Uhura replacing McCoy/Bones?

I think JJ made a mistake thinking that finger-touching would not be understood. We saw it for the first time in TOS and we understood it. Did people get dumber in the last 40 years? It's all in the presentation i.e. it could have been established in an earlier scene in addition to kissing.

For me it isn't about military protocol though. I feel exactly the same about similar scenes in the movie '2012' when people are wasting time hugging while a woman is drowning in the next room or while the ship needs emergency repairs or everyone dies. When seconds count and lives are at stake I find sentimental indulgence to be offensive.

Plus, I didn't fail to understand Spock's arc at all - compromised as his emotions are, I might even overlook his conduct but Uhura has had emotions all along. It belittles her as an officer to show HER emotions take precedence at a time of such crisis. Why is it always about the man?

And again, Kirk and Spock go it alone in order to cement their friendship when in fact sending a fluent-Romulan-speaking technician, a med-tech (for Pike) and a couple of security guards would have made far more sense.

If the scene had been briefer, I would probably have let it pass but it drags on and on to the point where they are obviously wasting valuable time. I'm all for Uhura and Bones getting more time but not if they're just tools to make us love Kirk and Spock all the more. Let them be their own characters.

 

As far as wasting valuable seconds on emotional hoopla, yea, that's a common trope. Anytime you watch a movie where a psycho is down and their weapon is out of their hand, the heroes will sit there embracing, instead of grabbing the weapon and running, or finishing the psycho off. Or a storm or Nuclear weapon is coming, and the hero is almost to safety, and stops for hugs and meaningful glances, etc. Or Enterprise NX-01 having time to stop off at Risa and the episode Northstar when they're on such a time critical mission.

The list goes on and on for this kind of stuff, it happens in just about every movie or TV show in one way or another

 

I wonder why so many writers don't know how annoying it is?

Since watching Zombieland I find myself shouting, 'Don't forget the double tap' at the screen A LOT.

 

I guess they do it for added tension, 'cause they know you're sitting there, "Hurry up, do "x" you moron, or the "y" is gonna "z". There's time for that mushy stuff when you're actually safe"

 

Not me. By that point, I'm rooting for the villain.

 

Doing the finger-touch thing would have been dramatically stupid. You want the audience to care at that moment; servicing trekkies is not the point.

 

What if they did the Q finger-touch thing?

 

We know what a kiss is, we know what it stands for, we enjoy kissing, there is an emotional impact in showing a kiss that is completely absent from a made-up sci-fi gesture like the Sarek finger thing.

And no, showing emotions in a movie is not "offensive". It's pretty much the only way to make sure that the audience feels any connection to the characters. Yes, apparently, some people can't connect with fictional characters, others can't relate to other people's emotions, but tailoring movies for these minorities wouldn't be a smart idea.

 

TOS finger touching or snogging Zoe Saldana... tough decision... I can imagine the audience reaction to the kiss: Cool, tough luck Kirk, oooh... and other responses. To finger touching: What the hell is that? Vulcan kissing sucks ass...

 

Does the ending of Casablanca lack emotional impact because they don't suck face?

Plus as I said, they could establish the finger touch as a sign of affection earlier in the movie. Plus, while I would prefer the finger touch, it's the fact that the scene goes on for as long as it does that is my main issue. It showed the characters as too self-indulgent - an unintentional theme that runs through the whole movie in fact.

 

Sarek was very uptight so of course Amanda never talked him into kissing.

Spock though.. he's still in his "live long and prosper" aka fuck you phase to the establishment. Making his human lady happy with kissing was probably some rebellion to start out with and now he's a bit of a convert. I'm sure they secretly touch fingers when they are alone.

 

Worrying about the accretion of lore from hundreds of hours of films past is what made Trek progressively uninteresting to folks at large and brought the franchise to a dead halt. I'm quite happy they made it as they did, playing for a new audience rather than playing to the small audience of hardcore Trek fans who care about such minutia.

 

Every single emotional scene that takes place in a movie right before something is about to potentially blow up is self indulgent.

 

While it's a valid point about lore overall, I don't thnk it applies to finger touching. It's something visual that takes all of two seconds to establish in the lift - they touch fingers just before Uhura leaves - it really, really isn't that confusing - he's a touch telepath - that is established in the movie as well. And once again, the point is not about the minutia - it's about the characters, a degree of realism even within a fantasy franchise, and the general approach to schmaltz in Hollywood.

The scene with Han and Leia in Empire Strikes back was just about perfection as far as timing and emotion was concerned. The scene in NuTrek dragged at a time of crisis. Or at least that was my perception.

 

The scene is 28 seconds long, and they're not "sucking face", they're kissing. If you don't care about the difference, you may belong to one of the minorities that I talked about earlier.

 

And Uhura is?

 

Quite so.

And if we were to excise every film that includes such a scene from the vast collection of films in the world--the remaining list would be rather short.

 

Oh well, there's no point in a circular debate I suppose. But once again, I'm NOT advocating excising every romantic scene in every movie I'm simply saying that some romantic scenes drag when shoved in and allowed to be too long and indulgent during times of crisis.

Maybe the majority liked the scene. It does not automatically follow that that they would not have liked it more if it had been more urgent, more desperate, and more tragic like Leia being pulled away from Han just before he goes off to potential death in the carbon freezing chamber.

IMHO.

 

Again: 28 seconds.

 

Still, 28 seconds is more than enough for Narada to raise shields.

I haven't watched the movie recently to debate which parts of the scene I felt needed to be trimmed or altered. But again that doesn't mean the scene could have been improved upon again IMHO. The whole scene was definitely longer than 28 seconds and the kiss was unhurried. The scene felt too indulgent, like some other scenes in the movie.