Kirk, as written for this movie, was a tool. There's nothing special about him that we see. We're told he's a genius, but we don't see him being a genius.
Yep. Like when Uhura mentions her area of expertise in the bar and Kirk could only sweat and divert her attention to the novelty salt shakers.
"Ummm xenolingui... It's a little starship! Isn't that clever?"
Or when he failed to navigate the water turbine interface and Scotty was shredded after only seven minutes in the film. What an idiot!
Both of these incidents are excellent examples of how the script was bad.
In the first, yes, the knowledge of what xenolinguistics is was put in Kirk's mouth, just before Pike pops in to say that he's a genius. Lovely - now, where in the later action did Kirk's knowledge of xenoliguistics come in handy? It's lip service - a thin veneer of dialogue with no character-building behind it.
As for the scene in which Scotty is pitched into the What the Hell is That Doing There water chompers (did the movie I'm watching suddenly become Galaxy Quest??) - if that was supposed to indicate that Kirk was a genius, I missed it in the midst of the utter silliness of a contrived action sequence that I suppose was meant to throw some tension into a sagging Second Act.
He's presented as a Movie!Rebel (i.e. - I'm a dick but people think I'm cool anyway)
You got that right! JJ Kirk didn't have one single redeemable quality whatsoever.
I didn't say that, but if the following list is meant to be examples of why he's an admirable leader who would inspire loyalty and respect in his followers - I think they're pretty weak. And if you can honestly defend the ridiculous arrogance and generally dicky attitude Kirk displayed in the Kobayashi Maru scene, I'd love to hear it.
He mocked that dock worker for admiring his bike,he lol'ed when Sulu fell from the Narada's mining apparatus, and relieved Spock simply because his Maru caused Kirk's academic suspension.
Yes, giving the dock worker his bike, not laughing at a compatriot while in battle and pissing off a colleague are definitely on par with the mercy, compassion and courage Kirk is known for.
Where is a single genuine moment of emotion where the viewer can identify with the struggle this character is going through? Where do we see him caught between difficult choices - the safety of his compatriots versus the desire to achieve understanding with creatures different from ourselves? Or more appropriate to a story in which he's a cadet - the struggle of wanting to prove himself, to rise to the standards of Starfleet as Captain Pike challenged him to do (the "payoff" for this was glossed over in a 'Three Years Later' in which the only thing we see him do is be an ass in the Kobayashi Maru)? Where is the example of him offering mercy to an enemy - oh wait, they did have that one, but they made a quippy little dicky joke out of it (except this time they made Spock the dick) - I can feel the goose bumps of admiration rising on my arm just thinking about it.
Kirk, as written for this movie, was a tool. There's nothing special about him that we see. We're told he's a genius, but we don't see him being a genius. His great moment at the Kobayashi Maru is delivered with all the flair of a drunken frat boy. He's presented as a Movie!Rebel (i.e. - I'm a dick but people think I'm cool anyway) and he offers nothing except Hey, I've seen that big space storm before! He engenders no emotional identification, no respect and, because his rise to the rank of captain was so arbitrary, completely breaking the suspension of disbelief.
You just described Kirk from all of Star Trek and pretend otherwise. Kirk was usually great giving speeches, it was usually Spock who came up with the solutions. In this case, Kirk saved the day for once.
No. Firstly, Kirk in TOS was never designated as having a genius-level intellect. In fact, he was described as someone who had worked hard for every bit of knowledge he had. His skills were strategic risk-taking, and courage and self-sacrifice. He also was shown repeatedly to be an inspiring commander that brought out and used the best of the talents around him - such as harnassing Spock's problem-solving skills and applying them strategically. It was Trek 09 that saddled him with a genius label, and then backed it up with, as
RedShirtNoob cleverly points out, having him know the definition of xenoliguistics, which he uses bravely to - try to hit on a woman in a bar.
Did the cast do a great job of reviving and re-inventing the characters while being respectful of their legacies? Absolutely. Unfortunately the writers didn't even pen a decent story, much less a decent Star Trek story. It's like a tale put together in screenwriting 101 by someone with a mediocre grasp of story dynamics.
Sorry you feel that way. But it's more than we can say about most other Trek though, oh well.
I'm not sure what you mean here, but I've had plenty of other discussions where people defend the horrible writing of Trek 09 by pointing out that TOS had plenty of bad episodes. It did. Star Trek is traditionally 1/3 mediocre writing, 1/3 horrible writing and 1/3 wonderful writing. Trek 09 falls into the horrible category. I never bash the movie by saying it's not True Trek, I suppose it is as much as anything else they've pumped out to milk that cash cow. So it's True Trek. Truly Bad Trek.
I can't. It seems JJ and crew intended for him to come off that way.
