We drove into Aurora and saw Star Trek at the Movie Tavern. Since it's been out for a bit and probably everyone who is going to see it has already done so, I won't bother with giving you a detailed review of it. Suffice it to say that it was an enjoyable way to kill two hours, and while I thought it was a good movie, I didn't think it was a particularly good Star Trek movie.
(Spoilers Ahoy!!!)
Yeah, yeah - parallel time line ... I get it. That was actually the least of my complaints. The villain just flat wasn't very interesting - 20 seconds of explanation and a hologram of his dead pregnant wife just wasn't enough for me to care, let alone sympathize. He was just a generic villain. The Kobayashi Maru simulation scene was awful ... I'm not even a hard-core Trekker and I hated it. It took me completely out of the movie. And most of all, the entire movie was just way too "boys day out" for me. The only reason Uhura was even in the movie was because she was integral to the original series and apparently they couldn't figure out a good way to get rid of her. So they did the next best thing ... reduced her to a love interest. And she got off good ... let's look at the other female characters and their fates, shall we? Kirk's mother? Once she did her duty in giving Kirk to the universe, she's never heard from again. Supposedly, in this version of things, she would have been the one who raised dear little Jimmy. Do we hear anything about that? Nope - except for one comment about her being off-planet during one of JTK's escapades. Probably if she'd been in the kitchen more, he wouldn't have been such a handful. But we hear plenty about dear departed George Kirk, don't we. Nero's wife? Okay, okay ... calling her a character in the movie is really stretching it, so I'll leave off and keep my comments about her to myself. Uhura's green-skinned room mate and Kirk's quasi-love interest? Labeled a twit and a slut and apparently killed off with the most of the rest of the Acadamy's graduating class. You'd think she was a Bond girl. Spock's mother? She was Winona Ryder, for God's sake! That all by itself was an insult to the character! Seriously, though ... for being the parent responsible for Spock's human half, and all the angst that resulted from his being "a child of two worlds", I expected more for her than to just fall off a cliff in the middle of a transport. Apparently somebody decided that Spock wouldn't take losing 6 billion of his fellow Vulcans as badly as he would losing his mother.
There were good things about the movie, though. The characterizations were the primary thing that the movie got right. I loved Bones and Scotty! Their characters were, I thought, spot on. I was a little afraid I was going to be seeing Eomer in a Starfleet uniform, but I completely bought Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy. I don't know who the guy playing Scotty was, but he absolutely nailed the part. (One question though: What was with his little troll sidekick?) I had a little trouble with whosits as Sulu ... I've seen Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle a few too many times. (Yes, it's an incredibly stupid movie. Don't judge me.) I knew exactly why he couldn't get the Enterprise into gear ... doesn't Starfleet require drug testing? But honestly, if you havn't seen H&K, it probably won't bother you.
Wow, that was a much longer non-review than I had intended. Sorry about that. Just one final comment ... In thinking about the movie as a whole, did anyone else think of kids who drop lit cherry bombs down toilets? In a weird sort of way, that kind of what was going on. Just with planets instead of toilets. Anyone? No? It's just me? Okay, carry on.
Now that that's out of the way, I thought that I would attempt to counteract some of my recent general post-vacation bitchiness with a list of things that make me happy. I know that some days it seems like I must be a person who doesn't have any of these, but I do. In the interest of sharing some of "teh happie" I will limit this list to stuff that I can link to:
- Brittney Lee's artwork. I have two of her cat prints, and I'm hoping she will put some of her other ones up for sale soon. Her artwork is so fun, and it just makes me happy to look at it.
- Pioneer Woman's Recipes. Her whole site is fun, but I have tried several of her recipes and every one of them has been out-of-this-world good! Now if she'd just put up adjustments for high altitude baking...
- Cake Wrecks. Hee! I'm with her ... cupcake cakes are an idea that really should have been forgotten about.
- Dead Fred.com. I'm one of those people who sometimes buy old photos of people I'm not related to. I find them fascinating, and a little sad. However, I'm cheap, and that is no longer a cheap hobby. Dead Fred is the next best thing.
- Historic Properties. I know I'm never going to buy one of these houses. But this is about my favorite "lottery dream" website.
- Shore Bears! No, there's no link. Go ahead and type it into Google if you wish ... you won't find it. Guess you'll just have to keep watching this space, wontcha?
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