Not so bold

[surrealestate]

So I saw the Star Trek flick last night. It was largely fun, and I mostly enjoyed it while watching (in part due to misguided optimism).

What I liked a lot included excellent special effects and fun action scenes, but especially lots and lots of pandering to the original. There were many references, back-filled explanations, and just a lot of fun stuff. The fun stuff was, imho, the best part of this movie, and there was a lot of it.

What I didn't like, hated, in fact, was their handling of women. Women existed to give birth, to die, and drape themselves on men. That was it. At the least, they had an opportunity to take a crew member and make her into something, and they chose to make her even less relevant than she was in the original. Oh yeah, and she was also the only black character, as I recall.

I realize I'm going against every other review I've read (not a single one of which even mentioned the above issue, which kind of horrifies me), but I can't really recommend this movie. I also realize my opinion doesn't mean jack, but I figure there's got to be at least one other person out there who feels similarly and might be glad to know they're not the only one. (I already know I'm not since two people in my extended group were also annoyed by it.)

Comments

[ifotismeni]

i appreciate your honesty on this... when everyone goes "OMG IT'S AWESOME" i start to wonder. plus your criticism rings true of star trek in general, the female characters tended to fall very flat (which they tried to fix with captain janeway, failed badly).

[sapphira-altair.livejournal.com]

Yeah, honestly, I kind of assumed they didn't give women any major life-role in this movie because they were trying to keep the old traditional roles within Star Trek... that is, change the background stories but keep the basic character principles the same. Doesn't make it any better.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

Yes there were many scantily clad women in TOS, but there were also those that. The original pilot of 'Trek had a female 1st officer, and Uhura originally wore the gold uniform of command track, and in one episode did command the Enterprise - none of this went well with network...

So, not in keeping with the original, unless you put it through the blender of 60s white male corporate executives. And then it is still a step or two back.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

For me, it's not "OMG IT'S AWESOME!" I've been so guilty of that shit I'd get the death penalty. It's when the hyperbole hits a certain pitch, and is so unanimous, that I start worrying.

To be honest, I really think this movie may not be good, but it will not suck, and frankly, not sucking is probably enough for most Trekkies to freak out.

[ifotismeni]

considering how BADLY most ST movies sucked, as long as this one doesn't suck, i will be quite happy. i mean shit i saw nemesis twice even though it made me cry.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Supposedly, when Nemesis came out, pictures of Roddenberry weeped tears of blood. Nobody's ever been able to confirm this, though.

[mobiusblack.livejournal.com]

*I* weeped tears of blood when it came out!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I, for one, thank you for this review. It's saddening but necessary.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

It's never necessary. Especially in a proposed enlightened future. Have you ever seen the Cinderella movie with Brandy in the title role? Just because parents may be of one race doesn't mean the movie fails because the children are of another. So just because the original was so misogynistic doesn't mean this prequel needs to be.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

This movies was *far* worse than TOS. See my comments above.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

You do remember my personality, right? I would never condone misogyny. What I described as necessary is surrealestate's review; I'm saddened to hear that the movie is like this, but grateful to her for warning us, because we need to know.

[prog.livejournal.com]

[I have not seen the movie.]

My first exposure to this movie (after last year's teaser-trailer) was its first internet trailer, which IIRC showed Uhura only once, and it was a quick cut of her ripping her own shirt off to reveal a lacy bra. No other women to be found.

They say that trailers are often the movie that the studio's marketing department wishes that the producers had made. Disappointed to learn that in this instance it wasn't far off.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely right. For all that I do think it's the best thing they've done with Trek in a long while, they totally wasted their opportunity to correct one of the major problems with the original series when they could have easily done so.

Thanks for pointing it out; I was so wrapped up in enjoying their treatment of the characters and situations I remembered from the original series, I wasn't paying attention to the things that were missing.

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

Aw, man. That's just disappointing.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

At the least, they had an opportunity to take a crew member and make her into something, and they chose to make her even less relevant than she was in the original.

Two points:

1) >WINCE< That's no good. The shot of her taking off her shirt kind of put me off a bit, and I heard she either does Kirk (or, rather, Kirk does her, this sounds like that kind of movie) or gets close to doing/being done.

2) It's kind of amusing how avoiding spoilers is so ingrained you can't come right out and say it's Uhura you're talking about, even though everybody can easily figure it out. :-)

[ron_newman]

I can't even think of another female character in Star Trek Classic. Was there one?

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand. But Uhura got better lines (when she got lines).

[prog.livejournal.com]

One can also put on their super-nerdo hat and point to "Number One", Capt. Pike's second-in-command from the pilot episode. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_One_(Star_Trek)

She even wore trousers! Not another lady like her in any episode to follow...

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Trek has a lousy feminist record for the most part. Remember the TNG episode where Riker literally seduces a "androgynous" alien just by basically having a penis? It was hard not to read it as the valiant striving of a penis against the lesbian matriarchy.

[ifotismeni]

ah yes, early TNG. those were the days.

[avram]

Even Jonathan Frakes thinks they copped out on that episode.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

And part of me always wanted "Number One" from "The Prisoner" to be Majel Barrett.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

The original Number One, played by Majel, was 1st officer in the pilot...

[dougo.livejournal.com]

If they can make Starbuck a woman, surely they could have made, say, Bones or Scotty a woman. (Although, a female engineer would be seen as a ripoff of Kaylee from Firefly.)

[gsh]

Yea, and they gave her a love interest who mates only every 7 years.

[iceberg3k.livejournal.com]

There's nothing that says Vulcans have sex only every 7 years. Just that they are compelled to do so biologically on that schedule.

[tober.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm torn on this one. ST:TOS was really quite misogynistic. This movie (as I understand it - haven't seen it yet and haven't even seen trailers for it) is about events shortly before ST:TOS begins. The argument can be made that to be consistent it has to be equally misogynistic. OTOH, I've heard that it generally takes a lot of liberties with the existing canon... and if that's the case then it seems to me that one perfectly reasonable liberty (probably more reasonable than many they actually did take) could be to not cater so much to a mid-1960s American sci-fi television audience - as I think that, much more than that Roddenberry explicitly wanted it that way, was why ST:TOS was as it was.

[avram]

as I think that, much more than that Roddenberry explicitly wanted it that way, was why ST:TOS was as it was.

Definitely.

In the pilot for Star Trek, the second in command was a woman, and female crew wore pants. The network executives said that audiences wouldn't be able to cope with that, so we got women demoted to secretaries and wearing miniskirts.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Well, I was sort of on the fence about caring, so this sort of pushes me away a bit more.

I was never a big fan of the original series. In part because of it's "gool ol boys" nature.

[http://users.livejournal.com/urban_faerie_/]

i loved the movie but i didn't like the handling of women either. good call.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

[I haven't seen it yet - will tonite]

I thought it was quite weird that there were 4 people in the promo picture, why couldn't one of them be female? I could see if it was just kirk/spock/mcCoy, but if there's more in the shot then Uhura should be there too. Sadly, even in this enlightened day and age women Hollywood relegates women into "eye candy" with brains to match, generally. And if a picture shows a strong woman, the fact that there's a strong female image in the film is something that the film is Based Upon. Whereas strong male images get to *do* things, strong female images simply get to be a *strong female image* that doesn't actually do much.

The reason why "Number 1" in the original Pilot was a woman? She was Roddenbury's wife. Just because the culture in the 1960's was horrid towards women (aka the little stupid-for-anything-but-eyecandy miniskirt uniform) doesn't mean that this particular movie has to be set in the 1960's culture. But "Hollywood" likes women as eye candy, therefore they used that as justification for this movie to ignore women.

However I do intend to watch it and enjoy it. Just I'm likely to be sad that women are so poorly portrayed in it.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

She was not his wife at the time - he was otherwise married, although they were dating. She and NIchelle Nichols both followed Roddenbury from his prior series, where they were both guest stars...

[avram]

The reason why "Number 1" in the original Pilot was a woman? She was Roddenbury's wife.

Wrong twice.

First, because (as VibrantAbyss points out) Majel Barrett and Gene Roddenberry weren't married at the time. In fact, they didn't get married until after Star Trek had gone off the air. Still, they had met in 1963, and were sleeping together when "The Cage" was being produced, so you could still argue that he created the part for her because she was his girlfriend, except for my next point:

Second, and more important, Roddenberry's original pitch for Star Trek described "Number One" as an Egyptian-looking woman, which doesn't fit Barrett. So he must have conceived the part, and the idea of a female first officer, before deciding to cast Barrett.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Star Trek was "daring" for the time. Why the fuck can't it be daring for now?

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

yup, and the uhura love story made NO SENSE AT ALL, esp since he was supposed to be her instructor, or so a passing comment said. ... wtf?

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this review. I'm disappointed to hear that this movie fails the Bechdel Test so badly.

[tober.livejournal.com]

Actually, the person I saw the movie with tonight pointed out to me that it did in fact pass the Bechdel Test.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

What conversation?

[tober.livejournal.com]

It was brief and easily missed - but Uhura and her roommate (the green chick who Kirk was making out with before Uhura walked in) exchange about three lines about Uhura's work.

[beowabbit]

Yeah. In the 1960’s Nichelle Nichols almost quit because she was so tired of lines that basically consisted of “Hailing frequencies open, sir!” and “Captain, I’m frightened!”, and my understanding is that Martin Luther King (not the world’s most sophisticated feminist himself, I gather) persuaded her to stay on the theory that even the mere presence of a black woman on the bridge of a spaceship would have a net positive effect on the black little girls of the day.

In 2009, the bar is a lot higher. Granted, Zoe Saldaña did get her character fleshed out a little more than Nichols did. She got to be eye candy and throw herself at a man. Now that’s truly breaking new ground for a female supporting actress in a major Hollywood film!

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I want to point out that your eloquence in this post and the things you said about the FB thread is rather impressive.

I got sufficiently caught up in the movie that I barely notice that, but I expect at least part of that is that I am a bit of a genderfuck and could relate to the men as well as to the women, and could see myself in their shoes to some degree. But your points are entirely valid. Thank you.

[underwatercolor.livejournal.com]

Good point! :) I really would have liked a female Scotty, Sulu, etc. in this timeline. :)

No one cares about the old Battlestar, but even so: they successfully gender-shifted characters across the board, including their most important fighter pilot. It makes Star Trek feel like a big step backwards.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

The miniskirt uniforms really really bothered me.

I kept imagining my current roommate (who was in the air force) looking at those uniforms and saying "no".

[babasyzygy.livejournal.com]

I can only refer you to this analysis. It makes sense - women aren't there to be exploited, they're just kind of irrelevant to the primary tension in the story.