Movie DVD is out!

[justTripn]

Hi all,

The Star Trek movie DVD is out! My husband bought it for me last night and there is a special feature about how and why they filmed the way they did to create the magic. No wonder I was mesmerized! I was sucked in by all those cool camera tricks.

I don't want to spoil anyone by going into details, but I wanted to alert you all that the behind-the-scenes stuff might be worth the price of the DVD. I'll watch the movie with commentary tonight. After which I might just have to get on here and write some stuff in spoiler code. He, he . . .

[WarpGirl]

I'm waiting for daddy to buy it, then I will steal it! Good plan right?

[justTripn]

Well I watched the commentary, and as you might expect, it answers ALOT of questions we've pondered here on this forum in discussing the movie: like what was Spock doing in that cave? I'll put the most exciting moments from the commentary in spoiler code, but there is so much in the commentary, I don't truly think reading my report will spoil your viewing the commentary. But just to be on the safe side I'll use some spoiler code.

Well first off, the group of commentators were really funny, bright, animated, and totally in love with filmmaking. They would shout at the screen, "Oh my god, look at that, that right there! There's nothing better than that." At like a close-up of an actor's face at an important moment. And like, "I get emotional every time I see that." I think this kind of love and exuberance and enormous respect for previous films (Trek, Star Wars, and other sci fi, including Alien and Galaxy Quest) totally comes through in the movie.

As for the hard-to-follow plot. There were two reasons for that:

SPOILER!!!:

One, alot of story was filmed and later cut including a whole suplot in which Klingons captured the Nero and crew and threw them in jail. Two, they intentionally made a film that would have to be viewed at least twice. J.J. Abrams said, "I don't like to patronize the viewers." Someone else said "I do." Abrams says, "Well I want the viewers to patronize the film!" And stated explicitly that he wanted people to discover new things on the second viewing, that the viewer would find that fun. Well, he totally calculated that right, in my opinion. I know that many people say they actually enjoyed the movie MORE on the second viewing.

OK, that engine room that no one liked?

SPOILER!!!:

That's a Budweiser plant. Those big vats are vats of beer.

The cliff in Iowa:

SPOILER!!!:

"A rock quarry. Because we all know there are know cliffs in Iowa" Then a second person interjects "until the great earthquake of 2011!" *laughter*

How about that policeman, was he supposed to be a robot?:

SPOILER!!!:

Abrams: "I don't know." Other person: "He was in a really bad accident" *laughter*

This after Abrams has just explained that they filmed it with no mask on the actors' face and "it looked stupid" so they digitally added the mask.

Alelou was right that

SPOILER!!!:

"Kirk is hanging throughout his life." "It's a real motif"

Why was Spock in that cave?

SPOILER!!!:

Abrams overtop of this scene says something like, "There is one scene that I really wish we had kept. Kirk says 'You say we've diverged from the original timeline, so why are there all these coincidences?' Spock says, 'Perhaps it's the timestream's way of mending itself' and Kirk asks what roles all his acquaintances play in the other timeline, and one by one it all lines up. Then Abrams went on about how everyone was most suspicious about that aspect of the proposed film. That he couldn't pull off a movie with so many coincidences in bringing the crew together, but he really didn't want to give an underlying reason because underlying motivation is "It's Fate! It's what we all want to see!"

Other tidbits:

SPOILER!!!:

Majel Barrett Rodenberry visited the set and was able to do the voice of the computer and died shortly thereafter. She told them that "Gene would love this." Then Eugene Roddenberry (Gene's son) called as soon as he saw the film to say, "My father would recognize this as Trek. He would love this."

Zachary Quinto had his fingers glued together to do the "Live Long and Prosper" greeting, since he can't do it.

Nimoy asked to say a line right at the end and they said sure. The scene panned up from the the metal ceremony with Kirk and Spock and Pike in the big autotorium. Nimoy said, "Thrusters on full" and they kept this ad lib, before cutting to the ending with everyone on the bridge. An ending, which was actually filmed first at the beginning of production.

And much much more!!!!

[WarpGirl]

Definitely will steal from parents as soon as they get it. But come on NOTHING about the Orian girl! I'm depressed.

[justTripn]

Shoot there was alot on the Orion girl, including a backstory about her they didn't use:

SPOILER!!!:

Kirk seduced the Orion girl and got her to plant the code that allowed him to defeat the Kobyashi Maru. Then in the assembly hall later, she is playing like she is mad, because he has tricked her. However they ran an early version of the film by some Star Trek expert who said, "It's all good, except I don't like Kirk. I don't like Kirk!" Well, of course an unlikeable Kirk would have torpedoed the whole movie so they took out the stuff that made him seem manipulative.

As for why she was even there:

SPOILER!!!:

Abrams said, it was a homage to the original series. He seemed oblivious to the controversy over whether she would be there at all in Starfleet.

Likewise Abrams seemed oblivious to the Archer's dog mistep and did not explain Scotty's little sidekick, but from the rest of the commentary, I would guess

SPOILER!!!:

it was a nod to Star Wars, since they kept noting scenes that were an homage to scenes from Star Wars.

[WarpGirl]

Thank You Kindly! I guess Abrams didn't spend enough times with the natives if he was oblivious.

[JadziaKathryn]

This may have to go on my Christmas wish list.

[WarpGirl]

I'm so lucky I don't have to count on christmas. But the trick is catching daddy in a generous mood.

[Alelou]

We watched most of it last night (not the commentary -- I'm the only person in the house who seems to have the patience for that sort of thing). The missing scenes were interesting, especially the last Orion girl one. (Kirk looked like such an ass! Probably a good thing they cut it.) The gag reel was fun. (That's on the main disk if you don't order the big set.) The movie itself was depressingly small on our 32 inch HDTV, because they use the ultra widescreen format so we had these giant black bars. Maybe we could adjust that somehow, but in the meantime we were all complaining. We don't have a large living room so a bigger TV doesn't make any sense, but this was one movie I'm really glad I saw in the theater first. (On the other hand, FINALLY this time I saw the damned tribble I could hear in that Delta Vega scene.)

The weird Vulcan fashion for bosoms showed up in yet another dress in the missing scenes. What the hell was that about? I really liked Amanda and Sarek's interactions that we didn't get to see in the movie. It was clear they had a loving relationship.

Some of the technical details of how they shot things were fascinating.

Plenty more to go through, which will probably wait for Thanksgiving weekend.

I'm glad they cut out the Klingon thing. I don't think it made any sense at all. There's a fairly long list of things that don't bear close examination in this movie and that would have been just another one...

[justTripn]

Alelou, I don't think I have missing scenes. Did you get a superdeluxe edition? I was out shopping last night and realize there was a superdeluxe edition and a "regular" edition, and I have the regular edition. Oh well . . . I guess I can live with that.

As for your small house that can't fit a big TV, ?????? I was there! Go get a big TV for Christmas!!! A perfect present for the family.

[Alelou]

Did you see how far the sofa is from the TV? This 32 inch one practically gives me a migraine it's so big. (Okay, so we were used to a 19 inch before.) Besides, apparently you didn't see the holes in the sofa. (Sometimes I'm crafty and cover it up well.) I think replacing that is a higher priority at the moment. Honestly, widescreen movie format is the only time it matters.

Yes, I got the super deluxe edition because I wanted all the extras. It turned out to be just as cheap as anywhere else, $19 --Amazon always reduces the price on these things if you pre-order. They also tell you the free super saver shipping will take 5-9 days, but then you always get it the day the thing is released. At least that's been my experience with the last Harry Potter book and now with this. I would have happily waited an extra 5-9 days in any case.

So you'll just have to come visit and we'll do Disk 2.

[justTripn]

Yes! Yes!

[Aquarius]

When I last spoke to my mom, she said she intended to get it on BluRay. I hope she has it in time for Thanksgiving!!