• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Star Trek (2009) Opening Sequence...

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DarkJediKnight

Member
The Opening sequence to this movie changed everything for me in how I viewed Star Trek. I'm a Star Wars fan, and Star Trek has never taken the "spectacle" to the level Star Wars did. Granted, one is more Science Fiction, the other is Science fantasy,

But JJ Abrams' take was mind blowing to me. I didn't expect to be blown away by the sequence of events that were happening so quickly. Kirk's father, the scale of the romulan ship, the cinematography, the effects. Then the quiet 3 seconds before impact. So much told in such a short time...

I knew that no matter what happens in the movie, that was amazing and I'm going to sit here and enjoy the rest.


image.png
 
The opening to Star Trek 2009 was masterfully done. I had more feels during that sequence than I did from the final three TNG movies.
 
Yep, it's a truly great scene. Really love Star Trek 2009, even as someone who adores all the rest of Star Trek and wishes it was less action blockbuster, its still insanely good at what it tried to do (make Star Trek into a real blockbuster)
 
DarkJediKnight said:
The Opening sequence to this movie changed everything for me in how I viewed Star Trek. I'm a Star Wars fan, and Star Trek has never taken the "spectacle" to the level Star Wars did.
Click to expand...

I feel as if some people might take issue with this.

But truthfully, this is what needed to happen in order for Star Trek to come back into the mainstream conscious. Abrams did a fantastic job.

I love the reboot series.
 
Oh, another lens flare joke in here. Eh.



Anyways, I've said before and I'll say it again - Star Trek 2009 is one of the best "Star Wars movies that's not a Star Wars movie". Even better than TFA.
 
Yup gives me chills watching it, that and the ending scene when they need to escape the event horizon.

I love the new movies (yes even STID)
 
ZeoVGM said:
I feel as if some people might take issue with this.

But truthfully, this is what needed to happen in order for Star Trek to come back into the mainstream conscious. Abrams did a fantastic job.

I love the reboot series.
Click to expand...

As a die hard Star Trek fan I can say without question that the reboot series is way better than the TNG era movies.
 
Amazing opening sequence, one of my favourites and it really had an effect on me the first time I saw it.
 
ZeoVGM said:
I feel as if some people might take issue with this.

But truthfully, this is what needed to happen in order for Star Trek to come back into the mainstream conscious. Abrams did a fantastic job.

I love the reboot series.
Click to expand...

Exactly. A lot of the big Trekkies like to scream about Abrams ruining Trek, but Trek was already dead. After the dual bombs of Insurrection and Nemesis and the cancelling of Enterprise, the only thing that was still ongoing was the online game. Trek was destined to end up back in rerun ville.

Abrams got the franchise because Paramount has never really known to do with it, and hell, might as well give it to the guy who saved Mission: Impossible. He went out of his way to make sure the original cast and timeline is respected. Unfortunately, Paramount remains inept. Their mishandling of Beyond along with the 50th anniversary, and the ridiculous concept of sticking the new show on a online service nobody will use but everyone will pirate, are going to put Trek back in the ground. I doubt the fourth movie gets made considering the underperformance of Beyond.

Maybe if Paramount gets a new owner?
 
That intro was great and so was the whole damn film... I remember coming out of the theatre with a group of friends when my friend, who's a huge star wars nerd, turned to me and said 'why do the Star Trek fans get a better movie than we did?'. 😂😂. I almost felt bad when my response was simply to laugh at her.
 
Into Darkness could've been great if it had doubled down on this being a different timeline with different rules instead of trying to suggest that the same stuff is destined to happen again (but that's a trap that all time-travel-based soft reboots fall into).

Make it clear that Old Spock's knowledge of things is more of a hindrance and a danger than anything else, make it so that Khan is -actually- an ally this time (if a dangerous and unpredictable one with his own agenda) just to show how different this timeline is, and make the plot closer to The Undiscovered Country (so, they defeat the evil admiral, but he still successfully ignites open war with the Klingons for film 3).
 
Mammoth Jones said:
All save for First Contact. That was a masterpiece that still shits on anything the reboots have done.
Click to expand...

First Contact is great but it's honestly kind of a big dumb action movie in the same way the reboots are. It also kind of ignores all of Picard's character development post-Locutus that happens in the TV series.
 
Mammoth Jones said:
All save for First Contact. That was a masterpiece that still shits on anything the reboots have done.
Click to expand...

First contact was a great action film not a great Star Trek film in fact all of those went out of their way to not capture what tng really was and were all disappointing
 
Best part of the movie easily.

Re-watched ST2009 recently. It's ok but the external ship shots are super disorienting and not good. Beyond is the best of the three.

Killerhertz said:
First contact was a great action film not a great Star Trek film in fact all of those went out of their way to not capture what tng really was and were all disappointing
Click to expand...

You can blame Patrick Stewart as exec producer for this
 
Sephzilla said:
First Contact is great but it's honestly kind of a big dumb action movie in the same way the reboots are.
Click to expand...

Really the main difference between the TNG films (along with any Voyager 2 parter after First Contact) and Reboot Trek is that one's action schlock and the other's GOOD action schlock.
 
Pop-O-Matic said:
Really the main difference between the TNG films (along with any Voyager 2 parter after First Contact) and Reboot Trek is that one's action schlock and the other's GOOD action schlock.
Click to expand...

First Contact and the reboot films are mostly good dumb action in my opinion. Into Darkness is hit or miss but I think the people who say its the worst Trek movie look at the pre-reboot movies with some really thick nostalgia goggles, because the prime-timeline movies have some stinkers too (like Final Frontier or Nemesis). The most I can say about the bad pre-reboot movies is that they have some good ideas at their core.

As a whole the TNG movies forgot what made TNG work
 
I'm not a big fan of the reboot movies. However, they do have some awesome visual scenes mixed in, like the one the OP mentioned.

The reboots feel like some sort of college-dorm on a spaceship type of thing. It lacks a lot of the science and philosophical "discussions" the original series and TNG dealt with.

It's definitely more of an action movie universe. It's not bad, it's just not what I'm used to or what I prefer from Star Trek. Too much popcorn, not enough coffee, if you know what I mean.
 
lol people are still making lens flair jokes? what's the deal with airplane food amirite

that intro was terrific and really impactful - no pun intended
 
It's a very well done sequence, has to be said. In the span of about ten minutes it sells you on the visual appeal of a revitalised Star Trek, provides a steady amount of action, but also delivers an emotional story that becomes one of the driving threads of the rest of the film.

What I especially love about it as an opening is how quickly it distinguishes Trek from other sci-fi, even in Abrams' more action oriented interpretation of it. Papa Kirk's sacrifice is defined not by the fact that he cripples a juggernaut of an enemy ship, or that he otherwise gives his life to achieve 'victory'. It's the fact that doing so saved eight hundred people, including his wife and newly born son. George's final moments are not him delivering a badass one-liner, or reciting some oath to the Federation; it's talking to his wife about what they'll name their son, and saying that he loves her.

Really, this whole shot here about sums it up.
 
I'm very happy with the Star Trek reboot personally. As a fan of most of the old stuff (Never saw the last two seasons of Enterprise and only have seen a handful of TOS) I like that they feel fresh enough. I'm interested in the new series, but disappointed Fuller dropped out, so who knows. And I like the cast of the new movies a lot. (R.I.P. Anton. I'll miss him in the next one.)

My favorites will always be IV: The Voyage Home (Fish out of water tales are always fun) and First Contact. (Which is also a fish out of water tale if you think about it.) And VI is also really really good. I only choose IV before it because I just really like the comedy. But VI is really well done and a great last TOS movie.
 
I loved Star Trek '09 when it came out, but STID was so bottomlessly awful it kinda made me retroactively hate it. STB was surprisingly great, though... even if it did have one too many endings.
 
rootbeerafloat said:
I loved Star Trek '09 when it came out, but STID was so bottomlessly awful it kinda made me retroactively hate it. STB was surprisingly great, though... even if it did have one too many endings.
Click to expand...

You can seriously go from Star Trek 09 to Star Trek Beyond without watching Into Darkness and it feels just fine! Its what I do now, it feels like a natural sequel unlike Into Darkness
 
Yep, loved it all. Frankly even as a huge fan of the Trek verse, I do like all 3 of the new films. That music too. Great all round for me.

Might have a re-watch tonight.

WillyFive said:
In defense of the TNG films, First Contact is probably still the best Star Trek movie.
Click to expand...

Undiscovered Country would like words. First contact is the best TNG film, though that is a low bar considering the competition.
 
Yep, that opening captivated me from the get go. Honestly, the reboots easily top the new Star Wars movies to me.
 
It turned Chris Hemsworth into a star. That's how good that scene is.

And yes, the score makes it. JJ's direction isnt bad either.
 
Opening was great but the Enterprise reveal is my favorite scene from the new movies. Soundtrack and everything did the ship justice in that moment.
 
bengraven said:
It never comes up, but the new Star Trek theme song to the movies is beautiful and brilliant.
Click to expand...

The use of that theme in the scene where we see the completed USS Enterprise is flat out amazing and perfect. I legitimately gasped in the theater for this part. I get goosebumps every time. They couldn't have reintroduced the Enterprise to theaters any better

Dubbedinenglish said:
Opening was great but the Enterprise reveal is my favorite scene from the new movies. Soundtrack and everything did the ship justice in that moment.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
Can't unsee the ridiculous brewery set they used for this opening and later the Enterprise engineering section.
Shit is so weirdly out of place. Looks more like a vast oil drilling platform than a space ship.

EDIT: Also why is he not transporting out of there? Why do they not have transporter tech on any of the shuttles? Ah well, the usual too much thinking :)
 
Guy.brush said:
Can't unsee the ridiculous brewery set they used for this opening and later the Enterprise engineering section.
Shit is so weirdly out of place. Looks more like a vast oil drilling platform than a space ship.
Click to expand...

lol I didn't notice it at first but once I learned where it was filmed I can't unsee it. Same thing when they are at Starfleet HQ, the outside scenes were filmed at my local university.
 
Guy.brush said:
Can't unsee the ridiculous brewery set they used for this opening and later the Enterprise engineering section.
Shit is so weirdly out of place. Looks more like a vast oil drilling platform than a space ship.

EDIT: Also why is he not transporting out of there? Why do they not have transporter tech on any of the shuttles? Ah well, the usual too much thinking :)
Click to expand...

The ship was damaged to the point where most of the systems were down or damaged. It's likely that transporters were off line at that point. In Trek, the first two things that always seem to go down during a conflict are inertial dampeners or transporters.
 
Sephzilla said:
The ship was damaged to the point where most of the systems were down or damaged. It's likely that transporters were off line at that point. In Trek, the first two things that always seem to go down during a conflict are inertial dampeners or transporters.
Click to expand...

Nope.

Shields first.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Two New Star Trek Series Announced (connected to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager)
32
670
Fake replied
  • Poll
What's Worse? Disney Star Wars or Nu-Trek?
2
71
697
Uberman77 replied
Andy Weir’s Star Trek pitch was rejected in favor of Starfleet Academy
41
782
AJUMP23 replied
Starfleet Academy is the best first season of a Star Trek show ever
2
75
2K
Trilobit replied
End of the Kurtzman-era Trek.
2
58
1K
Hudo replied
Top Bottom