I just saw the film Star Trek tonight.
I have to say that I was really disapointed with it. There were a number of problems with the film. First, there was not much of a plot. Second, the characters were not really developed in a believable way. Third, like most big budget movies it relied way to much on special effects. Finally, it ultimately left me feeling empty which is typical of most Hollywood movies these days.
The basic structure was that the young Kirk is angry at his fathers death, which occurs at the opening of the film, he is busy wasting his life on drinking and womanizing. On Vulcan there is Spock who is studying hard and doing his best to be emotionless.
We catch up with them at academy. Where Kirk solves a puzzle. Whereas with William Shatner you had the sense that he was trying to win any he could, but that he ultimately felt that he was doing it for the greater good. Somehow he managed to have both idealism and egoism in the same character. With this actor you got the sense that he just wanted to win, and he couldn't give a damn what anyone thought about it. When confronted by the Spock character he doesn't seem to show any respect or admiration for his opponents.
Later on the guy who killed Kirk's father is now trying to destroy federation planets with miniture black holes that have been brought back from the future, by Spock who was originally sent to save the Villan's planet Romulus, but failed to arrive on time, and both the old Spock and Nero the Villian end up back in time, Nero arriving 25 years ealier and destroying the senior Kirk's ship. Nero then waits another 25 years, and captures Spock, and steals his miniture black hole device.
First off, why do only certian black holes send you back in time, whereas most of them just destroy you, it simply makes no sense.
The narative structure is that simple, they show a little of them growing up, they show them at the academy, the first fight with Nero, then the final fight with him. Along the way all the Star Trek crew is introduced.
It really had almost nothing to do with the original Star Trek, which had deep philosophical questions, and was more faithful to science fiction. This one has nothing to do with science fiction, unless your idea of science fiction is simply to have big ships, with black holes, and other technical things.
The entire story could have taken place in modern society with a band of terrorists stealing some nuculear bomb, and the plot would be basically the same. The time travel element is not really explored, it is a mere trop. Even a film like Back to the Future examined the paradoxes of time travel in a more profound way, which is not saying much.
If you are a Star Trek fan you will not recognise Spock, but the rest of them are caricatures. In order to get decent character development you need realistic situations, sending groups from one disaster to another just gives me the sense that they are standing around watching a house blow up, or some other titanic event, that makes the people themselves insignificant.
That gets to central problem of placing special effects at the heart of the movie. THere is no time really to experience the subtleties of acting, when there is this sublime experience of the impossible or otherwordly. A giant explosions the size of star ship, or black hole destroying a planet is hyperbolic. Imigine if in the Empire Strikes Back the destruction of Elderon had taken place in an action sequence and then quickly the characters rushed off to do something else. There was a dramatic moment, and the movie took time to help you feel the wieght of what had just happend. Here its just off to the races, this happens, then that, then this, then that, bam, bam, bam, and there is no silence, explosions keep coming fast and furious. Even when Kirk is sent to an ice planet, the minute he steps outside a CGI monster chaces him, only to be eaten by another monster that in turn also chases him.
It's as if the film makers think if you don't experience the sense of an explosion, fight, or chase within a couple of minutes you'll get bored.
But, by the end of it, in fact those very explosions become boring.
The penultimate scene involves the black hole machine crashing into the Romulin ship, thus destroying it, but not before Kirk feigns the offer of help to the ship, thus getting revenge on them for pretending to help the ship of his father, and the enterprise earlier in the movie. Its a very crude and juvinial form of revenge.
So the bad guys are simotaneously destroyed by the enterprise and the black holes.
Basically, was mildly entertained by the special effects, halfway through the movie was getting really bored.
