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Last Updated: Jun 30th, 2009 - 13:06:59 |
Despite some annoyances, the new “Star Trek” succeeds where
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| The new cast of 'Star Trek.' |
few other movie remakes or re-imaginings have in the past. It crackles with energy, comedy and enough action to make even die-hard fans of the original spaceship adventure show forget that much of the old trekkie order has given way to the new.
Even though it takes on a young cast to fill familiar roles, it jumps back in chronological time, to when the original cast was also very young. So the newbies, including Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura, Simon Pegg as Scotty, John Cho as Hikaru Sulu and Anton Yelchin as Pavel Checkov, simultaneously assume old roles while updating the original tempo and content of the narrative.
Of course, particularly interesting to me is Zoe Saldana as not only the featured Black woman in the cast but also the main featured woman—period. While Uhura of the old T.V. show episodes (Nichelle Nichols) was a sexy but methodical straight arrow in her job—with the earth-shattering first interracial kiss on T.V. with Captain Kirk—Saldana pushes the envelope and updates the image and persona of the Black, sexy techie.
In 2009, compared to the 1960 beginnings of the genre, Uhura has more emotional and sexual freedom to not feel awkward toward the childish advances of Kirk or toward the gaping stares of her crewmates as she openly comforts her true love, (which I will not reveal here). Her Black beauty is affirmed; she is openly admired by the men around her.
I also thoroughly enjoyed how the re-imagined Sulu bursts out of the repressed, nerdy caricature of an Asian in the original series. Here, in one memorable scene, he takes on all the ferocity of a full-blown martial arts superstar. Those original “Star Trek” producers don’t know what they missed. They could have combined the space age with Bruce Lee!
The minor annoyances here are that the filmmakers attempt a feat of time travel and manipulation that can make the story difficult to follow—even for those of us who think we understand Einstein’s theory of relativity. Second, the film tries too hard to brand Kirk as some quintessential badass, who from a young age needs to rebel, kick ass and, despite the odds of death, rely on his own (White, male) convictions. The film does not convince us of the easy leap made from these reckless attributes to those that allow a man to captain a space ship and explore galaxies without getting everyone killed. There is a thin line between being young and foolish and old and foolish.
There are some great special effects. My favorite is what looks like a mutated giant lobster on some godforsaken frozen planet. I’m not the true Trekkie in my family—never have been—but even I could kick back and enjoy this ride.
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