I really enjoyed the movie myself. But I have to agree - it did come off as maybe trying too hard a few times. I did like that every member of "the classic 7" gets at least one moment to really shine in their own particular way or specialty. But a couple of them did almost feel like "let's make sure this checkbox is ticked".
Gotta say I really think Chris Pine firmly sold his version of Kirk. Knocked it out of the park, even. Same with Quinto's Spock. And it's a good thing, too, because their friendship is what makes the whole thing work at all.
Cumberbuntch's Khan (and c'mon, it's not as if that's a spoiler at this late date) is interesting. Not really what I expected. But the backstory makes sense for that universe. And I'm glad they didn't try to force him to sell the character as anything close to Montalban's Khan. Because that simply was NOT going to happen no matter what you did. Better to just go in a largely different direction anyway than force a comparison. (They already have that risk to a degree with still having Old Spock in the film, even as a cameo. Why invite more trouble in that regard?)
New Spock hammy moment - yeah. That was... at least a LITTLE over the top. But it's interrupted so quickly and spectacularly that it doesn't have a chance to detract.
Yeah - the industrial elements of the Enterprise's engineering spaces still have some elements that are clearly lifted from other spaces, but that Warp core area is NOT one of them. That was really well done!
The only part of the film that had me scratching my head in terms of wonky physics was "the big fall". I'm sorry guys, but for such a major part of the film, they based that on some SERIOUS misunderstandings of how gravity and orbital mechanics works. It would take WEEKS not minutes to reach the top of the atmosphere from where they were. And why is the internal gravity going haywire like that instead of just going to zero G outright? (Oh right - because a) it's more dramatic and b) As big a budget as we have, zero-g stunt effects would outright KILL it.)
So yeah - it's not a classic like ST-II. But it's definitely not a waste of 2+ hours. I was highly entertained by it. My nitpicks above are "fridge moments".
I've now seen Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness. And I'll probably go see both of them at least once more in the theators. But if I only could see ONE of them one more time, I'd choose IM3. Just by a slight margin.
Gotta say I really think Chris Pine firmly sold his version of Kirk. Knocked it out of the park, even. Same with Quinto's Spock. And it's a good thing, too, because their friendship is what makes the whole thing work at all.
Cumberbuntch's Khan (and c'mon, it's not as if that's a spoiler at this late date) is interesting. Not really what I expected. But the backstory makes sense for that universe. And I'm glad they didn't try to force him to sell the character as anything close to Montalban's Khan. Because that simply was NOT going to happen no matter what you did. Better to just go in a largely different direction anyway than force a comparison. (They already have that risk to a degree with still having Old Spock in the film, even as a cameo. Why invite more trouble in that regard?)
New Spock hammy moment - yeah. That was... at least a LITTLE over the top. But it's interrupted so quickly and spectacularly that it doesn't have a chance to detract.
Yeah - the industrial elements of the Enterprise's engineering spaces still have some elements that are clearly lifted from other spaces, but that Warp core area is NOT one of them. That was really well done!
The only part of the film that had me scratching my head in terms of wonky physics was "the big fall". I'm sorry guys, but for such a major part of the film, they based that on some SERIOUS misunderstandings of how gravity and orbital mechanics works. It would take WEEKS not minutes to reach the top of the atmosphere from where they were. And why is the internal gravity going haywire like that instead of just going to zero G outright? (Oh right - because a) it's more dramatic and b) As big a budget as we have, zero-g stunt effects would outright KILL it.)
So yeah - it's not a classic like ST-II. But it's definitely not a waste of 2+ hours. I was highly entertained by it. My nitpicks above are "fridge moments".
I've now seen Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness. And I'll probably go see both of them at least once more in the theators. But if I only could see ONE of them one more time, I'd choose IM3. Just by a slight margin.