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kenjariOther Kenjari and I went to a late showing of Star Trek last night. It was so awesome. As my sister said, it was way better than it had any right to be (referring to its summer blockbuster status).
The cast does a beautiful job. Zachary Quinto is so good as Spock that I completely saw the character, not the actor, and never mentally compared him to Leonard Nimoy. Although I admit that since Nimoy is also in the film and also playing Spock, such comparisons are sort of pre-empted. I loved Karl Urban as McCoy - he was absolutely perfect, without being a slavish imitation of Deforrest Kelley.
Scotty and Uhura were the biggest departures from the originals. However, I thought the new interpretations were very successful. Simon Pegg brought a lot of humor to the role of Scotty without turning him into simple comic relief. I really liked the enlargement of Uhura's character and the way the script gives her more personality and presence than TOS did, but I felt pretty ambivalent about some of the things the script did. First off, while I certainly appreciate the emphasis on her extreme intelligence, skill, and competence, I wish that the film had done more showing and less telling. It seemed like all her feats occurred off-screen and prior to the main action. This was particularly annoying because the plot and action didn't lack for opportunities to include such a scene. Secondly, while I think that the idea of a romantic connection between Uhura and Spock is really interesting, I can't help but feel disappointed that the only woman in the core cast isn't allowed to stand on her own. As if being a love-interest is some sort of requirement for justifying the presence of a woman in a mostly-male sci-fi context.
I liked how the writers used the plot to justify the reboot - it was kind of nifty and a smooth way of getting around having to conform to a mountain of established canon. I also liked the reference to the classic TOS episode "The Menagerie" and to The Wrath of Khan.
Finally, don't talk shit about Spock's mother.
The cast does a beautiful job. Zachary Quinto is so good as Spock that I completely saw the character, not the actor, and never mentally compared him to Leonard Nimoy. Although I admit that since Nimoy is also in the film and also playing Spock, such comparisons are sort of pre-empted. I loved Karl Urban as McCoy - he was absolutely perfect, without being a slavish imitation of Deforrest Kelley.
Scotty and Uhura were the biggest departures from the originals. However, I thought the new interpretations were very successful. Simon Pegg brought a lot of humor to the role of Scotty without turning him into simple comic relief. I really liked the enlargement of Uhura's character and the way the script gives her more personality and presence than TOS did, but I felt pretty ambivalent about some of the things the script did. First off, while I certainly appreciate the emphasis on her extreme intelligence, skill, and competence, I wish that the film had done more showing and less telling. It seemed like all her feats occurred off-screen and prior to the main action. This was particularly annoying because the plot and action didn't lack for opportunities to include such a scene. Secondly, while I think that the idea of a romantic connection between Uhura and Spock is really interesting, I can't help but feel disappointed that the only woman in the core cast isn't allowed to stand on her own. As if being a love-interest is some sort of requirement for justifying the presence of a woman in a mostly-male sci-fi context.
I liked how the writers used the plot to justify the reboot - it was kind of nifty and a smooth way of getting around having to conform to a mountain of established canon. I also liked the reference to the classic TOS episode "The Menagerie" and to The Wrath of Khan.
Finally, don't talk shit about Spock's mother.
