I kind of liked it.
After Nemesis my soul was so broken, I really just hoped to fail as fast as possible just in case Paramount sales it and someone else gets it. Now my spirit is up again.
No it is not good sci-fi, (in fact, with the exception of a few TNG episodes, the truth is Trek never was good sci-fi), but at least it was a good adventure, again (the "Trek" bit from ST title). It had the smell, of good ol', romantic, adventurous sci-fi. The kind where you expect people to be holding "atomic blasters" ending in pointy bits with rings around them.
But lets make the review lenghty with my personal notes just for the shake of it:
- Bad bits:
So this guy, Nero, manages in a quite unlikely and fortunate manner to go back to the past, before the big catastropher he is so angry about, happened, right?
Couldn't he. You know. Warn Romulus or something, of what is going to happen? I mean, he better have done so, somewhen, off screen, because doesn't he kind of miss a huge chance to avert the destruction of Romulus there, along with everyone he loved/will love? Just saying...
Its not as if his willing act of not doing so, essentially condemns the planet as much as Spock did. And doesn't know where/when to get a cargo load of Red Matter from.
And sure enough, I might have excused that, by virtue of him being pissed (Man you know how getting your planet destroyed is like. You just lose it), if, according to the movie, he wasn't sitting in the past for 25 frigging years!
I mean. Ok. I don't expect everyone to do the tactically & strategically intelligent thing upon going to the past, that is, go straight to the RSE and give them your ship, so that the Empire gets a huge boost in technology, in the TOS era, and then can take the galaxy over with a fleet, of such ships. (I would) But you would have thought that in the 25 years he was sitting, the thought would have crossed their mind. I know he is all traumatized and everything, but you would think 25 years is enough of a cool down period.
And what has he been doing for 25 years anyway? Playing golf? Making the biggest non-sensial platform based interior inside his borg squid?
Yes. Ok. He was waiting for Spock. No reason he couldn't wait for Spock and do something else though.
Argh. You can blow half the federation up as far as I am concerned, and reboot the series up to the point where they fly X-wings launching from Battlestars with Isengard shield technology, but please, dammit do it realistically. Thought processes like this really get on my nerves.
Uhura & Spock:
I don't have any problem with it, but it was a bit out of the blue.
Comic:
I "acquired it" and read it, but expecting people to read a comic in order to understand what is really going on, is a bit silly.
- Good bits:
Bridge. (Which I refuse to put "i" in front of it, because Apple didn't invent minimalism). I like it. Much closer to my idea of a super-technological futuristic bridge. If anything, it's not minimalistic enough.
Nitpick: If that thing starts shaking a bit, all those pretty glass screens will be embedding themselves IN YOUR EYES.
Engineering. Oh yes! I love it. Have you even seen a real ships "engineering?" I find the idea that an engineering is composed of something other than touchscreens which you touch and things going "voomp" but actual, engines, rather agreeable. Where things are visible, accessible, easily evaluated wither A is still connected to point B when everything is on fire, and don't require you to go through 10 service panels in order to fix something, only to later find that for reasons of prettiness, it can only be fixed with specially forged components. (damn proprietary connectors!).
Weapons speeds. Oh yes again. That's something in ST that needed fixing. In TNG, at an engagement range of over 10 meters I swear you could probably jump out of the way of a hand phaser, consciously.
Same thing with ship weapons. Currently we have guided, nuclear warhead carrying anti-ship missiles that can do 3 times the speed of sound (and that's with atmospheric friction), I'd expect the least that in Trek. If anything the Narada's missile thingies were rather slow for a super-technological ship, (what? No cutting beams? Awww) and no wonder even the TOS point-defense systems were doing short work of them.
- Random bits:
Is that foldable sword standart issue or Sulu just happens to carry one wherever he goes? Oh-ho. I see what you did there. He is "Asian" therefore he gets to chop up guys with a "Katana". Smooth.
Did Kirk have a Nokia touchscreen phone in his car? For some reason I don't mind the Beer, but if in the sequel I see Kirk getting his starfleet reports in a Mac Air, before putting on his Nike shoes for the away mission, I think I am going to puke a little.
