Because I Really Should Say Something.
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
I’m no Trekkie: I watched the original series occasionally as a kid, and saw enough of the Next Generation to cordially dislike it, and this was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had in a movie theater.
This, I suspect, is what burns up the long-time fans of the franchise. How dare all these new, unlearned mouthbreathers start liking it without having logged the man-hours that true fans have? Anyone can enjoy something flashy and fun and emotionally resonant; only the truly refined palate can wallow in the pleasures of the cheesy, the tedious, and the lecturing (Okay, cheap shot. We’d all like the production values on our favorite things to be better.)
Were plot elements contrived? You bet. Was lots of the action unmotivated? Of course; this is a big summer blockbuster, not a dissertation on human behavior. What mattered was that I believed in the characters, the relationships between them, and their various emotional arcs, and that was as much a function of fantastic acting — just broad enough for Star Trek, but not so broad as to turn into parody — as of an effective script.
Mostly, I was in love with the look of the movie. Abrams overdid the lens flare effect, particularly towards the end, but managed to create a universe where danger sits side by side with the plucky faith in the human spirit that was always the best thing about the original series.
The trailers for the new Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Terminator movies played before Star Trek, and I found myself revolted by the comparison. Terminator: Salvation in particular looks actively repellent, the epitome of what a fifteen-year-old Nine Inch Nails fan would think is totally meaningful, gritty, and awesome; I’m too old for that shit. I always preferred New Genesis to Apokolips anyway. The villain in this was almost a parody of a typical 90s/00s sci-fi villain, and that he was defeated by a combination of good old-fashioned Shatnerian fisticuffs and Nimoyesque profit/loss calculation strikes a blow for all of us who are uninterested in dystopias and will fight the straight and honest fight against them whether in deep space or Abu Ghraib.
Yes, it was more space opera than science fiction. I never cared for science fiction anyway, and I like opera, because I like pop. I’m up for another round whenever they care to dish it out.