Saw it again. Some new thoughts.

Okay -- a couple of new ideas materialized.

Pike tells Kirk "Your father was captain for 12 minutes and saved 800 people." Okay. I counted 22 shuttlecraft leaving the Kelvin in that one wide shot. Since they all seemed to be the same models and size (and the captain had already taken one to the Nerada, and one medical shuttle only had one passenger, two medicos, and a pilot), I have to wonder: HOW THE HELL DO YOU FIT 800 PEOPLE INTO 21 SHUTTLECRAFT?

Second point: Just how the hell large *is* the Kelvin? It seems to be smaller than the Big E (since it's just a primary hull as the secondary hull has to be nothing but one frikking huge hangar deck to fit the 115 seven-passenger shuttles that would be necessary to save 800 people). Given that the Kelvin had 800 in just a saucer, how the hell many ARE on the Big E, and how the hell big IS it, really?

Another point: JEEBUS could there be any more lens flare? They actually had dozens of shots where lights were actually pointed directly into the camera lens. Good cinematographers throw out shots that do that.

Another point: Loved the pace. A definite improvement over plodding around.

Another point: Loved the McCoy/Kirk hypodermic pas de deux. Some of the funniest Trek I've ever seen, but it wasn't STOOPID funny like Klingon pimples or Crusher and Troy talking about firmer boobs. It was a realistic funny, the kind of thing I can see happening in real life when a rushed and not too well thought-out plan starts to go suddenly pear-shaped and there is no time to address it more properly than trying one thing after another on te fly.

Another point: FECKING LENS FLARE! I really can't recall ever being more annoyed by such a stupid little thing in any movie I've ever seen.

Another point: Writers really do not understand military academies and how they work. I have to wonder if they really even went to college, judging by how they seem to think people can go from kid-hood to command and crew in just a year or so. It actually struck me as being no less egregious than the average Mary Sue story -- kid right out of school suddenly in command of the flagship! It boggles my mind that the writers thought people with only a high school education (e.g., Chekov, at 17) can actually operate, say, the Q.E.2 or the Pacific Princess without years of specialized training, or that doctors would attend the academy, or that people attending academies actually have officer-grade RANKS, or... Sigh.

Another point: There was not one misstep in the casting. Each one of the actors doing our usual gang was spot on. For my money, though, Karl Urban wins the "channeling the original" prize. He *was* a young De Kelly.

Last point: @*#^^#^!&() LENS FLARE!

 

Was there lens flare in this movie?

 

I love lens flare.

 

I haven't read all of the professional reviewers and critics on this movie - I'm not getting ready to make a project of it, either. Does anyone know whether this is a frequent complaint of theirs - the lens flare, I mean?

 

They squeezed in? I know when my ships getting blown up and my life is on the line i'll happily press up against someone if it means getting to safety.

 

Life or death situation, you make them fit.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with the lens flares. I shouldnt have to squint to see the film. I disagree with there being no casting errors, Simon Pegg was an awful Scotty.

And as for the shuttles, yeah a bit unrealistic fitting 800 people in so few shuttles, but i just rationalize it as there being more shuttles launched, we just dont see them.

Some may wonder why i am making justifications for a film i dislike, its because i'd rather see it criticized for its actual faults - lousy direction, poor editing choices and poor plotting - than because Kirk's chair only had twelve switches when TOS CLEARLY!! establishes it has 14.

 

I think it's been argued to death that Starfleet is not a military, and Starfleet Academy is not a military academy...

 

The shuttle thing bothered me too. How many shuttles does this ship have ? It doesn't seem realistic to me to keep alot of them onboard when you have transporters. A few yes but enough to evacuate 800 people ?!

 

In this new timeline, lifepods dont seem to have been invented, or if they have they are exclusively used to maroon troublesome officers. So they probably would have a lot more shuttles aboard than we are used to, even if most of them are outfitted as lifeboats.

 

I guess I'm the only person who didn't care about the lens flares. They didn't distract, blind or bother me at all.

 

I've got a fever and the only prescription is more lens flare!

 

I actually loved the lens flares.

 

You're not alone. I came home and started reading threads on Ye Olde Intarwebs and was completely baffled by the pissing and moaning about lens flares and shaky-cam. WTF? I didn't even notice any shaky-cam except once during a warp out when it looked totally cool...!

 

Ever been on a cruise ship? I have, life boats are about the same size as the shuttles look to be; and they hold upwards of 150 people in each. (A muster drill is mandatory before you even leave port)

most likely the interior seating is removed and multiple benches are unfolded; person next to person next to person. Exactly like a cruise ship life boat.

The freedom of the seas has 30 lifeboats for 4700 passengers & crew.
somehow 21 shuttles for 800 people doesn't seem that bad to me.

-frank

 

They have ranks. They have weapons. They're a military group. It doesn't matter that they don't START wars. Japan has an army. I don't care that "legally" it's called the JSDF ("Japan Self-Defense Force"). It's THEIR ARMY.

It doesn't matter whether it's military, anyway. That's irrelevant to the issue.

Look at it as a freaking COLLEGE if you want to. Will you grab a bunch of people out of the middle of their college terms and put them in command of an aircraft carrier? Where is their training? Their experience?

Doctors don't become line officers. They're already PROFESSIONALS and have FINISHED college (aka "the academy") and IN ADDITION have spent another five to seven years of school on TOP of that to become doctors. THAT is why doctors and lawyers join with elevated rank -- to recognize that professional level of training.

 

Same here. The shaky cam was more of a problem for me.

 

The lens flares didn't bother me either. Nor did I hear one complaint in the crowd leaving the theatre at either screening I attended make single comment about them.

 

Two hundred years ago, military institutions all over planet earth looked completely different than they do now. Two hundred years in the future... military institutions will look completely different than they do now. Furthermore, Starfleet's stated primary purpose is scientific expeditions. That they go armed and prepared for combat is an incidental consequence of the fact that space is pretty dangerous.

Not only that, but I believe the film is littered with implications that Starfleet is not only lacking in equipment but aching for warm bodies to fill the seats they do have, first because of recruiting shortfalls and second because... well, their entire reserve fleet got wiped out at Vulcan. Enterprise wasn't even commissioned yet: they put her in service because they were desperate for more ships, and they put cadets in service because they didn't have anyone else.

 

Geez, can we get over the lens flare issue already??? C'mon.... Talk about beating a dead horse.

Perhaps we need a new subforum called "LENS FLARES SUCKZ!" so the rest of us can avoid the mutual admiration society of lens flare haters.

(Add me to the list of people who are not bothered by them at all)