Star Trek

By Sting Lacson
17 May 2010, 10:04.

Because I liked the film, I must write about it. Such is my curse.

I was never a Star Trek fan, but I've seen one of the old Shatner episodes on TV, and I'd like to check it out.

J.J. Abrams rocks. And so does Chris Pine. James Tiberius Kirk. I just love the way that name rolls off the tongue. James Tiberius Kirk. Eric Bana is unrecognizable. Simon Pegg is the comic relief.

I expected this film to suck. I was wrong. And I love it when I'm wrong. About movies, that is.

And finally, a new Hollywood doctrine has been established: Sequels are dead. Prequels are the new sequels.


*some info from IMDb
pic from photobucket.com

Star Trek. USA. 2009.


Rating: Eight and a half out of ten.

(Read more on Star Trek after the jump.)

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By Claire

First thing's first: Never ever watch in SM (Marikina) cinemas. If you would want to have yourself videotaped by Men-In-Black rip-offs, be my guest. I guess Henry Sy never heard of this technology called surveillance cameras. But maybe he did. It was just not enough to win their passionate fight against piracy. Boo-hoo Hollywood and the mentally colonized, spare me the details of how piracy is making the industry lose money. When you start losing the only home you have just because a guy in a business suit comes trodding in with papers in his hands, and then you find yourself whoring so that you could feed your shivering family, then and only then could you boo-hoo too.

The experience of these Men-In-Black roaming around every angle in the cinema, and then videotaping the audience is very very disturbing. I believe that one of the reasons that a movie house goes totally dark during a movie is to give this wonderful feeling of anonymity. To make the movie the only focus. To make yourself believe that the only world you're in is the world the movie is giving. How could one concentrate with make-believe when there are actual people stalking you? Me and my movie buddy felt as if the MIB kept looking at us (and in return, we felt that we were obliged to give them dagger looks, hoping that the night vision of their video cameras would capture the sheer hatred in our eyes). Let me tell you, they were perpetually there. And worse, they were standing. And worst, they were walking! Around and around and around. It occurred to me that we might probably be in that reality show Distraction, and if we could ignore the idiocy of these intruding surveillance techniques, and enjoy Star Trek, we would win Eurodollars.

But since the closest thing we could get is an appearance by sexist noontime gameshow hosts and win crappy pesos that won't buy me actual happiness, let alone an actual home, let's now move on to the second thing's secondly: the actual movie.

Star Trek was fun. Basically because of Obi-Wan Kenobi, err, I mean Spock. The logical but torn by emotions Vulcan who gets to kiss the girl in the end. Plus, he gets to strangle someone which makes him macho (shit). Which is totally hot. But I guess if Spock was played by someone else, I wouldn't have said that. You might have loved the actor from Heroes as Sylar because if you're not a Trekkie and you watched this movie, what the hell did you watch it for?

Luke Skywalker, I mean, Kirk was not that endearing, but maybe that's just me not liking explicit psychological bullshit. If your father dies in the beginning of the movie of your life, that doesn't mean you're going to grow up a misunderstood genius (girl-humping) screw-up. No, I don't care what Freud said. I think I like being a Jungian more. Just don't tell the Lacanian fangirls/boys.

Now, if their characters seem a bit odd from what your sci-fi stock knowledge and Trekkie cult had informed you (like what? Spock getting some?), it's because it is odd.

It's all about time-traveling, alternate realities, and just messing up the canon fun. Therefore, the director has more freedom to reinvent Star Trek. But if it was done unfaithfully, I wouldn't know. I am not a Trekkie and I would especially not consider myself a sci-fi expert. A lot of the knowledge I have about Star Trek comes from Futurama. So if we continue from this perspective, I would say that everything was proper enough. Proper story, proper character conflicts (although it was bordering on cliche), proper special effects and the occasional girl-as-a-sexual-object or girl-who-has-to-be-saved shit.

Now, I of course, do not wholeheartedly agree on the last element as crucial to make a proper sci-fi flick. Especially in this day and age. I believe that any movie could do without this. Or if you are going to do this, I want to see men as sexual objects too (they already had Captain Christopher Pike as the male who needs saving). Humanity is, after all, sexy.

Since we had already talked about sexism, I guess we could dash in a discourse on racism. It's not a secret that there are a lot of "tokens" in Star Trek. The token alien. The token black, which also is the token woman. The token guy with the accent. The token Asian. Let's focus on Asian guy. Asian guy knows hand-to-hand combat. Asian guy has a katana. Asian guy should roll his eyes and scream, "What the hell? I'm a Power Ranger?" But don't worry, Kirk looked like a Power Ranger beside him. Kirk was Yellow Ranger. I swear.

Anyway, I just wanted to point these out because (the early) Star Trek, I heard, even under the umbrella of popular culture, was very very innovative during its time---from its take on technology as well as social politics. I guess I was just expecting the same thing from this Star Trek. What I got in return were miners as evil enemies.

Ah, but of course, The Federation is the Imperialist United Nations after all.

Haha.

So before I continue over-reading, I suggest that if you're not much of a Trekkie but like space battles in general, you should look up the TV series Firefly or its spin-off movie Serenity. I believe it's an anti-thesis of Star Trek. Or watch Star Wars again, because fighting as an organized rebel is always more righteous.

Still, if you are not much of a Trekkie but like space battles in general, you should watch this too. The space ships, unlike the earlier Star Trek, are prettier. Plus, there's enough time traveling, laser ammunition, and science nosebleed concepts that they would explain in metaphors. Somehow, this would make you feel that you're smart.



7/10