Star Trek 2009 rewatch: George Kirk.

George Kirk's death: for me this is hands down the most emotional star trek moment ever in the 50 years of trek. I am just watching it now. Have not seen star trek 2009 in years so I decided to have a re watch and I am almost in tears. the opening scene of star trek 2009 was powerful.

I can not even believe that is Chris Hemsworth playing george kirk because Hemsworth as Thor has yet to act as good or show as much emotional range in the thor and avengers films like he did in the first 15 minutes of star trek 2009.

the films had a lot of emotional moments like spock loosing his mum, uhura/spock smoothing in the elevator, sarek confessing he loved his wife but george's kirk's death is the most emotional moment of all in the new films and maybe the whole of star trek.

 

I don't know about the WHOLE of Trek, but it's a great scene.

So much so that I almost wish Hemsworth was Kirk. He feels like so much like a young OG Kirk to me.

 

I agree. Great scene. I admit the first time I watched it I was a bit distracted because his mother was played by one of the Doctors on House...but watching it the second time I was very impressed by Hemsworth.

 

I am not the biggest fan of where the new movies have gone, but the first ten minutes of Star Trek are some of the best moments of any Trek, movie or television show.

How about a prequel movie headlined by Hemsworth?

 

It's the most brilliant opening scene of any Star Trek movie, period.

 

For me I think part of the pathos of that prologue, as I think of it, is knowing that this is not how it's supposed to happen. Everything we're seeing occur isn't what was meant to be. Kirk's dad isn't supposed to die.

I get a somewhat similar feeling during the moment in "Parallels" when we get a glimpse of what might have been if "Best of Both Worlds" had gone in a different direction.

There's just something I find deeply disturbing about knowing that the "natural" flow of time is being disrupted.

 

Giacchino's short, soulful opening theme bridging that scene to the Corvette scene sealed the deal for me. I had spoiled myself rotten going into that movie, and still felt a great sense of loss and fear that things may not ever turn out alright. Things were wrong, they just felt wrong.

 

I do have to remind myself that this is supposed to be TOS George Kirk, a guy we barely heard about in the show, but now here he is doing something unimaginably noble and heroic. It's a real appreciation for the love and sacrifice of parents, when there are no options left. He really did turn death into a fighting chance (for others) to live.

 

As an action scene, the Kelvin scene is really well done, and even on a cinematic level, it's a well put-together sequence. But honestly, I feel no emotional attachment to George Kirk's sacrifice. It's just what it is, a small character moment in the middle of an action piece.

I know a guy who complained about the scene, claiming the bit in particular focusing on Jim's birth and George's death was "derivative of every second episode of Lost." I didn't watch Lost, so don't really know what he means, but I always liked the quote anyway.

 

Part of the charm of the scene is the writers taking advantage of "beginning at the beginning" to elevate Kirk's birth to a kind of mythologically heroic moment: like Conan, he's literally born on the battlefield.

 

The musical score really elevates that entire scene.

 

I lose it every time I watch this scene. When he hears his son's first cries, I am reduced to a quivering mass of man-sobbing. Every time, like Kirk's eulogy in TWOK.

I'm not sure about the assertion that *we* know this isn't supposed to happen. My first reactions on the first viewing were "wait, is this Jim Kirk? Oh, no, it's his dad. What happened to him? I think he disappeared…" and "hold on, they are referencing the books? w00t!"

I think for me, I was a new dad at the time, and especially vulnerable to the "parent sacrifices all" trope. Still, great scene.

 

Yeah, since there was no previous onscreen version of Kirk's birth I didn't have a "this is not the way it's supposed to happen" reaction. I just thought it was a cool "origin story" for the character after all this time.

 

Hm. I dunno, I assumed from the outset that in the original timeline the Kelvin didn't encounter the Narada, so anything that happened afterward was alternate history.

 

Yes, that is correct.

 

I agree, that opening prologue is one of the best parts of the new films. It reminded me of the opening sequence to Undiscovered Country, with the Praxis explosion and the Excelsior's (and Sulu's) response. Like a jolt right out of the gate. Good stuff.

 

So Saeth The Man, and I agree. Even the cuts between action are perfection. Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey did an excellent job of editing! Not a huge fan of Hemsworth, but he nails it here!

 

So Saeth The Man, and I agree. Even the cuts between action are perfection. Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey did an excellent job of editing! Not a huge fan of Hemsworth, but he nails it here!

 

It is in itself a good, if not the best scene of the movie. But it also set up some dubious character development as Kirk is now reduced to a lost, father-less teenager who finds his way towards being more or less like his dad after a father-substitute enters his life.

This is a fairly old, reactionary ("do what your daddy" is premodern, "teenager without father is lost" is patriarchal) story and it does not match Trek.
Similar with Spock, unlike the first incarnation of the character he is not in conflict with his father throughout basically all of his life anymore but stops to be the rebellious kid after the Vulcan holocaust.

Back to Kirk, the problem of sticking with his original background story is that it is too convoluted. You'd have to show the Tarsus IV massacre, how rigid Kirk becomes because of that as a teenager / cadet and how he starts to ease up during his first command. This is virtually impossible to do in a movie which should also introduce two other main characters and four minor ones.

So I have an issue with the reactionary coming-of-age stories of Kirk and Spock but I am also aware of the problem of telling more Trek-appropriate ones. And despite my utter contempt for the actin-movie nonsense they made out of Trek I am aware that a movie, potentially part of a trilogy, which would have just captured the early years and cadet years of Kirk, Spock et al. would not have worked either.

 

Because the character of Thor does not require much emotional range.