nausicaa83: (<star trek> khan)
Nausicaa ([personal profile] nausicaa83) wrote2013-06-21 08:59 pm

"Where I'm seeing you there with your hands in the air waiting to finally be caught."

It's the longest day of the year, my favourite one! And yet, sadly, this morning my iPod, my good ol' G-ERTI, had a technical malfunction. Probably my fault for giving it that name. Anyway, the volume thingy got stuck (yes, I am a creature of immense mechanical aptitude too), and according to the website it would cost at least 100 euros to get it fixed. In other words, new iPod. I ordered one from the website, so that I could have the engraving too. Pictures to follow when it gets here, probably on monday morning.

In the afternoon I wore my Tony Stark shirt and went to the cinema to see Star Trek Into Darkness, because here in Italy it came out last week. And yet I had managed to avoid any and all spoilers, go me. By the way, I chose the Tony Stark shirt because I don't have a Star Trek one, and that's appalling, considering I've loved Star Trek since I was 11. RedBubble, here I come.

Spoiler-free review! I loved it. I absolutely loved it. The first part was good, but nothing special, but the second part was fantastic, and made me cry and jump in my seat and feel like a kid again, watching the original series on my old tv (the one that exploded - long story). There are only two major flaws that I can see (well, three, but the third is a huge spoiler, so it goes under the cut): first, that annoying, completely pointless shot of Carol in her underwear. It had no reason to be there, except that she has boobs and we need to see them. And it makes even less sense considering that she's a competent, smart character with a compelling storyline. So what the hell. The second flaw is that we didn't really get to learn enough of John Harrison's past. I'm not asking for flashback, just a couple of dialogues more would have helped with understanding other characters' reactions to him.

Also, Benedict Cumberbatch was extraordinary. I mean, I already knew he was good, he is one of my favourite actors for a reason, but here he was... absolutely incredible. Way above the other actors, who are all really good. He's just completely on a league of his own. Holy shit. And I watched the dubbed version (an amazing Simone D'Andrea, who really managed to re-create his speech patterns), I can only imagine what the original version must be. My head will probably explode.

Okay, the third flaw is, Khan isn't white. Benedict is extraordinary, and he makes a fantastic, unique Khan, but the iconic movie roles for PoCs are so few it's embarassing for the human race, and taking one of the most important characters in science fiction history and giving it to a whiter than white actor is really, really bad. This is Katniss all over again. At least this time it's an evil, racist mass murderer, not a heroine. But still.

Back to the positive, I can't believe they put the glass scene in. The "this is what slash means" scene. And they reversed it. And they took my poor little heart, squeezed it off my chest, and left me there sobbing in my seat. I also loved that they showed Uhura and Kirk being friends, trying to talk Spock into showing that he cares for them. That both his best friend and his girlfriend are on the same level to him, and that's perfectly normal. That, and the male heroes crying, more than once, and that being perfectly normal too. Yessss. I like my characters human and realistic, not macho robots, thank you very much. And Uhura has a lot more scenes and even faces a bunch of Klingons all alone, armed only with her knowledge and wits, you go girl!

And what most of all I adored was the message of the movie. War = bad. Yes, even if they attack us first. Even if they do terrorist attacks. Because war means innocent people getting killed, and that's unacceptable, period. And that's what Star Trek was all about, what made me love it so fiercely back when I was a kid: that they were explorers, not soldiers. That they had a spaceship, and they used it to travel, to meet new people, to LEARN. Not to kill, plant flags nor destroy foreign cultures. That even if Khan is a terrorist, even if he is a murderer, he doesn't get to be executed without a trial, while nobody cares if they start a war in the process. That's WRONG. And that's why this movie, even with its flaws, deserves all the praise I can give. ♥

And now, off to dinner! \o/

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