I'm honestly surprised at how stupid the film is, now having seen it. It's actually one of the worst films I've ever seen, strictly speaking as a movie fan in general. Keep in mind, I think that the Trek films are lame across the board, albeit some less lame than others.
Except for the first ten minutes, the entire film is comprised haphazardly cut scenes with annoying characters, lens flares, some of the cheapest-looking sets I've ever seen, weak fight scenes, and dialogue that flat out states that the motivations and setting of the film doesn't make any goddamn sense, and there is no actual point or theme that they try to convey other than some vague talk about "destiny" that isn't at all supported by the events on screen (though I'll admit, I hate the concept of destiny to begin with, but I can take it if the story does something with it.)
I can't possibly begin to condense my feelings on this mess in a single post, so I'll probably end up posting several chunks over the next few days here, but I'd like to begin by saying that I honestly gave this thing the benefit of the doubt when I went to see it. I threw all of my Trek knowledge and fanship aside, and just went in to see what kind of story they wanted to tell.
...and for the first ten minutes, I believed the hype.
Despite some ugly and honestly generic set design, I loved everything about the Kelvin. The uniforms were cool, the sound effects were both derivative of the original series and also more in step with actual NASA and naval intraship chatter (which the original also had, but not at this level), some of the technology they used was a great step-up from even the stuff presented on Voyager and NEM (like personal body monitors, which have not only been around since Apollo, but the were put on the uniforms in TMP, but became a throwaway concept never to be heard from again), and the characters were really well acted and written, especially the Kirks and (most especially) Robau.
To be absolutely clear, Faran Tahir stole every scene he was in. The entire sequence, I kept thinking over and over, "He is Kirk" (Okay, I broke my own rule, but I honestly couldn't help myself when I saw him!) He exuded confidence, charisma, charm, and authority, and the fact that he was Pakistani wouldn't have bothered me at all if they casted him as Kirk. In fact, it would have been a great step in the Trek tradition of confronting racism and fear by putting a "brown-man" in the captain's chair during a time when half of the nation still tenses up when they see a swarthy person across the street. That, and he is fucking awesome, right up until Nero has a temper tantrum and runs him through.
While not as immediately impressive as Robau, the Kirks were great people, and I could honestly believe that these were the parents of the Kirk we knew. George was smart, dedicated, and charming, and the banter between him and his wife struck me as both badass and something that I'd expect a "Kirk" to do. Excellent stuff.
At this point, I honestly didn't see anything special about Nero or the Narada. The sets looked not only bad but also cheap, and Bana's performance didn't really strike me as anything special. Then again, it was only the opening minutes of the film.
After George Kirk rams the Narada...the entire tone of the film changes from measured and serious into 110 minutes of lame, over-acted, teeth-grating pandering, to both itself and the audience, regardless of whether or not they are Trek aficionados or they think that Picard and Spock commanded Voyager.
I'll have more later. Feel free to take this however you like.
). But it's one thing for that question, or any such question, to be dealt with in fan fiction. Hell, that's one reason Star Trek spawned so much fan fiction. Because its writers had the self discipline to leave dangling such trivial points of arcana.
