CharlesPhipps wrote: ↑Fri Sep 20, 2019 5:22 am
I feel like the Motion PIcture isn't good but it isn't
terrible the way I think Insurrection and Nemesis are. Its flaws are mostly in the following:
* The bitterness of the OS cast towards one another shows up in the performances (they don't reconcile until TWOK)
I didn't see that. An interesting information.
* The failed TNG prototype cast is thrown into the story for no reason.
* The story is a remake of a somewhat underwhelming TOS episode.
It's true that the plot is similar to Nomad. However, TMP's scenario is based off the pilot of a new series that aborted. The Enterprise was changed heavily (Discovery's model was inspired by its concept art), and new crew members were introduced.
* "A nonsentient space probe the size of a car is made into the Death Star but left dumb enough not to understand it is a machine" is honestly a really idiotic plot. The thing about Khan is that he may not actually be that deep of a villain but it is a very human motivation.
I don't find it idiotic. The thing is that Voyager 6 became sentient when it met a civilization made of artificial sentient beings. V'ger was then sent back to its creators. It knew it was a machine. The problem is that it could not understand that the "carbon units" would be these creators. It probably thought they would be like itself.
* A good portion of the movie is about showing Kirk is dangerously incompetent using technology he's in charge of as the Chief of Staff.
I would say it is more about Kirk not accepting that he's getting older, and ignoring the fact that "his" ship had been upgraded and that he was not formed to use it. Decker was. It's a classical "old captain vs a young upstart" plot. A lot of the movies with the original crew is about coping with age, death and time.
* So is Starfleet with something like as common as the transporter.
Automobiles are even more common today, and there are car crashes every day. That accident is actually something I liked. It shows that all this technology is not infaillible, that accident can still occur. And it shows us that McCoy's fear of transporter beams are not totally devoid of causes.
* The "money shot" of the enterprise docking that lasts 10 minutes.
Oh yeah... And Spock's journey into V'ger... TPM was made because of Star Wars' success. But what we got instead is Star Trek trying to be like
2001: A Space Odyssey instead. Which was far less dynamic and probably a reason why TPM was not as successful as it could have been...
To me, the main problem with TMP is that it feels too much like a TV episode. The thing is, that is cinema, not television. The more a movie felt like a TV episode, the less successful it was. Because people are thinking "why did I have to shell 10 bucks to watch in theater what I could have seen for free in the TV show."
The Final Fronteer and
Insurrection are two other movies that have made this mistake.
However, I do not hate TMP. I watch it every time I can when it is aired on TV.