I'm not going to see "Star Trek: Into Darkness."

[gardnerhill]

If I want to see an expensive film where white actors are cast in roles specifically written for POC, I’ll watch Elizabeth Taylor chew scenery in CLEOPATRA. At least that film has the excuse of having been made 50 years ago

Comments

[methylviolet10b]

I understand your anger, and share your irritation that the modern Trek is entirely too pasty male overall. There's no excuse for that in the 21st century, no matter what the 'original' material. If it makes you feel any better, Uhura is pretty much completely bad-ass in the movie, not used as the 'pretty girl rescue me/having inappropriate emotional issues' figure you might get from some of the trailers, but a genuine mover and shaker with multiple talents. (The eye-candy role is pretty much left for the blonde-blue-eyed chick and Checkov, which, another story.) And there is shirtlessness of both male and female principle characters during the course of the film (brief, both of them, and the girl is wearing a bra).

As to whether a-certain-character-who-shall-remain-nameless should have been a POC...I'm only guessing which one you meant, but if I'm right... There's no question the series needs more principal POCs and women, but I'm not sure this particular one would have been a win, given the rewrite/reboot circumstances. Which isn't to say it couldn't have been handled better.

Anyhow, I'm in complete sympathy with how crappy it is that Hollywood can't do better by women, POC, and basically anyone who isn't, well, white male.

[gardnerhill]

It hurts more because I've been a Star Trek fan from the days when that meant you were a fan of that one, old, cancelled TV show in perpetual reruns. It's painful to see a "reboot" that is more regressive than a 1960s TV show. (Khan Noonian Singh? An Indian national played by a Hispanic actor? ... Yep, cast another white male, cause it's wrong that white men only make up 85% of all film characters - they even have to take the roles written and cast specifically for POC. What racism? Oh, and women? In my film with a large cast? ...We only need two named female characters, and they'd better weigh 150 pounds together, and one of them better get practically naked. What misogyny?)

I've saved a buttload of money the past few decades by avoiding summer blockbusters for the most part. Nothing in most of them for me anyway, because I'm not a 15-year-old entitled white boy with ejaculation issues (More explosions! More, dammit!).

[methylviolet10b]

Having also been a fan since the days of perpetual reruns of the original series, I feel your pain. I'm also frustrated by the lack of truly new developments, new stories, particularly on TV and the movie screens. Why not create something new? Or if inspiration/source material is needed, why not choose to bring one of Octavia Butler's or Janet Kagan's books to the screen, or [insert your favorite author who tells stories that aren't centered on a male protagonist here]? There's so much good source material out there, so many things that *haven't* been done and are rooted in other traditions, other voices. Sigh.

I'm glad you're voting with your pocketbook. It's the only kind of vote that probably registers with the money-men who actually make the decisions about what to film, who to cast, and so on. (Me? I saw it on the company dime, which is a whole 'nother issue.)