Star Tease
Posted on | October 17, 2008 at 6:37 am | 2 Comments
The Internet was abuzz yesterday, abuzz I tell you, like an iPhone sitting next to a speaker, with the release of the first official photos from the new Star Trek movie, which opens in May 2009. So I might as well comment on them also. It’s an interesting batch of photos and gives a pretty good idea what the new faces look like in the old roles that we’re so used to from the original series. Take a gander at this crew photo (L-R: Chekov, Kirk, Scotty, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura):
And this one of the bridge, with Kirk, McCoy, some nameless mini-skirted chickiepoo, Spock, and Sulu:
And this better one of Spock (strangling Kirk):
The movie is also the cover story in this week’s Entertainment Weekly, which I have not received yet. I’m avoiding the online article so I can read the print one. (Check out the EW cover here. Scroll down.)
It’s hard to form impressions from still photos. You really have to see the actors in motion. But I’ll give it a try anyway.
Chris Pine’s Kirk looks okay, and even looks like Shatner a bit sometimes, especially around the eyes. But some of those pictures remind me a bit too much of SNL’s Bill Hader, possibly doing a Shatner impression. At any rate, he looks a bit too young. But of course we don’t know how old Kirk is supposed to be in this story.
Zachary Quinto has Spock nailed.
I wouldn’t have believed it, but Karl Urban is Dr McCoy. Aside from the resemblance, it looks like he’s also got the body posture down.
Anton Yelchin looks pretty good as Chekov facially, but that curly hair bugs me.
Simon Pegg looks great as Scotty. Again, I wouldn’t have believed he could pull off a resemblance until I saw that picture. Love the head tilt.
John Cho doesn’t look much like George Takei, and Zoe Saldana doesn’t look like Nichelle Nichols, so I will be interested to see how they move and talk. And let me say: Zoe – wowzer!
I’m sure no one wants the actors to do straight impressions of the original actors, though there will be some expectation of that in order to keep the audience grounded in the ST universe. But it does look like they’re at least going for the physical resemblances and the body language.
The Enterprise bridge looks a heckuva lot different from the one in the original series, though I can see some of the same design elements. I thought they would stick closer to the classic look and just make it more modern, but it looks like they went beyond that. Which is probably a good thing. Makes it less cheesy.
I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 43°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Eastern European Girls” (Letters Lost)
- “Starting to Remember” (Duran Duran)
- “Release” (Aztec Camera)
- “Pieces” (Field Music)
- “Turn Me Round” (Mighty Lemon Drops)
- “Don’t Forget Me” (Absolute Zeros)
- “Save Your Money” (Loud Family)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Election robocalls. Last night, I got the one from the McCain campaign talking up the Ayers/Obama “connection”. It was despicable.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “bath towel phobia”.
Comments
2 Responses to “Star Tease”
October 17th, 2008 @ 4:34 pm
I certainly hope the characters are supposed to be quite young…because in the still photos, this mostly looks like shots from someone’s well-photographed YouTube ST parody. Kirk is too good-looking – particularly in that second shot, he looks like a male model plopped into an SF stage set (not to mention looking like a 15-year-old male model).
But you’re absolutely correct that still shots don’t really do justice. And that these are tough roles to fill: almost impossible, given their iconic status. Who knows – maybe in fifty years, there’ll have been many, many different “Kirk”s – like there were Sherlock Holmeses…
October 17th, 2008 @ 5:27 pm
I still haven’t seen the last Trek movie, which would shock the young me who used to wait in line overnight for the premieres.
That said, I think “The Addams Family” taught us that it’s at least POSSIBLE to bring a new set of actors into familiar roles, each doing their own things, and have it turn out well. (and then “Addams Family Values” taught us that Barry Sonnenfeld should never be permitted to direct a sequel)
But c’mon, you gotta go see this one for Simon Pegg ALONE!