Sunday, November 23, 2008

BOLDLY GOING WHERE OTHERS HAVE GONE BEFORE



While even a cursory glance at the trailer for the new "Star Trek" film (dropping May 9, 2009) tells you some liberties may have been taken, it however still promises to be an action-packed thrill ride. While no filmmakers have covered these early years of the "Star Trek" crew, much of this is nonetheless well-trod ground and it will be up to director J. J. Abrams (ALIAS, LOST, Cloverfield) to give the franchise a fresh take.

After watching some of these clips, I fear an injection of "hipness," which rarely bodes well for already-established franchises (just Google the upcoming X-Men films). However, I've liked much of what J. J. Abrams has done in the past and he has a good eye for characters: keeping them contemporary without being insufferably hip. I am, however, saddened that the sole shots of Lt. Uhura are of the silent-but-naked variety. It would seem a step back in time, to reduce female roles to micro-skirts and cat-eyes; The Pussycat Dolls go to space, as it were. And what's with the Enterprise being built on the ground? I thought it had been well-established that it don't fly through the air too good. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose...

2 comments:

MARILYN A. HUDSON, MLIS said...

Well, it must be remembered that in the original series - that is pretty much were all the women were. There was no excuse for them to wear short, short skirts...In the last episode, in fact, there was a head on assault of the possibility that any woman would ever rise to captain a vessel. The woman was so fragile and weak that she went crazy and had to try to kill Kirk...poor thing...Janeway was still years ahead in the future.... All the early "brass" were men...so it was in the navy of the early 1960's and so it was in the space of the far distant future....art usually reflects its time...

The Stout said...

I don't have a good feeling about this. He's supposed to be Capt of a massive star ship - he looks like he's still going through puberty!!! Sure...I'm going to hand a ship over to a kid who is looking forward to his first 'stache. This has finally taken the whole 'youth' movement in Hollywood to a whole new jumping the shark moment. Total crap...