(watched as part of a broadcast-order franchise group-watch)
Really looking forward to watching this one! I enjoyed the deliberate, reverent pace back when I first watched it even though I hadn't actually watched that much Trek, especially not TOS. Excited to make the jump from TOS and TAS into this!
Nice classy minimalist opening titles, feels a bit like a palette cleanser from the show, inviting us to see the franchise afresh.
Love the long, slow sweeps over the Klingon ships with all their greebles in full view. Like, 'yes, we have a budget and we've seen Star Wars'. (Some of the compositing here feels a little worse overall than Star Wars, but never mind.)
New Klingons! This feels of a piece with the new ships - the foreheads have been greebled just like the ship hulls. Until Trials And Tribbleations forced the issue, this could have just been read as 'this is what they always looked like, you just saw them in low def'.
Feels classy and cinematic to start with an anonymous ship of Klingons, too. They have the self-control to make us wait a little bit for the iconic set-up. I love when movies do this, like Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves starting with a beardy Costner in Jerusalem or whatever. The kind of thing that would get me worried and impatient as a very young viewer before I started to appreciate it.
Similar approach with Spock. Like 'yep, we can do impressive planet exteriors now', showing off costumes and make-up. But withholding Classic Spock a little - he's got lanky hair, we don't hear him speak. Also, interesting that they have the Klingons and Vulcans speak with subtitles here, it feels like a conscious move to make the whole thing feel more adult and sophisticated. Also a nice detail to have the computer read out and display a real-time translation of the Klingon transmission.
Kirk! Don't like his new hair. I wonder what happened there. Did it just go wiry with age, or is this some kind of hairpiece evolution?
Still got the pointy sideburns, though, that's the main thing.
Fun to introduce him being incredibly grumpy. Also love that he's clearly trying to fill his bromance hole with another Vulcan science officer.
Scotty! Boy, I hadn't realised how big the age gap is between TOS and here, you can really feel it in that first Kirk-Scotty scene. Smart move to use Scotty as the character who starts to thaw things out a little, get Kirk joking, start to bring us back to that TOS vibe.
Also enjoying the slimming white hourglass shape they put on Kirk's uniform!
LOVE that docking sequence. All the awe and affection that the Klingon ships didn't get. Plus, thank fuck they didn't greeble up the Enterprise. Kept it slick and clean, like the opening titles. Taking that long over it is such a statement on the movie's part, I love it. The gradual unveiling of pieces of the ship until its full reveal, similar to what Verhoeven did with Robocop.
I still find it really hard to conceptualise the scale of the Enterprise, though - I always think it should be bigger than what it seems to be when you get other ships and stuff next to it.
Really funny joke to go from that sentimental docking sequence straight into chaos on the bridge with a bunch of crew yelling at each other and trying to slap stuff together in time. Then the reunion of Uhura, Sulu and Chekov is only given a second or two of shiny eyes and warm grins before it's replaced with that classic Federation professionalism.
Lots of smart little touches to make the Enterprise feel more dense without overdoing it. Some strong lighting, low angles shots, some simple background and foreground action like the guy pushing the hover-crates. Again, feels like they've taken some tips from Star Wars. Plus, having stuff crapping out in the engine room consoles feels very Millennium Falcon. But then they pivot that to a nastier tone with the teleport accident. Goddamn, that's harsh. Another 'this is more grown-up, the stakes are higher, you're not watching goofy schedule filler now'.
Also awesome to see Rand. She might be the only one who turns away from the horror, but she's transporter chief now, she's wearing trousers, and she still maintains a fairly steely demeanour. No mini-skirt and burying her face in the captain's chest. Again, though, it's a shame we never got more of her and what happened with Grace Lee Whitney.
It's very funny that the big threat in this movie is 'a big space-cloud'. It's so TOS, just perfect.
I like Uhura's late-70s look.
I've been pausing on these panoramic crowd shots, checking out all the aliens tucked away in there. Not getting too showy with it, just another confident display of budget.
I'm mostly enjoying all the redesigns, but it's a shame all the uniforms are beige. Would have been nice to retain a bit of colour at least.
Okay, we've got some whites and blues in there now, thankfully. It's not just Uhura who's gone 70s either, lots of hairy chests, taches and medallions on show. Shatner still looking pretty trim at this point, too.
I like the relationship this movie has with nostalgia for the franchise. it nods at it, indulges it a little, but also keep reminding the characters and the audience that everything has changed, must change. Kirk no longer knows every rivet of the Enterprise, Spock is no longer in the mood for banter with Bones. Kirk's need to hang onto command of the Enterprise could be read (if only through a modern lens) as a metaphor for the fandom wanting everything to stay the same. Even on a surface level, you can see this film's influence in things like the first Mission Impossible or the later Indy movies and how they handle the time gap between the show or the earlier movies, how the actors have aged or how the original optimistic viewpoint interacts with more cynical times.
That journey into the cloud is great, it really underlines the other big influence here alongside Star Wars - 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's probably where a lot of the confident, considered pacing comes from. It's a shame that it basically goes away after this movie, even if the original show was after all 90% goofy hi-jinks.
Wow, then at least another two journey sequences. They're really cool, I love how many disparate elements there are, all somehow tying together, and how the scale keeps redefining itself, but I can see how this might drive some people a bit nuts!
I laughed when the alien probe showed up and Dekker said "it's taken over the computer". Such a classic TOS moment, along with crewmembers getting zapped for interfering, but now beefed up into an throbbing, impactful sequence with layers of sound and visual design. (edited)
It really has shifted into some classic TOS beats now. The great intelligence sends a (conveniently human-alike) representative onto the ship, which can then hang out in scenes passively until needed, arguments over whether Spock should be allowed to go on a reckless recon expedition, Kirk using basic psychology and bluffs to outfox the antagonist. Again, really cool to see all this filtered through a cinematic approach.
Finished. I really enjoyed it, and I think it was a very smart way to kick off the movie franchise - establishing it as a robust, cerebral, adult, cinematic venture, before getting into scenery-chewing villains and space battles and what have you.
Really the only issue I have with it is that it ends much like any other TOS episode, returning to the status quo. The 2001 'star child evolution' ending doesn't work half so well when it's happening to a new, secondary character. Imagine if that had been Kirk! Or at least, say, Chekov. Perhaps an awareness of this led to them ending the second movie with a main character sacrifice...
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