Start Wreck: The Linkage (No spoilers outside the cuts)

[prog]

I saw Star Trek and enjoyed it very much. If you like cool shit, you'll probably like this movie. Lilek's thoughts on it jibe with mine, more or less.

I had cortezopossum's summary of "they managed to screw up everything, and yet it worked" in mind as I watched, but I don't think any apologies for canon-drift are really necessary. The producers made room for it in-story by not only explicitly putting the movie in an alternate timeline from the old canon, but an alternate-to-an-alternate. (Pretty sure that Romulus wasn't destroyed in the TNG timeline, right?)

I was delighted to see that Old Spock was both a fairly active character, and was also allowed to live past the ending. Knowing nothing of the plot going in, I was expecting his role to be Mr. Basil Framingstory ("Ah yes, our very first mission, why it seems like only yesterday...") so this was a nice surprise.

Three scenes of Kirk clinging to a lip of a bottomless pit by his fingers was one too many. Two (little-boy Kirk being a jackass, and first-away-team Kirk putting past jackassery to better use) would have been perfect.


I also went in with surrealestate's perception that the movie was cringingly sexist. There is sexism-by-omission, but I want to beg off that charge by the fact that, short of BSG-style gender-flips, the producers didn't have much to work with given the source material. (Now, as dougo sez, they totally could have made at least one of the crew a lady, and made it work. Aw, I am now envisioning a girlie-girl Chekov. So cute. Oh well.) I can grok the negative reading of Uhura, but it's not the one that seemed natural to me as I watched the film. So, the movie didn't really trip my personal feminist barf-o-meter, for whatever that's worth... though I wouldn't have objected to more effort.

(I preëmptively dismiss the claim that any adaptation of Trek has to be sexist in order to stay true to its roots. As commenters to Ms. Estate's post note, the 1960s TV series did a lot to test social boundaries of the day, even though much of it seems pretty backwards to us now.)

BONUS REVIEW! Terminator: Salvation trailer: Boy, when the androids come for real, robophobic shit like this is gonna be unbearably igry. Just saying.

Comments

[jadelennox]

Eh. I haven't seen it yet, but it's a reboot. I've been spoiled for the basic premise, and they changed a whole lot, so they had plenty to work with to make it less sexist. Hell, even in the non-reboot shows they change uniforms every few years, so there would be plenty of source material justification for not wearing miniskirts. Besides, my understanding is that Capt. Pike was a character, right? But not Capt. Pike's first officer?

Keeping in mind that I am not making any comments about the movie as it exists, because I haven't yet seen it. But I certainly disagree that a reboot doesn't have source material to work with.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Here is a shameful confession: I didn't even notice the miniskirts. I am trying to say this in a "oh dear" way and not a "look how colorblind I am! I mean pantsblind! Wait what" way.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice the mini-skirts, but I did notice the legs...

On the plus side, Uhura is presented as far more than a glorified radio officer: she's very clearly a highly-skilled, highly-competent linguist.

There was more they could have done just by increasing the number of female cadets and officers, and boosting a few ranks. It would have been nice to see Bones meeting Dr. Chapel, say. But still, my expectations of the series are so low in so many respects that this film was a pleasant surprise on many levels.

[jadelennox]

I think more people should be pantsblind.

the best feminist barf-o-meter

[cthulhia]

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/the-mo-movie-measure/

which actually is misnamed.

original strip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zizyphus/34585797/sizes/l/

Re: the best feminist barf-o-meter

[cnoocy]

Actually, the movie passes this, but just in a single scene. Which, as others have said, is pretty good for a TOS movie.

Re: the best feminist barf-o-meter

[prog.livejournal.com]

Racking my brain trying to remember when this was. I'm perversely hoping that it was the moments when Uhura first walked into her dorm room and chatted with her roommate, before the subject changed to the naked man under the bed.

Re: the best feminist barf-o-meter

[cnoocy]

Ding! (It does put an odd spin on "passing" the test if both participants in the conversation are in their underwear.)

Re: the best feminist barf-o-meter

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

And, IIRC, the two women involved are both in their underwear.

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

I preëmptively dismiss the claim that any adaptation of Trek has to be sexist in order to stay true to its roots.

People may call Uhura being a 'switchboard operator' sexist but having a woman officer on the show (eps a BLACK woman officer) was extremely progressive for the time. The show even had the first 'interracial kiss'* on a major television network which kinda made some heads a splode.

She's also 4th in command according to some sources (she took command in an animated episode when all the men were 'incapacitated').

Despite their stereotypical roles the multi-cultural crew was also a bit of a first for any kind of TV series.

People forget what an incredible 'wasteland' of WASP actors television was in its early days. Even casting the characters of the radio-play-turned-tv-show 'Amos and Andy' with actual black people was considered a 'bold step' back in the early 1950s.

* okay.. technically they didn't actually kiss -- it was kind of done with heads turned so you didn't see any lips -- the actors were in fact about a foot apart.

[cnoocy]

Re: Terminator:
You're just saying that because the plot (the ones who once served us have taken over and are endangering us, so we have to form an armed society to destroy them) is the same as the plot of Birth of a Nation.

Actually, I do hope they complicate it a bit from that. It does seem likely that the movie won't have the complexity of "Sarah Connor Chronicles".

[prog.livejournal.com]

Ha! I originally made a reference to BoaN in my post, but canned it for being a bit much. You make a compelling argument though!

I still haven't watched Sarah Connor despite all the good word it's gotten...

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

I had a great time watching the Star Trek movie and would totally go see it again this weekend. With people.

I went in without reading commentary and (like prog above) did not think anything of the miniskirts. Then I came home and read commentary and agreed with the people who said, like jadelennox above, that they could perfectly well have skipped the miniskirts and the movie would have been better for it. (For a start, it means they can't show any female Starfleet officer over the age of 30 or the rank of lieutenant, unless she's sitting behind a desk. This is a crazy strained situation to put your scriptwriters in. No, I never noticed this about TOS either.)

Anyway, aside from costuming, nothing about the movie made me cringe. Uhura was a major character (a larger part of the plot than Scotty or Sulu) and, to my eyes, the more active partner in her (nonspoil) romantic relationship. Her roommate was a minor character but not portrayed unhealthily. Kirk was a hound but the plot didn't admire him for it. (And the last Star Trek movie I went to featured Marina Syrtis saying "I think my boobs are firming up". So much better than that.)

I don't want to argue solely from low expectations, but given Abrams's choice of premise -- an ensemble movie with the TOS core crew as written, focussing on and thus reconsidering Kirk and Spock -- this was the result. Additional female roles would necessarily have been background scenery or one-line cameos at best. An improvement, but not something whose lack spoiled the movie for me.

It was fundamentally *dumb*, plotwise, but look, it's a movie. Watch TV series for plot, they've got time for it.

[prog.livejournal.com]

The plot was hella dumb, but I would push back against anyone who would see that as a demerit against the whole picture. The movie is a big, dumb, lovable doggie. I wanted to hug it.

I have read complaints along the lines of "What, nobody on those planets containing entire spacefaring civilizations could do anything about this threat?!" But I was as blind to this as I was to the miniskirts, because the movie had its paws on my chest and was licking my face and I was laughing.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

Apparently the plot is deeper than you think!