And thus begins my beef with the "alternate timeline". To me, this film isn't Trek. It has taken everything we know as Trek and tossed it out the damn window using a cheesy plot device (the most flagrant abuse of the "time travel" plot ever), and now they have an excuse to make Kirk a complete douchebag. Because if you recall, Kirk was nothing like this. He was originally referred to as a "stack of books with legs" when he was at the academy. He was very bright and scholarly, and far less reckless. In fact, it is often joked that Picard was the more brazen personality in his academy years than Kirk, even though when they became captains, the roles seemed to become reversed with Picard becoming more disciplined and Kirk becoming more rebelious.
In the aspect of being a Trek film, this movie comes off as more of a parody than anything else. And unfortunately I think Galaxy Quest did it better.
My roommate just pointed out to me that perhaps my problem isn't with the character but with the actor...and I have to admit...I don't like Chris Pine. I think he has the look but I just don't care for him much. I like all the other actors though. And I think it's a fucking crime that they made Uhura such a throwaway character. They went through all the trouble of tweaking timeline and history to get the entire original crew together, and then they just kind of waste that by not putting enough meat there. I get that they probably didn't want to overload the film with too many meaty characters up front, but then they could have solved that by not including so many of the original characters right away. They could have saved a few for the next film. Oh well.
~ Amanda
"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."
