Saw it again today.
Warning to everyone, don't think about the film after you see it, it will only make you question your initial impression of it. When I saw it on Friday, I didn't love it like most people but I did enjoy it as a mindless action film but when you have time to really take a step back and digest everything that went on in the film the issues become more pronounced and the chinks in the armor really start to show. I think they crammed too much material into these two hours. By trying to do so many things none of them really receive the kind of development they deserved.
I started to realize that I intellectually recognized that the writers did something pretty bold and destroyed Vulcan yet when I was considering the assortment of plusses and minuses of the film that destroying Vulcan wasn't high up there. It wasn't carry the kind of shock and impact it really should have viscerally. This is afterall a founding member of the Federation and a world that has been part of Trek since the beginning yet its destruction carried about as much resonance as a nameless planet of the week or destroying a planet in a video game. It wasn't a grim sequence a la ENT's "Twilight". It seemed the writers wanted to do something big and decided to destroy Vulcan but they didn't do enough to do the idea the justice it deserved. Heck, DS9 manged to generate more reaction from me with just hearing that Betazed was occupied by the Dominion on DS9. As I was trying to figure out why it donned on me that there was so much else going on around it got lost in the mix--it was just one of a thousand plot points occurring in the film.
Yes, they tried to capture the loss with Spock in his scenes with Uhura and with Sarek but they didn't succeed for me. Not enough had been done to give those scenes the kind of richness demanded of them. And for a long time fan such as myself feeling this way I can only imagine the lack of resonance by the uninitiated who are just introduced to this race and its world. Same with Amanda's death, you really have to earn those emotional and visceral payoffs and just destroying a planet or killing off Spock's mother, which was a little iffy in its execution, doesn't automatically guarantee those expected responses especially since Amanda had sum total of about a minute of screentime. We had no reason to invest in it.
Nero is still a plot device and the vague, thin and fast peak into the events in the late 24th century that propels some of the film's important moments is disappointing and unsatisfying as it comes across as a macguffin and not a series of illuminating scenes informing the audience of why Nero is so angry. I also found Nero wanting as the person who so fundamentally changes the Trek universe. Think of all the times someone has tried it by messing with history and the best they could come up with was Nero?!? He certainly didn't measure up to that kind of stature. Bash ENT all you want, at least B&B did a good job providing the Sphere Builders and the Xindi plausible motivations for why they would want to change history. Also if you are a new fan I would imagine without the necessary exposition they really wouldn't understand who the Vulcans or Romulans are or what there relationship is. At least older fans have the idea of the dynamics at play here. ENT tried to introduce familiar races where new and old fans alike understood who they were.
I've seen some posters who had issues with Delta Vega being too close to Vulcan or the ludicrous science of the nova/blackhole/red matter--none of that stuff concerns me in the slightest. I also have no objection to Trek being mindless action adventure entertainment. I demand no social allegory or deep meditation. No, I don't think any of those are the issue. It was perfectly fine that the movie was over the top in the effects and action. Loved those elements but what really hurt it was the lack of depth with its villian, its plot, or its emotional payoffs. I think a lot of that was due to trying to do too much. It makes the film look cluttered. I don't know what it is with tv shows and films these days that they love piling way too much and jumping around from one thing to the next instead of focusing on a few specifics and giving them depth and time. Before I've appreciated what just happened and while I'm inthe middle of taking it in they are already on to something else. At times it can be maddening to keep up. At least at home if I didn't catch some bit of dialogue or I'm still thinking about what just took place I can rewind or pause but here it's "moving on!" I certainly don't want a show to drag but I think they could slow down a bit.
I have been feeling that a lot of these highly praised films like The Dark Knight and Star Trek are a little overrated. I think the quality of writing isn't as good as it used to be or maybe I've just become too jaded or cynical as a viewer but I don't believe so.
Warning to everyone, don't think about the film after you see it, it will only make you question your initial impression of it. When I saw it on Friday, I didn't love it like most people but I did enjoy it as a mindless action film but when you have time to really take a step back and digest everything that went on in the film the issues become more pronounced and the chinks in the armor really start to show. I think they crammed too much material into these two hours. By trying to do so many things none of them really receive the kind of development they deserved.
I started to realize that I intellectually recognized that the writers did something pretty bold and destroyed Vulcan yet when I was considering the assortment of plusses and minuses of the film that destroying Vulcan wasn't high up there. It wasn't carry the kind of shock and impact it really should have viscerally. This is afterall a founding member of the Federation and a world that has been part of Trek since the beginning yet its destruction carried about as much resonance as a nameless planet of the week or destroying a planet in a video game. It wasn't a grim sequence a la ENT's "Twilight". It seemed the writers wanted to do something big and decided to destroy Vulcan but they didn't do enough to do the idea the justice it deserved. Heck, DS9 manged to generate more reaction from me with just hearing that Betazed was occupied by the Dominion on DS9. As I was trying to figure out why it donned on me that there was so much else going on around it got lost in the mix--it was just one of a thousand plot points occurring in the film.
Yes, they tried to capture the loss with Spock in his scenes with Uhura and with Sarek but they didn't succeed for me. Not enough had been done to give those scenes the kind of richness demanded of them. And for a long time fan such as myself feeling this way I can only imagine the lack of resonance by the uninitiated who are just introduced to this race and its world. Same with Amanda's death, you really have to earn those emotional and visceral payoffs and just destroying a planet or killing off Spock's mother, which was a little iffy in its execution, doesn't automatically guarantee those expected responses especially since Amanda had sum total of about a minute of screentime. We had no reason to invest in it.
Nero is still a plot device and the vague, thin and fast peak into the events in the late 24th century that propels some of the film's important moments is disappointing and unsatisfying as it comes across as a macguffin and not a series of illuminating scenes informing the audience of why Nero is so angry. I also found Nero wanting as the person who so fundamentally changes the Trek universe. Think of all the times someone has tried it by messing with history and the best they could come up with was Nero?!? He certainly didn't measure up to that kind of stature. Bash ENT all you want, at least B&B did a good job providing the Sphere Builders and the Xindi plausible motivations for why they would want to change history. Also if you are a new fan I would imagine without the necessary exposition they really wouldn't understand who the Vulcans or Romulans are or what there relationship is. At least older fans have the idea of the dynamics at play here. ENT tried to introduce familiar races where new and old fans alike understood who they were.
I've seen some posters who had issues with Delta Vega being too close to Vulcan or the ludicrous science of the nova/blackhole/red matter--none of that stuff concerns me in the slightest. I also have no objection to Trek being mindless action adventure entertainment. I demand no social allegory or deep meditation. No, I don't think any of those are the issue. It was perfectly fine that the movie was over the top in the effects and action. Loved those elements but what really hurt it was the lack of depth with its villian, its plot, or its emotional payoffs. I think a lot of that was due to trying to do too much. It makes the film look cluttered. I don't know what it is with tv shows and films these days that they love piling way too much and jumping around from one thing to the next instead of focusing on a few specifics and giving them depth and time. Before I've appreciated what just happened and while I'm inthe middle of taking it in they are already on to something else. At times it can be maddening to keep up. At least at home if I didn't catch some bit of dialogue or I'm still thinking about what just took place I can rewind or pause but here it's "moving on!" I certainly don't want a show to drag but I think they could slow down a bit.
I have been feeling that a lot of these highly praised films like The Dark Knight and Star Trek are a little overrated. I think the quality of writing isn't as good as it used to be or maybe I've just become too jaded or cynical as a viewer but I don't believe so.
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