The new Star Trek movie is the latest in a series of disappointing and lackluster remakes, designed to make money more than to appeal to fans or create something out of a genuine desire for artistic creation.
*SPOILER ALERT*
The film did have some positives. The casting for many of the characters was nearly perfect, so much so that at certain moments one could close their eyes and imagine the original cast members at a younger age. The dialog was overall fairly well-written, and there were some fairly amusing moments as well. I enjoyed Leonard Nimoy's cameo, not only because it linked this film to the previous, but also because it linked the Star Trek of this film to the previous Star Treks, since this film took place in an alternate universe (something not at all without precedent in Trek canon).
The filmmakers must have been burdened with the task of keeping everything as close to the original series designs as possible without making it seem horrendously dated and out-of-touch, and I think they pulled this off very well. The designs of the ships (including the Enterprise and the Romulan ship) were very interesting, and the enemy had a clear and believable motive. Even the Romulans themselves looked cooler. They were different from traditional Romulans, but neither did the Borg of First Contact look like those of the tv series, and the Klingons changed drastically from the original series to The Next Generation.
However, there were some major problems with this film, and few of them are of the type with which Trek canon nerds would be concerned. The action scenes were intensely shaky and erratic, to the point that Michael Bay had a wet dream about them. This, combined with the lens flares/iBridge vs. blackness of space dichotomy, gave me a headache and hurt my eyes. While most of the characters were interesting enough, Uhura was very boring and two-dimensional, and her romantic sideplot with Spock made absolutely no sense whatsoever, and why did Sulu have a katana, other than that he is an Asian? The product placement also irked me, far moreso than most films, because it destroyed the illusion of being in the Star Trek universe. Let me explain.
One of Gene Roddenberry's main ideas in creating Star Trek was that the future be an optimistic one. One of the most important ideas about the crew of the Enterprise was that it was made from people of all ethnicities on Earth, working together. Americans, Russians, Asians, Africans, and even aliens all worked together in harmony for the betterment of living beings in the Universe, not just for petty personal or nationalistic gains. In an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Captain Janeway tells an alien that she has difficulty conceiving of money because her society abolished it, and Kirk in Star Trek III didn't know how much a hundred dollars was. In a universe where corporations that need to advertise themselves exist, it naturally means that the future is still a place where people work against each other for personal gain, which seems to be fundamentally incompatible with Roddenberry's vision. I know, I'm getting pretty nitpicky here, but this is something that completely ruined the film for me. Besides, why the hell would they have car phones in a world where they have handheld communicators?
I also found the plot to be very unrealistic at times. I'm not sure in what military outfit a suspended cadet who stows away on a ship and causes a mutiny would be promoted to captain of the flagship of the fleet. I don't care if he did save the day and get to punch some aliens a lot. Also, is it the practice of the Federation to stuff their own people into escape pods when there is a perfectly good brig available? Things like this separate many bad movies from the good ones. At first glance it might be missed, but I just can't take it seriously because of this. It's sloppy.
Overall, most of the really important elements were well done (casting, writing), but the special effects for the most part were overkill and the movie felt less like Star Trek than it did an average action movie. There were long periods of time where I forgot that I was watching Star Trek. The sequel would benefit from a new director I think, one who actually likes Trek. J.J Abrams is quoted as saying that he doesn't like Star Trek but understands why people would like it, which to me says "hey I think this is stupid, but I like money so let's make it! There are definitely worse movies out there, but none of them are Star Trek movies. This is a low point for the franchise.
No comments:
Post a Comment