Star Trek (2009) vs. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

[lime]

Both films directed by J.J. Abrams, both from huge franchises. Which did you like better?

 

[psylockolussus]

The Force Awakens was a carbon copy of the 1st Star Wars film and I always find it overrated by the critics.

Star Trek 2009 felt brand new to me and a much better to me.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Star Trek. TFA has not aged well for me due to its use of repetition.

 

[jolldan]

Star Trek all day.

Although I don't hate TFA after watchin it I wasn't really left with a feeling of "wow that was amazing I can't wait to see the next chapter of this new story"

But with Star Trek that's exactly how I felt.

 

[Drizzle]

This is a cheat answer but I honestly feel that they're more or less equal.

Both had great performances and were written well for the most part. They both had stellar musical scores and visual effects. Star Trek was a fresher take on the material than The Force Awakens but to make up for that, TFA had a stronger villain in Kylo Ren than Star Trek did with Nero, who was more or less forgettable.

It's kind of funny how their sequels did the opposite of what those films set out to do. Into Darkness was basically Wrath of Khan Redux while The Last Jedi was about as different from The Force Awakens as you could get.

I guess if I had to make a choice I prefer The Force Awakens since I find it to be more rewatchable but I've always been more of a Star Wars guy than a Star Trek guy so there's bias there.

 

[Marvolo]

Star Trek 09

 

[Batmannerism]

This is a cheat answer but I honestly feel that they're more or less equal.

Both had great performances and were written well for the most part. They both had stellar musical scores and visual effects. Star Trek was a fresher take on the material than The Force Awakens but to make up for that, TFA had a stronger villain in Kylo Ren than Star Trek did with Nero, who was more or less forgettable.

It's kind of funny how their sequels did the opposite of what those films set out to do. Into Darkness was basically Wrath of Khan Redux while The Last Jedi was about as different from The Force Awakens as you could get.

I guess if I had to make a choice I prefer The Force Awakens since I find it to be more rewatchable but I've always been more of a Star Wars guy than a Star Trek guy so there's bias there.

Interesting. I remember sitting through ST and thinking " Time travel AGAIN?!" but enjoying the performances of the leads enough to not care - and Nimoy's appearance, Kirk's green girl fling and the Kobyashi Maru were pure fan service, loved it.
Michael Giacchino's score was superb and even Chris Hemsworth did star turn in his minor role as Kirk's dad.

Also massive props to local boy Karl Urban as a note perfect performance channelling DF Kelley as McCoy.

Nero was indeed a very poorly executed villain, I usually like Eric Bana but he came off as laughable rather than either sympathetic or menacing.

Overall, ST is an enjoyable and exciting film that hits all the right ST notes and does a good job of rebooting the franchise.

Then, there's The Force Awakens. If I had never seen a Star Wars film before I probably would have liked it, a little. However, I couldn't shake the constant feeling that I had seen it all before.
This time Luke was a girl, R2D2 was a ball , Darth Vader threw temper tantrums like a 2 year old and Han Solo took on Obi Wan's job, oh and the Death Star had a winter resort built into it.

JJ made it a little different, certainly bigger, but without really adding anything new. Unlike the original trilogy, the leads had little chemistry and I just couldn't bring myself to care about them. I don't understand how Kylo Ren gets taken seriously as a bad guy - Darth Vader was menacing because he was nigh invincible and instead if throwing tantrums calmly and casually strangled his sub-par employees " Apology accepted." Kylo Ren gets whooped by Rey the first time she holds a lightsaber- I mean if JJ had her lose that fight or at least barely escape then we'd actually wonder how she was ever going to beat him.

TBH I prefer the Last Jedi, and while I hated Luke's story ( which was pretty much Obi Wan's, train your nemesis who destroys everything and then go into hiding) Mark Hamill's performance made it work. Luke's ending was a high note . Rian Jonson took a bunch of elements from Empire Strikes back and turned them around, which was interesting - although the entire sub plot involving Benicio Del Toro was unnecessary and could have been scrapped, making the film more connected.
But at least it was more original than TFA.


Moral of the story, sometimes fan service and nostalgia are enough to make a film enjoyable, so long as there's a little freshness - a little bit of newness injected into the old, but actual newness, not just dressing up the old stuff in bigger shinier clothing.

A female protagonist was a great idea, but her story is pretty dull because it's pretty much exactly the same as Luke's.

Okay, rant over, Stat Trek takes this by a wide margin for me.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Star Trek. Both films look spectacular. Neither had a particularly great story but Trek was so well cast that it left me exhilarated for the sequel. TFA was also well cast but I didn’t connect as much with the new characters as I’d hoped I would. Now, I will say that the SW sequels I greatly prefer to the Trek ones. I know people hate TLJ and TROS and I understand why, but they were better films for me than STID and STB, which just felt like boring retreads of the first movie. Trek will always be a case of squandering a fantastic cast. Oh, what might have been.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Easily Trek 09 for me as well. I think both movie are equally entertaining for the same reasons, but the casting for Trek was perfection IMO even if Eric Bana wasn't the greatest villain.

 

[Luigi]

Star Trek

Pitch perfect casting of Karl Urban as Bones.

Interesting. I remember sitting through ST and thinking " Time travel AGAIN?!" but enjoying the performances of the leads enough to not care - and Nimoy's appearance, Kirk's green girl fling and the Kobyashi Maru were pure fan service, loved it.
Michael Giacchino's score was superb and even Chris Hemsworth did star turn in his minor role as Kirk's dad.

Also massive props to local boy Karl Urban as a note perfect performance channelling DF Kelley as McCoy.

Nero was indeed a very poorly executed villain, I usually like Eric Bana but he came off as laughable rather than either sympathetic or menacing.

Overall, ST is an enjoyable and exciting film that hits all the right ST notes and does a good job of rebooting the franchise.

Then, there's The Force Awakens. If I had never seen a Star Wars film before I probably would have liked it, a little. However, I couldn't shake the constant feeling that I had seen it all before.
This time Luke was a girl, R2D2 was a ball , Darth Vader threw temper tantrums like a 2 year old and Han Solo took on Obi Wan's job, oh and the Death Star had a winter resort built into it.

JJ made it a little different, certainly bigger, but without really adding anything new. Unlike the original trilogy, the leads had little chemistry and I just couldn't bring myself to care about them. I don't understand how Kylo Ren gets taken seriously as a bad guy - Darth Vader was menacing because he was nigh invincible and instead if throwing tantrums calmly and casually strangled his sub-par employees " Apology accepted." Kylo Ren gets whooped by Rey the first time she holds a lightsaber- I mean if JJ had her lose that fight or at least barely escape then we'd actually wonder how she was ever going to beat him.

TBH I prefer the Last Jedi, and while I hated Luke's story ( which was pretty much Obi Wan's, train your nemesis who destroys everything and then go into hiding) Mark Hamill's performance made it work. Luke's ending was a high note . Rian Jonson took a bunch of elements from Empire Strikes back and turned them around, which was interesting - although the entire sub plot involving Benicio Del Toro was unnecessary and could have been scrapped, making the film more connected.
But at least it was more original than TFA.


Moral of the story, sometimes fan service and nostalgia are enough to make a film enjoyable, so long as there's a little freshness - a little bit of newness injected into the old, but actual newness, not just dressing up the old stuff in bigger shinier clothing.

A female protagonist was a great idea, but her story is pretty dull because it's pretty much exactly the same as Luke's.

Okay, rant over, Stat Trek takes this by a wide margin for me.

Oh man, you're gonna hate The Rise of Skywalker.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

Tough choice.

The Force Awakens is too much of a rehash of ANH and set up the new trilogy to just diminish the OT.

Star Trek 09 had Abrams take away all the brain of the franchise that's so fundamental to its identity, and we were left with a dumb blockbuster.

Both films fail to respect what was before in my view, but I guess ST did a bit better in dealing with the old characters and still let them be the focus so that's probably the winner.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Star Trek, easily.

Not only the better film but also JJ's best, as well.

I'm also a hardcore Star Wars fan, too.

 

[Filmfan93]

Gotta go with Star Trek here. TFA was amazing, but the simple fact that it was a copy of ANH and didn't have a fresh and new story, places Star Trek above it for me.

I'm a hardcore Star Wars fan, too and never really cared about Star Trek.

 

[Iceman]

The use of Nimoy was so much better than for the original Star Wars guys.

His presence massively elevated the whole film, helped by the fact that I loved the new Spock too.

 

[sueb1863]

Gotta go with Star Trek. They used the original characters better and created a tighter movie. Too bad the follow up movies didn't live up to the potential of the '09 version. Agree that Karl Urban's McCoy was criminally wasted in the sequels. He was awesome.

 

[Iceman]

I was really hoping this new ST cast would be a franchise mainstay for a long time. Looks like they blew their chance to an extent.

 

[sueb1863]

I think they blew it when the second movie was a Wrath of Khan retread. I mean, really, you have this great new cast and can tell ANY classic-era Trek story you want to, including stories they couldn't do in the 1960s - and you go with a rehash of a story that's already been told? And one that's arguably considered the best movie of the original franchise that couldn't be done better? That decision still baffles me.

 

[Mandon Knight]

I love both films, for I am a FAR bigger ST fan than SW, and the sheer joy I got when watching ST in 2009 at cinema was WAY more than FA, (even though I loved FA), so Trek for me.

 

[Zorro]

I enjoy Force Awakens and am overall more into Star Wars but I have to vote for Star Trek 2009

 

[scarlet-witch]

Overall I like Star Wars a lot more than Star Trek and if I had to choose which film to watch right now, I'd probably pick TFA - but TFA didn't reignite my Star Wars interest. It was just a New Hope remake, Star Trek 2009 made me actually like Star Trek which until then I didn't care for at all. I never expected that and I really dig the new cast and what they did with it. I suppose in that regard it's probably better.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Really, really tough choice as watched both recently and still absolutely love them. Gonna have to go for TFA as I am just more of a SW guy. Just a shame all the potential TFA created was squandered.

Give me STID and STB over TLJ and TROS any day.

 

[Lasirius]

Not much of fan of either but I did enjoy Star Trek quite a bit that I ended up purchasing it and watching it multiple times. As far as TFA, I have had no desire to go back and watch it after seeing it once in theaters.

 

[Batmannerism]

The use of Nimoy was so much better than for the original Star Wars guys.

His presence massively elevated the whole film, helped by the fact that I loved the new Spock too.

Absolutely - brought him in as a surprise extended cameo, in a way that was pivotal to the story, and then a cameo that was pure fan service- rather than bringing him in just to kill him off, which is what it felt like with the original SW cast.

 

[Iceman]

Absolutely - brought him in as a surprise extended cameo, in a way that was pivotal to the story, and then a cameo that was pure fan service- rather than bringing him in just to kill him off, which is what it felt like with the original SW cast.

The part when Spock meets Spock Prime is one of my favourite modern film moments.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

As someone who is far more of a Star Wars fan, I found myself far more invested in the characters (besides Han and Kylo) in Star Trek.