I went into the theater thinking I might like it. I couldn't imagine so many critics raving over this film and me thinking it anything other than at worst, watchable. But honestly, it was truly a painful experience to watch that film, and I don't mean painful in an emotional sense. I mean physically painful -- the frenetic action and heavyhanded, simplistic score and overbearing sound. It left me drained by the midpoint in the movie, and I had to go out to the lobby to catch my breath. I'd really never seen anything quite as disorienting.
Once I got past all that, there were the internal inconsistencies and illogic to contend with. A story emerges from the plot, characters and setting, but everything was going by so fast that it was hard to tell if the characters were experiencing any real growth or if the plot was really progressing. It felt more like a shell game with those three story elements being switched around so fast you couldn't tell if anything was really changing.
Worst of all for me was the under-realized setting. I don't mean the changed sets or designs or the Treknical stuff -- this is JJ Abrams' Trek and he should be able to design it the way he wants. I mean all the inconsistencies that pulled me out of the story, and reminded me I was watching fake characters not driven by internal motivations, but by the puppet strings that connect them to the scriptwriters' keyboards. They didn't earn their positions -- Scott, McCoy and most of all Kirk were just given them. From cadet to captain in one move. No organization could exist that permitted something like that. Hell, after doing great in college even the President had to go to law school and win a seat in the Illinois and U.S. Senates before getting the big chair.
So, that's a double hit. It robs the characters of having achieved something, and robs the audience of having a believable setting for the story. Superhero stories are only fun when the writer finds the hero's weakness and exploits it, not when he gives him the prize without any real effort.
As far as Trek issues go, I want to direct you to a post made on the XI forum by a new member that goes by the handle "
dkazaz". He understands what
Star Trek is better than me, and drew the distinction between it and what I saw in XI:
To me and I suspect many other trek fans the point of Star Trek (all the versions) was Roddenberry's idea: mankind becomes civilized. They explore space to understand, communicate and learn. They respect each other and other cultures. They try to do the right thing, even in the face of a challenge, an enemy or a no-win scenario. You know what I'm talking about if you have seen more than 3 episodes of any trek series.
None of that was there in XI. We got updated versions of the characters. Cool. New actors. Great. New FX. Fantastic. A new story. Could be OK in future, even though this plot was lame IMO.
What I didn't get was star trek. I didn't get exploration, I didn't get respect of others or other cultures, I didn't get "doing right in the face of adversity".
I got a Spock who has so little respect for others that he maroons someone he doesn't like on some random planet. I got a version of Kirk that orders the death of his enemies when they won't submit (even though they're doomed anyway it seems). I cringed when I saw that - I could name a dozen stories where Kirk and ST were defined by the exact opposite actions. And for this remarkable (?) performance he's promoted to Captain.
This isn't a civilized mankind, this is today's culture with all its ills, when we choose to go to war for convenience or to prove our might makes us right. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
XI was an exciting looking action story with the characters of the original series. It just wasn't Star Trek.
I'm not putting anyone down for liking the movie, so don't get the wrong idea. It's me -- I can't understand how I could be so out of the loop and find it such a colossal waste of my time, and yet have 95% of reviewers say it is a good movie. In a way it reminds me of being a kid in about 1970 and having everyone think me weird for liking that odd "Star Track" show with the pointy-eared guy. The more Star Trek has been made to fit what "everyone" likes, the less I seem to like it.
So, this is what the vast majority of people want to see, and for achieving that JJ Abrams should be proud. I just wish he'd done it with his own characters and his own Abrams-verse instead of so wholly and completely re-inventing this one. From that 95% RT score I'd bet an Abrams-verse gone solo could have stood on its own two feet just fine.
