Although not without its flaws, Star Trek is a good enough film to see in theaters. I have a feeling many scenes only work well if the viewer is acquainted with the characters (most notably the opening scene), and there are many nods to common quotes and mannerisms.
Karl Urban does a great job as McCoy, and I think is possibly the best in terms of how close to the character he is.
Zachary Quinto as Spock comes as a close second. I think this film is really Spock's film, as most of the character-driven parts of the story are for Spock.
I liked Eric Bana's Captain Nero, but I also felt his character was only written in broad strokes. Most of his character development is done in exposition near the end of the movie and by that time you don't much care. We're just going to have him die and throw him away. While I suppose that attitude is fine enough, he delivers a more memorable villain than most Trek films have.
I've been undecided how much I really like the film. It was an awesome experience to see Star Trek in the theaters (especially on opening night), and the film is not as bad as I feared it might be. It is definitely worth going to see, as it's probably the best offering of the May movie lineup.
The computer screen effects are really awesome. This was the biggest improvement to the Enterprise computer interface that I noticed, although I think I prefer the screens on the USS Kelvin a little better.
I like the new uniforms and most of the new set designs. I thought those all were well done. The music is also very good, excepting a bit of "this is how you should feel" music during the first scene. There is also a nod to the original theme written by Alexander Courage at the end.
I wasn't a fan of the new warp special effect or of the big corporate brand product placement. There is also a lot of "creative" lens flares and glaring light, which I think detracts from the film substantially. It's also hard during any of the combat scenes to have any sort of idea what's going on, who is hitting who, etc.
I didn't like how Starfleet Academy was used as the vehicle to bring the majority of the crew onboard the Enterprise, and how loose Abrams treated Starfleet protocol in general. While I like the characters that form a romantic relationship in the film (it recalls a TOS episode's backstory that is related in one of the cast's autobiography), HOW they generated the relationship seems inappropriate to me.
There are a few campy scenes, and for the most part they are well done. Funny not cheesy.
I feel undivided about the BIG AWFUL THING that happens. I'm not sure that was necessary.
Because of the way Abrams rebooted the franchise, I believe it's negated ALL of the Star Trek that came before. I don't like that. You can pretty much wipe the entire slate clean and start with Star Trek: TOS, season 1 again, minus the object and people concerned with the BIG AWFUL THING. (Really, you can find elsewhere what happens. I'm sure it's all over the web now.)
So yeah. Go see it. It's not perfection, but it's far from the crapfest I was expecting. I think they can do better.
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3 comments:
Great review, but if you think, "the film is not as bad as I feared it might be." then that's sad.
this new Star Trek is probably the best movie I've seen in the theaters all year; the new cast did an awesome job emulating the originals as did the script writers -- tons of fun
Don - I don't know; I expect a lot from Star Trek, and it would be too easy to execute a new series or film poorly. Not only does it have to be good sci-fi, it has to be that much better in order to be good Star Trek.
Look at the Star Wars prequels; for all the money spent on them, not to mention all the money they made, they are fairly poor quality films.
There is a huge plothole in this Star Trek film that not many critics are talking about: the antagonist disappears for 25 years, with no explanation. There is a scene which explains the disappearance, but was cut out of the film. If you know which scene was cut, there is a reference to it when Uhura mentions a strange communications signal she heard.
I'm not a fan of the latest films' Romulan++ idea, even one so brilliantly executed as Bana's Nero. They could have easily said Nero was from a different race with little change to the story's impact. The crew of Nero's vessel is Romulan in name only.
I'm ecstatic the film will be successful, because that means there will be more Star Trek to come, and possibly somewhere in there will be a film or a TV show that lives up to my expectations. But until Hollywood writers relearn how to combine a current-events allegory with action and adventure, Star Trek will remain an action-filled space opera. Which is not what I think it should be. I didn't walk away from this film feeling I learned something new and inspiring, which is a feeling many episodes of Star Trek imparted to me.
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