Tuesday, December 09, 2008

6 Reasons why I'm not looking foward to the new Star Trek film

I've watched a decent amount of Star Trek but I don't really feel like the new film has much to offer. Here are some reasons:
1. Star Trek already had an origin story in the TV series Enterprise as I understand it and I don't believe we need an updating of the characters. There have been a million films exploring the relationship between Kirk and Spock, enough already
2. John Cho plays Sulu and it's hard to picture him as anyone other than the guy who set stereotypes of Asian-Americans on screen back several decades as the lead in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
3. There appears to be a pretty awkward sex scene in the trailer between Chris Pine's character and someone else. I'm not opposed to sex scenes but it doesn't seem very original Star Trekish. Also, Kirk appears to pick up every girl in sight in the opening couple of scenes. Kirk did have several love interests but he wasn't going out of his way to look for them. He just happily stumbled upon them: Hence the illusion the show created that space exploration is romantic.
4. I'm tired of franchises reinvnenting themselves to make an extra buck. I don't care of it was done well in Batman and James Bond. To me, using the brand name of the franchise with a completely different style of filmmaking reeks of commercial pandering to me. If your movie series has run its course, let it die or reinvent elements within your established framework. I believe a large-scale do over is kind of like cheating.
5. It seems so generic. Captain Kirk is basically made into some James Dean stereotype who's rebellious before he ends up being a devoted captain. Oooh, didn't see that plot twist coming.
6. They're calling it Star Trek. How pretentious is that? Not Star Trek VIII or Star Trek whatever number they are in the series. No they want to erase the memory that there were any Star Trek's before this one.

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