I just watched it again for the first time since it came out way back in May. This second time around, boy do I ever hate the special effects! They're just so busy and manic, I can never tell what's going on during the action sequences, especially the space battles. I haven't been so irritatingly disoriented since the action scenes in "Batman Begins". And I don't know why I never noticed the lens flares everyone complains about when I saw the movie for the first time, but this time they were burning my retinas from the first scene. Argh!
One thing I feel more positive about this time is the villain. I still think his back story and the logic behind his plan are idiotic, but just looking at the performance and his plan, I appreciate both more. I like the intensity Eric Bana brought to the role, and I liked how diabolical his plan was, wanting to destroy every Federation planet one at a time. That's one ballsy evil scheme. Points for ambition, even if his reasons are dumb.
This time I understand the hate for the Kobyashi Maru scene more (wow, Kirk/Pine was annoying as hell in that scene), but just as I felt the first time I saw it, by the end of the movie I liked all of the characters and the casting a lot. I liked Ben Cross more this time especially. The first time I was comparing him to Mark Lenard too much, so I was disappointed, but I think he did a good job now. And another opinion that hasn't changed upon re-watching: Urban nailed his character better than anyone else. I loved his interpretation of Bones.
So the second time, there were things I minded more than I had before, and things I minded less than before. I think it's quite a maddeningly inconsistent movie. The first time I saw it, I said I think it kind of jumped the shark and started to suck once Old Spock showed up. This time, I would say it never really gets bad and never recovers. It's more like it has a bunch of great scenes, then a bunch of stupid scenes, back and forth. By the end, I thought the good outweighed the bad, though, so huzzah!
