Thanks JJ, I needed THAT!

[Admiral James Kirk]

I'm tired of it!

Tired of all the post 9/11 doom and gloom that we see in movies. They're everywhere! Come at us from all sides in all seasons on both screens! Big! And! Small! The movies tell us that like is a bitch and we're all gonna die and everything in between birth and death is just suffering and pain and...

ARGH!

The biggest movie of last year was Dark Knight. It was for all it's plot absurdities an extremely well put together movie with a fantastic performance by Heath Ledger.

It's also as depressing as fuck!

I watched it once in theaters. That's not unusual for me. I only see movies once in theater and then wait for DVD and watch them a million more times.

I bought the Dark Knight DVD the day it came out. To date I've watched it maybe four times.

That's highly unusual for me.

Compare this to Iron Man which was a rare feel good movie. I've watched it over a dozen times since it came out.

Why?

Because it was a Frank Capra movie. It said something I love to hear: One man can make a difference!

A good message. Certainly more useful than the post-9/11: Life's a bitch and then you die.

These days you want to feel good at the movies you either have to see a comedy or rent a porno.

Iron Man was an adventure movie that went the extra mile to make me feel better going in than going out.

Dark Knight on the other hand left me wanting to commit sepuku. If only I'd had a katana none of you would be reading my ramblings.

What's this got to do with Star Trek?

It could have easily gone the depressing route. It could have taken the death of George Kirk, the destruction of Vulcan and the murder of Amanda and played them it for pure nihlism.

But it went the other way and God bless 'em for that!

If Iron Man was the feel good movie of last year then Star Trek is the feel good movie of the decade!

Fuck that! It's the movie of the decade!

They took all that death and destruction in the movie and turned it to positive purposes. George Kirk died but his son Jim becomes a hero in his memory. Vulcan is destroyed and Amanda killed and this heals the rift between Spock and Sarek as well as causing Spock to come to terms with his emotional turmoil. He becomes the Spock of the Trek movie era. The TWOK Spock. The TUC Spock. A Spock at peace with himself. A Spock that followed his fathers path not by denying his emotions but by embracing his love for a human woman.

Love and not pain was such a driving force for this movie. Finding peace with oneself rather than writhing around in personal agony was what this movie was about! Realizing your potential rather than drifting through life was what this movie was about! Making lemons out of lemonade was what this movie was about!

The post-Watergate American needed Star Wars to remind it that life was exciting and beautiful and full of possibilities!

The post-911 America needed Star Trek for the exact same reason!

I needed this movie!

Thanks JJ, thanks Robert, thanks Alex, thanks Chris and Zachary and Karl and Zoe and John and Anton and Simon and...

Thank you Leonard...

I'm going to pay you all the only true compliment I know how to.

I'm seeing it a second time in theaters.

A movie like this is too good to wait for the DVD.

 

[Islander]

Putting DS9 and season 3 of Enterprise on the side, that's the overall theme of Star Trek in general.

 

[James Bond]

Wow. That was a great post; and I must admit, I thought you were one of the canon freaks who wouldn't dare see it even once in the theatre (let alone twice) out of some Roddenberry principal or something.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Putting DS9 and season 3 of Enterprise on the side, that's the overall theme of Star Trek in general.

Why yes it is. Nice to see Star Trek returning to it's roots. Oddly enough for a guy who's tired of pessimism I just layed down 250 bucks for the DS9 series set. I am an enigma.

Wow. That was a great post; and I must admit, I thought you were one of the canon freaks who wouldn't dare see it even once in the theatre (let alone twice) out of some Roddenberry principal or something.

Heaven forfend, 007! No I'm not a canon freak. I have issues with the vision of Trek presented in TNG. I loved DS9 but I don't consider it Star Trek and I absolutely hated Voyager and was pretty indifferent about Enterprise. I was really looking forward to Star Trek because I wanted more Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

I feel I got much more than that. I felt rejuvenated after seeing the new movie. Entertainment is becoming entertaining again.

It's wonderful!

 

[MadBaggins]

SIX HUNDRED BILLION Vulcans died!!! But I suppose that doesn't count because they're not human.

 

[Mr. B]

Nothing like a little light-hearted genocide to brighten your day... and the screen.

 

[Peter the Younger]

That's for damn skippy.

(Not the genocide, the OP.)

 

[Jedi Marso]

SIX HUNDRED BILLION Vulcans died!!!

It looked pretty cool, too!

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Nothing like a little light-hearted genocide to brighten your day... and the screen.

It didn't hurt Star Wars any. Besides I would have liked the movie just as much if it had been Earth that Nero had blasted and not Vulcan.

Besides it was the rejuvenation of the heroes that made the movie work for me. Not the genocide.

BTW another 70s feel good favorite of mine opened with the destruction of a planet: Superman: The Movie. It worked not because it focused on the agony of so much loss but because of the preservation of another planet that was no less worthy, Earth.

It would have been the easy route, the expected route to Star Trek or Star Wars or Superman about the tragedy it didn't.

It made the movie about the triumph of the human spirit and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

SIX HUNDRED BILLION Vulcans died!!! But I suppose that doesn't count because they're not human.

You're off by a factor of 100 there, fella.

 

[T J]

I was about to say!

 

[Mr. B]

It would have been the easy route, the expected route to make the movie about the tragedy it didn't.

It made the movie about the triumph of the human spirit and there's nothing wrong with that.

Ignoring a cataclysmic event is not the same as some sort of emotional triumph. Nearly all Vulcan civilization has been wiped out but we immediately need a huge public award ceremony for newly promoted Kirk... it's just tasteless.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Nonsense. It's infinately more interesting to see how someone turns a tragedy into a triumph rather than seeing them crushed under the weight of said tragedy.

If I wanted that I'd just pop Dark Knight into the DVD player.

BTW nobody in the movie "ignored" a cataclysmis event. Both young and old Spock were affected by Vulcan's destruction. They just didn't let their tragedy stop them from making sure it never happened again.

It would have been far more tasteless for everyone to sit around wallowing in self-pity while Nero destroyed the Earth and the rest of the Federation.

 

[Aragorn]

Is Mr. B the new Captain Robert April?

 

[Mr. B]

Nonsense. It's infinately more interesting to see how someone turns a tragedy into a triumph rather than seeing them crushed under the weight of said tragedy.

Yeah, the bad guy wiped out the sand planet people but at least we got him before he blew up anything important.

 

[superdeluxe]

Great post Admiral

 

[Koinek]

It would have been the easy route, the expected route to make the movie about the tragedy it didn't.

It made the movie about the triumph of the human spirit and there's nothing wrong with that.

Ignoring a cataclysmic event is not the same as some sort of emotional triumph. Nearly all Vulcan civilization has been wiped out but we immediately need a huge public award ceremony for newly promoted Kirk... it's just tasteless.

It was a bunch of starfleet cadets. The academy was recognizing an outstanding student/graduate. It wasn't exactly confetti and cake. Also, don't you need heroes to inspire you when the times are hardest? IRL, weren't soldiers like Doolittle, McCarthur and Patton glorified during the time of war as an inspiration to those around them?

I think the sentiment of the movie and the note on which it ends is what matters. Star Trek maintains a hopeful "can-do" tone through most of its run and ends with a race vowing to rebuild itself while a fresh-faced crew of positive, confident officers taking charge of a starship.

 

[Bobatiel]

. Finding peace with oneself rather than writhing around in personal agony was what this movie was about! Realizing your potential rather than drifting through life was what this movie was about! Making lemons out of lemonade was what this movie was about!

Right on!

 

[Darth_Pazuzu]

Well, thank you, Admiral James Kirk. I needed that!

As was the case with many other longtime Star Trek fans who saw this movie, I must say that I certainly had my share of...ahem!...reservations about what J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman had done with the franchise. And certainly topping the list of those reservations was the destruction of Vulcan!

Overall, I can't honestly say what my problem really was. Perhaps it was a feeling of disorientation and dislocation that inevitably comes to many die-hards when a franchise or pop-culture institution has to change or evolve to keep pace with public tastes. Perhaps I've grown so old and inflexible that I've outlived my usefulness? Would that not constitute...a joke??

Whatever my problem was/is, I must confess that I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that this will be the face of Star Trek from now on. But even before going to see the movie, I made a vow to myself and resolved to put aside so many of my own personal attachments and prejudices relating to the franchise and try to relate to Abrams' film on an objective level, as a piece unto itself. And y'know, I honestly do relate to what Admiral James Kirk is saying about the need for uplift in troubled times. (As much as The Dark Night was a brilliant piece of filmmaking, I myself have only watched it a mere handful of times in the theater and on DVD!)

Having said that, however, one of my main issues with the film was the fact that - to me, anyway - there wasn't enough real weight or gravity to the death of Kirk's father and the destruction of Vulcan. Credit must indeed by given to Abrams and Co. for not wallowing in death and destruction, it's true, but the more cataclysmic events of the story just didn't seem to have enough impact.

But hey! I've only seen this new Star Trek once so far, and perhaps once is not enough to be able to give a fully objective assessment, especially for a film such as this one, where a viewer's objectivity can be somewhat...compromised by attachment to a much-loved franchise's past. One thing's for sure, I'll definitely get the DVD, because I'd really enjoy hearing the commentary and all those "making-of" featurettes and documentaries and stuff like that. I'd definitely be interested in hearing what the filmmakers have to say.

But to you, Admiral, and everyone else who enjoyed the new Star Trek, I have to say that your love and appreciation for what Abrams has accomplished certainly does more of a credit to the optimistic ideals of what Star Trek is all about than the relative "scrooges" such as myself who are still scratching our heads and don't know quite what to think...



P.S. I still think that Nero is the absolute worst villain in a Star Trek film so far. Eric Bana certainly wasn't awful in the role, and he did the best he could with what he had. But frankly I found Tom Hardy's performance as Shinzon to be more chilling - not to mention more subtle. Whatever one thinks of Nemesis, at least Shinzon had a little something in the way of depth and nuance. Nero's just a thug with facial tattoos...

 

[T'Baio]

The biggest movie of last year was Dark Knight.

It's also as depressing as fuck!

...

Compare this to Iron Man which was a rare feel good movie. I've watched it over a dozen times since it came out.

Why?

Because it was a Frank Capra movie. It said something I love to hear: One man can make a difference!

Umm...that was the message of The Dark Knight, as well.