Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The minor disappointments I had with some little items are buried by the amount of great things that is the Star Trek Blu. The packaging is the single hinged chassis with cardboard slip cover, but the info sheet (typical rear cover art) is a hot-glued paper that cannot fit anywhere once it comes off. The resulting Blu art front is a head shot of Pine and the back is Quinto. The picture is as good as would be expected, with plenty of great space effects, the heavy lens glare that Abrams likes does not bleed too bad but ILM does not disappoint. They went with TrueHD which gives an adequate immersion, some of the best tests were with Spocks ship and that unique sound (but 7.1 DTS would have been nice). Plenty of reference points throughout, but even with that clarity I still couldn't get a read on some of the little things (tried freezing the fence signs in the Corvette scene, freezing some of the panel displays to read what the actors were looking at, etc.). But what takes the time and is worth every moment for the supplement geeks like me is the entire disc 2. Disc 1: Menus are unfortunately only minimal still animation (no live action or HD pics). Commentary by the makers. Disc 2: Blue screen animated left sided selections. Most items pop up with an "extended" option that has an icon appear when watching each documentary to facilitate viewing little snippets of additional material, or each one can be watched individually - no play all on anything with this disc. * 16:41 To Boldly Go. Several extensions including the Kirk dilemma (1:58), more Green Girl stuff (3:25). The main piece covers aspects of creation, whys and what fors. All of these supplements are HD interviews of the filmmakers spliced with low def footage (past and present Treks). * 28:53 Casting. Once again all HD present footage mixed with grainy low def shots of behind the scenes - gives some good material on why we saw who we did. * 24:33 Starships. Concepts, art design and some of my favorite stuff on the making of regarding construction. Seven extensions are selectable here including Warp Drive and Paint stuff. * 16:30 Aliens. Shows the meetings and thought process behind some of the critters and humanoids. Five extensions here. * 16:10 Planets. Some nice history for Trek regarding the Vasquez Rocks, which showed an obvious deleted sequence - made me look forward to those even more. * 9:22 Props and Costumes. One extension here about Klingons - which led to another whole deleted sequence I was now REALLY wanting to watch them. * 9:45 Sounds. I enjoyed this one the most as the sounds intrigued me when I first saw this in theaters. Nice homage/respect paid to the old series connections. * 8:47 Gene Roddenberry vision. A nice history with at least half of it being Nimoy narrating/being interviewed (there was a blatant absence of someone here but you will notice that through this entire set). * 13:30 Deleted Scenes - FINALLY. Play all option with commentary on/off of Abrams, Kurtzman. - Spock's birth. Throughout all of these you notice Winona's entire screen time was removed. Nice little plug on how he gets his name. - Klingon battle with the Narada, effects unfinished - which leads into an entire storyline removal - did not agree with the reasons for the removal but oh well. - Dysfunctional home life of the early Kirk sequence. Explains who that kid was on the road and who the voice was on the car phone. - Spock's parents arguing about which side Spock should embrace. - Klingon Prison Planet sequence - wow. I want this in the director's cut. Would have explained a great deal of how Nero and the Narada disappeared. - Vulcan sequence prior to destruction (Vasquez Rocks). - Kirk and Green Girl - can never have too much of that. Once you see this you can find out what Uhura and Kirk were really talking about in the theatrical cut (Klingon Prison - not battle). - Scene involving more Green Girl and Kirk defeating the Maru test - good scene. - Kirk apologizing to Green Girl - had to go once the others were cut. * Simulator: Mix of animated and slight HD footage of interactive material on the Enterprise and the Narada. The vast majority of material centers on the Narada (weapons, propulsion etc.). * 6:22 Gag Reel. A brief retro title sequence followed by a hilarious slew of swearing by even the best (priceless watching Nimoy cuss his lines). Fast paced and fun. * 3 trailers. Everything subtitled in French, Spanish, & Port. Disc 3. Digital copy and game demo. Did not use either. Overall, I had a great time going through all of this and I honestly think even the discerning Trekkie will be happy with this product. Yes, I feel the deleted scenes should have been left in as they explained some obvious gaps in the film, but at least we got to see them. The HD screenings have been very popular and I don't tire of watching this through and through. Enjoy.