My husband and I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night. No, we did not go as Vulcans. Yes, we did wear a few things to make us geeks. He had on his communicator pin, I wore my Bajoran earring, sans the nose ridges, enough to still be "cool" (aka geeky) without getting raised eyebrows. Cosplaying really only works on opening night, anyway. We tried going in full regalia the day after opening night during "Insurrection" and only got crowds staring at us.
First, my non-spoiler review.
The movie itself was great, far exceeding my expectations. I went into this trying to avoid spoilers and reviews, hoping to formulate my own opinion, yet still unable to sidestep the fan complaints (mostly from Matt) about the design of the new (old) ship and the look of the bridge. So I really didn't know what to expect, but still had rather low expectations. The first few minutes were enough to make me go "wow, this is going to be awesome."
Every actor took these well-loved, well-established characters and did them justice, holding onto certain mannerisms while still doing their own take on the characters. It was enough for people who grew up with Star Trek to nod and smile, while newer audiences could come to love these characters without... any... odd speech... patterns. Yes, I was VERY relieved Chris Pine did not assume Shatner's unique way of speaking. He gave the part the pure essence of "Kirk" without imitation. I felt this was true for many of the characters.
The plot is not completely unique. Time travel has been far overused in the sci-fi genre, in my opinion. Some of the technical aspects are totally not canon. I'm not talking special effects. How they portray transporters is up to the SFX team. I'm talking transporting while at warp. I'm not that "into" such details, but Matt pointed out that even in TNG, they had to drop out of warp, then beam someone.
What made me shake my head were some of the more specific scenes. Let me put it in Star Wars terms. Let's say they made a Star Wars prequel (yes, I know, they did three, and they were mediocre). Only, in the prequel, they kill off Captain Antilles (a minor character who still affects the plot), they blow up Endor (massacring all those cute Ewoks before they have a chance to save the Rebels), and Padme falls for Mace Windu (you know, Samuel L Jackson's awesome character). Yeah, that about does the "what the hell" aspect of this movie justice without spoiling any details.
For an explanation of what I mean, read the spoilers below.
================
================
SPOILER WARNING
================
================
(The following contains spoilers from the Star Trek movie, including plot and character development)
================
================
YOU HAVE BEEN DULY WARNED
================
================
Is that enough of a warning? :P
Okay, within the first ten minutes, I was shaking my head going "Wait a minute there! Kirk's father didn't die like that... did he? Um...." So see, the average Star Trek enthusiast is probably not going to realize anything is wrong. Someone like Matt will be chomping at the bit already. And that's the first scene!!!
Things seem to get better. We meet young Kirk and Spock, find Uhura in a bar, meet McCoy, and are even graced by Captain Pike, all beautiful faces, all holding true to their characters while putting in their own take. We see Kirk in academy, but it quickly jumps back to where Star Trek belongs... in space! Our beloved characters (Chekov and Sulu included, still no Scotty) all meet together on the bridge of the Enterprise.
That's where the fun begins. Biggest spoiler yet... ready for it?... They blow up Vulcan!
That's right, the planet goes byebye. 6 billion Vulcans plus Spock's mother die in the destruction.
Okay, right there I'm going "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!!" Even your casual TV watcher will know planet Vulcan is still around, and Vulcans are not suddenly made into an endangered species.
The next eyebrow raising moment comes minutes after the destruction.
Uhuru + Spock
That's right, take the sexy black girl in a mini skirt and the stoic half-Vulcan with the bowl cut, put them in a tumbolift, and have a make-out scene. Not only that, but in hindsight, they appear to have a relationship while at the academy... and Spock is totally whipped!!! Uhura puts on a little pouty "but I wanted to be on the Enterprise with you" act and Spock cows to her wishes despite the roster already being set, certainly breaking a few regulations while he's at it. Spock ends up with more smooch time than Kirk... now that's just WRONG! Watching Spock kiss anyone is enough to raise your Vulcan eyebrows. "Fascinating" hardly covers it.
Everything is explained nicely, though. See, the bad guy is from the future, and he's screwing up the past. He's the one who killed Kirk's father, destroyed Vulcan, and by the end of the movie, creates a massive black hole near Saturn (which may or may not have collapsed on itself, Matt and I are still arguing that). So see, it's all a parallel universe.
I was seriously expecting a Voyager-special (aka, big "reset button" at the end, fix the timeline and everything reverts to what we expect). In a way, I'm glad they didn't do that. It works for a one-hour weekly series (once or twice, not a dozen times, Voyager!) but if you pull that stunt in a big movie, there will be rioting in the aisles as audiences complain "why did I spend $9 on a movie when none of it really happened in the end?"
This leads to one of two scenarios.
1) This is really gonna go where no one has gone before as the franchise embraces this "alternative" Star Trek universe (bad idea for the fan base).
2) They'll fix the whole thing in the sequel. Which means a reset button for TWO movies.
I'm betting on #2. These guys aren't dumb. They've hook the new audiences with big names, big fight scenes, and SFX which audiences have come to expect (Trekkers might complain that it's too much, but anything less would have been a disappointment to moviegoers and critics). Now you need to reel the fan base back in with a sequel that promises to fix the timeline.
This means Spock will be faced with the emotional dilemma of fixing time and restoring his planet, but at the expense of losing Uhura, since Spock Prime will inform him that they were never meant to hook up (Did I mention young Spock meets old Spock? That's a whole other story, but it worked so no complaints here.) Kirk will of course want this route, since it means his father will not have been killed by Nero. Audiences will be torn between "I want my daddy" from Kirk and "but I love her" from Spock. Confrontation ensues, probably with more Kirk/Spock fistfights. Fans will want the timeline to right itself, yet pity Spock.
Sounds like another blockbuster in the making!
So that's my two cents.
Live long and prosper!
No comments:
Post a Comment