Is it good? Yes, it is. Is it as good as everyone thinks it it? No, it isn’t. Much like The Dark Knight, people have such love for this franchise they’re not seeing the film, they’re seeing what they want to see.
The Good: Our new Captain Kirk, Chris Pine, is charming and energetic. Zachary Quinto acquits himself nicely as Spock. Bruce Greenwood steals every scene he’s in. The film moves at a brisk pace, the visual effects are top-notch, and the retro-sixties sets and costumes are terrific. Composer Michael Giacchino can’t quite fill the shoes of his predecessors, but does provide solid musical support for the film.
The Bad: There are plot holes you could drive a truck through, the actor playing Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (Karl Urban) teeters on caricature by trying to imitate the inimitable DeForest Kelley, and the character of Scotty is completely bastardized. Worse yet, the villain of the piece, Nero, is poorly written - and as a result actor Eric Bana, who was already miscast to begin with, gives a confused and inconsistent performance. And did I mention that director J.J. Abrams can’t shoot a fist fight properly and is obsessed with lens flares?
That being said, the film does what it sets out to do - it clears the decks and sets the franchise back at zero again. Since I loathe every iteration of Star Trek that followed the original series, it pleases me to see the franchise return to its roots. Hopefully, the people in charge of making the inevitable sequel will avoid the modern compulsion to retread old ground and tell some new stories instead. After all, the idea is to “boldly go where no man has gone before” - so if I see Javier Bardem playing Khan in the sequel to this film, I’ll content myself with the original episodes and movies. But for the time being, let’s say I’m cautiously optimistic.
As borderline as Karl Urban may be, it was Chekov I found most grating. There’s only so much of that faux Russian accent you can stand, and they gave him way too much dialogue.
I agree that Chekov was grating, but at the end of the day he’s just a side character. McCoy and Scotty are much more important to me.
I have a funny feeling that this series will continue in the mode of the first one… Namely, Kirk and Spock will be center stage and the Holy Trinity of Kirk, Spock and McCoy will not get its proper due.
That’s an irritating thought… then again, it ain’t DeForest Kelly, so we won’t be missing much.
Originally, I felt that the casting of Urban was going to turn out badly. In fact, i thought he resurrected Bones magically. I really think you guys are offbase on McCoy.
Spock became a bit of a candyass though. That was disappointing but as one wise observer pointed out, he’s young and getting control over those pesky emotions. Still, a lack of nako “melding” with Uhura was a disappointment.