All right after several months it’s time to take a better
look at the most recent release from the franchise that kicked off this
blog. And oh boy is there a lot to
discuss. As I’ve said before all my early
thought opinions are subject to change and this is such an occasion. In my first thoughts review I originally said
that this film was better than the 2009 film and I have changed my mind. This outing is not better than the last movie
this is worse, so much worse.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I think the rebooting
of Star Trek has been poorly handled and since the same team was back for the
second film my expectations for this release were wandering around at the
bottom of a mineshaft, but even I never thought it would be this bad. In fact I didn’t even think it had to try
very hard to excel beyond its predecessor.
All I wanted to see that would uplift this reboot for me as a viewer was
for the writers to stop taking things from Wrath
of Khan and to do something that was truly their own within the universe
they built, and I think they totally failed to do either of these things. This film is an injustice to the wonderful
cast, to all the artists behind the scenes, and a complete insult to the
franchise as a whole.
Now I think the reason I originally viewed this as better
than the first film was because initially it looked like it was going to move
forward from that film. In the first act
Kirk was set up to have a character arc, there was talk of morally questionable
actions giving us a theme to work with, something that was completely lacking
in the last movie. With the heavier
emphasis on the military side of Starfleet it looked like the universe would
build on the big events of the last film specifically the loss of Vulcan and how
that changes how things are done by the organizations in this world. There were actually scenes that used visuals
to do the emotional storytelling and it worked!
Yes, the opening with the Enterprise in the water and the whole mission
surrounding that scenario stunk, but the premise that followed that was good
enough that I started to think the good might just out weigh the bad here…and
then the whole film just dissolved into a reference ridden mess that literally
makes no sense at all at any point.
The plot is a ghastly mess there is no other way to describe
it. Nero’s motivations in the last film
might have been stupid, but at least his actions stemming from them had some
kind of logical progression. He
destroys Vulcan so Spock will know his pain and proceeds to attack the homeworlds
of other Federation members to continue that revenge. Here Khan supposedly wanted revenge on Marcus
and that’s why he got the guy to attack Section 31 so he could then go and shoot
up HQ, but when Khan is talking to Kirk in the brig he knows that the Enterprise
is damaged; and that Marcus is going to come for Kirk and his crew. So it seems like this plan was made up in
advance by Marcus, but why if Khan wanted revenge on this man did he go to the
Klingon homeworld? Why go along with the
plan made up by the man you supposedly loath?
In fact if shooting up HQ was about getting revenge on Marcus why did
Khan even think Marcus would be coming for Kirk? Didn’t he want Marcus dead? He did crush his skull like a grape on the
bridge of the Vengeance. How was he sure
his attack on HQ hadn’t killed him? For
that matter how was Khan sure his crew was dead? He said he was discovered trying to save them
and had to flee, and I love how Marcus doesn’t think to tell anyone there’s a
madman on the loose. Khan is free to
walk around London and make bargains with desperate parents in hospitals and no
one bats an eye. But if Khan was sure
his crew was dead why did he change his mind when he heard about the torpedoes? Did he think Marcus wouldn’t remove his crew
from the torpedoes?
The whole thing kind of works better if we assume Marcus and
Khan are working together and the attack on Starfleet was just a rouse to give
Marcus a reason to do a pre-emptive struck on the Klingons to get that war that
is somehow going to protect the Federation, because when I think about
protecting my territory that has recently been attacked and a great deal of
equipment and personnel lost I think about antagonizing my hostile neighbor. However, this blows Khan’s revenge motive completely
to pieces and thus undermines the already shaky theme, and also that interpretation
doesn’t gel with the last half of the film.
If Khan was doing everything on Marcus’ orders then once Kirk has him in
the brig he could reveal everything and seek Kirk’s support against
Marcus. They could have been working as
a team and that would have made this film distinct because it’s a relationship
that hasn’t been done before with these characters. The movie tries to do that with Kirk and Khan
going over to the Vengeance, but again if all Khan wanted was revenge, and the
name of the ship is kind of a big tip off about what the film is supposed to be
about, then he would have simply killed Marcus at HQ and then stolen the
Vengeance. Going to Qo’noS achieves
nothing.
Furthermore there is absolutely no reason Khan needed to be
in this movie at all. Having some 300 year old dictator making you advanced
ships and weapons is just plain stupid.
It’s like bringing back Da Vinci and expecting him to be able to build
you a better helicopter. Now before this
film was released I avoided spoilers, but I do have to admit to thinking that they
were probably going to use Khan here.
They already went to that well for the first film in terms of motivation
for Nero so they probably would go all the way this time. The whole “we swear he isn’t Khan” thing came
across as protesting too much and it turns out I was right. However, I was also of the mind that Khan
could be done well here if they explored the character within the context of
the new universe. I described this Kirk
as a realist versus the idealist that Kirk Prime was, how would Khan interact
with a character like this versus how it was in ‘Space Seed’? Would his peaceful, but no freedom rule be
more accepted in a universe that has to think more about their security in the
wake of Nero’s attack? Would his savage
nature as he describes it be more intrigued by a universe that is darker than
the optimistic prime universe? There
were a lot of possibilities to explore in something like that. Instead of making Khan his own thing though they
just made him some generic strong guy with no intelligence to back up the “I’m
better at everything” line. The only
reason they used Khan was purely as a reference to a superior film and they
proceeded to keep mining that film for one of its themes, its dialogue, and for
the topper on the shit sundae they took the death scene too. Before we get to that scene though let’s talk
about the character they stuck in the chamber this time.
Kirk is still such an asshole in this film. He is still arrogant he is still rude and yet
I couldn’t help, but like him a lot more than in the first film; probably
because there were hints of the professional man that Kirk Prime is buried in
there somewhere. I’m putting all that on
Chris Pine though because with the bedroom scene and the underwear scene, and
Kirk harping on Spock to be his friend and the one time he starts to think that
maybe the problem is him he gets shot done by Uhura tells me the writers think
Kirk is fine just as he is. Also the
whole demotion thing is over and done with before we even get mid-way through
the film so that tells me how seriously they’re taking this whole character arc
business. Still we do get to see Kirk
delegate tasks and sound confident when he does so. Kirk does get to rethink his actions in going
after Khan when he chooses to take him back to Starfleet for a proper trial,
for better or worse. But when we get to
the death scene it ruins all this for me because that doesn’t tie into Kirk’s
growth, what little of it there is.
Self-sacrifice was already a part of Kirk’s character in the first
film. He threw himself off the drill
platform to save Sulu. He later told
Sulu to fire on the Narada if he had the advantage even if he and Spock were
still onboard. So I don’t think Kirk
giving his life for his crew shows growth because this part of the character
was always present it wasn’t built by the circumstances in this film. In my opinion what would have worked was
having Kirk order someone else down to that chamber. That would show that Kirk has learned to
respect the chair because he respects that he has to make the big decisions about
who lives and who dies. That he can’t
simply rely on blind luck to see everyone through. The other half of the death scene with the
friendship with Spock also falls flat, but that has more to do with Spock than
Kirk.
Now for Spock I honestly don’t know what happened with this
character here. I don’t think Quinto did
a bad job in the last film. Sure I
thought the relationship with Uhura didn’t work and the public displays of
emotions were a bit over the top, but on the whole it wasn’t a bad
performance. Here…guh. It’s like the writers forgot how Spock works,
in every other scene he either sounds confused or angry. Also his entire character arc about feelings
doesn’t work because it’s a rehashing of what he went through in the last film. In the last film his father told him that he
shouldn’t bottle up his feelings. Spock
Prime told him that there were times that it was okay to put aside logic and do
what feels right. And Spock went to serve
on the Enterprise, showing that he has indeed learned that having feelings is
okay. In my review of that film I talked
about how concluding the character like this, along with having him in a
relationship, was a disservice because the conflict of logic and emotion was
lost; and apparently the writers agree with me because they pushed the reset
button and put Spock right back at square one!
In this film his character arc is all about dealing with
feelings…again. So they’re basically
admitting the last movie was pointless. That
film was supposed to be a Kirk and Spock story about them learning to work
together and ending up as friends. Here
we get the set up that Spock just doesn’t understand friendship and needs to
learn how important Kirk’s friendship is to him. One: that is totally not how Vulcans work and
Spock after serving on the Enterprise for a year should be familiar with how
friendships work even if just from observing it with other crewmembers. And two: if he doesn’t understand friendship
why the hell is he even in a relationship with Uhura?! Something that requires more intimacy in many
respects than friendship, because you’re opening up so much of yourself to
someone else. Or at least you should be. Now I hate Uhura dragging her personal
feelings about how she thinks Spock doesn’t care up on Qo’noS. Her making this complaint in the middle of an
away mission in front of subordinates and the captain is absolutely
unprofessional, but I do have to ask, what the hell has this relationship done
for her lately? If Spock can’t even express friendship you’d
think the relationship would have gone south a long time ago. Also why should Spock want to be friends with
Kirk anyway? The guy insults him, yells at him, and pushes him to be something he is not. What made the Kirk and Spock friendship so
great in the prime universe was that Kirk didn’t push Spock to be more human
like McCoy sometimes did, or indeed everyone in this film. Kirk didn’t push Spock to be more Vulcan like
Sarek. He just wanted Spock to be
himself and that’s the greatest friend anyone could have. That’s why the death scene with them doing
the pressed hands against the glass doesn’t work. It’s not about lifelong friends saying
goodbye like the original was and it’s not even two guys on the verge of that
friendship and then losing it. It’s two
guys who have spent most of the film being mad at each other, why should I
care? And even if I did care Spock
screaming Khan utterly destroys any emotion that the audience might have felt
as Kirk dies. Yay for letting
referencing override the story.
Getting back to Uhura for a moment I hate that everyone who
isn’t Kirk and Spock gets shafted in this movie. Sure Uhura actually gets to use her language
skills on screen this time, but it means nothing really because the
conversation she has with the Klingon patrol, whose new helmet wearing and piercing their ridges designs
still look stupid, doesn’t change the situation the characters are in. Carol Marcus like Khan is not a proper
character here she is a walking reference to a better movie. Alice Eve certainly gives a fine performance,
but her character doesn’t get to have a proper impact on events as they
unfold. In her one area of expertise she
gets the old rip out the wires on the bomb cliché and that stupid underwear
shuttle scene. I mean I rolled my eyes
at that when I saw it in the trailer, but I never realized the full scene
would be so awful. The entire scene is nothing
but an excuse for T and A to appeal to the male fanbase, and I personally think
that is an insult to the male part of the fanbase to say that they can’t be
interested in the film without seeing a woman in her bra and knickers. The same way they thought that to get women
to see a Star Trek film they had to show Winona giving birth in the last film, because
all women love babies. Learning that
that was the thought process behind that scene has utterly ruined the one scene
I thought was truly emotionally gripping in the first film thanks so much for
that guys /sarcasm. Furthermore, it
knocks Kirk’s character down again because if Kirk is supposed to think of his
crew like his family than he should not forget their names. It’s also a complete insult to Majel Barrett-Roddenberry’s
memory to have Christine Chapel be nothing more than the butt of a stupid joke,
and that the writers thought this scene would be some great wink to Kirk’s
character just reinforces how much these guys do not get the character of James
T Kirk. Then we have that fact that McCoy
cures death and doesn’t even get a thank you!
Boldly going nowhere is the more appropriate title for this film I think
because we did in fact go nowhere for the characters or the situations. The destruction of Vulcan in the last film
doesn’t matter they're on New Vulcan, and are any other powers in the quadrant
going to take advantage of the weakened Federation? Apparently not, since the Romulans aren’t even
mentioned and the Klingons become a non-factor after Khan killed off the
patrol. Kirk and Spock get to discover
friendship…again, and everyone else gets to be window dressing. Chekov gets to live in engineering for most
of the film, Sulu gets one badass line, and Scotty gets to be the only morally righteous
person purely as a plot convenience to get him on the Vengeance.
To get some proper character growth the film really needed
falling action and it had none. We
needed time to recover from the climax to deal with the fallout of Marcus’ whatever
the hell he was doing and Khan’s attack on San Francisco. Instead we skip ahead a year and Kirk makes a
speech about how revenge isn’t their way.
Even though it totally is since Khan got revenge on Marcus. Kirk tried to get revenge on Khan and Spock
only stopped getting revenge on Khan because they needed his blood to save Kirk. So, much for that the theme of revenge being
a bad thing. We don’t even get to see if
Khan got a proper trial for his crimes we just see him refrozen and sitting in
what I’m going to assume is the warehouse that the Ark of the Covenant sat in
so there goes the moral questioning aspect too.
Then we’re off on the five year mission with a closing shot just like
the 2009 film. So what exactly was the
point of this film if we didn’t go anywhere?
What we really needed was people reactions to everything, and not just
Kirk and Spock thanking each other to close out a plot point that was dropped
back on Qo’noS along with the Klingon war thread. We needed to see Kirk dealing with the fact
that his recklessness caused dozens of crewmembers deaths. Or how about Carol losing her father, the man
who she said raised her and who she seemed to have a very close relationship
with? Heck can we have one scene of
Spock and Uhura having a loving relationship that doesn’t involve kissing in public;
maybe with some Vulcan attributes like the finger kiss?
Between the mess of a plot that is basically an excuse for
Khan to do things and characters with no proper growth this story really feels
like it’s a first draft of a script and yet they had four years to work on this
project. I said in my early thoughts review that I felt like the filmmakers were going down a
checklist of stuff that must be done and that feeling remains on repeat viewings. We need to show that Kirk does have to grow so
we have the demotion scene that changes nothing. We need to show Uhura as a strong female
character so we'll have her talk to the Klingons, but as I said that
conversation doesn’t change anything. If
Khan had just come in shooting before anyone had even left the shuttle the
story would have continued on exactly as it did. We need to have a theme so we’ll have people
talk about revenge, but we won’t put proper focus on it nor give it any
resolution. Also it frustrates me that these people just won’t do
anything new. They just keep going back
to other Star Trek works including their own for inspiration and it is frankly
boring to watch because I’ve already seen this done better by other people.
Sure the writers don’t directly rip off Wrath of Khan because the story isn’t the same, but I don’t even
know what to call what they've done here.
It’s not plagiarizing because that’s trying to pass off someone else’s
work as your own. Here the writers are banking
on the audience being familiar with the movie Meyer and all made thirty years
ago, because without it the emotional core is non-existent. We’re supposed to care when the character
says “my name is Khan.” But the only reason that name means anything is in the
context of old continuity that they said they didn’t want to deal with so why
do they keep bringing it up? The story
would have flowed so much better if he was just John Harrison, but no we have
to keep standing on old Trek like a crutch, which is why we had the Leonard
Nimoy cameo instead of Spock calling someone who could help them in the ship to
ship battle, while spitting in the face of that canon at the same time.
As I said nothing is added to this film by making John Harrison
turn out to be Khan and a whole lot is taken away. Specifically the message of diversity because
Khan goes from a character of colour to a white man. Yes this had been talked about a lot and it
should be because people have a right to be angry. One of the major pillars of the Star Trek franchise
was to celebrate diversity. In the 60’s
it was a big deal to have an African American woman in a professional position
seen as an equal to her peers. To show a
Russian not as a mortal enemy, but instead a trusted friend. Everything from guest stars to background
extras had this kind of thing going on, and that is true of Khan as well. Yes, casting a Mexican to play a man from Northern India
wasn’t the best choice, but I should not be comparing casting choices made
nearly fifty years apart and find the one made in 1967 to be better. That’s why these films fail as Star Trek
films for me. It’s not that the Enterprise
design is different or that the actors are younger it’s that the heart of the
franchise is gone.
I honestly have no idea what they were trying to do with the
reboot as a whole at this point. They’ve
created this weird mash up like Frankenstein’s monster and seem to have driven
away a large chunk of the audience in the process. General audiences don’t seem to care a whole
lot about this release because of the four year gap between the two films,
they’ve moved on to other blockbusters.
New fans of just the reboot seem to be mad that this film didn’t do
anything clever or new and that was supposed to be the entire point of making
this an alternate timeline, and I whole heartily agreed with them. The older trekkies at least from where I’m
standing don’t care about being pandered to by wink, wink shout outs instead of
getting something with actual substance.
This wanting to have their cake and eat it too attitude has utterly
slowed the momentum of creating a totally divergent universe because they're
relying on nostalgia to do all the heavy lifting of character development and
connection. If they move away from the iconography
too much they’d have to do that on their own and this team doesn’t seem capable
of that. Also they think that by
referencing and paying lip service to what came before that they get what Star
Trek really is when they clearly don’t.
JJ Abrams and the writers are focused on giving the audience
a fast-paced action movie, but some of the best episodes of any series don’t
have action as their focus. Stories like
‘Tapestry’, ‘The Inner Light’, ‘City on the Edge of Forever’, ‘In the Pale
Moonlight’, ‘Message in a Bottle’, etc.
Even in the second pilot for the original show the action sequences were
window dressing because the network wanted to see it. The
moral dilemma and the strong themes were the roots on which good Star Trek was
built. So they don’t get the core of the
franchise and they don’t get the core of the characters either. McCoy didn’t spend all his time quoting
metaphors, and when Karl Urban tried to bring this up with JJ Abrams he got the
“stop with the metaphors” line for his trouble. Thanks for the effort Mr. Urban it’s nice to
know someone cared about this project. Kirk
was not a womanizer, and Spock was actually an alien. Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu while secondary
characters still served the important function of pushing the idea that in the future
we will see everyone as equal and judge them for who they are not what they
are. To old continuity diversity and
story were important, here being cool is important.
With this film it obvious to me that the core production
team doesn’t care about the source material and so they have utterly failed to
make me care about the world they have created from it. This wasn’t your father’s Star Trek and
they’re right. That Star Trek was about telling
actual stories with fleshed out characters that had morals in them. Yes because TV shows and movies are different
lengths you do have to tell your story differently and that’s fine, but you can
still have all that stuff and a good movie too.
With Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home
they went into wanting to make a lighter fun comedy after the three heavy films
they had before. But there is still a
theme of communication in there. There
is still a message of environmentalism.
They didn’t go in with the idea that this would be for a wider audience
that was a happy accident. It had broader
marketability as a comedy with the instantly recognizable trek stuff out, at
least in the trailers. But at its core
it is still Trek. It’s still talking
about us and our society through these characters and the characters themselves
are being allowed to grow and change.
It’s when the franchise gets away from that that things go downhill, and
other films in the franchise are guilty of this too, the TNG films especially,
and the rest of them will have their day on the chopping block soon enough.
Even though there has been bad Trek before this I still have
to say that all in all I think this film is awful. Sure the music is still nice and the cast is
great as always, but even that just ups the disappointment at this point because
I’m tired of seeing such good talent wasted.
I mean the only character I liked in the last film, McCoy, is literally
sitting in the back seat in this film! They
failed to grasp the core of the franchise.
They failed to move their new entity forward and make it distinct. They’re still relying on nostalgia and references
to carry the emotional core of the reboot and they won’t build up a proper
continuity even though the whole point of the AU was not to be tied down to
previous canon. Apparently that canon is
to be used for themes, dialogue, and characters instead of making new
ones. They again went back to the canon well
for recycling their own plot points and yanking the ending wholesale from Wrath of Khan with more punching and
washing the villain white while they were at it; and I don’t expect the third
film if we ever get it to be a significant improvement on any of this. Abrams won’t be there as a director, but will
still be a producer thus holding a lot of creative sway. Robert Orci is still on as a writer and has
apparently learned nothing from the failures of this film if his interactions
with the fans are anything to go by. You
had a great premise guys and lots of potential and you chucked in the trash in
the name of action scenes that are so numerous I honestly get tired of it; and
the referencing just makes me want to go watch the source material you took it
all from. So I’m going to stick with the
Trek that, despite its flaws, not only had potential, but fulfilled it too. You wanted a new audience for your reboot guys? Fine, good luck counting on them to still be
there in 2016.
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