The overly comical handling of kirk's allergy (otherwise it would of been a nicely nugget from TWOH). The popeye hands is just too over the top, it didn’t fit into the rest of humour. It made the whole movie seem more galaxy quest like.
Since that never happened in 'Galaxy Quest' and Trek is no stranger to oddball humor like that, I don't really see your point, other than as a rather poor attempt to paint this film as being overly derivative of others, which you do again later with equally slim justifications.
Oh, and abnormally swollen hands are a not uncommon physiological reaction to a number of medical issues, from kidney failure, Lupus (sorry, Dr. House), spider bites, or to allergies like Kirk had to the fictional vaccine in the film.
Was it a goofy scene? Sure, intentionally so, but it got pretty decent and ongoing laughs from the audiences at both the screenings I saw as the scene progressed through the numb-tongue and Uhura's shocked reaction, so it's hard to call the scene too over-the-top to fail at being humorous.
Cadets running the ship don’t bother me, it’s been done in TWOH, but never a whole fleet of cadets had been send into action. It seems that they mobilized the entire academy. Were all the regular officers dead? The whole fleet was send away seems a little too convenient.
It’s like the US navy sending out their entire cadets in Annapolis to face a threat in the sea of Japan, while the entire 7th fleet was called away to deal with some unnamed middle east situation.
Even in that unlikely scenario the 7th fleet or a detachment of it would be called back to deal with the situation rather than sending out a fleet load of cadets.
I thought it was made pretty clear by the film that the Laurentian System must be quite a distance away from the Federation core worlds, since no ships could arrive from there in time to deal with either the Vulcan or Earth attacks (not even with the seemingly faster warp speeds evident in the film).
It wasn't a "whole fleet of cadets" as there were clearly existing officers serving aboard those ships, even on the Enterprise which hadn't been christened yet and thus likely had a smaller crew than most and needed more cadets. The numerous cadets were probably added primarily to assist in planetwide emergency responses on Vulcan; evacuation, first aid, and marshaling/relocation of refugees, since at that point Starfleet only thought it was massive seismic disturbances of some sort. Academy cadets from the various armed forces in the present day do often assist with emergencies and disaster relief. The cadets were probably also assigned in such great numbers to gain some real world experience in the field.
It's certainly not unprecedented in Trek for cadets to serve on active duty, as in TWoK which you mentioned, Nog serving aboard the Defiant, and Red Squad being assigned missions at the Academy (albeit in a coup attempt) and aboard the Valiant.
The whole fleet wasn't away, and this was one of the few times (First Contact being another) where Earth actually had a decent defense fleet of its own for a change. Well, before it was completely destroyed at Vulcan by Nero, at least.
So for the entire fleet being called away to the Laurentian(sp) system does seem a bit convenient. A better approach would be to have it said the fleet was called away to the Deveron(sp) system a little nod to TNG. (Although still very contrived, but I would be willing to forgive it due to the TNG nod.)
The Devron System is in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Thus meaning that the Federation would definitely be at war with the Romulans if they had an entire fleet "engaged" there, and making it seem odd that Pike would be surprised that the Romulans might be potential adversaries at Vulcan when mentioned by Kirk.
I fail to see how changing the name of the system makes it any better or different than what the Laurentian System was in the film, a plot device to separate the bulk of the fleet from Earth and Vulcan, thus requiring the presence of the ships at the space station and the use of the cadets. As such, it served better than the overused "The Enterprise is the only ship in range" line from numerous episodes and films, even though the ship would often travel numerous light years in said films and episodes, thus making it highly unlikely that Starfleet didn't have any other ships around (or no civilian vessels for that matter). At least here they provided something of a plausible explanation and didn't leave the Enterprise alone at first.
Uhura being the only person that can speak romulan. (it seems like a gimmick to give uhura some ability). Before you go into saying how it’s an improvement over the line “open hailing frequencies”. I would say it’s been done before-Enterprise: Sato, and the audience of today would expect a communication officer actually being able to communicate. That gimmick of giving Uhura something to do serves no purpose. Uhura told the captain the romulans are attacking. And what did pike do? He still warped into the system and got his ass kicked. Only when Nero saw that it was the enterprise, he stopped attacking.
Just because the Enterprise's current communications officer couldn't differentiate Romulan from Vulcan doesn't make him incompetent, as he could be fluent in other equally important languages (like Klingon, who were possibly who the Federation was at war with in the Laurentian System and were definitely a threat as early as the Kelvin incident judging by Starfleet's concern about them being involved). Uhura wasn't fluent in Klingon in ST:VI, so this actually kind of plays off that in the way. It makes sense for her to be assigned as a backup comms officer fluent in Romulan if the chief comms officer was fluent in other languages.
As far as Pike warping into the Vulcan system and not dropping out of warp sooner to avoid a trap, which is a frequent complaint I have read; he didn't know the condition of the fleet yet. As far as he knew, they were engaged in battle and needed backup as soon as possible. He'd look like a real douche if he dropped out of warp early while more ships were destroyed, which he could have possibly prevented. He had no way of knowing they had already been completely wiped out.
Now if Uhura never comes aboard. Pike warps into the system, gets his ass kicked. Nero stops because it’s the enterprise. Uhura made no contribution at all, they only gave her that nonsense about lighting storms just so that it doesn’t seem blantenly obivous, she's there just for sex appeal.
The only other part Uhura plays is to kiss spock.
They raised their shields because of Uhura's confirmation of Kirk's report, which allowed the ship to survive the first volley of torpedoes (Sulu said: "shields at 32%" & "we can't survive another hit like that") which otherwise would have destroyed them outright like they did the rest of the fleet if they were unshielded. Nero would never have had the chance to recognize it as the Enterprise then.
Uhura's primary role in relation to the other characters was that of dramatic and comedic foil to Kirk early on, and later as a pillar of emotional support for Spock, to show his inner conflict when he could not. She was the model rule-abiding and confident/competent but humble cadet as opposed to Kirk's rebellious and arrogant nature, and she rebuffed him more than once because of those qualities which she did not respect.
The overall brashness of Kirk bothered me, he seemed more like a over spoiled brat that I want to bent over and spank, than a captain you would respect. You could argue the old Kirk is just as brash, but never to this degree. This nu-kirk seems to flaunt in the face of all rules, and it is an appeal to the rebellion spirit of teenagers. This is what this movie seems to be catered towards.
Kirk's frequent actions or reputation in TOS, TMP, TWoK, TSfS, Trials & Tribblations, Flashback, and numerous other examples would seem to disagree. He was somewhat less arrogant than he was here, but then he was also much more wise and experienced by that point. I saw nothing in the movie that didn't strike me as being fairly consistent with an earlier version of the character we all know, albeit in a slightly different form due to different life experiences.
Nero, oh Nero, his only motivation seems to be "uh I'm crazy I want revenge". And if you are suggesting that the writers wanted to create a 1 dimensional character, then I say if the writers wanted stupid, they have succeeded in creating stupid.
I won't disagree with you here, as Nero as presented was poorly realized. Not through any fault of Bana, since he did a great job with what little he was given, but I don't think they should have left most of the antagonist's backstory and motivation for a comic to flesh out.
If I knew my planet was going to be destroyed in the future and I was given a second chance to save it in an alternate reality by throwing a piece of the magical red Happy Fun Ball at it, the superdupernova would have been my first destination. You can take care of bizarre vengeance plots against the only guy who was actually trying to help you and a Spock and Federation from an alternate reality who had nothing to do with it later.
Spock's completely disregard for kirk's safety by ejecting him out of an escape pod. In what universe is that even considered acceptable for any commanding officer? Does Spock not realize that Kirk could die? (As it is shown how dangerous the planet is in the later scenes.) What surprised me is for Mccoy actually going along with it, after bending all the rules to get Kirk on board the Enterprise. This is shown in the scene where Spock actually thanking Mccoy for his support in sending Kirk to his death. All that bullshit Spock was spewing about breaking a stallion, do they not realize Kirk could die? This also made Spock seem petty and vindictive. If you argue that this is the new direction the writers want to take Spock, then I say thanks but no thanks.
Though the scene made it seem as if Kirk was immediately ejected for comedic effect, I'm assuming that Spock didn't just set him down on a planet with a Federation outpost nearby at random, and that they looked it up first and provided Kirk with cold weather gear. Spock may not have known about the local wildlife however. There was certainly no indication that they thought they were sending Kirk "to his death," and the escape pod's computer told him about the Starfleet outpost nearby.
While simply throwing Kirk in the brig would have been more kosher to regulations, simpler, and would have made more sense plotwise, Spock truly was "emotionally compromised" by the destruction of his homeworld, so he should not be expected to act completely rationally. Plus, while Kirk was right in declaring that pursuing the Narada was the only viable option, he went about it in completely the wrong way by calling Spock out in front of the crew. Spock was an untested commander, the crew had just experienced a massive defeat and the loss of their captain, and here you have Kirk undermining Spock on the bridge, which is dangerous for morale in that tenuous situation. He could have possibly even led a mutiny for all Spock knew of this guy from knowing him just that one day.
As far as McCoy's "support" for Spock, I believe that was referring to where McCoy urged Kirk not to fight the security officers taking him to the brig or confining him to quarters at first, not to his being stranded on Delta Vega, which McCoy was clearly bothered by.
The convenient way Kirk found old Spock on that icy planet.
Yes, that was ridiculous. When I first read about young Kirk meeting old Spock long before the movie came out, my first assumption had been that either old Spock had tracked young Kirk down to get his assistance, or that Spock had been imprisoned aboard Nero's ship and met Kirk there during an escape. There were many less contrived ways of writing the whole Delta Vega sequence than how it went down.
Firstly, I would have just had Spock watching his planet being destroyed while still a prisoner abord Nero's ship and not have it be from a planet with the wrong name seemingly co-orbiting Vulcan. You could have had Kirk captured after his spacejump and in a cell with him, where they find a way to escape. Likewise, I wouldn't have followed it up with an equally implausible meeting with Scotty on the same planet.
When Kirk was being attacked by that spider like creature, it is so reminiscent of the planet Hoth in star wars, I jokingly expected kirk to pull out a lightsaber. (I can forgive convenience but not the blatant attempt to make this movie more Star Wars like.)
It's also exactly like the ice covered Rura Penthe in ST:VI, right down to a similar looking (but bigger) white furred sabretoothed snow beast. Rura Penthe was actually in a different part of the script that was deleted from the final film, so it's clearly known to the screenwriters
Apart from that, it's also exactly like Andor, the first description of the Breen homeworld (before Weyoun described it as tropical - possibly misinformation by the Breen to the Dominion), Exo III (pre-Star wars), Rigel X, Psi 2000 (pre-Star Wars), that planet Voyager crashed on, and countless other ice planets from science fiction that long predate Star Wars, which in no way has the monopoly on cliched single environment planets with breathable atmospheres.
That scene of Spock being provoked into showing emotion was weakly done. I'm surprised how little it took Spock to lose it. The intense emotion shown by Spock had ruined what it means to be a vulcan for me. Before you argue that Spock had just lost his planet and is due for an emotional outburst. Perhaps that is true, but the fact that Old Spock told Kirk the young Spock would lose it, this ruined all surprise and the intensity of the moment...
This is completely subjective of course, just like your opinion, but I found that scene extremely well-done and acted and it did not in any way ruin Vulcans for me. People seem to have this impression that Vulcans don't lose their cool. Remember the Vulcan that lost his shipmates in the Dominion War and went all psycho killer in DS9 'Field of Fire'? Remember when Spock reverted to his primitive Vulcan self because of the mating drive's blood fever in 'Amok Time'? Vulcans had to adopt such strict emotional controls specifically because their emotions were so much more powerful and dangerous than even those of humans.
Truth be told, given what Spock went through that day and Kirk's actions and comments toward him (even if noble in purpose), Spock's reaction seemed perfectly understandable. Though taking it to near murder was over the line, but not inconsistent with either his Vulcan or Human heritage. A Kirk beat-down was definitely warranted though.
I certainly don't get your "I'm surprised how little it took Spock to lose it" comment. How could what he went through in that one horrific day be considered "little" by any rational metric? He was remarkably composed both during and after and recovered quickly from his emotional outburst after Sarek gave him the pep talk.
Coupled with the blinding lens flare that made me look away during the entire exchange to avoid blindness. Perhaps the lens flare did serve a purpose, was it to cover up the bad acting? Like how a MC covers up the mistakes of a DJ spinning on a turntable?
The lens flares didn't cover up any acting or distract me from what was going on, and I find that complaint a little silly, but I'll grant that it was extremely overdone.
The last comment made by Scotty “I like this ship, its exciting!” demoted Scotty from a miracle worker and a great engineer to a mere comic relief al-la Jar Jar Binks.
"Aye, and if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon!"
I can't believe that you've seen TOS or the movies or heard Scotty's many trademark catchphrases and think that that was somehow out of character for him or anywhere near Jar-Jar level bad.
Plus, again, while it's subjective, unlike Jar-Jar which produced mostly groans and winces in anyone over the age of ten from what I saw, Scotty's line got big laughs from the overhwelmingly adult audiences in my screenings.
Only thing chekov was good at was a bad accent. (Oh and they did throw him a bone by giving him some transporter duties). Chekov was more than an accent, but they did not show it in this movie.
Umm, not only was Chekov acknowledged as a genius wiz-kid and was a serving officer at 17, he was the only one who could save Kirk and Sulu in mid-air on the transporter with some fancy calculations, he came up with the Titan plan to get within transporter range of the Narada without being detected, and he was the one best qualified to interpret the signals from Vulcan. I say he performed quite admirably in the film, to borrow a phrase from Spock. Oh, and he was put in charge of making shipwide mission broadcasts (for comedic effect, but still) and given the conn on two separate occasions I might add. Hardly an insignificant or underutilized role, and I don't see how you could have seen the film and come away with that impression.
My post was too long, so I'll continue in the next one...
