Might have been better if...

I love Star Trek but have always felt myself at a distance to the new movie series. The actors are very good, the films look great though the stories, while well told, have been a mixed bag. Yet I find myself being dismissive about these films. I've watched each once or twice and have no interest in watching them over and over again like I have with the original TV and film series.

Lately, I've been wondering if it might have been better if they had just started this film series off with a fresh set of characters on a new ship yet retain the basic premise and "heart" of Star Trek. I believe that I would have embraced a fresh attempt at Trek much more eagerly rather than always having to reconcile myself to the differences between classic Trek and Kelvin-timeline Trek.

Just a thought...

 

The simple truth is new characters just would not have interested among the general public. I remember in 2009 there was a lot of hype generated over the fact that Trek XI featured the TOS characters. It didn't matter that they were played by different actors, the fact that this movie had Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scotty and the others was a huge deal and indeed was the selling point for the movie. You wouldn't have gotten that excitement had it been a movie about completely new characters, and at the time the Star Trek franchise was in such a state of decay that it needed something that would have gotten the general public to turn their heads.

Granted the other two movies haven't been as successful, but that has more to do with other factors and having a different cast wouldn't necessarily have fixed anything. STID tried too hard to keep a secret everyone figured out anyway, which IMO hurt the marketing of the film, and Beyond just didn't get any promotional work at all.

 

I find the whole look and feel of the NuTrek films to be pretty off-putting. 09 I've seen a few times, in attempt to make myself like the new spin, though didn't work. STID was terrible (IMHO) and I've only ever seen once. Beyond was slightly better, though still not what I really want from my Trek (though if given the choice between Beyond and TFF I'd probably go with the former).

A whole new crew and/or ship would've been better, I think. They could've gone with the missions of Captain Pike and had a younger Spock onboard, or even the adventures of Lieutenant James Kirk (who doesn't become a Captain after one mission) charting the rise of an exceptional young officer. But that'd have been my preference.

 

STB might have been better if Idris Elba was given a chance to shine more (and have less alien makeup) and dominate the whole movie the way Heath Ledger dominated The Dark Knight.

Kor

 

I really like STID and STB, and basically like ST09. But I guess every movie could use a few tweaks.

I could've done with a less "sex with green aliens" portrayal of Kirk in the first two films, since that really is a pop culture imagination of Kirk rather than how Kirk actually was in TOS.

While I love Cumberbatch and think his Khan portrayal has a lot to offer, I do think it created a lot of hangups and confusion for fans and new fans. When I first heard about STID, I was hoping Cumberbatch would play Gary Mitchell. Still think that, even though I like both the movie and the character we got.

I am not sure Eric Bana was a strong choice for Nero. Something about his voice made him less threatening or something.

Oh, and Idris Elba should've had one more scene to flesh out his character. Krall was good, but I feel like he just needed another few minutes of backstory. Also I would've found a way to redeem him in the end. Still, good movie, good character.

 

I liked the reboot precisely because I was intrigued and found an enormous potential in a different version, from another reality, of the same characters and see how things could have been different for them if circumstances were different; not just from the fictional perspective but also the real world of the 60s putting many limits on what they could do with the characters back then.
honestly, and I say this as a fan myself, tos is beloved but many fans tend to idealize it too much and only remember the good and forget context and how outdated and conservative (and campy ) it would actually look nowadays for modern audiences. (even the reboot still comes across as conservative and outdated, in many ways, tbh, compared to other franchises)
Remakes reflect the time when they are made. This reboot has the amazing quality of not wanting to really re-rell tos, or rewrite it, thank to the alternate reality device...
Some fans want trek to stay the same and it ultimately is trek's biggest hindrance that will forever hold it back. I almost envy the freedom and carefreeness other franchises have and the ability to accept remakes and reboots for what they are respecting their purpose, or even being grateful of having different versions and canons of a well loved thing.

 

I'd been wanting to see new versions of Kirk and crew since 5-year-old me was introduced to the concept of reboots by Batman in 1989.

I do think Into Darkness might have benefitted from keeping Kirk dead until the third movie, rather than rushing his resurrection.

 

Could well have helped Beyond's box office too.

 

By resurrecting him, they made sure there wasn't an easy cop-out route they could take ("Oh, Kirk's dead, now we don't have to make another movie/now we can give the ship a new captain, or maybe Spock is captain and someone new is first officer")

 

I barely rewatch the original films anymore. I watch the STNG films maybe once a year. I've watched Beyond maybe 8-9 times at home and 11 times overall. Everyone I've shown it to loves it, with one exception(I could probably convince her if I made the effort lol). STID is extremely rewatchable, though I haven't recently, I've probably watched it 12 times at home since 2013. I still see things in ST09 that I missed. I've lost count how I often I've seen it. Last time was on the new 65" TV, where even more detail is evident.

 

I tend to watch the reboot movies more these days, more because of how new they still seem, even ST09, entertainment and eye candy. I still watch the original and TNG movies maybe once a year, with the exception of TFF.

 

Even NEMESIS?

I put it on earlier this week thinking, maybe it isn't as bad as I remember. Nope. Could not get past the wedding. The pain. The pain.

 

Especially Nemesis for me. It's easily my favourite TNG movie. I love the wedding scene, I actually find Picard's speech quite emotional.

 

I think I would have preferred the new movies if they had not been so blasé about papering over huge plot holes, if the Enterprise had been much closer to the original, if Paul McGillion had been allowed to play a version of Scotty that was closer in tone to the original, if they had modernised and featured more of the women from the show, Garth instead of Khan, and if they had not opened so many Pandora's boxes with open ended, plot-busting technology.

I think the pacing and performances are great, and the basic premise of the first movie was good. With a few tweaks, I could have forgiven a lot more.

 

Oh wow. The 10 pre-Kelvin films in beautiful 1080p is worth checking out! I've seen all the films a bunch of times myself but I was curious and checked out First Contact on Blu Ray and then I had to watch all of them again in the upgraded format.... never had the chance before recently. So gorgeous. I think the best looking original series film in HD is The Undiscovered Country. Just a masterpiece.

My only complaint about how the Kelvinverse looks is too much "shaky cam", which luckily was not present for much of Beyond. In Star Trek 09 it's difficult to get a good look at anything, which is kinda irritating for fanatics who want to see everything.

Anyway, back to the original post, I would have liked to see that, too. New characters and a new ship. Well, we might be finally seeing that this autumn...