01: New Warp Effect:Over the previous films and tv shows, Federation starship always zipped into warp using a variety of Visual effects, most notably the 'warp stretch' effect. In this film, the guys and gals at ILM and the sound guys done an amazing job of simplifying the new warp effect by simply 'snapping' the ships into warp like a shotgun, awesome! Like one commenter said on a forum 'I like the new effect, its quick and clean, It actually feels like the enterprise just did 0 to >299,792,458m/s in 0.002 seconds' Captain Rosh-Mwrowl USS Gorkon NCC-40512-C The image is actually of the ship once in Warp, but its the closest I could find :-P
02: Sound Effects:Those 1960's sound effects are back! As soon as we see the USS Kelvin, we get to hear a plethora of cool little effects which sound just like the 1960's Star Trek sonar beeps, Communicators and of course the classic transporter beam sound effect!!
03: Miniskirts:Ok, well I guess this may not be Sci Fi Porn, but I am including it anyway. We all know that the 1960's were....well the 1960's and miniskirts were all in fashion. Minus a small amount of miniskirts on female crew members at the start of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the late 1980's we have not seen them since, miniskirts are back!
04: We Can See The Saucer Section!Finally, after many many years, outside of the bridge of the USS Kelvin and the USS Enterprise we get to see the saucer section from the bridge viewscreen! ....Oh, there it is!
05: Old School ShuttlecraftNo doubt about it I reckon, those shuttle craft from the USS Kelvin and even the USS Enterprise were deliberately made to look old school. The ones from the USS Kelvin in particular looked decidedly 'retro'.
06: WeaponsWhat about those phasers on the USS Kelvin! I reckon this was inspired by later Star Trek shows such as TNG and Voyager where they had the red directed unbroken beam effect. The other weapons on cannon mounts which fire smaller blasts of broken energy are a first for Star Trek since normally as we all know, Starfleet ships have 2 types of weapons, Torpedo's and Phasers. I'm not sure what those other ones are, but they still look amazing! The New USS Enterprise had the classic broken phaser effect from the original show and Movies, magic!
07: WreckageThis is something that was remedied part way through TNG but in Star Trek all to often we would see a ship explode and there would be no wreckage. Finally, WRECKAGE! and an absolute shitload of it too in orbit of Vulcan as the Enterprise must navigate its way through it... brilliant!
08: Transporter EffectAlthough the Cardassian transporter effect in Deep Space Nine was much more 3D than previous versions, this new Starfleet effect has to be the most 3 Dimensional visual to date and comes across really well and the delay when Spock's party are being beamed up from a crumbling Vulcan is painful!
09: Hand PhasersThe new Stun / Kill setting on the hand phasers ( which are also very retro ) is great! We see the emitter cylinder end rotate to the front for Stun (Blue) and the deadly (Red) snap round for kill.
10: MusicMichael Giacchino Score for this film is nothing short of perfect. 'Enterprising Young Men' is the name of a track which is played at various points in the film but most notably when the Nerada is crippled after being rammed by the USS Kelvin and we see an amazing vista of sun, crippled ship, wreckage and the silhouettes of a mini armada of shuttles flying to safety.
When this track plays during the end of this opening sequence, I feel shivers down my spine!
What do you think? any more to add?
10 COMMENTS:
You summarized it very well :-) And I also love 'Enterprising Young Men', for me it is the bestest song of the soundtrack ;-)
P.S. and I love this movie :-x
I've got to get me one of those! A retro phaser with rotating emitter cylinder head settings for Stun and Kill....
Hell Yes! Surely we can buy em from someplace!
Come on, how could you not have mentioned the silent space shots? When the young officer is blown to space from Kelvin or when Kirk and his party are dropped on the platform, there comes this wonderfull silence of space void. This really took my heart :)
You are absolutely right. those scenes were excellent!
Yes, Federation ships have just phasers and photon torpedoes, but you have to consider the fictional technology involved that informs the special effects to create the "broken beam" effect of TOS phasers vs. Next Gen/DS9/Voyager pahsers.
The Kelvin and the original Enterprise were much older ships, with much older technology, than The 1701-D or Voyager. If you look carefully at TOS footage, the original Enterprise phaser beams only originated from single points on the ship. If you look carefully at any phaser blasts from any of the "newer" Fed ships, the origin of the phaser beam moves to maintain and unbroken line between the Fed ship and the target. That's because these ships, instead of having a phaser "cannon" mount have an "emitter" array that runs in a ring around the upper & lower half of the saucer section, along the dorsal & ventral lines of the cargo and engineering sections and along the length of the nacelles.
So, the 1701 phasers are truly a "phaser cannon" vs the 1701-D which uses an "emitter array." Also, if you ever play the game Starfleet Battles, you'll discover that the game designers created four different classes of phaser for starships and the 1701 has two different kinds of phasers on her hull. So, if anyone in the FX department had played the game, that experience would inform their realization of what the outside of the 1701 would look like in a real battle.
Considering the hand phaser from TOS was just a "pod dock" for the smaller phasers.
Things that bugged me:
The warp effect is just a re-hashed star wars hyperspace jump, just faster.
The 4:3 image on the 16:9 view-screen, you would think being in the future they could at least figure that one out. After all, we have :-/
Recycling the prequel Star Wars sound effects
Kirk wasting ammunition and time to blow up the Narada while it was already being destroyed in the singularity.
Edselprise:
http://trekmovie.com/2008/11/12/big-reaction-to-new-enterprise-new-designer-responds/
Anyways, my pet peeves weren't enough to ruin the movie for me and I highly enjoyed Abrams interpretation and hopes he keeps it up.
You just hit on about every point that I loved and noticed in the movie as well. This new Trek is contemporary, sleek, stylish, and not to mention - awesome. I am definitely looking forward to the other movies that will follow this one. Also, my favorite track on the soundtrack is "Enterprising Young Men", too. It's working it's way up to the most played song on my iPod.
What amazing music and what an amazing movie! :)
(Finally, after many many years, outside of the bridge of the USS Kelvin and the USS Enterprise we get to see the saucer section from the bridge viewscreen!)... Man on the others Star Trek shows the ships dont have a GLASS the ships have a view screen monitor...But JJ Abrams wanted to add something new and he fucked up all...with a glass the bridge it is an easy target...
---(The new Stun / Kill setting on the hand phasers ( which are also very retro ) is great!)
The new??? o my god man...you dont watch Star Trek... in every Star Trek show they have hand phasers with Stun and Kill...you dont know nothing...
Take some pills bro, try not to get too excited. I think you really need to re-read my article and actually let it sink in for a minute before you write stupid comments. I was referring to the 'retro' style of the phasers, not the stun kill.
The rotating stun/kill emitter was mentioned as part of it. I know damn well that the stun/kill setting has been around since year dot.
You think JJ fucked it all up? fine, you are entitled to your opinion.
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