I don't expect the sequel to be Dark Knight-caliber, but as good as this film was, I think TPTB certainly set themselves up to make a film that could be that good.
Well much like with this film, while The Dark Knight was decent I didn't think it was nearly as great as everyone else did.
I don't think I'm any more difficult to please than I was ten years ago and I'm pretty sure I'm not as jaded or cynical about my entertainment. I just don't think they are as well-written as they used to be.
Star Trek is decent enough but good or great?!? The two most important components of the film are characters and plot so let's examine those.
All the actors were well cast. I thought Chekov, McCoy, Kirk, Spock and Amanda did an excellent job capturing the mannerisms and essence of their original counterparts. From what little we saw this crew had chemistry and I liked all of them. However, instead of giving us more of the crew and their interactions we got very little-certainly not enough--and what we did get was anemic.
We also needed more humanity and emotion infused into the story. Even the moments and events that would allow for this were only treated to the most limited focus possible. Take for instance, Amanda's death. The problems with it were that she was little more than a plot device in the film and her death was abrupt and awkward that it was up to the aftermath via Spock to compensate and it didn't. It was reduced to two not very fulfilling moments with Uhura and Sarek. So emotional resonance was absent in this film.
Then you have Nero who was more of a plot device than a flesh and blood adversary. I would have liked more interesting/intriguing definition to his motivations. And while I didn't mind the time travel aspect to the story it couldn't have been any more basic. It was a brief footnote. Well, I needed more.
As far as Nimoy's Spock's inclusion it might have been handled better. When I heard he was going to be in the film and that we would see the origins of the TOS crew it seemed an interesting way to merge these is to have Spock on his deathbed remembering these individuals and reflecting on his life. I think that might have been more interesting and certainly more poignant. Given that this in all liklihood will be the last time we ever see Old Spock I would have liked a more satisfyinguse of him other than as a plot device and a more satisfying sense of closure akin to Sarek's sendoff in "Unification". Here they left it open-ended. It's disappointing that he didn't receive a better curtain call.
It was too simple and bare bones overall. As an action film it works as a Trek film it has its issues.
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. It makes the film look cluttered. The film just throws a bunch of different elements into the mix in a half-realized manner. I realized this as I took a step back and thought about the film as a whole and not based on individual elements or scenes. It was throwing everthing in but the kitchen sink--Vulcan's destruction, Amanda's death, their time at the Academy, Nero's vendetta, the childhoods of Kirk and Spock, the change in the timeline, Old Spock's inclusion, the events in the 24th century, the crew coming together, Spock meeting Old Spock, Kirk meeting Old Spock. And in the process, none of it comes into focus because they don't have the time before the writers wanted to jump to the next point.
Why can't writers take a few elements and do them justice?
