I actually went to see ST:XI a few days after it came out knowing basically what's permeated the cultural landscape and not much else. I was happy! I was entertained! I had a steady of stream of good-looking men and fist fights to keep me interested!

So I thought, ok, I know TOS came out in the sixties and it has all this stigma attached to it, but what the hell, let's give it a shot. And although I was admittedly distracted by the "special effects" and scenery at first (and ok, the presentation of women is of course not something that I'm particularly comfortable with), I got a lot more excited by it than I thought I would be.

And so, recently watching XI again, I was really surprised at how, with just knowing a bit more about the franchise, my enjoyment of it kind of decreased.


Firstly, I just want to say that obviously J. J. Abrams succeeded in what he set out to do. Make a blockbuster move! Make a movie accessible to the general public! Make an entertaining movie! And have enough Trek in there to satisfy the fans!

But with that said, the movie kind of failed for me in terms of a Star Trek movie.

Or at least what I'm learning to appreciate about Star Trek. I don't know that this was necessarily a central guiding theme for Gene Rodenberry, but what struck me about the episodes I've seen of TOS and the first two movies is the underlying awe and excitement of exploring space and encountering new lifeforms and civilizations. And that they react to these new experiences not with suspicion and hostility that I feel has become a kind of norm for sci-fi movies today, but with empathy and ready acceptance.

I mean, I think of "Devil in the Dark" for example where the whatever creature (I'm terrible with names) just killed something like fifty of their men, but when Kirk and Spock finally figure out what's going on, everyone pardons its actions and the humans and the creature work out a symbiotic relationship. It's not just the heroes who possess the special ability to see beyond the immediate past. It's a universe where the response to injury is not immediate revenge, where people look at something that's harmed them deeply, something that's so completely different from them that's not even based on the same atomic element and yet can still say, "Yes, I understand you, you are like me, your motivations and actions are just like my motivations and actions, and even though I have the upper hand now, I don't need to exert that. Instead, let's move on and embrace each other as friends and think about what we can accomplish together."

This, this wows me.

I think also of the scientific joy, the awe when they talk about the possibility of sulfur based life, echoed in TMP when they meet V'Ger, in Khan when the see Genesis, and just in general permeating everything I've seen of Star Trek so far. Excitement at the novelty of what they're experiencing, at the possibilities of what's out there.

So yeah, after watching XI again, I kept thinking: where's the wonder? Where's the inviting in of something foreign to their understanding? I mean, for a crew that's ostensibly the younger reincarnation, this Enterprise feels much more jaded to me. Hey, people can apparently create black holes and travel through time by through one! Ok, I've accepted it, let's move on to the next action sequence. I mean, it's understood that this kind of thing is part of the accepted reality in imaginative media, but still, I want a bit more "Wow!".

(P.S., dear writers, um black holes aren't holes; there's something there. I mean, the whole point is that they're so dense that not even light can escape, so how can you travel through them? I can handwave a lot, but this one is a bit too obvious.)

Besides that, the re-characterization didn't really bother me for the most part. Yeah, Chris Pine's Kirk is only like Shatner's Kirk in the most superficial ways (and not really for the better), but I don't think it has anything to do with Chris Pine's performance or interpretation. I mean, it's obviously what the script called for and in line with the whole "opening up to general audiences" by making the hero more of an every-man I guess. Whatever, Kirk's life obviously has been the most dramatically changed by the timeline crossing so I can buy that he's a completely different person.

I found ZQ's Spock to be both a lot more cold and distanced and passionate and emotional than Nimoy's. Like, he seemed to gravitate between those too extremes for me whereas Spock!Prime had sort of settled down to a place he was comfortable with. But he's suppose to be younger and having just witnessed the destruction of Vulcan and whatnot, it's understandable and probably makes for a more dynamic character.

Karl Urban's McCoy was pretty right on for me. I don't think any of the other characters really resonated too deeply for me to really say they were perfect but they seemed to be pretty decent. Good cast as well, imo. The exception being Uhura as the requisite female love interest. The characterization was pretty off for me and the romance just felt unnecessary, but again la la blockbuster movie, I get it, I'm not upset about it.

And hey, it was still very entertaining to watch! :)

(Captain Fine is still definitely fine. And ZQ improves with acquaintance.)

Oh, and William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy have the kind of friendship that makes me melt. ♥