Nokia, cheesiness featured in new Star Trek movie
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted May 10th 2009 2:14PM
posted May 10th 2009 2:14PM
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Wow. Whoever wrote this was incredibly biased, unfair... and a Star Trek fanatic.
Lay off, it was a fantastic movie.
And it's making more money than you will in your entire lifetime on the first couple of days.
Engadget's view on the new Star Trek movie: http://www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film
"fanatic" is the same thing as "fan"
just so you know.
Star trek FTW
STAR WARS is better than star trek
Alf is better than star trek
@TheSuburbanWhiteBoy
Some of the dialogue between Padme and Anakin would make a Klingon cringe.
Dear TheSuburbanWhiteBoy,
WRONG!
Here comes a classic flamewar.
*yawn*
You Trek and Wars fans can duke it out over there all you like. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for Stargate Universe...
Starship Troopers puts the lot of 'em to shame.
*ducks*
*Spoiler Alert*
Yeah I saw that, or how about the "Budwiser Classic" That Uhura ordered? You can't escape the companies trying to make their mark and advertise where they can.
I actually caught the one cloverfield refference in the movie. Did anyone else find it?
I enjoyed the brand name references in the movie, it made it feel more real. I especially loved the Beastie Boys 'classical' music.
I too noticed the Slusho reference. But it does predate Cloverfield. Wikipedia can enlighten you.
It was very poor. Really drags you out of the moment. I suppose, though, that in the age of ad-skipping and internet ad-blockers, you can't blame them for trying.
Oh god, two seconds of Nokia screen time and two words of dialogue REALLY ruined the movie for me! What a waste of $10
Surprise! Product placements are just part of the revenue stream for entertainment products. If only things would go back a purer age, when there was no product placement. No wait, advertising in entertainment products dates back to radio, pulp novels and probably before. I would think people were accustomed to it by now.
One of the main founding principles of Star Trek is that people have evolved and capitalism and greed are no longer driving factors of humanity. If you throw this basic idea of Star Trek out the window it is no longer Star Trek. Just my 2 cents.
It's funny because the only part of the move I didn't really like was the corvette, nokia, and Kirks motorcycle with wheels 10 seconds after they show me a hover bike. This all seem contrived and really lessened the move. That makes me not want to buy their products.
And who ever said the bridge was Apple like was smoking crack. Other than the color white I see nothing Apple like.
@Sabrage and Stan: Product placements in a star trek movie only serve to make it less of a star trek movie. Also, you are probably the type of people who is totally fine with paying $10, then sitting through 5 minutes of TV ads before your movie.
I just don't want to be anywhere around when Gene Roddenberry's ghost comes down from space and blows up the genius who said that having the nokia ring or budweiser classic in the movie was okay. WHY WOULD THESE BRANDS EXIST WHEN WW3 CAME ALONG AND WIPED OUT EVERY NATION ON THE PLANET? Sheesh.
How about the totally stock Airtraxx forklift in the shuttle hangar? The outpost had a bunch of Dell monitors in it too. That stuff did stick out like a sore thumb; shame.
I don't get the angst over this. Nobody ever complained that in Next Generation we constantly had Data dressing up and playing Sherlock Holmes (which was written about 100 years before "Sabotage"), or that in the movies we had Klingons referencing Shakespeare. Nobody whined about people in the 24th century still playing Mozart, Beethoven, or folk music. Nobody had a problem with Picard quoting from various 18th & 19th century authors, or with Spock & Kirk ending up on a planet that was stuck in the 1920s, or with Spock & Kirk fighting alongside ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
There are constant references to various books, songs, poems, technologies, and other things from the 19th century and earlier... But refer to something from the 20th or 21st century and everybody says "Sell-Out! Folly! NOOOO!"
Seriously. . . Why is Data playing dress-up as Sherlock Holmes fine, but young Kirk listening to Sabotage in a vintage car is *not* OK?
First off I think plenty of people would have complained about old star trek had they then had internet to complain on, and plenty of people bitched about it and STNG as it is I'm sure.
And secondly when you make a future fantasy with heroic characters and set it too much in the 'now and tawdry' the fantasy is gone and who wants to see that? And pay for that.
@ZeroCorpse:
Who paid for all those references? What does Shakespeare or Mozart get out of it? Nobody is paying to push the Mozart "brand" or the Abraham Lincoln "brand". They are referenced because they are important figures in history. Somebody got paid to put "Nokia" in the movie, something that, AFAIK, hasn't been done in Star Trek.
Come on, when you order a beer, you order it by name. It's always bugged me when characters walk up to a bartender and say, "Give me a beer." As a (former) bartender, I would have stared at them like they were idiots and said, "Which. One."
ZeroCorpse,
I hate to break this to you but there is a distinct difference between referencing Shakespeare and downing a "Bud Classic" One is culture and entertainment. The other is a bad beer no matter what century you are in.
Small fact about these lite beers. They came out of WW2 as a means of stretching rations and the request of the military to have a beer that wouldn't totally tank someone if they had one or two. So what people consider good beer is actually watered down piss water.
Yeah! That corvette stingray placement was just wrong!!!
Sounds like I am not gonna see that movie. Thanks for the warning guys.
I mean, I should have known, I remember the horror that the final episode of Enterprise brought. The definition of epic failure. It wasn't just bad, it actually ruined the entire series.
@Gordon: Actually, they didn't need to say "Give me a beer". They could have used a fictional beer name, and it wouldn't have sounded like an obvious product placement. It just feels weird to see familiar brand names in a Star Trek movie.
In the star trek universe the abandoned money didn't they? So then it makes sense ads would be superfluous.
Although branding as a matter of pride and reference might go on in such a world I imagine.
product placement? I am OK with it if it is done "naturally"
what i just saw? Horrible.
Bonus points for having Greg Grunberg as the voice on the phone.
Aww come on, that wasn't that bad. At least it wasn't all Audi (which I loved, in iRobot), or all Puma clothes (The Island) lol. This was so short anyway =P. Good stuff.
Horrible? You think in the future companies will stop putting their logo on their devices?
Done the right way - Taco Bell in "Demolition Man"...for sure.
How is that not natural? Overreaction much?
From reading your comment i expected to hear the kid say the name out loud and cut the film for a 30 second advertisment, jeez it was just the word NOKIA like you know, real life phones have written on them?
i haven't seen this installment yet, but i thought the whole story took place after a world-wide nuclear catastrophe. do you mean to tell me people were living in the woods, like in "nemesis," making nokia cellphones and puma sneakers? i know it's science FICTION, but i find that harder to believe than the transporter.
If you didn't like that, just wait to until you see the Microsoft smartphone hunters ad in the next Star Trek movie where a mom shopping with her son declares "the Nokia's are kinda popular with this age" right before being paid to buy a zunephone.
@m
Where did you hear that this Star Trek was after a nuclear holocaust? It is nothing of the sort
@badger: Yes, that's the story of Star Trek -- WW3 comes along and mankind rebuilds as a unified planet, they invent replicators, stop using money, and start being generally non commercial. Somehow it stops feeling like trek if there's a bunch of billboards all over starfleet HQ. But I find all product placements to be repulsive.
I've always associated that ring tone with Alias (another J.J. Abrams property), by the way, so the Greg Grunberg connection makes it that much more awesome. Good catch! I didn't recognize the voice but did think it was familiar (or, at least, out of place). For a minute there, I thought Kirk's mom was Felicity until I recognized her as Cameron from House (So I guess this means she's been in things with both Harold and Kumar! Good for her).
@Amun You are correct; WWIII and that explanation were given in First Contact. I watched it yesterday... I feel like such a nerd right now :(
@Badger: I think it's unrealistic because seriously, will Nokia still exist by then? Now 2001, that's how product placement is done!
And I agree, By the time the Star Trek movie plays, the society should be pretty much non commercial. There won't be a company called Nokia anymore.
The design of that interface, however, is exactly what you see from the old StarTrek film
This is a movie for showing on Silver Screen, only expect originatlity on
your TiVO.
Why are you assuming that the Nokia in his pre-war car was manufactured post-war?
I agree that it could have been meant as a restoration of a pre WWIII product or just a skin by a historical devices buff.
I have to agree with ElevatorHappyFun. The car, the music, no big deal. I didn't even have a big problem with Budwiser (didn't even notice it, honestly). But the Nokia bit was by far the worst part of the whole movie. And someone show me in any of the other ST movies where there has been such gross product placement. Sure, there's been product placement in movies for years, but they are usually relevant to the flick, ie: GMs for every Presidential motorcade, etc. The Nokia bit was a bit weird at best and devastating to the movie at worst.
Now only if they had the iPhone 2240...
This is just the best thread ever.
Trekkers complaining that Nokia won't be around when Star Trek taking place. Reason enough to not go see the movie?
Before you worry about Nokia, how about the probability of:
1. Humans living through WWIII and rebuilding a society that is not based on commerce
2. Traveling at warp speed
3. Humans having alliances with alien species that we don't know if they even exist today
It's called science FICTION. Since it happens in the future we DON'T KNOW what the world will look like. Obviously, the film took some liberties. However, the original series did exactly the same thing. Does anyone out there believe that Star Trek from the 60's is more authentic to how life will be 300 years from now?
Nokia wishing they had such a responsive capacitive iphonelike device.
Definietely fictionional movie.
I personally think Nokia is perfectly content with not having a capacitive iPhone knockoff. You know, since they outsell it with more expensive handsets in almost every market outside the US.
@Guru: After hanging on to Steve Jobs nuts for so long, do you moisturize them to prevent chaffing?
I bet he does every time Steve asks him to.
i guess there are no iPhones in the future