I am quite fine with hearing anything that isn’t glowing praise of JJ Trek. I personally thought it was horrible enough that JJ is officially on ‘probation’ as a creator.
Did he have to steal one of the worst bits from one of the worst Star Wars movies? shudder
Saved this from a talkback on Ain’t it Cool News. Format is as found so sorry if its tough to read.
Is this Trek worth taking?
by beneath_the_cowl May 11th, 2009 04:49:07 PM
I saw it Friday night. it is a solid, well executed script. you could almost hear the screenwriters thinking as plot points clicked into place. definitely better directed than Mission Impossible III (JJ Abrams’ last big screen adventure). Lots of action, explosions, fast paced thrills and homages to the original series. BUT BUT BUT, I have to say at the end of it all, I felt like I had just been served a porcelain hamburger.
It looked like the real thing and was artfully crafted in many ways to be better than a hamburger, with all its flaws, could ever hope to be. But at the end of the day I couldn’t eat it – it had no power to sustain me. When EVERYONE is raving about a movie, my gut tells me it’s feeding into the cultural mandates and norms of our day, which usually means something is lacking. And in this case, what was lacking was Star Trek’s gooey moral center.
These characters, although they have much to lose in the story, are never faced with any of the moral or ethical dilemmas that made the original series (or even some of the spin offs) what it was. In this film, without giving anything away, Kirk is basically rewarded for being a rebel. Flout authority at every turn and at the end you’ll be in command of your very own starship. Even the Kobiyashi Maru sequence is treated as a joke. And though Spock’s comments underscore the need for fear and respect in the face of certain death, we never see that lesson played out. The movie plays well on the “isn’t this cool that we’re reinventing Star Trek” level. And many times it REEKS of Star Wars, Episode IV, with Kirk as Luke longing for adventure. But a day later there’s a sadness in my heart that our culture is swept up in a story so morally and ethically vacuous.
Sure it’ll make a ton of money and spawn sequels. But even there, we’ll see this new machine breakdown. This cast won’t have the staying power of the originals. They’ll get bored and want out of their contracts after 3 pictures, as is the case with this generation. And so what then, will Paramount reinvent the reinvention? Don’t get me wrong, it was wildly entertaining. And of the performances, Bones McCoy, Spock and Uhura stand out the most. Even Pike, as the last of a dying breed of noble Star Trek officers. Tyler Perry has a cameo, and it was nice that it was handled with dignity. Roger Ebert’s review pretty much nailed it. Overall I guess what I missed most in this film was a sense of Star Trek’s nobility.
I always liked Star Trek because, although it was humanistic, there was a sense, in this dream of a new frontier, that this could be humanity at its best. I walked away saying I would never want to be on a ship with those spoiled brats. And if they’re boldly going where no man has gone before…let 'em go. Send me a postcard occassionally, but I’m not sure if I want to take the ride. Also, this movie suffers from what every other TV show that’s given the big screen treatment suffers from, namely, you can’t treat a film like this as an ensemble piece, it has to be one man’s story. And this film tries to be both Kirk and Spock’s story. It gives us an efficient plot to accomplish that, but in the end we barely scratch the surface of either man.
I actually think I’d be much more excited about this if this were a reboot of the TV series rather than the film franchise. Yeah, I’d tune in to watch these guys on TV, maybe because I feel like there’d be time to really unpack some sweet character moments, and perhaps also because I feel like the actors themselves would have more of a long term commitment/investment in the property. But as a film franchise I feel like we will never really get to know these characters ever again.
And, like I said earlier, I think the movie biz fosters a high turnover rate. I just can’t see this cast suiting up 20 years from now like the original Trekkers for a new slate of films. As exciting as it was, I think we’ve seen the best from Star Trek already. Because of the moral and ethical shifts in our culture, I don’t think the clarity and self-examination this pantheon of characters needs is even in our vocabulary anymore.
Edit: break up the quote for easier reading. :)