I have mixed feelings about this movie. The scenes that are great, are really great. But some aspects of the film are so annoying, it was impossible for me to ignore them and just enjoy the film. So, 10/10 for parts of it, 2/10 for others.
The first scene is the best. That sucked me in emotionally, and I cared for George even though I'd only been introduced to him minutes earlier. Wondering why they hadn't named their child in all the months they'd known he was on the way removed me a little, but it wasn't a big deal. I expect some people do wait until their baby is born before thinking up a name. Unfortunately, that was one of the milder 'grievances' I had when it came to the script.
Some of the story points were hard to get my head around, and still are. The black holes, while caused by the same red matter, have different characteristics just to satisfy story development. Can you survive entering one and come out at a different time, or will you get crushed and disappear like the planet? If they start in the middle of an object, is surrounding matter sucked in instantly, or does it generate some hazy cloud and leave the object as it is for ages?
The capabilities of Earth and Vulcan were practically nonexistent by the look of it. The Vulcans, who are ahead of humans technologically speaking, weren't aware that the planet was being destroyed? Were their scanners malfunctioning? Not one ship to defend the home planet incase anyone wanted to attack? Same with Earth - didn't they have weapons to fire up and destroy the mining arm? We have that capability even in our time.
Do the turbolifts travel at warp speed in this new Trek? Spock goes from Engineering to the Bridge in about three seconds, even though they're at opposite ends of the ship! The look of Engineering didn't impress me either. Most of the ship is slick, clean and white, except for that section, which looks like a dirty old power plant. This isn't the USS Titanic.
Out of all the places Kirk could have been jettisoned to, he ends up on the same planet as old Spock, but not only that, he ends up in the same patch of land as old Spock, and even manages to run into the exact same cave as old Spock! I know the story needs to move along, but that's too much of a coincidence to be believable. Especially when we discover Spock knew all about the outpost nearby, and had no idea Kirk would be in the way. Why hadn't he made his way there earlier?
The new characters need to grow on me some more. For someone holding back his emotions, young Spock does smirk a lot through this, even in the serious scenes. I could go on with more things like this, but I'll stop and talk about the good side of it. Yes, there are good parts!
The special effects were impressive, and the music was quite good. There were some good funny moments. The idea to go from breathing only to atmospheric sounds on the drop scene was a great idea. I managed to spot a cameo from a Stargate Atlantis actor on the second viewing too, so I was pleased with myself for that. It helped reading the 'Countdown' comic books leading up to the film, as it gave the whole backstory to Nero - something I may have felt was lacking if I'd only seen him in the movie.
There was the potential for me to be bowled over like most others who've seen this, but mainly because some of the script needed a serious ironing out, I find it hard to give it a top score. Still, it was better than Nemesis, so things might have taken a turn for the best in the Trek franchise.
***Can't get rid of that bugging size tag***
Let us not defend mediocrity with too much vigor. It happened because the story they had needed it to happen, and no other reason. Not the best way to write, but I guess it worked.
- the problems you have are the same ones a lot of people have had with the movie. In fact, I think most people would agree these are problems and our level of enjoyment stems from how much we can ignore them.
