With the new JJ Abrams movie claiming top spot in the US film charts, we take a look at more Star Trek related news, views and gadgets. Click on each for the fully story.
Star Trek beams to top of chart
The new Star Trek film has rocketed to the top of the North American box office chart, early figures show. Director JJ Abrams’ prequel to the sci-fi franchise took an estimated $76.5m (£50.3m) in its opening weekend, easily beating its nearest rival. The figure far surpasses the opening totals of the previous 10 Trek films.
Star Trek’s impressive opening pushed previous chart-topper X-Men Origins: Wolverine down to second place, with takings of $27m (£17.7m). But the comic book hero movie still ranks as the biggest film opening so far this year, taking $85m (£56m) in its first weekend.
Star Trek, which stars newcomer Chris Pine in the lead role, reveals the back stories of Captain Kirk, Mr Spock and the rest of the crew of the USS Enterprise. Paramount Pictures had estimated that the movie would make about $50m (£33m) for the weekend, but hoped strong reviews would help carry it to a bigger opening.
Vice chairman Rob Moore said he expected the movie, which had a $140m (£92.3m) budget, should gross over $200m (£132m) total this summer, even with competition like Terminator: Salvation and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being released in cinemas soon.
The rest of the films in the top five all shuffled down one place to make way for the sci-fi blockbuster.
- Star Trek – $76.5m
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine – $27m
- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past – $10.45m
- Obsessed – $6.6m
- 17 Again – $4.4m
Source: Media By Numbers
Talking Shop: Simon Pegg The new Star Trek movie has been dubbed by some critics as “Star Trek 90210″ – a reference to the good looks of the actors playing the iconic roles on board on the USS Enterprise. So it is something of a relief to have a normal bloke-next-door like Simon Pegg in there as the starship’s chief engineering officer Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott.
Nostalgic Trekkies can cling to The Original Series with this retro Tricorder replica J.J Abrams’ Star Trek took the original characters in a new, wonderful direction, but that doesn’t mean people still can’t enjoy the boxy look of the original series with this sharp-looking tricorder replica. Available at Amazon on June 4, this $50 piece of retro goodness is the tricorder that started it all, and is the perfect gift if you’re the kind of Star Trek fan who thinks Abrams is the devil.
Star Trek: What the critics think The latest film outing in the long-running Star Trek franchise is being released in UK cinemas on Friday. Newspaper and magazine critics deliver their verdicts on the new movie, which charts the early days of the USS Enterprise.
Included in those reviews is one by the Klingons… In Klingon… With subtitles… LOVEFiLM
11 things about Star Trek that made us go ‘WTF?’ We love J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek and reservedly recommend it to all, including longtime fans, those who’ve never heard of Star Trek, and everyone in between. That said, there were more than a few moments in the new film that left us shaking our heads and wondering, “What was J.J. thinking?” We compiled a list of the 11 most egregious problems with the movie, which opened in theaters today (big spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen the movie!).
Trekker’s Take: Illogical New Star Trek Warps Coherency J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek is commonly described as appealing to “all audiences.” It’s supposed to be Trek for “the rest of us.” If that means the adventures of the Enterprise crew will now be dumbed down and play on screen with as many clunky plot points and pained coincidences as other studio movies, consider that five-year mission accomplished.
Review: Invigorated Star Trek Sparkles With Wit, Spectacle The new Star Trek movie races through a suck-your-face-back wind tunnel of time travel, ego clashes, black holes, hot Orion girls and deep, dark villainy as director J.J. Abrams launches the next generation of Starfleet adventures. This expertly paced prequel hurls a crew of younger, faster Trek heroes against a stunning backdrop of spectacular outer-space shots.
Star Trek: A Military Analysis Twenty-third century warfare isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You’d think that weapons and tactics would have progressed in 200 years. But the new Star Trek movie shows that the United Federation of Planets has a lot to learn about warfare (warning: all sorts of spoilers ahead).
Star Trek Gallery: Then and Now Wired.com does a photographic comparison study of the old-school crew that manned the U.S.S. Enterprise in the original TV series and the new, wet-behind-the-ears version.
New Star Trek Game Beaming to iPhones Star Trek looks to be a pretty standard shooter. You steer the Enterprise with the accelerometer, tap the screen to fire and, if you live, watch Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk embrace after, at long last, cleansing the Universe of those pesky non-human, non-Vulcan races. Star Trek is $3 at the App Store now.
