Comments on Star Trek 11
Posted on May 22nd, 2009 by bile
Tags: Amanda Grayson, Delta Vega, fanboy, George Kirk, Jame T. Kirk, Klingons, Leonard McCoy, Nokia, Paul McGillion, Romulan, Simon Pegg, Spock, Spock Prime, Star Trek, Sulu, Uhura, USS Enterprise, Winona Ryder
This list is created based on the things I remember so it’s going to be incomplete and not in order of the movie.
Things I didn’t like:
- The whole initial scene with the birth of Kirk was way way overly dramatic. The back and forth between Kirk’s father and mother was sappy. The convenience of the mother going into labor as the ship is being attacked. The footage of the Captain as he was just about to hit the Romulan ship. The fact he was talking about his newborn’s name so calmly as he’s barreling toward death. And wasn’t there an “I love you” or the like that is cut off by him ramming into the other ship? I don’t believe the scene could not have been more cliche.
- The young Kirk driving the convertible. Totally unnecessary scene that was included probably to be used in the trailer. Besides that its only purpose to show that he was a smart ass and trouble maker. We already know that and it could have been introduced later through the bar scene when it was fleshed out anyway. The choice of music was silly but I’ll let the slide. As with the vehicle. The Nokia product placement was uncalled for. The reason to throw the car off the cliff … was? As if he could have actually acted that fast assuming he drove up on it without knowing. As if physics can be manipulated by this young Kirk to make that jump even remotely possible.
- Uhura’s ‘thing’ for Spock went overboard. There was no buildup to her actions in the elevator except for maybe the favoritism comment when she got Spock to put her on the Enterprise. The kiss at on the transporter pad was really ridiculous. You’re telling me that because Spock’s father told him he loved his human mother (which Spock really always knew) that he decided to give up (or at least merge with humanity) his Vulcan culture in the matter of a couple hours. We didn’t need that to show his human side… him fighting with Kirk was more then enough.
- Spock kicking Kirk off the ship. Whatever happened to sending people to the brig? Sending him to what appeared to be a random M class plant? Little more then a death sentence. Especially given it was an large ball of ice.
- The fact that Spock just happened to be on the same planet.
- That while running from some crazy creature which gets attacked by another creature (very stereotypical) he just happens to run into the same cave that Spock Prime is in. And while the creature is about to eat Kirk a rather old Spock with a flaming stick makes it freak out and take off.
- Wasn’t it Spock who mentions going to the relatively close Federation station? Why didn’t he go prior to Kirk’s arrival?
- I understand that the timeline is already seriously changed… but Spock doesn’t hold back. He just blabs on about anything and everything including Scott Prime’s equation for transporting while in warp. Then later just chats it up with young Spock. Comes across as far too casual. Though I did like the comment about how Spock Prime got Kirk to stay quiet.
- Fan boy complaint: Why did they call the planet Delta Vega? Delta Vega was located near the galactic barrier not in Vulcan star system. There was no reason to change the location. There were lots of fanboy eastereggs possible… why go with changing cannon? The general public doesn’t care what you call it and the fanboys will complain.
- The mind meld scene where you see Spock Prime witnessing the destruction of Vulcan shows him standing there looking up into the sky. Roberto Orc claims it was done to be more stylistic. That ‘the idea was that Spock saw the planet’s destruction through ” telescope or some other type of measuring device,” but showing it on-screen “isn’t very cinematic.’ Then why show him standing there looking up into the sky watching it collapse into the singularity through the atmosphere of Delta Vega? Those kinds of scenes exist in lots of science fiction and I don’t recall one that was explained and present in that way.
- Fanboy complaint: The mind meld happened pretty quickly and nonchalantly. Typically mind melds were treated pretty seriously.
- Why the hell was an elder scientist and ambassador, Spock Prime, sent to deal with the supernova… by himself? You’d think such a serious situation would involve more people
- Why so much red matter? If it takes a marble size amount to collapse a planet it seems excessive to have what looked like a few hundred gallons of it.
- As for red matter… where the hell did it come from? What is it? They didn’t even try to explain. Apparently in the prequel comic and novelization they at least made mention of its origin.
- What was up with Scott’s little buddy? The movie didn’t need any more comic relief. And when you account for the fact that Scott had very little camera time relative to others it was completely unnecessary for him to share those scenes with the little alien.
- The whole beaming people from Delta Vega to the Enterprise was a bit much. It’s one thing to beam from the ship in warp where the target is relatively close to the source but this idea of beaming to a ship at warp which is also light years away has no foundation in the original shows/movies as I recall.
- Simon Pegg was good but Paul McGillion better looked the part.
- Chekov was over done. The exaggerated mispronouncing of v’s. That speech to the crew seemed forced into the script. It was the most time he had in front of the camera and it was painful.
- Fanboy complaint: George Kirk and his crew appeared to make no big deal about seeing Romulans for the first time. At least according to cannon it was. It’s also odd that Spock nor any other Vulcan makes any comment as I recall similar to Spocks in the original series when they first meet Romulans.
- The design of the Romulan mining ship was a tad ridiculous. Looked like an overcooked blooming onion on it’s side. As a mining vessel I can understand it being large (though the new NCC-1701 was more than times the original so it would have been even that much larger) but it’s size was excessive and it’s shape seems completely artistic with no thought of practicality or realism.
- The exaggerated features of the Romulans vs the Vulcans was unnecessary.
- What was with the tribal facial tattoos?
- When Sulu, Kirk and Olson are skydiving down to the drill… did they really have to kill a redshirt like that? A jackass showoff who decides to wait to release his chute?
- Cho was a poor Sulu. Sulu had more kick. I didn’t get that vibe from Cho.
- A fencer knows how to use a folding katana like blade? And how convenient that he had one? And that the Romulans decided it be better to be running around a giant laser/phaser/plasma drill with hand to hand weapons rather than just poking out of the openings with disruptors and blasting them?
- Fanboy complaint: the green chick scene was forced and unnecessary.
- The blown up hands Kirk gets as a side effect of what McCoy did to him to get him on the Enterprise was silly.
- The areas where the new actors tried to put forth mannerism similar to the original actors felt forced or where one time offerings to the fanboys and then the new actors went off to do their thing. I’m fine with their vision but don’t force the raising of the eyebrow or the Kirk speech pattern.
- Uhura finds out that an entire fleet of Klingons are destroyed and doesn’t bother to tell anyone until Kirk is freaking out about lightening in space at his birth?
- If you are cheating while taking the Kobayashi Maru test you’d think you’d be a little less pompus and blatant about it. Programming the Kingon ship’s sheilds to just drop randomly? How could that have not been caught. He didn’t try to hide it as some off the wall edge case. The original Kirk was awarded a commendation for “original thinking.” It surely didn’t look like that was going to happen in the altered universe.
- The death of Amanda Grayson was so very expected. Winona Ryder as Grayson really didn’t do it for me either.
- Some crazy thing is drilling into the center of your planet and you’re just hanging out in an old underground temple waiting for your son to show up and tell you bad shit is going on?
- Why didn’t the Federation or Romulans figure out that the star was going to go supernova sooner and evacuate?
- I understand that Nero was pissed… but couldn’t he have just gone over to the Romulans and told them whats going to happen? I suppose he was mainly pissed about his wife and child?
- Now that at least Kirk and Spock (at least) know the star will supernova… does that mean they will try to stop it from happening?
- Lens flares. Lens flares everywhere! Even in my raccoon wounds.
Things I liked:
- The telling of Spock’s childhood. If you watched TOS and/or TAS you knew he had a very conflicted childhood and was harassed by others for being half human.
- McCoy was good. Liked that they figured out a reason for his nickname.
That’s all that I can think of at the moment off the top of my head. I’ll update this with more if I recall anything else.
