Current State of the USS Hadhafang
So yesterday was a good day. Invited a friend over, we hung out, talked, watched Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (let's just say my talk with him about it, and his dad talking about it, fueled his curiosity). Let's say we had a great time riffing on it, and his reactions were pretty much gold. Seriously, gold. (He pretty much thought the same thing as I did -- not an abomination, but not great either. And he liked Sybok well enough, as did I)
We watched The Undiscovered Country afterwards; we had to pause briefly because there was a storm outside and my friend got nervous about it, but fortunately, the storm cleared up later on. It was a movie that I was already intending to watch, but never quite finished before. But I did yesterday -- and I should apologize for not completing it yesterday; let's say I was pretty tired, worried about school, etc. But like I said, I finished it yesterday. How was it? Well, it started off rough but got really good by the end.
The movie started off as really rough, if I will be perfectly honest. I thought it was really awesome seeing Sulu as Captain of the Excelsior (and I admit I had to start beaming when that came up. Ah, Sulu...it just seems like yesterday you were helmsman of the Enterprise and now you're kicking ass and taking names with your own crew. And he's damn good in this film -- he even has a wonderful moment when he bails out Kirk and co. from General Chang), but Kirk...oy. Vey. I mean, I guess I should have seen it coming considering that Kirk despises Klingons and even in Final Frontier , the movie where he's at least willing to cooperate with General Korrd when Klaa and Vixis are on his tail, he does have a moment where he calls the Klingons "bastards" again and goes on about him being the one they want. But still, it didn't make stuff like "Let [the Klingons] die" any less painful to watch. Then again, the overall virulent hatred towards Klingons displayed by the Enterprise crew (I mean, Kirk I can understand, but Uhura? Chekov? What the hell, you two?) was really uncomfortable to watch. I guess that not all bigots are easy to spot on sight, really. Sometimes they can be blindingly obvious, sometimes they can be...people you know who happen to have some hardcore prejudices drilled into them. I guess that's why people like Admiral Cartwright joined The Great Assassinating Gorkon Conspiracy -- good old-fashioned prejudice (and meanwhile, Valeris thought she was doing the right thing). No idea why the Romulan Senator joined, though -- maybe I missed a line of dialogue from him, but his reasoning for joining the Conspiracy was so nonexistent that I might as well speculate that he succumbed to peer pressure. (Then again, like I said, I might have missed a line of dialogue)
And then there's General Chang. I mean, Chang was fun -- his Shakespeare quoting was a delight. And Christopher Plummer is a genuinely good actor. (One thing I'd say about all the Star Trek films I've watched so far is that they have stellar actors for their villains. Or in the case of two of them, antagonists) I admit that, however, I didn't get much of a strong grasp on his motivations. I could get a feeling for them, of course -- Chang feeling displaced in the new world that might come with making peace with the Klingons (indeed, it's nodded to with Gorkon's daughter's conversation with some of the Klingons, where she talks about war basically becoming obsolete and one of the Klingons basically talks about how it's better to die free than "live on your knees" -- keep in mind I'm going from memory here -- and Kirk's speech at the end about people worrying about history ending) and wondering what his motivation is (he even draws a Not So Different between him and Kirk regarding both of them being warriors and I have a feeling that that's not the only similarity they have. The other really is them holding onto grudges. At least Kirk comes to his senses later on), but I don't think the film really expanded on it. In Wrath of Khan , they went into Khan's grief, anger and desire for revenge (and it becomes very overt in Into Darkness ) in quite a bit of detail (hell, it's in the title!), but with Chang...not too much, honestly. I think they really could have done a lot with Chang's "what's my mission then" and how it leads to him getting involved in the conspiracy.
I did like how they built up Valeris, though. How they portrayed her as mostly being in this because she felt...well, the path that Kirk and co. were taking was illogical. I didn't like the scene where Spock forcibly melds with her, though. On the one hand, I can understand why he did it, but on the other, it's horrifying, shocking and heartbreaking to see Spock doing it. I did like the conversation between him and Kirk later, where Kirk comes to terms with what happened with Gorkon and the matter of his time at Starfleet ending. I also liked the scene where they defeat Chang (and Chang goes out quoting Shakespeare, which is awesome), and stop the impending assassination, plus the ending scene where they defy Starfleet's orders to go back to space dock and be decommissioned. It really felt like they were ending the movie on a satisfying note. I also liked Gorkon (it sucked that he died; he was really cool), as well as Kirk and McCoy making it off Rura Penthe (that was awesome). And before that, the Kangaroo Court sort of trial was very chilling and very well-done.
Honestly? It was a good film. Started out rough but got really good at the end. I would have elaborated more on some of the antagonists' motivations, but overall it was good.
So overall? I recommend it. It's not my favorite Nicholas Meyer Star Trek film (that would be Wrath of Khan ) but it's still really good.
We watched The Undiscovered Country afterwards; we had to pause briefly because there was a storm outside and my friend got nervous about it, but fortunately, the storm cleared up later on. It was a movie that I was already intending to watch, but never quite finished before. But I did yesterday -- and I should apologize for not completing it yesterday; let's say I was pretty tired, worried about school, etc. But like I said, I finished it yesterday. How was it? Well, it started off rough but got really good by the end.
The movie started off as really rough, if I will be perfectly honest. I thought it was really awesome seeing Sulu as Captain of the Excelsior (and I admit I had to start beaming when that came up. Ah, Sulu...it just seems like yesterday you were helmsman of the Enterprise and now you're kicking ass and taking names with your own crew. And he's damn good in this film -- he even has a wonderful moment when he bails out Kirk and co. from General Chang), but Kirk...oy. Vey. I mean, I guess I should have seen it coming considering that Kirk despises Klingons and even in Final Frontier , the movie where he's at least willing to cooperate with General Korrd when Klaa and Vixis are on his tail, he does have a moment where he calls the Klingons "bastards" again and goes on about him being the one they want. But still, it didn't make stuff like "Let [the Klingons] die" any less painful to watch. Then again, the overall virulent hatred towards Klingons displayed by the Enterprise crew (I mean, Kirk I can understand, but Uhura? Chekov? What the hell, you two?) was really uncomfortable to watch. I guess that not all bigots are easy to spot on sight, really. Sometimes they can be blindingly obvious, sometimes they can be...people you know who happen to have some hardcore prejudices drilled into them. I guess that's why people like Admiral Cartwright joined The Great Assassinating Gorkon Conspiracy -- good old-fashioned prejudice (and meanwhile, Valeris thought she was doing the right thing). No idea why the Romulan Senator joined, though -- maybe I missed a line of dialogue from him, but his reasoning for joining the Conspiracy was so nonexistent that I might as well speculate that he succumbed to peer pressure. (Then again, like I said, I might have missed a line of dialogue)
And then there's General Chang. I mean, Chang was fun -- his Shakespeare quoting was a delight. And Christopher Plummer is a genuinely good actor. (One thing I'd say about all the Star Trek films I've watched so far is that they have stellar actors for their villains. Or in the case of two of them, antagonists) I admit that, however, I didn't get much of a strong grasp on his motivations. I could get a feeling for them, of course -- Chang feeling displaced in the new world that might come with making peace with the Klingons (indeed, it's nodded to with Gorkon's daughter's conversation with some of the Klingons, where she talks about war basically becoming obsolete and one of the Klingons basically talks about how it's better to die free than "live on your knees" -- keep in mind I'm going from memory here -- and Kirk's speech at the end about people worrying about history ending) and wondering what his motivation is (he even draws a Not So Different between him and Kirk regarding both of them being warriors and I have a feeling that that's not the only similarity they have. The other really is them holding onto grudges. At least Kirk comes to his senses later on), but I don't think the film really expanded on it. In Wrath of Khan , they went into Khan's grief, anger and desire for revenge (and it becomes very overt in Into Darkness ) in quite a bit of detail (hell, it's in the title!), but with Chang...not too much, honestly. I think they really could have done a lot with Chang's "what's my mission then" and how it leads to him getting involved in the conspiracy.
I did like how they built up Valeris, though. How they portrayed her as mostly being in this because she felt...well, the path that Kirk and co. were taking was illogical. I didn't like the scene where Spock forcibly melds with her, though. On the one hand, I can understand why he did it, but on the other, it's horrifying, shocking and heartbreaking to see Spock doing it. I did like the conversation between him and Kirk later, where Kirk comes to terms with what happened with Gorkon and the matter of his time at Starfleet ending. I also liked the scene where they defeat Chang (and Chang goes out quoting Shakespeare, which is awesome), and stop the impending assassination, plus the ending scene where they defy Starfleet's orders to go back to space dock and be decommissioned. It really felt like they were ending the movie on a satisfying note. I also liked Gorkon (it sucked that he died; he was really cool), as well as Kirk and McCoy making it off Rura Penthe (that was awesome). And before that, the Kangaroo Court sort of trial was very chilling and very well-done.
Honestly? It was a good film. Started out rough but got really good at the end. I would have elaborated more on some of the antagonists' motivations, but overall it was good.
So overall? I recommend it. It's not my favorite Nicholas Meyer Star Trek film (that would be Wrath of Khan ) but it's still really good.