Keep on Trekkin
So I finally got around to seeing Star Trek last night with thephoenixweeps and company. I definitely enjoyed it quite a lot, despite my unholy nerdrage at certain parts. Pretty much all of the actors rocked out with their characters, particularly Karl Urban as McCoy (such glee every time he showed up onscreen), and incredibly well written dialogue, which as we all know is a must for me. The plot wasn't even that bad for a Star Trek film, which are usually plagued with terrible plots *coughinsurrectionemesisfinalfrontiercough*. kradical made the good point that film is not really the best medium for Star Trek, as it tends to work better in a medium that allows for longer chances at character development and for either extended major plots or small plots that aren't going to blow up the cosmos after only 2 hours of screentime. Hence TV or books, which I would completely agree with.
The humour was also very spot-on, and not ridiculously over the top. I adored every single scene with Scotty, especially with that little alien he was hanging out with <3. I did feel that the Spock/Uhura was a little forced and it came across more as an attempt to get Uhura connected with someone not-Kirk. The rest of the relationships between the characters were really well conceived, though, and I enjoyed the exasperation with Kirk that almost everyone showed at least once during the film.
I nerdraged real bad about the continuity thing, but that's mostly because I actually like the canon of Star Trek, and I have been watching with a certain amount of sadness as universes that I enjoyed reading/watching are getting reset lately. Forgotten Realms had it happen, as did Magic: The Gathering. I understand the Batman Begins nature of this reset, getting away from the previous canon so as not to be held down by it and to find something new with the franchise, and they at least did the courtesy of not negating canon but rather creating an alternate reality (although Star Trek really does have enough of those already), but it feels a little like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I've stated before that I've been a little disappointed with the franchise's tendency to look backwards (mostly with Enterprise), and I'd have really liked to have seen a new Star Trek that continued on into the future after Nemesis, that continued to explore what Star Trek was about without ignoring what came before. Luckily the novels have done a good job of that, and there are at least still more novels that continue with the current canon of Star Trek slated to be published through to 2010 according to kradical. I do hope that this will mean that the alpha canon will continue even past Spock's journey back in time, as I don't want to completely lose everything that I loved about Star Trek before. I want a universe in which we still have the legacy of Captain Picard, of the Dominion War, of Voyager's battles with the Borg. I want a universe that still has Q hanging around and taunting Worf about eating books. I don't see any reason for that universe to be done away with, and so I think the core of my nerdrage about the film isn't a violent reaction about it not conforming to canon but a fear that it will take away what has kept me interested in Star Trek for all this time.
Apart from my (I think understandable) qualms about the canon reset, I enjoyed most everything about the film. I didn't like the designs of the Romulans (a little too "Look how evil they are with their facial tattoos!" for my tastes), and Nero, the leader of the Romulans, was a really flat and boring villain. Admittedly the Trek movies have not always had much success at providing us with good villains (*coughGodcough*), but then again they also gave us Khan and the Borg Queen, so I'm a tad disappointed by Nero's lack of three dimensions. The bit about his dead wife towards the end was this tiny little hint at character that never got touched on at all. Apparently this is much expanded in the Countdown comic series that lead up to Spock's journey back in time, which I think once again drives home the point of film not being the best medium for Star Trek. In any case, I would have liked to have seen a bit more with Nero being expanded upon. There were a lot of tiny little plot holes that had solutions that had to be inferred. After I commented on the seeming common knowledge that Vulcans and Romulans were related, which directly contradicts canon that is set even before the events of the film, Josh pointed out that during the 25 year span between George Kirk's death and the attack on Vulcan, information about the Romulans would probably have been made more public, but the fact that we had to guess at this rather than actually have it made clear was a little annoying. But only a tiny bit annoying.
So yes, to wrap up, despite my lamentations on canon, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and I do hope that it does spark enough interest in Star Trek to revive the franchise enough to get a new TV series going, even if it is set in this new rebooted universe. I am holding out my hope that the expanded novel universe set in the alpha canon will continue to thrive like it has so far, and that maybe we can have two thriving Trekverses to enjoy. Whatever does end up happening, at least we're still Trekkin' out.
The humour was also very spot-on, and not ridiculously over the top. I adored every single scene with Scotty, especially with that little alien he was hanging out with <3. I did feel that the Spock/Uhura was a little forced and it came across more as an attempt to get Uhura connected with someone not-Kirk. The rest of the relationships between the characters were really well conceived, though, and I enjoyed the exasperation with Kirk that almost everyone showed at least once during the film.
I nerdraged real bad about the continuity thing, but that's mostly because I actually like the canon of Star Trek, and I have been watching with a certain amount of sadness as universes that I enjoyed reading/watching are getting reset lately. Forgotten Realms had it happen, as did Magic: The Gathering. I understand the Batman Begins nature of this reset, getting away from the previous canon so as not to be held down by it and to find something new with the franchise, and they at least did the courtesy of not negating canon but rather creating an alternate reality (although Star Trek really does have enough of those already), but it feels a little like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I've stated before that I've been a little disappointed with the franchise's tendency to look backwards (mostly with Enterprise), and I'd have really liked to have seen a new Star Trek that continued on into the future after Nemesis, that continued to explore what Star Trek was about without ignoring what came before. Luckily the novels have done a good job of that, and there are at least still more novels that continue with the current canon of Star Trek slated to be published through to 2010 according to kradical. I do hope that this will mean that the alpha canon will continue even past Spock's journey back in time, as I don't want to completely lose everything that I loved about Star Trek before. I want a universe in which we still have the legacy of Captain Picard, of the Dominion War, of Voyager's battles with the Borg. I want a universe that still has Q hanging around and taunting Worf about eating books. I don't see any reason for that universe to be done away with, and so I think the core of my nerdrage about the film isn't a violent reaction about it not conforming to canon but a fear that it will take away what has kept me interested in Star Trek for all this time.
Apart from my (I think understandable) qualms about the canon reset, I enjoyed most everything about the film. I didn't like the designs of the Romulans (a little too "Look how evil they are with their facial tattoos!" for my tastes), and Nero, the leader of the Romulans, was a really flat and boring villain. Admittedly the Trek movies have not always had much success at providing us with good villains (*coughGodcough*), but then again they also gave us Khan and the Borg Queen, so I'm a tad disappointed by Nero's lack of three dimensions. The bit about his dead wife towards the end was this tiny little hint at character that never got touched on at all. Apparently this is much expanded in the Countdown comic series that lead up to Spock's journey back in time, which I think once again drives home the point of film not being the best medium for Star Trek. In any case, I would have liked to have seen a bit more with Nero being expanded upon. There were a lot of tiny little plot holes that had solutions that had to be inferred. After I commented on the seeming common knowledge that Vulcans and Romulans were related, which directly contradicts canon that is set even before the events of the film, Josh pointed out that during the 25 year span between George Kirk's death and the attack on Vulcan, information about the Romulans would probably have been made more public, but the fact that we had to guess at this rather than actually have it made clear was a little annoying. But only a tiny bit annoying.
So yes, to wrap up, despite my lamentations on canon, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and I do hope that it does spark enough interest in Star Trek to revive the franchise enough to get a new TV series going, even if it is set in this new rebooted universe. I am holding out my hope that the expanded novel universe set in the alpha canon will continue to thrive like it has so far, and that maybe we can have two thriving Trekverses to enjoy. Whatever does end up happening, at least we're still Trekkin' out.