Movie Review - Star Trek

[tanithryudo]

So, in order to escape the heat that is CA summers, I went to the nice air conditioned theater and saw the new reboot Star Trek movie. Then, because it was still a furnace outside and in my room, I went to the air conditioned bookstore and read the novelization of the movie. It's still hot in my room, which is why I'm trying not to exert myself as I type this entry.


First, the ugly fan obsessed nitpicks bad:

* Minor complaint: What in the world are we supposed to call this movie in reference to the overall franchise? STXI? nuSTI? It doesn't even have a subtitle to refer to. How do you avoid confusing it with the ten other movies that shared the same main title? (I've heard nu-Trek thrown around but that's kinda lame.)

* The A-plot was lame. Yes, I know time travel in the hands of Hollywood has never really been well played, but this seems especially lame in light of previous ST episodes/movies involving time travel. The only worse offenders in temporal nonsensicality is ST:Enterprise, which makes it no suprised that ST:E is considered canon prior to the new movie. Bleh.

* The attempt at continuity was half-hearted and lame. Yes, I know there is a comic series prequel to the movie that is dedicated to the technobabble-fanwank explanation of what exactly happened, and I'm glad they didn't try to include that in the actual movie. But. It was still lame.

* The villain was lame. It almost felt like they had written "insert plot device to do this" in place of the villain in the script, and then gave it a name at the last minute. The emo-Romulan-guy made me roll my eyes a lot, and I didn't feel an erg of sympathy for his backstory even before he committed his villainous act. So yeah, failure as a successful villain.

* Synchronicity...meter...overflowing... Yeah... I kinda agree with some of the people thinking the whole "Kirk just happens to get marooned on the same planet and just a skip and a hop away from marooned Spock-Prime, and just happens to be near the same station that Scotty is exiled to." That kind of coincidence/synchronicity is something I'd expect out of fanfic destiny-wank, not the actual movie.

* They blew up Vulcan! *bawls*

The good:

OK, so it would seem like most of the movie is bad from what I wrote above. I mean, if the plot and the villain is bad how could the rest of the movie make up for it, right? Surprisingly though, it did. To me, it felt like the main point of the movie was not about the villain or the plot (it could have been "insert ex deux machina which threatens the Earth" for all that mattered), but rather about the character interactions of the protagonists. It didn't *need* a good villain, cuz all the audience cared about (and was supposed to care about) are the heroes, and how they get thrown together and develop their relationships in the middle of one hell of a baptism by fire. We were here to see the birth of the command crew of the Enterprise as a single entity of legend, not whatisface and his dastardly plan to destroy the world or whatever.

Aside from generalities though, there are several things which especially made an impression on me...

* Spock. Kicked ALL kinds of ass. I was rather worried reading the spoilers that he'd be downplayed next to Golden-boy Kirk, what with having command seized and stuff. But surprisingly, he was never portrayed as less that he should be. Young-Spock giving the "venerable" Vulcan Science Academy the verbal F-U made my inner fangirl (which has read one too many "torture of lil-Spock angstfics") squee. His altered relationship with his father (one of the one great regrets between the two of them in the original timeline) made my inner fangirl bawl. His kickass performance in his future self's ship, taking on the bad guy and culminating in a suicide run, made my inner fangirl cheer.

* Uhura - I was afraid she was going to be turned Sue-ish or generally annoying when I found that they were going to make her romantically linked to Spock. Fortunately, it was tastefully done. Both of them remained their own characters, and true to their characters, despite the romance. And, even if this throws a wrench in the K/S slash (which, alas, seems to be a thing of the old alternate reality now), at least it was a romance which was believable. Also, Spock continues his track record of getting "involved" with his students. *snorfle* And I loved the running gag of Kirk trying to hit on Uhura and not getting anywhere, only to end up standing awkwardly on the transporter pad while Uhura almost makes out with Spock next to him. *snicker*

* Scotty and his little sidekick - hilarious Abbot and Costello act.

* McCoy - too little onscreen time for this third part of the legendary trio. But what we do see of him was so spot-on-McCoy. The crabbiness, the turns of phrase, the melodrama, the verbal 2x4s... heh.

* Chekov - so adorable! Makes me want to feed him cookies. ^^

* George Kirk - I liked him. :)

(Now, I know, I know... I didn't mention Kirk up there. I guess I hadn't intended to like him too much given the spoilers. He's too much of the bad-boy/Golden-boy stereotype that I generally don't like to much. However, his ongoing slapdowns from Uhura was funny. And he didn't annoy me as much as I'd feared. So I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. As for Sulu, I thought the whole sword thing was a little over the top, and he didn't get a lot of showings outside of that, so I'm reserving judgment on him too. And finally, regarding Spock-Prime, I never thought I'd say this of Leonard Nimoy, but... the dude is old, Paramount. He might have been eye candy and nostalgia-fan-cake once, but really... it's all getting a little old. Please no more cameos from the previous "generations" of Trek. You have a new cast of Trek to play with... let's try sticking with the new guys, yes?)

* Pacing - This was a surprisingly short film. Tellingly, all of the scenes were relevant to the film. And there was none of the "I'm-patiently-waiting-for-this-scene-to-be-over" that I had while watching Watchmen, for instance. They cut out a lot of the unnecessary exposition and technobabble, which made it faster, edgier, and far more newbie friendly than the usual Trek film. And thank god for that.


Overall - Did I like the movie? Yes. Is it worth watching? If only for (young) Spock alone, it was worth it; the rest were icing on the cake. Was it a good investment by Paramount? I think the box office already spoken for that. Do I recommend it? Sure. It's definitely good for a popcorn flick even if you don't know anything about Trek.


EDIT: Went out looking for nuTrek fic and saw this denotation of fandom. All I can do is LOL.

"Fandom: Star Trek, like....Original Trek, Old Trek, When Dinosaurs Ruled
the Earth Trek, Ancient trek, Old Fart Trek, Not Your Grandson's Trek, I
Was Born Before Kennedy Was Shot Trek, Black and White TV Trek, I Remember
Woodstock Trek, Kirk Zipping Up His Boot and Pulling On His Shirt After
Getting Laid Trek."

Comments

[cashew.insanejournal.com]

So, what's in it for someone who likes TNG and have little feeling for TOS?

[tanithryudo.insanejournal.com]

From the general feedback, it seems like people who weren't into TOS liked it better than the fans. Less expectations and rants about continuity/characterization I guess.