J. J. Abrams: Forgiven for Lost
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Dominion Cast 35 is postponed until next week. Yeah, we just brought it back but an announcement of bigger import is required - no, another obscure celebrity hasn’t died. Actually, a long-standing geek favorite series may have just been resurrected.
More than a year ago I wrote on Star Trek XI being a chance to breath new life into the Star Trek franchise, which had been mortally wounded by the Voyager series and had a live grenade shoved in the injury by Enterprise then had it’s corpse defiled by the Nemesis movie. I’ve now seen Trek XI and am ready to redress my past thoughts.
Star Trek XI (11 for the latin impaired) is a bit more than a year from release and I’m eager like a cranked-out beaver for it!
Minutes before I was merely as enthused as a gay squirrel eyeing a giant nut sack.
Some casting choices are great: Zach Quinto as Spock (Sylar on Heroes, the only TV villain I actually hate) …
I loved him as Spock in addition to the visual match with Nemoy. Many of Quinto’s lines were delivered with exceptional douchebaggery - apparently Sylar makes good practice. Afterall, Vulcans dont show emotion but the tone of voice can say alot. There was a “live long and prosper” line that clearly meant “eat tribble shit and die, you old bastard”. Dialogue was a huge part of eleven’s character driven feel since a character’s lines define them. Each of the main cast had a unique voice that encapsulated their venerable roles with a fresh take. The main exception being Uhuru, whom was given alot more depth with an unexpected love interest.
The all important big chair will be filled by Chris Pine (a virtually unknown pretty boy) as Kirk. He has said he’ll be bringing a Harrison Ford-like quality to the role, which I think can work as a novel approach. “I thought these Klingons … smelled bad …on the outside!”
The Ford take on Kirk worked well as you got all the arrogance and swagger of James T. but without the … exaggerate pauses of … his acting … “style”. Lots of good action scenes with well-staged Rapid Fu combat and killer lines that befit the character. You know he’s not gonna die off, but the scenes emotionmally draw you in without being too touchy-feely. It’s rumored that Shatner resents not being cast in this one. It’s for the best, many of these scenes might have killed him.
Some others have me wondering: Simon Pegg as Scotty (dude from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Funny sure, but do we want this much schtick from our favorite high-functioning alcoholic ethnic stereotype engineer?) and John “Harold who bitched all the way to White Castle” Cho as Sulu (is a rabies spewing tribble gonna attack the helmsman?). I can see they’re aiming to capture some of the camp of the original series, which is beautiful — but fills my Trekie heart with dread colder than an Andorian winter.
Pegg and Cho did well actually. Cho was a bit underused but the slack was taken up by their new seventeen-year-old Chekov, played by Anton Yelchin. Between funnily mispronounced words and a damned WAKIZASHI FIGHT (OK, one spoiler - you must now ritually disembowl yourself), their characters contributed expertly to the action and humor Abrams was going for. Scotty was great and delivered many of his famous lines for the diehards without sounding too contrived. There were even subtle references to the fatness attained by Scotty in the later movies - though he wasn’t the only one.
J.J. Abrams’s directing I’ve got confidence in (Lost was good before the tangled story twists caused my eyes to hemorrhage, and Cloverfield is my favorite Godzilla movie despite literally sickening others), but the writers/co-producers Orci and Kurtzman are from the Hercules and Xena school of fiction (formally the Corn Ball Academy of TV Writing). Decent action shows, but can they meet the standard we fans have for this savior?
Here’s one fan that say they have actually. Before they treat themselves to some congratulatory Greek wrestling, it’s due to Abrams clearly. The movie’s action, tension and comic relief are balanced superbly and supported by the new look of Trek and exciting special effects. You could see the addition of small lines to suture plot holes that were forming and a concerted effort to invoke fan nostalgia without pandering. I could see some lines coming but there were a lot of surprising grandiose scenes.
There was one sizable issue I had with the plotline, a 25 year gap, that gets my nerd sense tingling - but I might have missed it’s covering while foaming at the mouth a cool sequence … or Zoe Saldana. Only Battlestar Galactica has had a more improved re-imagining … and eye candy.
The movie was excellant and could bring on new shows and films. Wrath of Khan, move over.
Yeah, I fuck’in said it!
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