Star Trek

It was not what I was hoping for. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it meant I found it personally disappointing. I didn't really want a deeply cerebral sci-fi affair, that wouldn't have worked with the style or budget. But somehow an all out actioner in space doesn't sit right either. Doesn't do justice to the main themes of the original series, which were written as hard science fiction. A nod would have sufficed, but it's barely even acknowledged.

I think it was a pace problem. Fast is good, hard to do well even, and its not done badly here, but theres a sense that its not simply at speed, but headlong. They have so much to fit in, so many references to cover that very little time is left to think, or feel.

You have all these characters that have so much depth, some of the most potent characters in popular culture, yet so little time or motion is given over to exploring who these people are before they go on to be characters that define a universe, which for me was the main draw. Again, the characters aren't badly done, within three scenes they explain who and what Kirk is, which was excellent. I felt Spock was more the generic smarmy Vulcan than Nimoy's almost naive arrogant streak, but a minor quibble. I was a little worried Uhura was being positioned purely as a romantic element rather than a character in her own right, but ultimately decided that the interracial kiss was a solid reference to make (unfathomable that such things were controversial 40 years ago). It's just that they're all rather thin, positively two dimensional. There's only one scene in the whole film with any real emotional resonance, which leads me neatly to probably the biggest problem I perceived.

The Nimoy problem. Every second he was on screen was more engaging than ten minutes of the other actors. He steals every inch of every scene he is in. Which I felt was a bit of a problem. Why reinvent the wheel when the one you have is just better? Rounder. I'd like to see Star Trek: The Retirement Home and have these titans of the genre sit around and chew the scenery. I think there is still value there. Still meat on those old bones. As it were. (In some cases, considerable more meat that previously)

More than anything it's an introduction to a new part of the franchise. And there's life in that definitely. Full of smart references, a great take on the '60s in-space look the originals had. But now they've gotten them all together, explained roughly who and what they are, they need to boldy go where the show has never gone before.

And the last problem: where no one has gone before. Really? We're back to that? As if it has to be explained that a contraction of Mankind is not a masculine term. I thought Enterprise dealt with that, that it was a really touching homage to the original when Archer boldy reset the mold.