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Denise and I went to see Star Trek last night. Here are my thoughts....
The very first action sequence, where we see the valiant and self-sacrificing death of Kirk’s father, probably alerted the trufans that this was an alternate reality, since Kirk’s father dying isn’t ‘canon’ -- but didn’t clue me in. However, when Nero asks Captain Pike what year it is, I knew this was a time travel tale. (And why the hell do you name the main villain after an infamous Roman emperor? Obvious, much?)
In fact, this whole movie is little but a long string of action sequences, some of them pretty nice, but there’s no attempt at character development or world development here: the basic assumption is that everyone viewing this is totally familiar with the Star Trek universe, and the script plays entirely off the ‘old’ characterizations from the TV shows and movies. I suspect that someone (if there is such a someone in the Western World) who was not familiar with Star Trek might be lost. The viewer is expected to understand the way this world works coming in.
The reboot idea is cool: it means that you can use “canon” when it suits you, and ignore it when it doesn't. The future of the franchise is a newly blank slate -- anything that doesn’t fit the old series can be explained away by saying “well, this is an alternate reality and that never happened here...”
As soon as it’s apparent this was a time travel story, though, I shook my head. Avoiding paradox is incredibly hard with time travel stories... and they don’t avoid it. It sits there, a big Plot Elephant in the room.
All the cool CGI action also means that you don’t really think about things until afterward -- and when you do, the whole plot falls apart (because it’s time travel). After all, this is all set in motion by the failure of Spock Prime to stop the star of the Romulans’ home planet from going nova. But, by fortuitous circumstance, both Nero’s mining ship and Spock Prime’s vessel get tossed, oh, a century or so into the past in the event. As soon as Spock Prime and Nero realize this, they should also realize that this is the most wonderful news possible: just go to Romula and say “hey, folks, you got about a century to prepare, but your sun’s going supernova then, so get ready...” No problem. Everyone's saved, and the terrible event doesn't kill anyone.
But no.... No one seems to realize this.
In many ways, this is a ‘reboot’ of the “Wrath of Khan” movie, too: an uber-confident foe out for revenge (against Spock rather than Kirk) for real or imagined offenses. Kirk's cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test was a continual plot device in that one, too.
The imagining of a relatively far future is poor, but it always was in Star Trek anyway. Think of the technological differences between 1900 and 2000 (just 100 years). Kirk is born (according to show chronology) in 2233, over two centuries form now. Yet, strangely, people still use flatscreen TVs, carry briefcases (cadets), and use actual people to weld steel plates in a starship under construction. Even in this reboot, the technology (with a few exceptions, such as the transporter and warp drives) is like the technology of, oh, not even fifty years from now. But then, much of science fiction isn’t about the future, it’s about ‘now’. The original Star Trek was deeply set in the mood of the times and the Cold War; this one set in the mood of current times, too...
The plot relies too much on Big Coincidence rather than the characters actually figuring out anything. Spock sends Kirk down to what appears to be Hoth, the ice planet from Star Wars (who knew it was in the Vulcan system?). It just happens to be the place where Spock Prime has been placed, too. And on that entire whole frigging planet, Kirk just happens to pop into the one cave where Spock is living (even though, strangely, Spock is also aware that there’s a Starfleet station within walking distance, where Scottie just coincidentally happens to be assigned.) What would have been better? An active Spock Prime, who would have been actively searching out Kirk and his past self to set things right. Rather than having Kirk stumble by accident on Spock Prime, let Spock Prime go forth and find Kirk to help. (Not that any help is needed, really -- see above stuff about going back to Romulus)
Smaller stuff:
Captain Pike promotes Spock to Acting Captain and Kirk (who's still a cadet, and on suspension besides) to First Officer -- there aren’t any superior officers on the Enterprise? None? Hard to believe.
Spock has Kirk sent off to Hoth for insubordination. There’s no brig on the Enterprise either? That seems a rather harsh treatment, and probably against regulations.
Spock has Public Displays of Affection with Uhura? Seems totally out of character. Private ones, ok, but not in public.
We have a sword fight on the drill platform? C'mon, don't these people carry guns?
Speaking of which, if OSHA ever gets to a Romulan mining ship, they're going to have a fit about the lack of railings on those precipitous platforms.
Didn't the nasty bug that Nero jams in Pike's mouth go into Chekhov's ear in Wrath of Khan? For that matter, what ever happened to that bug? It falls out of the script.
Speaking of falling out of the script, what happens to Kirk's mom? She gives birth, but when Very Young Kirk steals a car (from some nameless and relation-less male), the male voice informs us she's "off-planet." Then when we get to Grown Up Kirk, we never, ever hear of her again.
The first black hole send ships through a wormhole into the past, but the rest of 'em just tear ships apart. Why?
Sure, you can destroy the Vulcan home planet, and the Rumulan home planet, and the Human home planet, but there are an infinity of planets out in the universe -- surely humans, vulcan, and romulans have established colonies on other worlds. You're not going to take out a space-faring race by destroying their home planet.
Like every Star Trek movie, this one has the “Transporter Conundrum.” If you need to destroy another ship, why not just beam over a big bomb? -- if you can beam Kirk and Spock over to Romulan ship, then you can beam the Big Bomb, too. (And in this one, the Conundrum gets larger: Kirk and Scottie beam themselves from Hoth to the Enterprise while the Enterprise in in warp drive. So why bother chasing the Romulan ship to Earth? -- just transport the Big Bomb to it.
The whole “dinosaur-surrogate” chasing Kirk on Hoth was a bit too much. What a waste of time: it felt entirely gratuitous. By the way, don’t filmmakers ever look at real predators? Predators who waste time and effort to roar at their potential next meal rather than just pouncing on it immediately generally go hungry.
At the end, when Kirk is about to take the Enterprise out, he’s looking around the bridge and we’re seeing all the characters except Spock. Then Spock shows up on the bridge, and says he applying for the open First Officer position. Kirk hasn’t filled the first officer position before getting ready to take out the Enterprise? I mean, c’mon. This is just false tension --- and the scriptwriters could have had a better scene by having Kirk go to Spock and ask him to be first officer.
Bottom line: an enjoyable movie, but by no means a great one. It feels more like a pilot to a series than an actual real movie... and that’s probably what it is: the pilot for a new franchise of Star Trek movies.
The very first action sequence, where we see the valiant and self-sacrificing death of Kirk’s father, probably alerted the trufans that this was an alternate reality, since Kirk’s father dying isn’t ‘canon’ -- but didn’t clue me in. However, when Nero asks Captain Pike what year it is, I knew this was a time travel tale. (And why the hell do you name the main villain after an infamous Roman emperor? Obvious, much?)
In fact, this whole movie is little but a long string of action sequences, some of them pretty nice, but there’s no attempt at character development or world development here: the basic assumption is that everyone viewing this is totally familiar with the Star Trek universe, and the script plays entirely off the ‘old’ characterizations from the TV shows and movies. I suspect that someone (if there is such a someone in the Western World) who was not familiar with Star Trek might be lost. The viewer is expected to understand the way this world works coming in.
The reboot idea is cool: it means that you can use “canon” when it suits you, and ignore it when it doesn't. The future of the franchise is a newly blank slate -- anything that doesn’t fit the old series can be explained away by saying “well, this is an alternate reality and that never happened here...”
As soon as it’s apparent this was a time travel story, though, I shook my head. Avoiding paradox is incredibly hard with time travel stories... and they don’t avoid it. It sits there, a big Plot Elephant in the room.
All the cool CGI action also means that you don’t really think about things until afterward -- and when you do, the whole plot falls apart (because it’s time travel). After all, this is all set in motion by the failure of Spock Prime to stop the star of the Romulans’ home planet from going nova. But, by fortuitous circumstance, both Nero’s mining ship and Spock Prime’s vessel get tossed, oh, a century or so into the past in the event. As soon as Spock Prime and Nero realize this, they should also realize that this is the most wonderful news possible: just go to Romula and say “hey, folks, you got about a century to prepare, but your sun’s going supernova then, so get ready...” No problem. Everyone's saved, and the terrible event doesn't kill anyone.
But no.... No one seems to realize this.
In many ways, this is a ‘reboot’ of the “Wrath of Khan” movie, too: an uber-confident foe out for revenge (against Spock rather than Kirk) for real or imagined offenses. Kirk's cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test was a continual plot device in that one, too.
The imagining of a relatively far future is poor, but it always was in Star Trek anyway. Think of the technological differences between 1900 and 2000 (just 100 years). Kirk is born (according to show chronology) in 2233, over two centuries form now. Yet, strangely, people still use flatscreen TVs, carry briefcases (cadets), and use actual people to weld steel plates in a starship under construction. Even in this reboot, the technology (with a few exceptions, such as the transporter and warp drives) is like the technology of, oh, not even fifty years from now. But then, much of science fiction isn’t about the future, it’s about ‘now’. The original Star Trek was deeply set in the mood of the times and the Cold War; this one set in the mood of current times, too...
The plot relies too much on Big Coincidence rather than the characters actually figuring out anything. Spock sends Kirk down to what appears to be Hoth, the ice planet from Star Wars (who knew it was in the Vulcan system?). It just happens to be the place where Spock Prime has been placed, too. And on that entire whole frigging planet, Kirk just happens to pop into the one cave where Spock is living (even though, strangely, Spock is also aware that there’s a Starfleet station within walking distance, where Scottie just coincidentally happens to be assigned.) What would have been better? An active Spock Prime, who would have been actively searching out Kirk and his past self to set things right. Rather than having Kirk stumble by accident on Spock Prime, let Spock Prime go forth and find Kirk to help. (Not that any help is needed, really -- see above stuff about going back to Romulus)
Smaller stuff:
Captain Pike promotes Spock to Acting Captain and Kirk (who's still a cadet, and on suspension besides) to First Officer -- there aren’t any superior officers on the Enterprise? None? Hard to believe.
Spock has Kirk sent off to Hoth for insubordination. There’s no brig on the Enterprise either? That seems a rather harsh treatment, and probably against regulations.
Spock has Public Displays of Affection with Uhura? Seems totally out of character. Private ones, ok, but not in public.
We have a sword fight on the drill platform? C'mon, don't these people carry guns?
Speaking of which, if OSHA ever gets to a Romulan mining ship, they're going to have a fit about the lack of railings on those precipitous platforms.
Didn't the nasty bug that Nero jams in Pike's mouth go into Chekhov's ear in Wrath of Khan? For that matter, what ever happened to that bug? It falls out of the script.
Speaking of falling out of the script, what happens to Kirk's mom? She gives birth, but when Very Young Kirk steals a car (from some nameless and relation-less male), the male voice informs us she's "off-planet." Then when we get to Grown Up Kirk, we never, ever hear of her again.
The first black hole send ships through a wormhole into the past, but the rest of 'em just tear ships apart. Why?
Sure, you can destroy the Vulcan home planet, and the Rumulan home planet, and the Human home planet, but there are an infinity of planets out in the universe -- surely humans, vulcan, and romulans have established colonies on other worlds. You're not going to take out a space-faring race by destroying their home planet.
Like every Star Trek movie, this one has the “Transporter Conundrum.” If you need to destroy another ship, why not just beam over a big bomb? -- if you can beam Kirk and Spock over to Romulan ship, then you can beam the Big Bomb, too. (And in this one, the Conundrum gets larger: Kirk and Scottie beam themselves from Hoth to the Enterprise while the Enterprise in in warp drive. So why bother chasing the Romulan ship to Earth? -- just transport the Big Bomb to it.
The whole “dinosaur-surrogate” chasing Kirk on Hoth was a bit too much. What a waste of time: it felt entirely gratuitous. By the way, don’t filmmakers ever look at real predators? Predators who waste time and effort to roar at their potential next meal rather than just pouncing on it immediately generally go hungry.
At the end, when Kirk is about to take the Enterprise out, he’s looking around the bridge and we’re seeing all the characters except Spock. Then Spock shows up on the bridge, and says he applying for the open First Officer position. Kirk hasn’t filled the first officer position before getting ready to take out the Enterprise? I mean, c’mon. This is just false tension --- and the scriptwriters could have had a better scene by having Kirk go to Spock and ask him to be first officer.
Bottom line: an enjoyable movie, but by no means a great one. It feels more like a pilot to a series than an actual real movie... and that’s probably what it is: the pilot for a new franchise of Star Trek movies.
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I thought the acting was decent (and also thought that the guy playing Scottie manages to steal most of the scenes he's in, with the exception of the "waterslide in the middle of the Enterprise" stupidity. The decent acting and casting is shame, given that the screenwriters were bumbling idiots.