(Side note: I had to sit through almost 20 minutes of
trailers, none of which were new and almost all of which were terrible or dull;
still saying the Nerd Prayer for Suicide
Squad)When you take the reins of Star Trek away from J.J. Abrams, Robert Orci, and Alex Kurtzman and give it to Justin Lin, Simon Pegg, and Doug Jung you get:
- Every character having a plot-purpose and a
highlighted moment where they shine- Prominent casting of non-white actors
- Women who kick ass, fix spaceships, and don’t
have a camera leer at them- No sexist jokes
- A deeply touching send off to Leonard Nimoy
- Hikaru Sulu taking charge of the bridge
- Hikaru Sulu having a husband
- Nobody making a big deal of Sulu having a
husband- James T. Kirk, infamous lady’s man, looking at
Sulu with his husband and daughter and clearly wishing he had that kind of
close family to come home to because heteronormativity is dead in the future- Cast being listed in alphabetic order in the end
credits so that John Cho goes first- I guess what I’m saying is that with both the director and one of the writers being Asian-American, there was clearly a push for Sulu to get
the honor he deserves in this- So many possible couple pairings from all the
scenes together, and I ship them, all of them, just a big free love
multishipping orgy onboard the Enterprise- Creative fight scenes that incorporate futuristic
sci-fi tech and zero gravity- New plot instead of recycling the end of Wrath of Khan
- Kirk riding a motorcycle, but in a completely
plot-justified and clever diversionary tactic- Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” being used in one of
the best scenes in the movie, I kid you not, it actually makes sense in context- Lots of humor and witty banter
- Trek’s
traditional shining optimism about unity in diversity and human potential for
good- Continuity references
- The best Rihanna song in a long time for the end
creditsSo yeah, I really liked it. In fact, I think I liked it
better than the first in the reboot.