My little brother reports, pace all those positive reviewers out there, that new Star Trek is a disaster. Its plot: a lot like Cliff Hanger, who always ends up hanging from a cliff.
Bro' reports he thought of walking out the 5th time James T. Kirk was suspended from a cliff. When Kirk is not clinging for dear life to a cliff or ledge, he's being choked. Sometimes it's both: there's a scene in which, after numerous Kirk cliff-hanging episodes, the Romulan villain lifts Kirk from the cliff where he's hanging --lifts him by the neck-- but Kirk kills him, so the Romulan drops him and he falls back to his by now not-very original cliff-hanging position.
Little Bro' likewise points out the one saving grace of the Star Trek films (which were never great) is their sense of wonder. There was always a sense of excitement, fascination and awe of the beauty of space. The new director has zero interest in the fact that his people are in space.
Also: in the future the entire planet apparently adopts the Obama attitude with respect to missile defense, because the plot depends on Earth's having absolutely zero ground-based defenses.
Here's what killed any desire I had to see the flick, though. Spock's father --not Spock, who is half-human-- but Spock's father tells his son
Follow your heart.Follow your heart? From a Vulcan? I'll be following my heart to a different summer blockbuster, I think.
Here's an amusing review of another flick I haven't seen...with a surprise Star Trek tie-in. (I'm speaking of the embedded video.)
