Star Trek - 2009-09-08

Number 1, I am a Star Trek fan. Have been ever since I could say "James T. Kirk." Number 2 , all the reviews I read about the recent Star Trek movie were impressive. So instead of waiting for it to come out on DVD rentals, which is my usual custom, I picked up a friend and we went off to see it "on the big screen". And the first half hour was really good. I found out where Capt. Kirk was born, what happened to his father, how he was a rebel as a youth and so on. And then all of a sudden I thought I was watching an episode of LOST (you know the tv show also created by J.J. Abrams, who produced this Star Trek.) I hate Lost, because every time I watch it, I get Lost... In the story, or lack thereof.

So back to Star Trek. Spock, who prides himself on his logic and lack of emotions is KISSING Uhura and the viewer doesn’t know when they hooked up or why Spock is acting this way. Kirk ends up on a Planet with Spock who is now like a hundred years older than the Spock who marooned Kirk on the planet a few minutes ago. You see what I mean. This is more like a patchwork quilt, than a progression of character and plot development.

I miss the days before Computer Generated Graphics and Special Effects. In those days the script told a story and the characters had substance. Today you blow up a couple of things and the heck with the story or character development.

My best guess is that JJ Abrams and all of the other filmmakers out there are EITHER suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder or they think WE ARE – or both . So no storyline goes on for more than 6 minutes, because they don’t think we can hold our attention fixed to a storyline for more than 6 minutes. Accordingly, every 6 minutes or so, they blow something up, and then start the next semi-unrelated scene.

DON’T "beam me up Scotty". Beam me BACK. If you can take Spock back in time, then take me back to the good old days when Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks and others knew how to tell a story for an hour and a half (not in 6 minute snippets) and without blowing anything up.