he said, "I am not fighting for you any more."
Yesterday afternoon, I saw Star Trek Into Darkness with a bunch of fangirls and... okay. the movie itself is moderately entertaining (especially if you don't think too hard about it), and quite often hilarious, though not, I think, in ways it was intended to be? Also, there was nowhere near enough Karl Urban. I JUST WANT TO LOOK AT HIS PRETTY FACE AND LISTEN TO HIM BE SASSY AT PEOPLE OKAY? BONES IS MY FOREVER FAVORITE AND I JUST WANT MORE OF HIM AT ALL TIMES. And okay, if you enjoy Chris Pine getting punched in the face, this movie has a lot of that. But overall, wow, this movie is a big old mess. I can tell JAbrams doesn't like Star Trek (he finds it "too philosophical"), because this movie apparently has no idea what makes Star Trek awesome. (And I am not even a huge Trek fan; it's just been there my whole life, so I guess I have a lot of feelings about it.)
Spoiler: It isn't lens flares.
I guess I will do things I liked first, and then things I didn't like? So you can separate them out?
SCOTTY! HE IS THE BEST IN THIS MOVIE, NO LIE. Also, apparently the only one on the crew of the Enterprise willing to back up his ethics with action. I LOVE that he refused to sign for the torpedoes and that he was willing to resign over it (I mean, he absolutely did not expect Kirk to accept his resignation - you could see his shock and hurt on his face when Kirk did) but then he absolutely rides to the rescue when Kirk (and the Enterprise) needs him. ♥SCOTTY♥
BONES and all his banter and loving gazes at Kirk. "I hate this." "I know you do." ♥♥♥ Man, they are so space married. not enough of him jabbing Kirk with hypos in this one, though.
UHURA! "You brought me along because I speak Klingon, so let me speak Klingon!" ♥♥♥ I also loved her fighting with Spock and how very space married they are, too.
SULU IS A TOTAL BAMF! What was it Bones said? "Remind me to never piss you off?" ♥♥♥
Leonard Nimoy's cameo and his hilarious, "I cannot tell you because you need to make your own destiny" or whatever but as soon as Spock says, "Khan," he's like, "Oh, that dude is bad and he needs to be stopped!"
Also, the movie is very funny (mostly intentionally even), the action is really snappy and well filmed, I thought, though I think it's very clear that Abrams is a Star Wars fan, because this was much more Star Wars than Star Trek, and I don't mean that as a pejorative - I LOVE Star Wars - but it's not the same thing at all outside of having spaceships and aliens.
And now the much longer list of things that I didn't like, or made no sense:
Let's get the big one out of the way first - Bandylegs Crumpetsnatch as Khan? REALLY? There are so many things wrong with this casting on SO MANY LEVELS that I don't think I can unpack them all (and other people have done a better job of it, I'm sure), but 1. You don't give a guy a South Asian name like Khan Noonien Singh and then cast Pasty McPastypants, the Mayor of Pastytown. 2. You don't posit that the guy is the best human science could make and then make him a white British dude (not that the movie DID coherently posit this, because they basically jettisoned all the backstory that makes Khan Khan and also a compelling and somewhat noble/sympathetic villain). And I get the issues with having a guy who flies a spaceship into a tower be a POC, but you know how you solve that problem? By having more POC heroes on the bridge. (I did like the bald lady helmswoman who took Chekov's place. She was fierce.)
I thought Cumberbatch was fine as the villain - I find him really unattractive so looking at his face bothers me, but he has a lovely voice and he was really good at being icily menacing. But, you know, he's not Khan and they shouldn't have gone there, for a variety of reasons I may or may not natter on about at great length in this post.
Look, I'm not going to argue with you over what race Ricardo Montalban identifies as and I'm not going to disagree that casting a Latino as a South Asian isn't problematic. I am going to say, though, that at least in the 1960s, the show tried. It failed a lot, but it genuinely, earnestly tried. This movie did not try at all, and in 2013, that's shameful.
Witness Exhibit B:
Spearchucker natives. REALLY, JJ? REALLY? Painting them white doesn't get you a pass on that! Just. No.
And then! KIRK LIES ABOUT IT ON HIS REPORT. Which opens up a whole different set of issues with Kirk's characterization. I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of Shatner's Kirk - I was shocked at how much I liked Pine's version in the first movie, because I've never liked Kirk all that much - but come the fuck on! It's not that I don't think TOS!Kirk wouldn't lie to Starfleet if he thought he could protect his crew or other people, and iirc, he certainly violated the Prime Directive often enough in service of saving people, doing what he thought was the right thing, but HE OWNED HIS DECISIONS. (And also iirc, it usually ended up that he was right and Starfleet acknowledged that. Also, also, I don't think he expected his crew to lie for him, and certainly not without discussion first! He took on the responsibility, because he's the captain.)
But fine, Kirk wants to lie about the incident, but then he's not smart enough to realize that Spock is not going to back him up on it? HE DOESN'T THINK TO MAKE SURE? Like, really? Their relationship has not progressed far enough for him to have that kind of surety. The only way that makes sense is if you factor in Spock Prime's memories, BUT THE MOVIE MAKES NO NOD IN THAT DIRECTION. So there is nothing in the text at that point that indicates Spock would be willing to go along with lying and for Kirk to expect it without even discussing it is just dumb!
Also, I liked that Kirk disobeyed orders that he thought was wrong in regard to killing John Harrison without trial etc., but I didn't like that Spock and Uhura let him keep punching Harrison once he'd surrendered. One punch - fine, the guy killed your mentor in front of you. A sustained beating? I don't see Spock allowing that. Not of a prisoner who has surrendered.
Which brings me to another major issue, which is that the movie wants to eat its cake and have it too. You can't expect that cribbing the death scene from The Wrath of Khan is going to have the same emotional impact when Spock and Kirk have just started being friends. WoK had three years of episodes plus the first movie to build the Kirk/Spock relationship (plus twenty years of pop culture osmosis). Here, they're just past the stage of acquaintances who must work together and learn to have grudging respect for each other. They're making progress, but they're not an epic friendship - not in this timeline, not yet. Which makes the whole scene laughable - I'm really sorry, maybe it's me, but Spock didn't cry when his mother and his whole planet were destroyed right out from under him, so I in no way believe that he would cry over Jim Kirk's death. It's sad, and okay, they're friends, I accept that, but COME THE FUCK ON. AND THEN they make that ridiculous decision to have SPOCK yell "KHAN!" Which - well, I was not the only person in the theatre who couldn't stop laughing at that. I think even if the death scene had worked emotionally, having him yell "KHAN!" there would have been jarring and unworkable.
This felt like a cheap, cynical ploy to exploit fans' feelings about WoK without actually doing any of the necessary work to make it meaningful for this version of the characters. It was a reference to Wrath of Khan because bitches Star Trek fans love Wrath of Khan. I roll my eyes forever. (also, it's Marcus's fault, not Khan's! If they really wanted to work it in, it should have been when Spock landed on the flying freighter at the beginning of that fight. There it might have been less laughable.)
Especially because you knew from the very beginning, when the blood transfusion saved the little girl, and then again when Bones injected the tribble, that Kirk wasn't ever going to stay dead. Not even for the two years until the next movie. Not the way Spock was. And! okay, so there is a huge ethical no-no of taking blood from a prisoner and experimenting with it, but then Bones asking them to bring Khan back alive, even though he's got seventy one other superpeople he could use instead ((I mean, it's not any worse than what he's already doing) is ridiculous - I get the narrative purpose of it - Kirk let Khan live so Khan's blood brings Kirk back to life (I am not even going to care about the ridiculous comic book SKIENCE involved there - Superboy Prime punched the space-time continuum, okay?) but it puts Spock and Uhura in that much more danger if they have to fight to subdue against an opponent who is fighting to kill. It's a dumb thing to do when it's not absolutely necessary. (see also: Natasha v. Clint in Avengers, which is why Natasha is the better fighter. She could have just killed him, and she would have if she'd had to, but she was fighting to capture him there, not kill him.)
Also, also, Scotty, I loved you in this movie but don't you think maybe instead of calling Spock down there so they can reenact one of the most famous death scenes in movie history, you should have called for some medical help? I mean, I'll grant that McCoy was probably trying to deal with the fall out of the ship almost being destroyed, but surely some other medical personnel should have been called? Instead of the acting captain who is trying to deal with everything else? (Yes, I'm a little bitter that McCoy wasn't there like he was in the original. I did like that Uhura was, though.)
Which is basically why they should have made the villain actually be a guy named John Harrison - he could still be one of the augmented supermen who was unfrozen in order to help militarize Starfleet, and they could have panned over the cryotubes and we could have seen someone who resembled Khan still asleep, a plot point waiting for a day when it would make more sense to play it out. Here, Kirk and Khan have no history - it's all business for Khan, even if it's personal for Kirk. It's a waste of a great villain!
And speaking of the militarization of Starfleet in this timeline - so are they at war with the Klingons? I'm guessing no, because they wouldn't be sending the flagship out on a five year exploratory mission if they were, but some acknowledgement of that IN THE MOVIE would have been nice. I mean, that was Admiral Marcus's whole plot, right? Make an incursion into Klingon space, fire some special torpedoes to cover up the fact that you unearthed these relics of the eugenics war, get everyone on the Enterprise killed since they could contradict your story (I can't understand how Spock didn't know Marcus was going to kill them regardless - THEY KNEW TOO MUCH), and go to war with the Klingons!
I think that could have been a really interesting story - the militarization of Starfleet, and Scotty's objections ("I thought we were explorers.") touched on it as well - but it gets subsumed in this ridiculous plot and then never brought up again. I mean, they could have had ONE LINE when Kirk wakes up - Kirk: "Are we at war with the Klingon Empire?" Bones: "No, Uhura convinced them it was a bad idea." - but it's just completely dropped.
It's like the plotty parts of ship fic - once you've hit all the emotional beats, who cares if the action plot gets resolved in a way that makes sense!?
I actually have a lot of thoughts about why this movie was like bad fanfic - or possibly a bad remix - in that it wanted to piggyback on the emotions of the original but never did so in a way that allowed it to stand on its own as a story (or even, in this case, make a lot of sense as a story) but this post is already long enough and my thoughts are still inchoate, or possibly I've already said everything I needed to say to make that point.
Hi, I'm victoria p. and I apparently have a metric fuckton of thoughts about Star Trek. Who knew?
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/569846.html.
people have commented there.
Spoiler: It isn't lens flares.
I guess I will do things I liked first, and then things I didn't like? So you can separate them out?
SCOTTY! HE IS THE BEST IN THIS MOVIE, NO LIE. Also, apparently the only one on the crew of the Enterprise willing to back up his ethics with action. I LOVE that he refused to sign for the torpedoes and that he was willing to resign over it (I mean, he absolutely did not expect Kirk to accept his resignation - you could see his shock and hurt on his face when Kirk did) but then he absolutely rides to the rescue when Kirk (and the Enterprise) needs him. ♥SCOTTY♥
BONES and all his banter and loving gazes at Kirk. "I hate this." "I know you do." ♥♥♥ Man, they are so space married. not enough of him jabbing Kirk with hypos in this one, though.
UHURA! "You brought me along because I speak Klingon, so let me speak Klingon!" ♥♥♥ I also loved her fighting with Spock and how very space married they are, too.
SULU IS A TOTAL BAMF! What was it Bones said? "Remind me to never piss you off?" ♥♥♥
Leonard Nimoy's cameo and his hilarious, "I cannot tell you because you need to make your own destiny" or whatever but as soon as Spock says, "Khan," he's like, "Oh, that dude is bad and he needs to be stopped!"
Also, the movie is very funny (mostly intentionally even), the action is really snappy and well filmed, I thought, though I think it's very clear that Abrams is a Star Wars fan, because this was much more Star Wars than Star Trek, and I don't mean that as a pejorative - I LOVE Star Wars - but it's not the same thing at all outside of having spaceships and aliens.
And now the much longer list of things that I didn't like, or made no sense:
Let's get the big one out of the way first - Bandylegs Crumpetsnatch as Khan? REALLY? There are so many things wrong with this casting on SO MANY LEVELS that I don't think I can unpack them all (and other people have done a better job of it, I'm sure), but 1. You don't give a guy a South Asian name like Khan Noonien Singh and then cast Pasty McPastypants, the Mayor of Pastytown. 2. You don't posit that the guy is the best human science could make and then make him a white British dude (not that the movie DID coherently posit this, because they basically jettisoned all the backstory that makes Khan Khan and also a compelling and somewhat noble/sympathetic villain). And I get the issues with having a guy who flies a spaceship into a tower be a POC, but you know how you solve that problem? By having more POC heroes on the bridge. (I did like the bald lady helmswoman who took Chekov's place. She was fierce.)
I thought Cumberbatch was fine as the villain - I find him really unattractive so looking at his face bothers me, but he has a lovely voice and he was really good at being icily menacing. But, you know, he's not Khan and they shouldn't have gone there, for a variety of reasons I may or may not natter on about at great length in this post.
Look, I'm not going to argue with you over what race Ricardo Montalban identifies as and I'm not going to disagree that casting a Latino as a South Asian isn't problematic. I am going to say, though, that at least in the 1960s, the show tried. It failed a lot, but it genuinely, earnestly tried. This movie did not try at all, and in 2013, that's shameful.
Witness Exhibit B:
Spearchucker natives. REALLY, JJ? REALLY? Painting them white doesn't get you a pass on that! Just. No.
And then! KIRK LIES ABOUT IT ON HIS REPORT. Which opens up a whole different set of issues with Kirk's characterization. I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of Shatner's Kirk - I was shocked at how much I liked Pine's version in the first movie, because I've never liked Kirk all that much - but come the fuck on! It's not that I don't think TOS!Kirk wouldn't lie to Starfleet if he thought he could protect his crew or other people, and iirc, he certainly violated the Prime Directive often enough in service of saving people, doing what he thought was the right thing, but HE OWNED HIS DECISIONS. (And also iirc, it usually ended up that he was right and Starfleet acknowledged that. Also, also, I don't think he expected his crew to lie for him, and certainly not without discussion first! He took on the responsibility, because he's the captain.)
But fine, Kirk wants to lie about the incident, but then he's not smart enough to realize that Spock is not going to back him up on it? HE DOESN'T THINK TO MAKE SURE? Like, really? Their relationship has not progressed far enough for him to have that kind of surety. The only way that makes sense is if you factor in Spock Prime's memories, BUT THE MOVIE MAKES NO NOD IN THAT DIRECTION. So there is nothing in the text at that point that indicates Spock would be willing to go along with lying and for Kirk to expect it without even discussing it is just dumb!
Also, I liked that Kirk disobeyed orders that he thought was wrong in regard to killing John Harrison without trial etc., but I didn't like that Spock and Uhura let him keep punching Harrison once he'd surrendered. One punch - fine, the guy killed your mentor in front of you. A sustained beating? I don't see Spock allowing that. Not of a prisoner who has surrendered.
Which brings me to another major issue, which is that the movie wants to eat its cake and have it too. You can't expect that cribbing the death scene from The Wrath of Khan is going to have the same emotional impact when Spock and Kirk have just started being friends. WoK had three years of episodes plus the first movie to build the Kirk/Spock relationship (plus twenty years of pop culture osmosis). Here, they're just past the stage of acquaintances who must work together and learn to have grudging respect for each other. They're making progress, but they're not an epic friendship - not in this timeline, not yet. Which makes the whole scene laughable - I'm really sorry, maybe it's me, but Spock didn't cry when his mother and his whole planet were destroyed right out from under him, so I in no way believe that he would cry over Jim Kirk's death. It's sad, and okay, they're friends, I accept that, but COME THE FUCK ON. AND THEN they make that ridiculous decision to have SPOCK yell "KHAN!" Which - well, I was not the only person in the theatre who couldn't stop laughing at that. I think even if the death scene had worked emotionally, having him yell "KHAN!" there would have been jarring and unworkable.
This felt like a cheap, cynical ploy to exploit fans' feelings about WoK without actually doing any of the necessary work to make it meaningful for this version of the characters. It was a reference to Wrath of Khan because bitches Star Trek fans love Wrath of Khan. I roll my eyes forever. (also, it's Marcus's fault, not Khan's! If they really wanted to work it in, it should have been when Spock landed on the flying freighter at the beginning of that fight. There it might have been less laughable.)
Especially because you knew from the very beginning, when the blood transfusion saved the little girl, and then again when Bones injected the tribble, that Kirk wasn't ever going to stay dead. Not even for the two years until the next movie. Not the way Spock was. And! okay, so there is a huge ethical no-no of taking blood from a prisoner and experimenting with it, but then Bones asking them to bring Khan back alive, even though he's got seventy one other superpeople he could use instead ((I mean, it's not any worse than what he's already doing) is ridiculous - I get the narrative purpose of it - Kirk let Khan live so Khan's blood brings Kirk back to life (I am not even going to care about the ridiculous comic book SKIENCE involved there - Superboy Prime punched the space-time continuum, okay?) but it puts Spock and Uhura in that much more danger if they have to fight to subdue against an opponent who is fighting to kill. It's a dumb thing to do when it's not absolutely necessary. (see also: Natasha v. Clint in Avengers, which is why Natasha is the better fighter. She could have just killed him, and she would have if she'd had to, but she was fighting to capture him there, not kill him.)
Also, also, Scotty, I loved you in this movie but don't you think maybe instead of calling Spock down there so they can reenact one of the most famous death scenes in movie history, you should have called for some medical help? I mean, I'll grant that McCoy was probably trying to deal with the fall out of the ship almost being destroyed, but surely some other medical personnel should have been called? Instead of the acting captain who is trying to deal with everything else? (Yes, I'm a little bitter that McCoy wasn't there like he was in the original. I did like that Uhura was, though.)
Which is basically why they should have made the villain actually be a guy named John Harrison - he could still be one of the augmented supermen who was unfrozen in order to help militarize Starfleet, and they could have panned over the cryotubes and we could have seen someone who resembled Khan still asleep, a plot point waiting for a day when it would make more sense to play it out. Here, Kirk and Khan have no history - it's all business for Khan, even if it's personal for Kirk. It's a waste of a great villain!
And speaking of the militarization of Starfleet in this timeline - so are they at war with the Klingons? I'm guessing no, because they wouldn't be sending the flagship out on a five year exploratory mission if they were, but some acknowledgement of that IN THE MOVIE would have been nice. I mean, that was Admiral Marcus's whole plot, right? Make an incursion into Klingon space, fire some special torpedoes to cover up the fact that you unearthed these relics of the eugenics war, get everyone on the Enterprise killed since they could contradict your story (I can't understand how Spock didn't know Marcus was going to kill them regardless - THEY KNEW TOO MUCH), and go to war with the Klingons!
I think that could have been a really interesting story - the militarization of Starfleet, and Scotty's objections ("I thought we were explorers.") touched on it as well - but it gets subsumed in this ridiculous plot and then never brought up again. I mean, they could have had ONE LINE when Kirk wakes up - Kirk: "Are we at war with the Klingon Empire?" Bones: "No, Uhura convinced them it was a bad idea." - but it's just completely dropped.
It's like the plotty parts of ship fic - once you've hit all the emotional beats, who cares if the action plot gets resolved in a way that makes sense!?
I actually have a lot of thoughts about why this movie was like bad fanfic - or possibly a bad remix - in that it wanted to piggyback on the emotions of the original but never did so in a way that allowed it to stand on its own as a story (or even, in this case, make a lot of sense as a story) but this post is already long enough and my thoughts are still inchoate, or possibly I've already said everything I needed to say to make that point.
Hi, I'm victoria p. and I apparently have a metric fuckton of thoughts about Star Trek. Who knew?
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/569846.html.
people have commented there.