February 2009
To boldly go where everyone else is going...
-- Posted by OtterVomit on Sunday, February 1 2009
Every time a new trailer for Star Trek comes out, I lose more and more faith and interest in the project. The first trailer of any substance showed us a beautiful mint-condition 1960's Corvette being driven over the side of a cliff. Appropriate symbolism, I think.
I submit for your viewing pleasure (or lack thereof) the latest bit of marketing from the upcoming Star Trek film:
James Kirk smirking, "Why are you talking to me, man?" Certainly, this is not my father’s Trek.
Problem for me is, I really liked my father's Trek.
Its the Trek I grew up on and the Trek I have been waiting to see again since The Next Generation first aired. Clearly, I will still have to wait. Obviously this James T. Kirk is not the Officer and a Gentleman one might expect of a Service Academy candidate. Rather too cynical and smart mouthed it seems, to be the James T Kirk who was entrusted with a capital command at age 35.
This is, of course, only my opinion. But that opinion is based on the observation of a steady decline and eradication of the very ideal of the American Gentleman since the 1960s, replaced with something rather more base. Today's youth seem to have the idea that character and a strong sense of self blooms from indecisiveness, moodiness and a lot of sass-talk.
Proof of the observation is that the film makers tell us such characterization is "necessary to reach a modern audience." If this is not an explicit condemnation of today's society then I don't know what is - the implication of markedly lessened standards of behavior in the name of pandering to the vulgaris mobilus.
I can't discuss this without mentioning that 40 years of feminism have taken their toll. The war against masculinity has been won. Almost everything coming from Hollywood today is female driven. The male characters are confused, weak and wracked with indecision, while the female characters seem decisive, bold, ambitious as hell, and not about to take it any more. I bet you won't see Uhura being saddled with lines like "Why are you talkin' to me, maaaaan?" Nope, instead she will be what Jim Kirk should have been. Maybe they should have turned Kirk into a woman as they did to Starbuck of BSG fame? At least then, with Hollywood's ever-present fetish for manly women, we would see some semblance of the character's attitude remain intact.
1960's Trek was notable in that it was a condemnation of humanity's shortcomings and a hopeful glimpse of what we could become if we overcame them. This "new and sexy Trek" however seems to celebrate and encourage the prevalent shortcomings of the day: self-absorption, contemptuous of all that came before, short attention spans and a need for constant distraction from reality.
The idea that a "teen in angst" could conceivably morph into the Jim Kirk I grew up with seems almost vulgar. Leaders do not have inferiority complexes, although many a tyrant and all pretenders have. This new trend of idolizing the "rebel without a clue" reflects a marginalized generation that is in constant tension (if not battle) against a vaguely defined, little understood "Them" but, because of its inherent powerlessness, all that can be mustered is smart-aleck language and an attitude of defiance - and brand name purchase habits, fantasy retreat, and other signs of an inferior but dissatisfied social status.
By all appearances, this movie is made for the product of a generation whose only sense of self seems to come from the constant barrage of Hollywood fantasy - where the indecisive, weak willed, sass-talking hayseed suddenly produces -seemingly from nowhere- the necessary character to rise to an extraordinary situation. This is fascinating because Star Trek was made by men and women with actual, physical, emotional, mental lives outside Hollywood — war, families, jobs, careers before TV. Today’s Hollywood is a third or fourth generation of inbreeding without any "real world" perspective - grown adults that lack meaningful experience, lacking perspective, judgment and ultimately, wisdom.
Star Trek 2009 will no doubt be popular with the Lost Generation and its smart-ass ennui. In that way, JJ Abrams and his cohorts will enjoy the success that is so sought after in Hollywood. Too bad that they had the perfect opportunity and the perfect vehicle in which to elevate the low state of this country’s movie audience, but instead have chosen to play it safe and churn out more of the same.
Pity.
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