This little video might spoil J.J. Abram’s Star Trek for you, but if you haven’t seen the film, you deserve to have it spoiled by now. While I was reading Simon Pegg’s (Scotty) tweets, I stumbled upon a link to this hilarious, albeit short, spoof of the 2009 sci-fi blockbuster. Push It Films, known on YouTube for their various low-budget spoofs, really went all out with this one — though I have to admit I a bit disappointed by the lack of lens flare, because if anything about has yet to be spoofed to death, it’s that.

I’m really not even sure which part of this entertains me most, the a capella soundtrack, shoddy prop ships, or that impression of Eric Bana’s Nero. All of them are just so perfect, I just about died of laughter before the clip even finished. While I wish I could say I enjoyed more of Push It’s spoofs, I’ve yet to come across one as good as this, but if you’re interested, check out their YouTube channel here.

Tim is a pro-blogger and freelance writer out of San Diego, California. In addition to Fanboy.com, he contributes to the ModernMethod Network of sites as an Associate Editor for the Japanese culture and entertainment blog, Japanator, as well as the collectible toy culture blog, Tomopop. For more information, follow him on twitter, or check out TimSheehy.com

Rather than exploring strange new worlds or civilizations, Seagate and Paramount have recently teamed up to offer a strange new deal for film and portable hard drive enthusiasts. In what they claim is an industry first — I’ve yet to find evidence to the contrary — Seagate will be selling a selection of their 500 GB Free Agent Go portable hard drives pre-loaded with a selection of 20 Paramount films, including a free copy of J.J. Abram’s Star Trek.

The other films will remain locked, requiring a code which can be purchased for $10 to $15 a piece  in order to view.  I’m not really in the market for a digital copy of Nacho Libre, or G.I. Joe for that matter, but I kind of like idea of having a number of feature films readily available. On the other hand, they will take up roughly 50 GBs of hard drive space and I can imagine you might end up having to format the drive in order to remove them, potentially making this more trouble than it’s worth.

Still, a free copy of one of the best Trek films of all time might make it worth your while. It also helps that Seagate is currently selling the drives for a mere $99, when it retails for closer to $150 without the films included. If you ask me that’s a steal. For a full list of the titles that will be included, check out the official press release here.

Tim is a pro-blogger and freelance writer out of San Diego, California. In addition to Fanboy.com, he contributes to the ModernMethod Network of sites as an Associate Editor for the Japanese culture and entertainment blog, Japanator, as well as the collectible toy culture blog, Tomopop. For more information, follow him on twitter, or check out TimSheehy.com

You can spend so much time and cash on cosplay, but at the $10 each these Starfleet badges are the best way to pass yourself as an Enterprise crew member on a low budget! Each badge includes a pin back so you can wear them — and then just make sure that you have a colored t-shirt handy and black jeans for the full effect. Shown above is the command division badge replica, and below are the badges for the science division, engineering division and medical division:

Over the last year or two I’ve noticed that sneakers have upstages t-shirts as a self expressive fashion item, and these limited edition Star Trek sneakers are proof of my theory. The sneakers are designed by jeffstaple and are known as the “Enterprise Edition”. They’ll be on sale at jeffstaple’s retail shop Reed Space which is located in SoHo, NYC and will set you back $80 (but only $60 fora kids pair). Of course if you’re a real fanboy that will be $160 as you’ll need to own a mint pair and one for actual wearing. Here’s the official description:

“The shoe’s design channels the Starship Enterprise with its rough silver and gray distressed upper. The silver sneakers sport the iconic Enterprise badge as well as the famous craft’s ship number. Only 160 pairs have been constructed, 110 in men’s sizes 7 to 12 and 50 pairs in children’s sizes 1-6. Each pair will be numbered, designating them as an original in the limited edition.”

ANd if you’d like to view to footwear at a larger size just click on the images below:

Burger King is running a funny series of ads to promote their tie in into Star Trek — these spots feature the Kingons who are a parody of the Klingons. The Kingons strike fear into the hearts of burger loving humans who like Star Trek collectables:

This spot is pushing the kids meals so it’s a little bit less hipster oriented:

By the way if you go to the special viral website (the Burger King Kingon Defense Academy) it also has links these very silly training videos:

There was only one way to buy a Star Trek ticket (aside from getting on a physical line at a movie theater) and that’s to purchase it through Fandango. But having a relationship with Fandango isn’t my idea of “fun” — my goals when using this type of site is to get in and to get out, it’s a utility and anything that gets in my way is just a hassle. However some marketing dudes at Fandango somehow think that they’re Yelp! and want to push their lame attempt at a “community” by including reviews of films. Now I don’t mind that, but what I do mind is that their way of building a “community” is to spam those who purchased a ticket but never asked for any marketing emails to come their way:

First off the notion of Fandango having a review based community is dumb idea to begin with because people who want to be first in line to see a film don’t give a crap about a Fandango review, they’re first on line because they already read about the film from a trusted source like a blog, in a magazine, by word-of-mouth or may even have illegally downloaded it but still want to see it on the big screen.

In fact I’ve rarely ever met anybody who didn’t know what film they’d want to see who would then think to buy a ticket in advance — those sorts of people (example: two people on a date) will see what’s playing at the theater and buy their ticket on the spot. And frankly if you’re on a date the choice of a film may not even be the point.

But speaking of relationships back to my point: Fandango is a utility and my goal with this type of site is to spend as little time with it. So when I purchased my tickets for Star Trek I made it a point not to become “a customer” but to use their express lane online and just purchase the damn tickets. Not only that but I made it a point to take my time and to read all of the fine print so they so they wouldn’t send me any spam.

But the passive-aggressive folks at Fandango don’t care about that — so they sent me spam asking me to rate and review Star Trek which I never asked to be sent. This pissed me off for a number of reasons:

• When I signed up I never opted-in to get spam.

• Fandango knows this because no where on their spam do they give you an opportunity to opt-out.

• You can tell they know it’s spam too because at the top of the email they even ask you to add their email address on their white list.

• The email claims to be a “thank you” note for your purchase, but it was sent well after I watched the film. To me as a consumer there’s no point to that…

• Your reward for a review? Some lame thank you reward that’s never described (maybe it’s more spam?)

• And then to punish you further they even suggest that you sign up for more spam.

• Of course if you reply to the email they won’t be able to respond — how convenient!

• They list their website, but that’s useless because there’s no easy to find place on that site to complain to them. In fact their site is so filled with crap and clutter it reminds you why you didn’t want to sign up with them in the first place.

• They list their physical address, but not their phone number because they know most people won’t stop to have a chat with their Chief Marketing Officer Ted Hong, Chief Technology Officer Shane O’Neill or CEO Chuck Davis.

So sadly while Fandango wants my Star Trek review I’m left with the feeling that they don’t give a crap about me as a customer on any level. Yes they’d love to know what I think of the film, but they don’t care what I think about them so they can improve their service. Of course if they cared my guess is that they wouldn’t have sent the spam in the first place. It’s an example of a company that reads all of those articles about social networking, but doesn’t get it — and worst of maybe doesn’t want to get it. And they knew what they were doing as wrong because the email is designed with that in mind.

Chuck Davis if you’re reading this and you’ve decided to chance this policy of passive-aggressive “community building” please let me know and I’ll gladly write up a love note that you’ve listened to a lowly fanboy. But until then I’ll have to view your service as a necessary evil for my film going habits…

Update on Monday Afternoon: Well Fandango doesn’t give a damn as they just sent me a second spam with no clear opt-out just to drive their point home:

Well after a long wait I made my pilgrimage to see Star Trek open today which was filled with the usual rituals of waiting on line and hanging out with old friends. Given how cynical I’ve become over the years at seeing the franchise abused it was quite rewarding to see what they did with this film. The first thing that I liked about this film is that they stayed true to the original series. Not to Next Generation, not to Deep Space Nine, not to Voyager — but to the original flavor, the real thing.

You see this is important to me because over the years Star Trek has been a bit less bold, with characters turning into long winded talking heads. The essence of Star Trek was that it was a western set in outer space, yet somehow the franchise became less about the action and more of a soap opera over the years. Yes at points here and there they’d get something right, but after a while it was as if they somehow painted themselves into a corner.

In fact while I’m not a fan of time travel plot devices (which are central to this film) I think in this case it was a great idea as it gave them a free hand to start with a fresh canvas to piant their tale. And what I liked about that is that by doing that they still pulled off making everything more true to Star Trek than if they had a million continuity experts nitpicking every detail. This also gives the fans a chance to let go and rediscover Star Trek.

While the actual plot of the film was weak I could even forgive that because they were using the story more a background to reintroduce the characters one-by-one which is no small task. Everyone has grown up with these characters and they’re a huge part of pop culture at this point, so I think they made a wide choice to focus on the characters over a specific story (besides you can always do that in the next film).

This brings me to the acting — at first my fear was that we’d get a Muppet Babies version of Star Trek, or a 90210 meets Starfleet Academy effect: But because the first half of the film has a parallel focus on Kirk and Spock they successfully avoided that trap by giving them a chip on their shoulders — which in turn serves as a great motivational device. And then by introducing each new character one at a time served the audience well. The actors did a great job of owning the roles of each character and making it their own. And the story did a good job of allowing each crew member to steal at least one scene, which was a nice touch.

Were there things I hated? Of course! But anything I hated was a small enough detail that it didn’t get in the way of enjoying the film itself. And while there were details I wasn’t crazy about (example: the design of the Enterprise) that was over come by just how much they got right. There was a great deal of high quality craftsmanship on this film which included some A+ work in sound design, editing, music, art direction, prop design, etc. In fact one of things like enjoyed the most was that the pacing was just right — there wasn’t a dead spot in the film that you gelt like they were killing time with.

When I was done watching the film I walked with the feeling that I had a good time, and was already looking ahead to the next film or TV series that they come up with. I think my only regret is given how important that Nimoy was in the film I still wish they gave something to Shatner, even if was just him doing a voice over, given how much this film is about Kirk that left me a bit cold. But all in all I’d say that this film is fanboy approved and a worthy reboot for a well loved show.

For our first ever Fanboy.com giveaway the kind folks at Intel and Lenovo have given us a Star Trek laptop bag to bestow on a lucky fanboy or fangurl in our audience. So here’s what you have to do to have a chance to walk away with this geeky goodie bag:

On Twitter send a tweet to @michaelpinto (hint: it would be nice if you friended me on Twitter) with your first reaction to the Star Trek XI film. This can be a mini-review, snarky comment, cliched catch phrase or lament at the lack of Shatner. The deadline will be this Sunday, May 10th at midnight.

I’ll then pick a lucky winner based on my unscientific opinion of who posts the most clever fanboy comment (i.e. personality is everything in a fanboy beauty contest). The second runner up will receive my unopened reviewers copy of Star Wars: The Clone Wars which includes a bonus digital copy in addition to the DVD. And third place will get you a copy of Pride and Prejudice and ZOMBIES by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith:

This is an informal giveaway and NOT a contest or sweepstakes – please don’t sue us…

Editor’s Note: In this column film critic Joe Strike gives us his first impressions on Star Trek XI. Warning this might contain a few spoilers and ruin a maximum virgin film watching experience:

Heavy, heavy, HEAVY ST logo– looks like it was carved out of highly polished dwarf star material, probably weighs about the same… music is pretty heavy too: Giacchino wants us to know this is an intense movie…

We see Kirk’s birth on a starship under attack by the biggest (and pointiest) Romulan ship ever made. (Born on the battlefield – just like Conan the Barbarian!) A console screen display is projected across the captain’s face – big-time cheat (does your computer screen project onto your face?), but it looks cool; in fact it looked cool when Kubrick did it in 2001… Why are the guts of a starship filled with huge pipes with steering wheel-size valve controls on them? The whole place very much resembles the inside of a power plant dressed up with a few Starfleet computer terminals – but nahh, this is a big budget movie, they wouldn’t do that, would they?

10-year old Kirk drives a 20^th century sports car off a cliff, jumping out just in time to hang onto the edge by his fingernails (I’m sure the DVD’s deleted scenes will explain where and how he got the car, not to mention why he drives it off a cliff (Thelma and Louise fan?), or who the voice chewing him out on the radio belongs to)… meanwhile, ultra-logical Vulcan bullies are giving child-Spock a hard-time… the gals on Vulcan wear dresses that look like teacups, and educate their kids in teacup-shaped holes in the floor…

Teenage Kirk is one tough sonuvabitch wise-ass trouble-maker – he deserves to get his ass kicked by those cadets he’s smirking at. (Boy, those punch sound effects could kill a T-Rex)… the humongously huge Starfleet base in Iowa is glimpsed waaay in the distant mist, its silhouette barely visible as a slightly darker shade of blue/grey – reminds me of a mid-1960’s sci-fi paperback cover…

Space cadet Kirk is doing the nasty dance with a hot, green-skinned babe: let’s hear it for a classic ST:TOS meme… every character’s personality has been ramped up to 11: Chekhov’s wery, wery Russian accent (how come Quinto is a ringer for Nimoy but Anton Yelchin looks nothing like Koenig? Just asking), McCoy’s misanthropism (he’s my favorite ringer for one of the originals – he even gets the voice right), Scotty’s gung-ho love of engineering has turned downright giddy… gee, it sure was lucky Sulu brought along his magic folding sword to do battle atop that blasting platform… JJ seems to enjoy leaving James T hanging on by his fingertips over bottomless chasms; if it happens one more time in this movie, I’m outta here.

SPOILER YOU’VE PROBABLY ALREADY HEARD ABOUT: Nimoy shows up as Future Spock, doing a little past-meddling to make sure Kirk & his younger self become buddies (Butt buddies? The glances between these two guys are hot – I bet the slash fanfic is being posted even as I write)… in fact, the whole movie revolves around Nimoy/Old Spock’s presence.

Aha, I’ve figured it out: the point of this movie is to reboot TOS’s universe, just like a DC Infinite Crisis or Marvel Secret Wars mini-series: a few planets & characters go bye-bye & the remaining ones now have new, improved pasts (not to mention new improved actors), thanks to a convenient time-tunneling black hole. (That ‘Red Matter’ is potent stuff!) Along the way a lot of stuff blows up, the music is loud, the effects are cool and everything ends happily; Pike even winds up piloting a much better-looking wheelchair.

Joe is an occasional animation scripter and freelance NYC writer covering animation and sci-fi/fantasy entertainment. His work has appeared in the NY Daily News, Newsday, the New York Press and, as they used to say on Rocky and Bullwinkle, ‘a host of others.’ He is a regular contributor to the animation industry website awn.com, but it’s much easier to visit joestrike.com to see what he’s been up to lately.

So I guess the torch has been passed? This video from April 25th shows a meeting between William Shatner and Chris Pine. The clip is from Shatner and he looks very cool about the whole thing, but it still makes me just a tad sad that he won’t have some sort of bit part in this film. My own theory more and more is that Paramount was too cheap.

Of course the above meeting shouldn’t be confused with the original episode What are Little Girls Made of? which featured Kirk meeting a robot Kirk:

Directed by Dan Meth this clever parody film Trek Yourself hits the spot — in a strange way his take on having the new film be a sort of Revenge of the Nerds is almost as appealing to me as seeing spaceships blow up.

Found via a tip from Atom films on Twitter.

The latest Star Trek XI spots are out — not much new footage but plenty of quotes from the likes of Newsweek, Rolling Stone and Film.com? To be honest I’m more likely to trust a review from Ain’t It Cool News rather than a dead tree publication at this point, but then again I am a fanboy…

By the way in case you forgot here’s J.J. Abrams here to remind you to make sure you see the film in IMAX:

Not much of a hard sell going on in that spot…