Six previews, one notable female character.
I went with some friends to see the new Star Trek movie. Going in, I was intensely skeptical but also excited. I mean, new Trek! But new Trek directed by JJ Abrams, whose work I generally detest, and who has asserted his lack of Trekkie-ness with a consistent and disappointing fervor that reminded me of Evan Lysacek's consistent and disappointing assertions of heterosexuality. I was prepared to really, really hate this movie.
Fortunately, this movie was prepared for people like me. People who own all three volumes of The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers. People who get Enterprise jokes. (People who have written Enterprise femslash, for fuck's sake. Not that I'm proud of that.) People whose love for Star Trek is ancient and territorial and bristling for any excuse to say, "This movie does not count."
But like a phaser-toting lothario in neo-retro Lycra, this movie seduced me. And by seduced me, I mean we were out in the parking lot, and sapience14 was trying to say stuff about the ginormous holes in the plot, and I just kept going "Buh -- buh -- sp -- I'm not quite on the level of language yet." For my first ten minutes out of the theater I was so submerged in fangirl glee, I literally could not put a sentence together. It was as if I'd fucked an old flame and remembered why we'd been so flame-y in the first place.
The movie has problems, which I will get out of the way. The plot only makes sense if you refuse to think about it very hard. (Fortunately, Trekkies are used to doing this.) The writers made attempts to reconcile real-universe physics with Star Trek physics, which is impossible to do; the physics would have been less laughable if they hadn't tried so hard. There were about three moments in the movie when I very nearly stood up and yelled, "The military does not work like that!" and then remembered that this has always been a known issue in Star Trek and also that I was in a crowded theater. My feminist sensibilities are ongoingly troubled by the repositioning of Uhura as a sexual/romantic object: Roddenberry made a clear point of not entangling Uhura with the men in the crew (except under alien mind control), and it was disappointing that this new version felt the need to justify her presence by building a love triangle around her. Can't a hot, competent woman of color be all of those things and not be banging Spock? And, it occurs to me, can't a close academic mentorship exist without a sexual component that would have gotten them both fired in real life?
Fortunately, this movie moves too fast and is so cool in other respects that I didn't care that much about the above. I mean, it's Star Trek. It's supposed to be tacky and unrealistic and hopeful. It's supposed to have cool spaceships and bonkers special effects and two goddamned Spocks. This was an unrelentingly exciting movie, more interested in keeping your monkey brain entertained than making sense to your grownup-with-multiple-advanced-degrees brain. Using red matter to convert a supernova into a black hole? Objectively, that is a huge load of horseshit, but it made for a kickass explosion and a plot hole big enough to send Leonard Nimoy and a ship full of Romulans through.
If I want realistic SF that sensitively explores issues of race, gender, and sexuality, I'll read Le Guin or Delany. There's a reason none of their novels have been successfully adapted into a summer blockbuster.
What I want from my Star Trek is a good time, and this movie gave me that. It's an origin story with lots of cool fight scenes and effects, so it's accessible to a non-Trekkie audience, but it's also a full bingo card of famous lines and tiny fanboy in-jokes. It's a big, loud movie in the right ways, and it's a funny, clever movie in the right ways as well.
The other thing I expect from Trek, especially as a fan who came in with TNG, fell in love with DS9, and lost patience sometime around the fifth season of Voyager, is good acting. The young cast impressed me. Zachary Quinto clearly spent hours studying Leonard Nimoy's physical and vocal mannerisms, and he maintains loyalty to Nimoy while investing the role with an undercurrent of sadness that is his own. He made me forget that he was Sylar for whole 10-minute stretches. I also loved Anton Yelchin's perky, fresh-faced take on Chekov, his Russian accent more authentic than Walter Koenig's but just as goofy. And Simon Pegg, well, it's a good thing he doesn't appear until 2/3 of the way through the movie, because he steals the film away every time he appears. He couldn't be less like James Doohan. He's better than James Doohan.
And Chris Pine, oh, you are my new Hollywood heartthrob boyfriend and I don't care who knows it. Oh, Chris Pine, you made me forget all about William Shatner, you and your boyish-yet-weathered face and impish blue eyes and somehow totally commanding authority while acting like a total douche. You are my Captain Kirk, and I think you kind of own my soul.
Chief sign that this is a whole new Trek: I never before imagined myself wanting Kirk/Scotty.
Ahem. This is a profoundly silly movie, but it's a smart and entertaining silly movie with some extraordinary performances. It's also a loving but bold update of a universe that had been showing its age. It not only won over this crusty Trek fan -- it made me remember why I was such an ardent fan, and it made me want to feel that way again.
Fortunately, this movie was prepared for people like me. People who own all three volumes of The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers. People who get Enterprise jokes. (People who have written Enterprise femslash, for fuck's sake. Not that I'm proud of that.) People whose love for Star Trek is ancient and territorial and bristling for any excuse to say, "This movie does not count."
But like a phaser-toting lothario in neo-retro Lycra, this movie seduced me. And by seduced me, I mean we were out in the parking lot, and sapience14 was trying to say stuff about the ginormous holes in the plot, and I just kept going "Buh -- buh -- sp -- I'm not quite on the level of language yet." For my first ten minutes out of the theater I was so submerged in fangirl glee, I literally could not put a sentence together. It was as if I'd fucked an old flame and remembered why we'd been so flame-y in the first place.
The movie has problems, which I will get out of the way. The plot only makes sense if you refuse to think about it very hard. (Fortunately, Trekkies are used to doing this.) The writers made attempts to reconcile real-universe physics with Star Trek physics, which is impossible to do; the physics would have been less laughable if they hadn't tried so hard. There were about three moments in the movie when I very nearly stood up and yelled, "The military does not work like that!" and then remembered that this has always been a known issue in Star Trek and also that I was in a crowded theater. My feminist sensibilities are ongoingly troubled by the repositioning of Uhura as a sexual/romantic object: Roddenberry made a clear point of not entangling Uhura with the men in the crew (except under alien mind control), and it was disappointing that this new version felt the need to justify her presence by building a love triangle around her. Can't a hot, competent woman of color be all of those things and not be banging Spock? And, it occurs to me, can't a close academic mentorship exist without a sexual component that would have gotten them both fired in real life?
Fortunately, this movie moves too fast and is so cool in other respects that I didn't care that much about the above. I mean, it's Star Trek. It's supposed to be tacky and unrealistic and hopeful. It's supposed to have cool spaceships and bonkers special effects and two goddamned Spocks. This was an unrelentingly exciting movie, more interested in keeping your monkey brain entertained than making sense to your grownup-with-multiple-advanced-degrees brain. Using red matter to convert a supernova into a black hole? Objectively, that is a huge load of horseshit, but it made for a kickass explosion and a plot hole big enough to send Leonard Nimoy and a ship full of Romulans through.
If I want realistic SF that sensitively explores issues of race, gender, and sexuality, I'll read Le Guin or Delany. There's a reason none of their novels have been successfully adapted into a summer blockbuster.
What I want from my Star Trek is a good time, and this movie gave me that. It's an origin story with lots of cool fight scenes and effects, so it's accessible to a non-Trekkie audience, but it's also a full bingo card of famous lines and tiny fanboy in-jokes. It's a big, loud movie in the right ways, and it's a funny, clever movie in the right ways as well.
The other thing I expect from Trek, especially as a fan who came in with TNG, fell in love with DS9, and lost patience sometime around the fifth season of Voyager, is good acting. The young cast impressed me. Zachary Quinto clearly spent hours studying Leonard Nimoy's physical and vocal mannerisms, and he maintains loyalty to Nimoy while investing the role with an undercurrent of sadness that is his own. He made me forget that he was Sylar for whole 10-minute stretches. I also loved Anton Yelchin's perky, fresh-faced take on Chekov, his Russian accent more authentic than Walter Koenig's but just as goofy. And Simon Pegg, well, it's a good thing he doesn't appear until 2/3 of the way through the movie, because he steals the film away every time he appears. He couldn't be less like James Doohan. He's better than James Doohan.
And Chris Pine, oh, you are my new Hollywood heartthrob boyfriend and I don't care who knows it. Oh, Chris Pine, you made me forget all about William Shatner, you and your boyish-yet-weathered face and impish blue eyes and somehow totally commanding authority while acting like a total douche. You are my Captain Kirk, and I think you kind of own my soul.
Chief sign that this is a whole new Trek: I never before imagined myself wanting Kirk/Scotty.
Ahem. This is a profoundly silly movie, but it's a smart and entertaining silly movie with some extraordinary performances. It's also a loving but bold update of a universe that had been showing its age. It not only won over this crusty Trek fan -- it made me remember why I was such an ardent fan, and it made me want to feel that way again.