The enormity of reviewing any Star Trek movie is a daunting task but to review this particular film is more challenging than any other. It certainly shoots for epic and as such there’s a lot to talk about. I’m certain I’ll have much to say about the film in the future and even now, 5 days after I saw it, I still feel like I’m absorbing and processing it all. Should I speak generally or bust out the nitpicker guild membership?
In very broad terms I really enjoyed the film. In fact I’m currently rather upset that it doesn’t seem to be available to watch in IMAX in my province but I still plan on seeing it at least once more, perhaps several times. It was visually stimulating, had an interesting plot, vibrant characters, and was even pretty funny at times.
I do feel as though there was a lot going on that wasn’t clearly shown such that one needs to go back a few times to pick up on everything. For example I spotted James Cawley on the bridge but totally missed Jeffrey Quinn. During the space battles I frequently found myself wondering what exactly was going on. The CONSTANT lens flares frequently distracted me from the action or made details difficult to see. I understand the stylistic choice behind this, trying to make Star Trek seem much more like real life than its sterile predecessors but as a fan of the franchise I found it a little overdone and a little frustrating at times.
So the real question is, did they completely respect or completely destroy canon? That little bit of dialogue on the bridge clearly tries to tell the audience this is a parallel universe essentially and all their favorite toys, save Spock and Romulus, are still right where we left them and could in theory be picked back up again at any time. But with regards to the future what implications will this have? Will all future movies and TV shows take place in this new universe? Do we need to retell hundreds of stories from this new perspective? How will we distinguish between, for example, novels that take place in the new universe and novels that take place in the old? Will we call the new universe the lens flare universe? In the credits they list Leonard Nimoy’s character as Spock Prime so is the old universe the Prime universe? And if so why wasn’t Nero listed as Nero Prime? He came from the same universe and time frame. I’m sure I could go on for days about this.
I also think some of the choices the writers made were poor, unnecessary, or not logical. For example if before Nero’s arrival Kirk was originally born in Iowa then why was his pregnant mother on board a starship near Klingon space when he was born in the film? Were they en route to Earth when they got diverted to investigate the lightning in space? I have a hard time believing that. The whole bit of Kirk’s birth I found to be contrived and unnecessary. We didn’t need to see Kirk’s birth, it was hokey, cliché, and forced. I think the opening of the movie would have been much better served without Kirk being born during the battle. His pregnant mom could have escaped and they could have discussed his name and everything just like in the movie but with Kirk being due in a month or so and the internal logic would have been preserved and the highly improbable and difficult to accept coincidence of Kirk being born just as his father dies heroically. Frankly if the rest of the movie hadn’t been so fantastic I think this poor choice would have received a lot more attention and therefore, criticism. At some story meeting when discussing this part of the script someone should have asked “So Kirk’s dad has to take command because Nero randomly arrives and attacks just as Kirk’s being born? Are people going to buy that? You’re piling like 8 coincidences on top of each here – isn’t space travel enough of a leap of faith? We’re going to ask audiences to accept that Nero just happens to uncontrollably arrive at the hour of Kirk’s birth, with the ship that Kirk’s family is on, when they should be in Iowa, just happens to be the closest vessel and Kirk’s dad just happens to be first officer and just happens to be given command and THEN the auto navigation just happens to fail?”
I think this particular choice bothers me so much because if they had just gone the other way and removed ONE of these coincidences then everything would make sense and the film on the whole would be easier to accept and process into canon because the continuity and believability would be there. The timeline isn’t altered until Nero arrives so why is Kirk born in space? And to start the movie off this way just left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth despite how awesome the movie was from that point on. I mean we can debate the merits of killing Amanda and blowing up Vulcan and Kirk not having his father and jumping straight to Captain with serving with Finnegan or being on the Republic or the Farragut but those all take place in the new branched-off timeline, the battle with the Kelvin begins in the old universe though as it has just begun to splinter.
And a Supernova threatening the entire galaxy? Really? That’s going to need some further explanation because on the surface that sounds nuts. It’s like saying a tsunami threatens the solar system.
Those are really my biggest problems and only real rants or issues with this movie. Yes I think they could have fit things slightly more within canon, killing Amada and Vulcan just to piss Spock off seems a little extreme as a writing device but at least it raised the stakes and I can respect that. The curse of a prequel is you can’t put the major characters in real danger because we know what happens to them decades hence but by splitting the timeline that limitation is removed. However no Vulcan means no Tuvok in all likelihood just to put that choice in perspective for you.
Since I spent so much time attacking the film let me say this in defense of what some see as two of film’s biggest continuity flaws. I’ll attack on both fronts simultaneously, the Enterprise looks and functions differently than we’re used to and nobody seems surprised that Vulcans and Romulans are related. Both of these could be explained by Nero’s incursion (as they’re calling it on Memory Alpha) if you think about it. Remember that the Enterprise is launched 25 years after Nero’s incursion.
After the devastating attack on the Kelvin, to which there were many witnesses, it is entirely possible that influenced the direction of future starship design. If you were an engineer working on the next class starship and you heard about the Kelvin getting its ass handed to it by some mysterious ship wouldn’t you want to consider adjusting your designs to help prepare for this new threat? You know how they say you learn more from defeat than failure? What did Starfleet learn from the Kelvin’s destruction that may have influenced R&D? It’s almost a parallel to the Enterprise-D’s first encounter with the Borg, shortly thereafter Starfleet mobilized to build a defense against the new threat culminating in the Defiant class. What direction would starship design taken had ‘Q Who’ (TNG) not happened?
As for knowing the Vulcan-Romulan connection the Kelvin was clearly able to deduce the Narada was of Romulan design – there are plenty of ways this could have been accomplished such as reading hull markings, materials, power source, and starship design. Starfleet now aware of some new crazy Romulan threat would step up their intelligence efforts directed at the Romulans and learn of Romulan ancestry.
25 years after a temporal incursion can explain away of a lot of inconsistencies but not inconsistencies that exist at the time of the incursion.
Of course that’s a lot of mental footwork to do. Are we to take this new universe as seriously as the old one or are we to take it with a grain of salt like we did the mirror universe?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy this movie was made but it’s going to take some time to completely wrap my head around it and its implications.
It has several nice tips of the hat to previous incarnations but when does homage become rehash? I’ll tell you where, when Nero thinks he’s Khan on Ceti Alpha 5. Almost every other homage was done tactfully and artfully but that scene was almost a bad parody; again too many coincidences, another life form on another planet that behaves remarkably like the Ceti Eel? Couldn’t Nero have just had a Ceti Eel on board? Or would they have had to pay too much in royalties to the writers of Star Trek II?
Alright, on to the talent…
Chris Pine – He’s tolerable as Kirk. That’s right, I said ‘tolerable’, what are you gonna do about it? The thing is, of all the characters in this new timeline/universe his is the most radically different/changed so Chris Pine is fine as this Kirk because with such a radically different upbringing he can pretty much be whatever he wants. I’ll buy it but I don’t have to like it.
Zachary Quinto – As good as I expected and my expectations for him were huge; needed more screen time.
Leonard Nimoy – Wow, they really aged him for this movie. People are going to leave the theatre thinking Nimoy’s decrepit or something when he’s really quite vibrant – just check out his recent SNL appearance if you doubt me. His performance was on the whole fantastic and spot-on.
Karl Urban – Introduction scenes are huge and when McCoy makes his entrance it’s like Urban’s doing a bad Jack Nicholson impersonation. Seriously, watch the film again with that in mind and tell me I’m wrong. Thankfully he improves after that but at no point do I see any of McCoy’s southern charm. He looks the part but I was disappointed by much of his performance.
Zoe Saldana – The perfect Uhura. No suspension of disbelief required here whatsoever. I could do without her relationship with Spock but that was something the writer’s did – the actress herself could not have done a better job.
Simon Pegg – He does a fantastic job creating a character that is so entertaining you never really ask yourself ‘is this Scotty?’ but were you to ask yourself that question the answer might very well be ‘no’ but Pegg’s character is so great it doesn’t really matter. This is, I suppose, what successful “reimagining” is supposed to look like – a character that’s different from the original but so wonderful, and dare I say an improvement, that people are not only totally fine with it but in fact enthused by it. Simon Pegg and Zachary Quinto make me believe this new vision of the franchise really can work going forward.
John Cho – Here’s the thing, I never saw Harold & Kumar so it’s much easier for me to accept Cho as Sulu and Takei’s performance was generally pretty reserved – although next to a scene-chewing Shatner how could you blame him for wanting to rein it in a little to provide some counterbalance? Don’t get me wrong, I think Takei made the right choices but because his choices were often almost Nimoy-like it makes it much easier for another actor to step into the role because the character was very real.
Anton Yelchin – He looks more like Tyler from ‘The Cage’ (TOS) than Chekov and the accent doesn’t seem right but if you think of him as a Tyler-Chekov hybrid he’s kinda fun to watch.
Eric Bana – Very well done, at no point did I think of him as Eric Bana or any of the other characters he’s played or people he looks like. He totally became Nero and that’s the ultimate goal of an actor.
Bruce Greenwood – Greenwood’s Pike is fantastic (although he was given some excellent dialogue) and I think it’s important to remember that this is a Pike much earlier in his career than we saw him in ‘The Cage’ (TOS). The whole thing about his character in ‘The Cage’ (TOS) was that he was tired and burned out from the burdens of command but that isn’t the case here so Greenwood was freed up to almost completely reinterpret the character and the result is extraordinary.
Ben Cross – I am still so saddened by Mark Leonard’s passing that I don’t think I can fairly evaluate Cross’s performance except to say that Sarek seemed much older than would be appropriate for the movie’s time frame.
Winona Ryder – I’m a closet Winona Ryder fan and thus was just happy to see her in the film, she did a fine job but I’m biased so ask someone else if you want an impartial review of her performance.
Clifton Collins Jr – He comes across as the Romulan equivalent of a gang member – like some guy who’s friends with the gang leader and therefore thinks he has a lot of power and influence but doesn’t really want to do anything with it except to intimidate others and make himself feel like a big man. Is that exactly what we’d want to see in Ayel? This is one of those things I’ll have to see the movie again to get a better feel for – his performance needs to ferment a bit before I can render judgment.
Chris Hemsworth – Great job. He puts a good-guy spit-and-polish young hero spin on Kirk’s dad that does the franchise proud. I’m happy to call him Kirk’s dad. And no, he’s NOT Captain Awesome.
Jennifer Morrison – No, no, no! I am understandably biased against her however since, as I already mentioned at length, I think everything she was given to play was wrong. Let’s call her a victim of the writing.
Rachel Nichols – Yea she was fine, no complaints.
Faran Tahir – This guy wonderfully sets the stage for the entire film. Perfectly done, I wouldn’t change a thing. Really too bad Robau got killed (I know the plot required it) because I would love to have seen more of this guy. Can we have a prequel to the prequel on the Kelvin?
Deep Roy – I guess Jimmy Vee was unavailable? What can I say; he’s simply comic relief – not much to it. Although I would have preferred Bannakaffalatta, could have been a nice tip of the hat to Doctor Who.
Greg Ellis – The first redshirt. Masterfully done sir. Michael Amador gets a hard on to kill some Romulans and then screws up hot-dogging on approach to become the first to die under Kirk’s command. Well done sir, well done.
I could go on but like I said I’m sure to have more thoughts about this as I see the movie again and as time passes so for now we’ll leave it here – at a little over 2,500 words.
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