Let's get something out of the way first. I like Star Trek. I was a fan of the reboot and the original series. I'm a huge fan of Deep Space Nine and I think it represents a solid attempt to combine action with a meaningful debate on the morality of war, religion and about a million other things. It was also fun as all get-out.
Which is what Star Trek Into Darkness definitely is. Fun. A wonton romp to just about nowhere, without rhyme or reason. And several 'splosions. And Alice Eve in her underwear. Because, I mean, really. For what other reason does her character appear except to randomly (and it really is out of the blue) undress in front of Captain Kirk?
Which is basically what this movie boiled down to. A lot happened -- from a terrorist attack, to an interstellar manhunt, to a ten-second debate on the existential dilemma between law-and-order and justice -- but not a lot really happened. Cribbing many of its lines from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, it felt like a bad joke, or a poorly timed parody of a film that was deeply invested in exploring the boundary between life and death, heroism and the extent of scientific advancement. Moreover, "Wrath of Khan" has a deeply emotional conclusion which is the ultimate culmination of decades of on-screen relationships between the central characters.
Because why not?
Ultimately, the second Trek is a silly pastiche of Star Trek tropes that descends quickly into inanity. While it moves quickly, the pacing seems directed at brushing over its shallowness; the humor is sophomoric and the petty bickering between Kirk and Spock is just that: petty. While it might be a spectacle to behold, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It was pandering of the worst kind.
With the release of the first teaser poster last week, interest in the new Star Trek movie has peaked. I'm not at all sure how I missed it, but over the weekend, the new trailer was also released. This blog isn't really designed to be a movie-speculation forum, so I'll just leave it without making much comment, except that I'm pretty sure Cummerbatch is not playing Khan.
First of all, there's a new Star Trek: Into Darkness poster up. You know the drill: Let's get excited! There's not a lot to go on; I've heard speculation that it's the Borg (please, God, no!), and if you zoom in on the poster you can see the devastated city is clearly London. How that ties in is anyone's guess, but after they destroyed San Francisco in the last one anything goes.
It also seems pretty clear that the central figure isn't Kirk. Chris Pine is many things, but brunette he certainly is not. So that leads me to suspect Cummerbatch; if that's the case, and we know he's set to play the villain, that makes me pretty sure the devastation has been wrought by Gary Mitchell, the rumored bad guy in this go-round. From the Original Series, we know that Gary Mitchell gained near-Q powers and would certainly make sense to see someone unsettled by the sudden acquisition of power go berserk on a major Earth city. So that's my speculation, what do you think?
This is pretty cool: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is set to be made into a BBC mini-series. The book, written by Susanna Clarke, still ranks in my Top 10 Fantasy Books List. It's up there with Name of the Wind, and The Farseer Trilogy (I know, trilogies shouldn't count as one entry, but in the genre of fantasy if I didn't include series as single entries there'd only be two [maybe three] on there.) That being said, I'm really excited about the mini-series. Tor.com has an interesting article on who should play each character; even though he's been just about everywhere, Benedict Cummerbatch would make a great Jonathan Strange, and Ian Holm would excel as Mr. Norrell.
The interwebs have been abuzz recently with an ongoing controversy surrounding sexism in the comic industry and nerdom in general. The basic argument is that women are under-represented and that rampant sexism denies their agency and objectifies them. Over at The Hawkeye Initiative, artists have recast Hawkeye in many of the provocative poses of female superheroes. io9 has a great article detailing some of the better entries.
