So after hearing the news about Abrams directing Star Wars, I decided to watch ST09 to sort of get a feel of his style. I know everyone else already did this in the General Star Wars forum, but I wanted to list my problems with the film; I actually have several gripes with it, and hopefully I can list them all here.
First, let me acknowledge that I understand that this is science-fiction with a certain amount of escapism expected and several natural laws, such as sound in space, are simply ignored for enjoyment purposes. However, several things really stood out to me as implausible and distracting. So while many of my reviews in this thread are tongue-in-cheek, this one is more serious.
1. I understand the purpose of the convenient plot device/MacGuffin in red matter. However, this is truly a distracting element to me. Aside from the fact that we aren’t even graced with any technobabble explanation of what red matter is or how it’s contained, why does “igniting” this tiny bit of magical substance create a black hole? They don’t call black holes singularities because they couldn’t think of a cooler name. A black hole is comprised of such heavy mass that it collapses on itself, creating a “single” dimensionless point in space comprised of truly tremendous amounts of mass and energy. So how does this red matter create enough gravitational pull to do this? Where does the additional mass come from?
2. There seems to be some confusion as to how a black hole works. Yes, theoretically black holes affect the space/time continuum to the point that time travel can take place, but that is before you actually reach the black hole. If you fall into the hole, you contributing to the growing mass of this gravitational pit in space, you don't simply travel through some space tunnel.
3. The strength of a black hole's gravity is enough to prevent even light from escaping its grasp. The Enterprise's engines are supposed to take it to speeds far past the speed of light. Yet, with the warp engines going full power they still couldn't escape, meaning they were past the event horizon and should have been doomed. But no, they eject several small canisters filled with antimatter that surely would create a tremendous explosion here on earth, but would amount to nothing compared to the gravitational pull of the black hole. Yet, the explosion is more powerful than the Enterprise's warp drive, and it blasts them to safety...and it doesn't destroy them in the process. Oh, and the Enterprise was only maintaining its distance from the black hole because their warp engines were running, engines that are powered by the jettisonned warp cores--why didn't they get sucked in the moment they released the cores?
4. Okay, I understand that people receive field commissions. But Pike elevating cadet Kirk to first mate while he was being tried and stowed away on the ship is sloppy. I can't imagine the crew would stand for that promotion. It clearly was borne out of favoritism. Then Kirk's cruel means of proving Spock was emotionally compromised--yeah, that would win him brownie points with the crew that is supposed to follow him. Field commands are only temporary, and I find it unlikely that, in spite of his amazing last minute save, he would receive a permanent promotion to captain once he got back to earth.
5. Why would anyone in the crew accept Kirk’s command anyway, given his clear disrespect for the authority of others, his means of attaining that authority, and his clear and dangerous impulsivity? I can imagine he would be arrested a second time for his own violations and relieved of his illegitimately obtained position.
6. What kind of moronic admiralty would send an entire fleet except for five about-to-be-manned-for-the-first-time-and-almost-entirely-with-new-recruits vessels in defense of its headquarters world? It must have been a rather small fleet or an extremely large engagement to have tied up Starfleet in the Laurentian System.
7. It’s amazing how all the original crew members find their way to their intended positions/roles despite a completely different set of events leading up to their assignment to the Enterprise. The butterfly effect would dictate that a number of events would have gone differently, including and perhaps most obviously the conception of anyone younger than Jim Kirk (considering that was the day the timeline was altered). Yet all posts are filled by their respective crew members (including Chekov, who didn't join the crew till, what, the second season?) in a few days time.
8. If xhonzi hates little “wink-wink” lines in The Hobbit and The Dark Knight Rises, he must have really hated the plethora of dumb nods in this film, like Spock's line about eliminating the impossible, etc., etc.
9. A transporter can beam through atmospheric disturbances across massive distances and even traveling at very high speeds, but apparently an energy drill provides enough interference to completely prevent teleportation, and only as an incidental byproduct. Perhaps if the Romulans had developed a device devoted specifically devoted to interfering with transporting, then I could believe such was taking place. But I guess then it would have been harder to justify an orbital skydive to take out a single device and attempt to kill two birds with one stone.
10. What is the point of even having a separate, descending drill? If this drill is powerful and cohesive enough to cut into the crust of a planet, I can’t imagine that it would suffer much from atmospheric interference. But instead the Romulan ship lowers this scrawny little device with a powerful beam miles deep into a planet's atmosphere where it could much more easily be damaged or even destroyed.
11. And in a combination of the drill and the red matter/black hole weirdness, why would a drill even be needed? A black hole right next to the planet would be more than enough to completely destroy it.
12. A supernova can send out massive amounts of radiation and can destroy any existing life in “nearby” systems (nearby of course being a relative term, approximately 100 lightyears) in the same way that the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine threatened anyone who lived near it when it exploded. However, I’ve never read of a supernova threatening an entire galaxy (ours being 100,000 lightyears across) as old Spock states, or that its mere explosive force could even reach into other systems and destroy planets (only the radiation should be able to reach that far). But even imagining that such a supernova were so powerful, it would take years and years to reach the next planet, as such an explosion would be traveling significantly slower than the speed of light. A warp capable ship would be able to get where it needed to easily in time to utilize whatever crazy plan folks had. And you’d think that Starfleet would have the technology to detect that a star is becoming critically unstable and develop that plan in advance. And again, that silly black hole idea…considering that this supernova is blowing up in all directions. One would have to get this black hole in the middle of the supernova to successfully suck it all back up, and then make it strong enough that it’s gravity would pull the massive and ever expanding explosion in and thus stop it from spreading any further. But wait, if the gravity is so strong, it would also pull in all planets, stars, and ships in the same radius! That means the Vulcan plan to save Romulus would have killed it anyway! Wow, I should have divided that into like 4 or 5 different points. Oh well.
13. Okay, so Vulcan gets destroyed. Spock Prime is apparently on a planet close by called Delta Vega. Again, I can’t help but wonder how the black hole consumed Vulcan and didn’t harm a planet that must have been about as close and the earth and the moon, judging by the size of Vulcan when Spock watched it get destroyed.
14. Who would build a massive ship filled with a bunch of spaced apart catwalks and no railing? Sure, it’s fun, makes for some nifty Mario-style jumps and slow-mo shots, but in reality there has to be some sort of Romulan builder’s code or safety standards that disallow this.
15. I understand that this is a different version of events, but obviously some things must have remained consistent between the two timelines of Star Trek for so many similar events to take place. Let’s look at the Kobayashi Maru scenario. For story purposes, I can buy that events were not changed enough to forgo the existence of this scenario (though one cannot truly even guess the extent of the butterfly effect were history ever altered in even the slightest manner), but clearly Spock Prime was not ever involved in the original programming of the Kobayashi Maru in the classic timeline, yet he is intimately involved, to the point that we get hints at hurt pride in the Vulcan in this new timeline. If this were a change, you'd think the scenario would have been drastically different than described in The Wrath of Khan.
16. The concept of rebooting, yet maintaining the original continuity in Star Trek is a clever way to appeal to two different sorts of fan, IMO. However, what was it that drove Spock to be so much more emotional and identify so much more closely with his human side, at least prior to the loss of the planet Vulcan? Perhaps following its destruction I could see the timeline leading to a more human Spock falling in love with Uhura, being more emotionally driven, etc. After all, his father confessed his love of his mother, earth is the closest thing he has to a home now, etc. But really, the pre-Vulcan holocaust Spock should have been as in control of his emotions as Leonard Nimoy.
Alright, that was pretty harsh. So let me say what I liked about it. It's fun. It's different. I did like the concept of a reboot that doesn't erase what "old-school" fans love about Trek. I like that they travel to other worlds, that there is good old-fashioned fisticuffs, and so on. I don't really have too much of a problem with the lens flares. I would watch it again without shame, and I look forward to its sequel. But it is certainly a very flawed movie.
BTW, I won't bother posting in the other thread because I'm only making a few cameos, but I think Abrams can do a great respect to Star Wars. He's flexible, innovative, and recognizes what makes a particular film work. I think he can stay true to the style of Star Wars and especially the OT.
