Baffled, I am

[sigma7]

Star Trek is every bit as good as I'd heard. I know, I can't believe it either. And I've been subjected to enough continuity reboots to loathe it on principle (and when I loathe on principle, I raise it to an art form). My two gripes, one simple, one not:

1. Goddamnit, JJ, yes, enough with the goddamned lens flares, already. I'm trying to watch a movie here, get the follow-spot OUT OF MY FACE SO I CAN SEE IT. It's like ten years ago when everyone got laser-pointers and started bringing 'em to movies except this time it's the director and AUGH SHIT I'M BLIND DAMMIT ABRAMS.

2. So the new Jim Kirk is a putz. Hey, say what you will about Shatner's Kirk, but you always got the feeling that he was a result of a relentless work ethic, a zero-gravity Machiavellian mind and entirely too much distilled awesome. When the chips fell, Kirk evaded punishment due to "mitigating circumstances" (i.e. "saving the planet") and got punished with the captain's chair -- he fell, but fortuitously so. Pine!Kirk fails upward so fast he hits escape velocity, proceeding to leapfrog every single person on the Enterprise, including probably Scotty's mineral Oompa-Loompa sidekick. Add to that the smugness of the Kobyashi Maru exploit -- I always envisioned it being a bit more subtle, but maybe that's the point, that Cameron's baby isn't a subtle man...still, despite the camaraderie between Kirk and Quinto!Spock at that point, I don't think anyone would've faulted our favorite half-Vulcan for screaming "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" and putting his fist through Kirk's head in front of the assembled mass of Starfleet and getting gray matter all over Admiral Ironsides.

And yet we don't hate Pine!Kirk, so obviously there's something working really well there. I blame the script -- the actors let it all go on the screen (except Bana, and that's also a script blunder...hard to feel the seething when it's all exposited instead of shown) and I think every one of the old crew gets more to do in this film than any single appearance they had in the olden days.

In terms of reviving the franchise, bringing in old fans as well as introducing a whole new audience, this could barely have gone better.

Comments

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

I'm sad about the new Uhura. Her original character was shockingly progressive for the times; now she's just a useless love interest.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

I was disappointed as well; while they made it clear she's one of the smartest people on the crew, they didn't actually do anything with her this time around. I'm hoping this is rectified in the sequel (which I think is going to be an even bigger test for the new franchise in a number of ways).

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

That was a wrong turn, I thought -- it was interesting to see a Spock/Uhura dynamic (though I'd think Spock to be a little more aware of the possible ramifications of a relationship with a student), but given the effort they went to make her interesting and useful (having xenolinguistics be useful for a change), she becomes foil to Spock in much the same way Bones becomes foil to Kirk (they contribute but contribute too much in the context of the main characters).

And roseneko had a great observation a while back -- in the more recent generation of movie re-imaginings, the first movie is solid if incomplete, but the second film really leaps into the meat of the matter. We saw it Nolan's Batman, I'm going to put Singer's X-Men in there, and if Singer'd had a shot at a second Superman I think he could've breathed a bit more life into it than what we saw in the first installment of that particular series. If there is a sequel to this flick and they keep the creative side mostly intact, I think we'll see a genuine improvement.