I finally got a chance to see Star Trek this weekend. It was clearly obvious that JJ Abrams is not a Star Trek fan. Much of the special effects were a sloppy CGI nightmare like Transformers was and this seems to be a new trend now with tech action packed movies. Shake the camera, do numerous extreme close ups, and put a bunch of visual stuff up at once for brief moments so you don’t really know what happened but it gives you the illusion of looking cool.
My grade as a sci-fi movie: B-
My grade as a Star Trek movie: C-
Things I didn’t like:
• JJ Abrams pipe fetish – seriously the scenes of the Enterprise engine room and where they built the Enterprise on Earth (which in itself was ridiculous). I felt like I was on the USS Titanic anytime they showed the engine room of the Enterprise
• I felt like I was watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate factory when Scotty got sucked into the water pipe in the engine room
• the warp nacelles of the Enterprise were way too BIG
• JJ Abrams & many directors of latest CGI based films have a fetish to do extreme close ups and shake camera up to confuse us during a busy scene
• Very lame space battles that once again, suffered camera shake and extreme close-ups with too much stuff going on to take anything in
• Kirk gets out of Starfleet, goes from Cadet to 1st officer in 2 min and then captain shortly after without earning the position at all
• Everyone on planet Vulcan took a stupid pill while they watched a giant drill shooting a beam into their planet
• Everyone on planet Earth took a stupid pill while they watched a giant drill shooting a beam into their planet. The drill could easily be disabled with a handgun as Kirk did on planet Vulcan. Seriously nobody had a fighter jet or shuttle craft that could shoot it down? Oh wait, only cadet Kirk was smart enough to save us..well not really, Spock had to fly the Phantom Menace ship and shoot a few phaser shots at it. Kirk was too busy getting his a.ss kicked again
• Every other scene either shows us Kirk getting his a.ss kicked or falling off a ledge holding on by his finger tips
• Spocks future ship was a rip off of the water ship in Phantom Menace and didn’t resemble anything at all from the Star Trek world
• Spock gets marooned on an ice planet years before the destruction of his planet. He knows there is a federation outpost within walking distance and doesn’t bother to warn the Federation or Vulcan of the pending doom?
• Spock just happens to be on the same planet as Scotty whom is so brilliant that he himself is marooned on that planet too
• Nero was a very weak character, worse than the Romulan clone from Nemesis
• Future Romulan ship firing missles? Are you kidding me?
• Red matter was stupid, at least use something trekkies could relate to like the Omega particle
• I don’t understand how destroying Vulcan and the Federation could save the Romulan home world? The reason for Nero to go psycho was disingenuous
• No visual effects of shield impacts on any of the Federation ships
• 90210 love opera between Spock and Ahura – really takes away from Spocks character
• grim view of Federation and future for humanity that is stuck in a grungy world surrounded by pipes, and federation officers looking for bar fights
• too many plugs for Budweiser and Nokia
• the music lacked epic proportion
• the film had very little Star Trek feeling to it
• the creature enters Captain Pikes mouth and its supposed to wrap around his cerebral cortex??
• Orion Slave girl in Starfleet academy
Things I did like:
• The Kobyashi maru test was hilarious
• The portrayals of the main characters – excellent actors chosen (sans Nero and the rest of the Romulan thugs). Romulans are supposed to be cold yet calculating. These creatures seemed to be more like the Remans and it would have made more sense to identify them as such
• Excellent dramatic moment when Kirks father sacrifices himself to save his wife, child and crew
• Good humor in the movie kept it entertaining even during the bad science parts and poor story telling moments
• Lack of sound when getting sucked out into space
• Ahura was hot!
Overall I did find the movie entertaining and I nitpick all of the Star Trek movies, but my gripes were a bit longer in this one. Personally I'd rather see Rick Berman producing Star Trek again. He was really good at tieing in all of the shows and keeping a consistant storyline. I will continue to support Trek and see the new movies but no fancy CGI effects or young 90210 actors to increase sex appeal will ever replace the charm, and feeling of the 5 Star Trek TV series and X previous movies. This Next Generation of Star Trek is just too radically different and feels to similar to other SciFi stuff that has already been done IMO. If anything, this movie has inspired me to re-watch past Trek movies and find a new appreciation for them.
