I was really disappointed.
Completely agree. It was loud, fast, and sort of fun, but it was by no means special in any way. I'd probably tell people to skip it if they asked me.
So if I was excited about seeing this movie will I be let down?
I just don't understand why if you're going to use the alternate universe to free yourself from the restraints of Star Trek canon, that you wouldn't harness that to explore entirely new possibilities, and instead retread over the same story lines and themes from the original movies. And if you're going to do that, why would you shove it in the viewers face with blatant references like the Khan scream and radioactive warp core? I went hoping to see Star Trek taken in an innovative new direction, and instead I felt like I had seen some very well financed fan fiction about how the Wrath of Khan could have happened.
That being said, it's a good movie, and definitely worth seeing, at the very least for the visual effects. I must say I was also disappointed that they decided to make Peter Weller's character a true antagonist, and didn't instead make him a morally gray character, letting the viewer decide for themselves the merits of armament against an external threat. It also would have made the plot much more intriguing.
But there is a larger philosophical discussion about destiny that was introduced in 2009. I think this film did a good job of continuing that discussion.
Early in the movie, Bones twice made comments about Kirk's health. Once when he was boarding a shuttle - something to the effect of "You showed up late to your medical exam." "I'm fine." "I don't think you are." And the second time on the bridge - "Jim, your vitals are way off!"
Was there any payoff to this?
Early in the movie, Bones twice made comments about Kirk's health. Once when he was boarding a shuttle - something to the effect of "You showed up late to your medical exam." "I'm fine." "I don't think you are." And the second time on the bridge - "Jim, your vitals are way off!"
Was there any payoff to this?
I have a feeling there may be something more to it than Kirk just being stressed. This was given enough screen time to not just be a throw-away. Of course this could depend on who the next creative team is. If Abrams is Exec Producer, I'd bet it gets revisited. If he's not then it may drift away.
A couple of things I noticed. I'm sure there's a compilation somewhere of a lot more items, but here's my little list.
They talked, in passing, about a "Mudd incident"
The moon orbiting Kronos had exploded in half (from Star Trek 6).
One of my annoyances about Khan, and this has nothing to do with Cumberbatch's performance, is that no one named "Khan Singh" is a pasty white guy. At least Montalban was from a non-white ethnicity. Still certainly not a Sikh, but "brownish" is good enough to most Americans for any non-white ethnicity.
It's certainly well set up for Khan to not only return, but to have his 72 member army of genetically engineered followers ready to go. My preference is that the plot is Klingon-centric.