Ok, it's been a few days and I am feeling a little guilty about my lack of productivity. Rest assured dear readers, my absence as been due to an ongoing search for gainful employment, and not due to a lack of desire to dazzle you with my random articles about stuff I want to talk about. (so far, being witty and awesome does not pay bills) Oh, and I was watching the Super Bowl last Sunday. Yay Saints!
Anyway, in my spare time, I have been thinking, and I have come to a conclusion; the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie is the worst/best movie of the year. When I say best, I mean I saw it in the theatre 3 times, and I had a blast. Growing up, I had seen all the old star trek movies, but I had never watched any of the shows. When an older sibling likes something, it's easy to write it off as "lame" in order to establish your own identity. But the new Star Trek got me so excited that I began to borrow several of the series' from friends or the public library. After 2 and half seasons of Star Trek: the Next Generation, and about 3 seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, I have to conclude that the shows contain far superior story telling than the movie.
Now I have by no means become a trekkie (yet). The old shows do seem painfully dated at times and can fall into low points that make you cringe. But what the old shows lack in special effects, they make up for in creating a far more interesting world than the black and white future in JJ Abrams shiny new Trek. One of the complaints many people apparently had with the shows was that there was a lack of action and an excess of plot. While this is occasionally true, more often than not, the two series I've mentioned contain a rather thrilling amount of danger and intrigue. What the tv series' lack in production values, they make up for in following one simple rule, explosions and action sequences do not equal a compelling narrative. With a vision of the future based on diplomacy and politics, the threat of war always looms large. Peace is something to constantly maintain, something to fight for, and never a given. Because the shows focus on character and the struggle not to fight, they are far more compelling in the long run than a future of shoot first, plot later. The threat of extreme action should build tension, but the viewer should ultimately hope against all out war. We want see our heroes succeed with words rather than bombs. JJ Abrams wanted a vision of Star Trek where the promise of action was fulfilled, and, upon reflection, I find this approach tacky. It's easy to create drama by blowing up something, it is far harder and more rewarding to maintain the promise of destruction with the hope of resolution. To Create a world where diplomatic solutions are not possible or laughed at is a counter to everything Star Trek seems to represent.
My favorite Original Cast movie hands down was Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country. As a cold war allegory, you have the crew struggling to preserve a fragile peace between two hostile empires. Ultimately, the conspirators are found and diplomacy prevails. The plot is intriguing and exciting without a snow monster chase. In the new Trek we have bad guy on killing spree, so let's kill him back. It's two dimensional and much less rewarding in the long run.
With the new Start Trek, you get a very well done summer movie, with a great ensemble cast, and I think it fits in fairly well with the universe of the original Cast films. But it is a shame that the film has abandoned the subtlety that made the series so memorable in the first place. Perhaps this will be addressed in the sequels, but as long as they are written by the two buffoons responsible for Transformers 2, I doubt they possess the maturity to tell a better story that is more exciting than the first film and contains fewer action set pieces.
What has me so ambivalent about the new Star Trek is that it did what it set out to do, which is to bring new fans into the Star Trek universe (myself being a prime example). But now that I am discovering the old shows, I feel like someone promised my candy and slipped me steak dinner instead. I'm grateful for the steak, but suddenly the candy that looked so good pales in comparison. I will continue to struggle with my feelings about the movie as I own it on blu-ray and it's still quite fun to watch, but I will always begrudge it a little for trying to make Star Trek into Star Wars. Given the choice of which galaxy I prefer, I'll choose the one without Jar Jar Binks every time. That's enough nerd rant for now, I'll try to do better next time.
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