| Review : |
A bit heavy-handed in referencing the various original series running gags, and tried to pack too much story into too little time, so that old-Spock had to explain to young-Kirk what had happened beforehand in a separate sequence, a rare jarring moment that made me stop and think about the pacing of the movie. Although a few portions of the movie fell a little flat, it generally lived up to the promise of the ads. A die-hard Trek fan will find it to be either a fantastic new image of the franchise or else a giant waste of time. Personally, I lean towards the former. Some bold moves were taken in the plot, and although I had sever doubts about the time-travel aspects of it, they sealed together extraordinarily well, given later Trek's history of abusing the subject. Rank-shuffling was the call word of the day, as each of the main protagonists changed rank at least once in the movie even during the contiguous portions of it. A good chunk of the plot showed us the main characters in the process of growing up, and of entering the Starfleet Academy, but even those portions that took place on the Enterprise, within the short period of the most intense action, were rife with field promotions and rank shuffling, as though either the writers or the characters weren't quite sure about where everyone should be. This was explained a little bit later on, but not entirely to my satisfaction, and it seemed that the plot could as easily have been served by having everyone at the ranks they should be. The visual design of the movie, while striking, was at times more on display than the characters--granted, this a a classic trait of good Trek, but still, it was noticeable at times in a very The-Motion-Picture sort of a way, which isn't necessarily a good comparison to inspire when it comes to visuals. Certainly the set designs were evocative of the first Trek movie, with their clean lines and uses of the color white nearly to the exclusion of all else on any kind of a "good guy" vessel--except for the Kelvin at the beginning, but we didn't really see her at her best moment, either. The Enterprise itself, as in any proper Trek movie, was a character apart. Her performance was admirable here. From the fine movements of the original in the first movie, to the clean power of the A, each Enterprise that shows up on screen has a distinct personality. This one was a lady. Although she seemed dainty and looked almost delicate at times, she proved that she wasn't afraid to get her hands a little dirty. I didn't like the design of the ship from the first time I saw her in the prerelease pictures that were published to give fans an early look at her, and indeed, her first appearance onscreen, as an incomplete vessel in a planetbound drydock did nothing to assuage my fears. She looked bloated and ugly. The first sight of her as a complete, well-formed ship, however, was striking and beautiful. Even in spacedock, she looked like she was trying to move, and when she left her moorings to stretch her legs, you couldn't help but be impressed. It was immediately apparent that this was the newest, and the best, ship in the fleet. Spock, as played by Leonard Nimoy, captured clearly the wisdom and oddly human soul of the character that has become iconic to western pop culture, at once alien and deeply familiar. Nimoy hasn't lost the character, but Spock has clearly evolved over the years. Rounding out the once-stiff Vulcan with a sense of humor and a soft intensity, Nimoy injected real emotion into the character, a task that has never been easy to do given the subtlety demanded by the role. As played by Zachary Quinto, Spock is almost more intriguing. We glimpse in the actor's performance the conflict between the human and the Vulcan that is only hinted at in most of Trek, and really explored only in the novels. His believability is increased by the turmoil that Spock experiences, and although at moments the actor himself shone through, he was onscreen the character at almost all times, an excellent successor to Nimoy's role, and certain to add depth to the character. I found myself preferring his portrayal to Nimoy's for the tumultuous younger years of Mister Spock. Kirk, on the other hand, missed in many ways the nuances that make James T. Kirk James T. Kirk. Granted, it's a large and difficult role, but the actor (whose name, like many others from the film, escapes me) simply could not make the leap fully. He captured in broad strokes the impressionistic basics, but most of the moments that were clssically Kirk were driven not by his acting but rather by the script. Kirk, like Spock's impromptu expositionary narrative, was a low point in the film, and the actor will have to work hard to match the role as Shatner played it--two parts space cowboy, one part corrupted boy scout, one part barroom brawler. McCoy was the unsung highlight of the show. The actor captured him perfectly. Deforest Kelly seemed to live again on t |
