The one big flaw in an otherwise great movie

[WeAreTheBorg]

I just saw it tonight and I totally loved it, especially the first half or so... everything to me was spot on... funny.. cool... slick.. dramatic...

However there's one thing that's leaving a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. It's that the utter destruction of the planet Vulcan, a planet upheld in importance second only to Earth in the Star Trek universe, seems somewhat downplayed. All it's really used for is Spock's character arc, which was good... but the problem is the movie for the most part was very upbeat, and by the end its in full on action adventure optimistic mode - when a whole planet of the most iconic alien race in Trek has just been annihilated. That utterly huge tragedy doesn't seem to totally gel with the rest of the movie, save for stated effect on Spock.

I'm also just generally bothered that Vulcan is just gone... it's the only really big change from established canon beyond the nitpicky details and cosmetic things... i wish there was a way to have our cake and eat it too, and not have Vulcan wiped out. But the movie wouldn't really work without it I suppose.

 

[KiraDax]

I admit, it would have been nice if a line or two had been inserted pointing out how significant a loss Vulcan WAS...not just to Spock, but to the Federation. The fans already knew, but the general audience wasn't given any idea of what a stomach punch it was supposed to be.

Still glad it's gone, though. I love this new 'no reset button' concept.

 

[NCC74894A]

This has occurred to me too - Vulcan gets wiped out and aside from Spock, the bridge crew - mostly relatively inexperienced cadets, mind you - seem to shrug it off like just another day at the Academy. You'd think there'd be a pall over the whole ship, or at least lots of expressions of dumbfounded amazement: "Holy shit, Vulcan just got sucked into a black hole!"

 

[Kaziarl]

Yeah, it does seem off. I really hope they focus on this at some point.

 

[datas_cat_spot]

All they really showed was Kirk relieving Pike back on Earth. I would like to think there will be an ensuing shit storm around the destruction of Vulcan that is shown in the sequel. We'll see I guess.

 

[Awesome Possum]

It would have been nice to show the impact of what happened, but it would have thrown off the pace of the film. I do hope that there is something in the deleted scenes or added in a Director's Cut or something.

 

[alienFanatic]

It's funny, but I hadn't given it much thought. You are right, OP, that Vulcan was of MAJOR significance to the Federation and Earth. They were the race that shepherded humanity to the stars. Though humans eventually eclipsed the Vulcans, the cameraderie and interdependence of the two planets was profound at the time that Vulcan would have been destroyed.

Again, though, this is the universe that Orci and crew HAD to ignore to make this film work. If they got bogged down in the details, they'd have made a movie that worked great for long time fans, but which would have TOTALLY lost the non-Trekkers. (They'd have had no clue why Vulcan was so important, nor do most of them care, I'm guessing.)

They can explore it in a future film, but I'm pretty convinced that they won't. (They MAY do it if they can make Spock's development a central plot device. An angsty Spock might give the next film the emotional heart that other successful sequels have (Godfather 2, Empire Strikes Back, Dark Knight, etc.) when they explored deeper human flaws and emotions.) We'll see. Good point, though, and one that escaped me.

The only thing that bugged me like nuts DURING the film was the use of Black Holes as time travel devices. It's like we jumped back 50 years to use a plot device from an old Sci-Fi film. The idea has been pretty heavily debunked by science, so I rolled my eyes a bit. (Other nits came later, but didn't pull me out of the film at the time, like that one did.)

 

[PKTrekGirl]

It would have been nice to show the impact of what happened, but it would have thrown off the pace of the film. I do hope that there is something in the deleted scenes or added in a Director's Cut or something.

This is kinda where I'm at too.

I'm okay with Vulcan being destroyed. If for no other reason than to firmly establish that this is, indeed, a new timeline...'so fasten your seatbelts, Trek Fans. It's gonna be a bumpy night.'

However, I do agree that there needs to be more impact of this event shown than just as relates to Spock's motivation. Perhaps in the Director's Cut or the next movie.

That said, I also agree that they could not spend alot of time drawing it out in the film. They had to keep the pace up...and lets face it - this movie was not made for fans who know and care deeply about Vulcan.

It was made to draw in fans who know little to nothing about Vulcan's history or it's relationship to Earth and the Federation.

 

[Kaziarl]

^ I still think it would be interesting on a psychological level to see how the Vulcans deal with it. Maybe we'll get to see it in the novels or something.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Well, to be honest, they were kinda busy trying to save Earth from being the next planet on the list.

 

[pookha]

yeah i have been saying i hope they really adress this in the next film.
sometimes it takes time for a huge loss to be felt and come into focus.
add in that they had been looking at not just losing earth but all the other
federation planets if nero had not been stopped so one can see a reason for a lot of mixed emotions.