'Triumph of the Will' was better in the original Klingon:
Click to viewI've watched it a couple dozen times already - creepily, when I was watching it with Saba he gave a little Nazi salute. Proof that this shit still works on a subtextual level, but as Saba is basically still pre-verbal I couldn't do much about it aside from push his arm down and say 'NO.'
Other thing that is amusing: remember when we took him to see Where the Wild Things Are last week? All week since then he's been running around growling and stomping things. And we played the iPhone app together - I had no idea that two year olds were that good at recognizing characters, because he clearly knew what it was and liked it. Mark my words, that movie is going to be an hipster cult classic for all eternity. (It was not as cute as the time I taught him how to use the Lightsaber app and he ran around the house making Jedi noises.)
Oh yeah,
After many months of waiting for them, I was predictably somewhat underwhelmed. For starters, Gaila doesn't get that much more material to work with - we see that she's excited for Kirk's email, which she assumes will be a love note, but it's really only two or three more lines that don't develop her beyond bubbly. There isn't THAT much cut from the Kobyashu Maru sequence.
The OTHER Orion does look a lot like Gaila, though I'm super glad the scene was cut. It occurs right after Kirk gets his hand bandaged after the destruction of Vulcan. If the intent of Orci and Kurtzman is that Gaila is the sacrificial cadet who dies in combat, that's really shitty timing for a comedy scene. And Kirk never seems to consider the fact that Gaila is probably dead. I suppose you could interpret it that he knows (somehow) that Gaila is aboard Enterprise.
The Nero/Rura Penthe scenes are another excellent cut, because they just underline the fact that Nero has very weak characterization. (Though you do get to see a sexy sexy sweaty Bana, if you're into it.) It's a must-see for the Klingons, though nothing struck me as being particularly un-Klingon about them. Rura Penthe didn't look COLD to me which I found annoying. I'm not sure if they're keeping this Klingon helmet design or what's going on - it feels like a rough draft to me. Though I suppose they didn't actually change that much about the Vulcans or Romulans in the end either.
Spock and Sarek/Amanda material: the birthing scene features some WEAK acting from Vulcan midwives, really annoying. Sarek rides a motorcycle. TWICE, as there's a scene where he rides up to get her and take her to the Katric Arc. I'm... not sure how I feel about Vulcans and motorcycles.
The one scene I wish hadn't been cut - and I'm not sure why it was, because it's all of thirty eight seconds long, is Sarek and Amanda fighting at the school meeting. It sucks because Winona Rider and Ben Cross really sell the idea that these are two happily marrieds who none the less have frequent but understanding spats over their respective cultures. Though if it does lead directly into the following scene with grown!Spock and Amanda it might have been too much at once. Oh well, at least it exists on DVD for the shippers.
The last BIG chunk of material is baby!Kirk and his fight with his Uncle Frank... which really, really should not have left the movie as it establishes so much about Kirk. What happens is that Jimmy is eight and sucks up to his evil Uncle, while older brother George is the Rebel Without a Cause. George decides to run away from home, there's a domestic scene and Jimmy pleads with him to stay. George says no, and calls Jimmy a little suck-up who always does what he's told and gets good grades, etc.
Which is when Jimmy decides to steal the car, to one-up his brother.
The reason this is better is because now Jimmy isn't some pre-delinquent demon child, but a preternatural genius with troubles who is trying to fit in and doesn't know how. This provides a much better explanation for why Pike might see something redeemable in him: he's following George Jr.'s path, not his own.
So on the whole, underwhelming. Looking forward to the making-of features.