This post is dedicated to my one reader who still visits this cob-web strewn region of the internet *waves to Tim*.
I got to see an advanced screening of Star Trek, for free! For sure! And to demonstrate my thankfulness to the producer of this movie, I should share some of my thoughts on the movie so that you will boldly go where doubtless many more others will go and shell out some dosh to see Star Trek!
First- the title of the movie. Star Trek. The first Star Trek movie in 1979 had this name so personally, I would have been more content if it had been titled Star Trek Year One, or Star Trek Origins, or Star Trek: Beginnings, or something like that. After all, that’s what the movie was about. It chronicles the early years when the crew of the SS Enterprise meet each other for the very first time and start their whole star trekin’ escapades across the universe. On the Star Ship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk!
The characters were true to form. Captain James T. Kirk has always been a difficult character for me to pin down. He seems heroic, and noble, but then he comes across as a flirtatious womaniser. But I guess he is no different to the character of James Bond in that sense. And he really plays up his womanising-ness in this movie. This is not the aspect of the character that I enjoy, but it was true to form.
I loved seeing the introduction of Scotty. I can’t remember if the original Star Trek discussed scientific theories all that much, but I was delighted that we got to hear Scotty’s thoughts on whether he could teleport (that’s beam me down to the unversed) people onto a movie object. It was cool seeing him work it out.
The sheer delight for me was seeing Zachary Quinto’s portrayal of a young Spock. Yes, I do watch Heroes, and am familiar with his portrayal of Silar, which was very chilling. The thing that really got me thinking was the way Spock wrestles with his human nature and his Vulcan nature. (He has always reminded me of a certain Namor, but that’s another story).
The character of Mr Spock is calculated and reasoned. But being half human, he wrestles with his emotions which sometimes get the better of his Vulcan logic. This seems to depict the struggle that our world wrestles with: ‘I feel, therefore I am’ is the catch cry of our world. We desire experiences which make us feel. Facts and truth mean little to us in the face of feeling and experiences- a concept which has seemed to have influenced the way Christians do church (but that, dear reader, is for another post. Suffice it to say for now that truth should influence feeling, not the other way around…)
And it wasn’t until later that I realised that Eric Bana was portraying that rascally Romulan Nero. Well done Bana for all your craziness. I still miss you playing Ray Martin on Full Frontal.
SPOILER ALERT
The movie also deals with the concept of time travel. I absolutely love anything to do with the concept of time travel. My imagination has been captured by this concept since the Back to the Future movies. In this movie, (and here’s where you want to tune out if you dislike spoilers), older Spock travels back in time and meets younger Spock.
The movie was done by JJ Abrams, the creator of Lost. Being a Lost fan, I saw definitive parallels between this movie and Lost. There was the introduction of the older Mr Spock. I found myself clapping when I saw Leonard Nimoy on the big screen. It was such a pleasant surprise. Die-hard fans will love the continuity with the original. The concept of meeting your future self, and of what has happened in the past will happen in the future was such a Lost concept. I loved it.
I’d see it again. Defo.
