It is “FN” good to me!

Most of the Squirer guitars are better made and better quality than many of the 70s topline models. The industry is really at a peak the last few years, at least in my opinion.

I think I’m in the “Nope, didn’t do it for me” camp. It had its thrills, the SFX were nice. The story? … I am getting really tired of time travel crap.

[I guess I should through out the spoilers alert thingy now - read on at your own risk]

The movie effectively wipes out (or leaves “untouched” for purists as one critic put it) the original Trek universe. I flashed back to the moment, as a season of Dallas was closing (I guess I’m dating myself by knowing this, oh well) when a character woke up and everything that had happened for the entire season was wiped away as “a dream”. Give. Me. An. F…ing. Break. “Hello, is this the writer’s clinic? Great. I need a crutch, big time, because my brains were sucked out in film school and I can’t come up with any good ideas.”

And can anyone explain to me what gave Uhura the hots for Spock? That stupidity came absolutely out of nowhere, and goes nowhere. And it made her character, which, until that point, was a smart, strong, take-charge, no bullshit kind of person, look pathetic. “oh, poor dear, your momma died. … You know that makes me so hot …” Give. Me. An. F…ing. Break.

And then there was the fight in the cavernous Romulan ship. Maybe I’ve seen too many movies, but when I see stuff like that and I wonder, “Dude, you got him by throat (not just once, but twice), just drop him over the side and be done with it.” During this bit I my mind wandered off to Austin Powers:

Dr. Evil: Scott, I want you to meet daddy’s nemesis, Austin Powers
Scott Evil: What? Are you feeding him? Why don’t you just kill him?
Dr. Evil: I have an even better idea. I’m going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.
Dr. Evil: All right guard, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism.
[guard starts dipping mechanism]
Dr. Evil: Close the tank!
Scott Evil: Wait, aren’t you even going to watch them? They could get away!
Dr. Evil: No no no, I’m going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying, I’m just gonna assume it all went to plan. What?
Scott Evil: I have a gun, in my room, you give me five seconds, I’ll get it, I’ll come back down here, BOOM, I’ll blow their brains out!
Dr. Evil: Scott, you just don’t get it, do ya? You don’t.

Oh, well, it was kind of fun, in a stupid, mindless sort of way. Wrath of Kahn is still the best.

*Spoiler Alert*

To paraphrase Darth Vader, the power to destroy a planet is nothing compared to the pen of J.J. Abrams. Now witness the destructive power of this fully operational Hollywood writer! J.J. manages, in one plot, to destroy two of the key planets in the Trek universe. In the old Trek, this catastrophe would be reversed by our heroes by the end and billions saved. Nope, not this time.

Behold the new Enterprise, apparently designed by a schizophrenic. The bridge is a bright, slick room looking not unlike a hair salon in Beverly Hills. Engineering, on the other hand, is clogged with pipes that reminds one of a brewery. In fact, I half-expected the camera to pan back to reveal Laverne and Shirley inspecting the bottles as they go by.

In this Trek, Spock gets his freak on quite publicly with someone that’s a direct subordinate and student. A 17-year-old is a senior officer on the Federation flagship. The action scenes were apparently only filmed during earthquakes.

We really are going where no one has gone before.

Not that I would ever consider myself a guitar player (I wouldn’t even say I play guitar beyond semi-competently), but do agree about preferring the Les Paul to Star sound. Imitation both bases. Like I said, not a guitar player.