Review Detail

9.3 20 10
(Updated: December 06, 2022)
Overall rating
 
7.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
7.0
Visual Editing
 
7.0
Narrative
 
7.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
Audio/Video Quality
I watched the 7gb file and it looked a bit soft and had a large amount of pixelation for a file of its size.

Visual Editing
I was intrigued, but I'll admit I'm not too keen on the added cgi footage. As pointed out in BionicBob's review, the back and forth between cgi and ILM models feels a bit jarring as is the frame rate issues with the differing sources. Unfortunately much of the additional ship scenes feel more like a dvd menu in quality. This is no fault of Wraith, but I'm not sure the quality of the shots were worth the alternate shots in terms of visual continuity. There are a few cgi shots that looked fantastic. The genesis proposal video is vastly improved, but is hindered by the frame rate stutter. When the battle first starts, there's something that just feels off in terms of intensity. I think some of it is due to the cgi shots and the still/smoothness they bring. The action is a bit subdued.

Audio Editing
There seems to be some audio inconsistencies and issues that stuck out. One example is when Spock says "their shields are going up". There is a loud static distortion for a split second. Some of the audio also has some doubling and/or high pitched sounds when inserted/extended scenes return to the original shots and some pops in the audio here and there. I assume these are due to the crossfading. I only point these out as reasoning for the score I gave.

Narrative
The additional lines are interesting and give some added depth to characters, but struggled to establish themselves due to some audio level inconsistencies and their reliance on being added while some of the newer cgi scenes are shown (eg Sulu's mention of his desire to become a captain). The little additions that extend scenes also feel a bit off and take away from the flow of those shots. One such example is when Kirk tells Uhura to signal their surrender and then we get a looped piece of audio and a cgi Enterprise shot. It just feels a bit off in terms of the flow. Seeing that the narrative of this film is very visual and that the intent of this edit was to adjust that visual narrative, I felt it actually slowed the movie down a bit and was at times a bit distracting.

Enjoyment
I have mixed feelings about this. It's a tall order to change/mess with what I feel is tied for the best Star Trek film and one of the better sci-fi movies ever made. I personally felt that the sourced computer generated ships and scenes did feel out of place with the original ILM work. The alternate takes of shots also had some struggle with fitting into the movie seamlessly. Some of the additional ship scenes did look pretty fantastic. My favorite shot is probably when the reliant pops up on screen in the nebula. It was like a Jaws moment with that external shot. It was almost like a jump scare. Unfortunately for me the rest of the lower quality cgi ultimately didn't stand up to the original source models. I also wonder if some more processing could be done to rework some of the fps issues with the cgi to help them gel more fully with the frame rate of the film. A valiant effort and a neat alternative experience.
D
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