Last night, I went to see the latest Star Trek movie. Did I like it? Mostly. I thought it was a good movie, though not without its problems for sure. Overall, I liked it in a similar way I liked the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Adore” album. That album was pretty good, but it was not really the Smashing Pumpkins sound I grew to like. So this movie was a well done, but it did not feel like Star Trek.
There were a lot of things that I liked. I loved young Kirk for instance. From the opening scene to the end of the movie, I thought he was well done. I find it totally believable that he would do stunts like steal the car, get into a fight at the bar, make out with the green alien girl, and other fun romps of a brash young military cadet. Little Spock was well done too. I liked the Vulcan academy of his childhood, how different both his parent’s were, and especially his refusal to enter into the Vulcan science academy. Seeing the characters as youngsters I think was a bold move. Overall it was successful. Additionally, as I will explain later, it was also a great selling point.
The interaction between these two characters was also true to the original series.
I only watched “Search for Spock” a few years ago. The friendship between the two men in this movie and that movie seemed pretty accurate to me.
I can’t complain about the special effects either. They were well executed without being gratuitous. The excitement of the chase scenes and the starship design was eye-catching enough to be a point in the movie’s favor. It was not, for instance, Star Wars episode I, in which special effects were simply a long video-game/demo reel. No, in this movie the CGI served its purpose. It helped create a convincing illusion of life in space. Although I admit, I totally expected young Kirk to meet Luke Skywalker when he ran into that ice cave. Live long and prosper my young padawan!
There were, however, some major plot-hole/logic problems with the movie. First, what’s up with the Romulans? The last Romulans I remember seeing were the Deep Space Nine Romulans in which they were all so bad-ass, cultured, and refined that they knew they earned the right to be a little smug around say –the Klingons. Yet these Romulans were basically a band of pirate-thugs that had lost any sense of refinement from the Romulan Empire. Maybe that was the point. After all, they did get their planet destroyed. It wasn’t made clear in the movie that this was the case though.
Another problem I had was with Sovereign, -I mean the Romulan pirate/mining ship. Why is it so decked out with weapons? According to the movie, this ship followed future Spock into the black hole immediately, so it is not as if they could’ve retro-fitted it. I can’t think of any sci-fi canon in which cargo ships are built for war. What’s with the size? It dwarfed the federation flagship. Does this ship do its mining by hauling entire moons to Romulus or something? It simply didn’t make any sense to me. Sorry!
The larger questions I have with the movie have to do with the overall plot of the movie. Think of all the things that made the movie good. Are these the things we expect from a Star Trek movie? Star Trek movies normally have overtones of politics, philosophy, and even (in DS9) religion. This movie was reduced to action/adventure. I am fairly certain that this could’ve been a random sci-fi movie with different characters and names and it would’ve been just as fine.
This leads me to my final point. This movie cannot be canonical. For if it is, everything from the inception of the original series must be changed. I think what this movie was a concession that Star Trek is a dead franchise.* The movie was an attempt to re-package the old canon for a newer generation of sci-fi kids. This is why we have young Kirk and young Spock. They’re as hip as the cast of Hereos and Lost! Someone high up there must’ve said, “awww fuck it. We can’t move foreward with the canon anymore. Let’s just make a lot of money. Do you think Nimoy will go for it?”
So there it is. Star Trek: The Apocyrpha. Good movie. Fun to watch and well worth seeing in theaters. But if you are old enough to remember movies like “Star Trek VI” or even “First Contact” for that matter, do not expect to see a “Star Trek” movie.
Thanks for reading.
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*In my humble opinion, I think there is still room to make Star Trek within the canon. Deep Space Nine left the creators a lot of options, but I personally couldn’t see anything centered on the federation anymore. Could we still have Star Trek centered on other strange new worlds and new civilizations?
