Movie: Star Trek Into Darkness
On Saturday, I went to IM3 with my mom. Today, I went to Star Trek Into Darkness with my dad.
Casting Benedict as Khan was all kinds of wrong. He's a good enough actor but he didn't work in that part at all. For both the whitewashing and also temperament. He didn't feel like Khan.
The Admiral Marcus side of the villain table worked a lot better for me. Section 31 being mentioned gave me all kinds of DS9-feelings (DS9 is my favorite ST TV series).
The Carol Marcus underwear scene was definitely gratuitous (why do we have to have the gratuitous female nudity, Hollywood? Would it kill you to at least make it relevant, the way that you do when male characters get naked? I felt the same way about the random beauty pageant in IM3), but I actually didn't get a creepy, disrespectful vibe from Kirk. He seemed distracted and confused, actually -- he genuinely didn't seem to get that she was asking him to turn his back because she was going to strip and he looked surprised when he saw that she was in her underwear. And I did get that creepster vibe somewhat in the first movie (like in the Uhura-underwear scene), so. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't get it this time. He just seemed startled and off-guard for most of that scene.
And, for Carol, I really liked the Admiral Marcus-Carol Marcus dynamic. It felt real and she got to show complexity of emotion; it rounded out her character and I liked that she had such a strong moral drive, because that should be a key part to her.
I wasn't too surprised when Pike died -- he was way more of a mentor figure in these movies than he was in the original series and mentors always die at some point.
I liked Kirk getting busted down and basically all of that stuff. And the inter-crew relationships were good. The actors have gelled well together, I think. I do wonder how effective the 'death' scene was for people who haven't watched TWOK, though, because so much of what made it work for me was because of how it mirrored TWOK and how Kirk was determined to be the one to sacrifice himself for the ship, not Spock (or anyone else). And then Spock going all revenge-obsessive after Kirk was 'killed'.
Also re: Kirk -- while TOS!Kirk comes across (to me) as bisexual/biromantic with a leaning towards women, AOS!Kirk comes across as straight-up heterosexual/homoromantic. Which I find interesting.
The Spock/Uhura relationship worked a lot better for me in this movie. In the first movie, it really felt like they shortchanged the relationship in order to better make it a surprise that Kirk didn't 'get the girl' and that wasn't an issue in this movie.
Plus, Kirk and Uhura have really settled into being friends who respect each other. It's awesome.
I knew that Noel Clarke (Mickey from Doctor Who) was in the movie, but it was great to see him and he did a wonderful job. Yay for you, Noel!
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Casting Benedict as Khan was all kinds of wrong. He's a good enough actor but he didn't work in that part at all. For both the whitewashing and also temperament. He didn't feel like Khan.
The Admiral Marcus side of the villain table worked a lot better for me. Section 31 being mentioned gave me all kinds of DS9-feelings (DS9 is my favorite ST TV series).
The Carol Marcus underwear scene was definitely gratuitous (why do we have to have the gratuitous female nudity, Hollywood? Would it kill you to at least make it relevant, the way that you do when male characters get naked? I felt the same way about the random beauty pageant in IM3), but I actually didn't get a creepy, disrespectful vibe from Kirk. He seemed distracted and confused, actually -- he genuinely didn't seem to get that she was asking him to turn his back because she was going to strip and he looked surprised when he saw that she was in her underwear. And I did get that creepster vibe somewhat in the first movie (like in the Uhura-underwear scene), so. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't get it this time. He just seemed startled and off-guard for most of that scene.
And, for Carol, I really liked the Admiral Marcus-Carol Marcus dynamic. It felt real and she got to show complexity of emotion; it rounded out her character and I liked that she had such a strong moral drive, because that should be a key part to her.
I wasn't too surprised when Pike died -- he was way more of a mentor figure in these movies than he was in the original series and mentors always die at some point.
I liked Kirk getting busted down and basically all of that stuff. And the inter-crew relationships were good. The actors have gelled well together, I think. I do wonder how effective the 'death' scene was for people who haven't watched TWOK, though, because so much of what made it work for me was because of how it mirrored TWOK and how Kirk was determined to be the one to sacrifice himself for the ship, not Spock (or anyone else). And then Spock going all revenge-obsessive after Kirk was 'killed'.
Also re: Kirk -- while TOS!Kirk comes across (to me) as bisexual/biromantic with a leaning towards women, AOS!Kirk comes across as straight-up heterosexual/homoromantic. Which I find interesting.
The Spock/Uhura relationship worked a lot better for me in this movie. In the first movie, it really felt like they shortchanged the relationship in order to better make it a surprise that Kirk didn't 'get the girl' and that wasn't an issue in this movie.
Plus, Kirk and Uhura have really settled into being friends who respect each other. It's awesome.
I knew that Noel Clarke (Mickey from Doctor Who) was in the movie, but it was great to see him and he did a wonderful job. Yay for you, Noel!
http://butterfly.dreamwidth.org/1397778.html |
comments | Comment at Dreamwidth