Hamstadini said:
“I don’t care how Kirk beat Kahn. When in my lifetime am I going to command a starship against a genetically engineered supergenius? I don’t care about what they did in the rehash between Kirk and Spock’s relationship, or how the CHARACTERS deal with loss. I wanted to see a story answering how WE should deal with it.”

Being old enough to have grown up watching TOS like 90 billion times, Star Trek has – and always will be – about the characters FIRST, and the Hippy lovefest message SECOND. The very first Star Trek episode has Spock emotionally frustrated about Kirk taking over, Bones’ dislike for Spock, and over time, their friendship develops into this nice three triangle of buddies. Every character – including Sulu and Chekov – is developed. Look at In Search of Spock FFS. It’s not our story – it’s THEIRS.

It wasn’t until the hokey later 80′s flicks that Star Trek goes overboard with the grand environmental/theological messages and makes it the PIVOTAL point of the story. Because that gave both Shatner and Nimoy and the rest of the cast the ability to be campy since the character development doesn’t matter anymore.

The biggest atrocity in TOS Star Trek history is Undiscovered Country. That is possibly the WORST obvious message: END XENOPHOBIA (or racism). The plot was full of holes, the characters were mere cut-outs of their deeper selves, the action was campy and cheesy, and the production values were HORRIBLE. Worst of all, it was merely made to smooth out the transition between Next Generation and the Original Series. It’s as bad as that attempt they called Enterprise.

You said that WoK was “just mindless action” and then admitted that it talked about getting older. You contradicted your own argument! Kirk mentioned getting old once or twice? Maybe, I wasn’t counting, but the theme and events related to that theme are peppered throughout the film. It’s just not blatantly obvious; it’s kind of subtle.

You said you didn’t care about how Kirk beat Khan. You also said about the new Trek that you didn’t care about how the characters dealt with loss, you wanted to see how “WE should deal with it.” DUDE! If you pay attention to how Kirk beat Khan, you would LEARN SOMETHING that you can apply to life! And that really wasn’t all that subtle! I’m dyin’ over here! =)

Yes, you’re right that one of the talking points of WoK was about getting old; but the battle between Kahn and Kirk was so inflated that it eclipsed the point you were trying to make. How many times did Kirk mention getting old? Once? Twice? And how much time was spent on the Kirk/Kahn conflict?

I don’t care how Kirk beat Kahn. When in my lifetime am I going to command a starship against a genetically engineered supergenius? I don’t care about what they did in the rehash between Kirk and Spock’s relationship, or how the CHARACTERS deal with loss. I wanted to see a story answering how WE should deal with it.

What made Star Trek truly unique back in the day was that gave food for thought. It talked about issues that spanned present day and at the same time were universal – Racism, Environmentalism, Theology. None of that was shown here. And so, to me, it’s just another flashy Science Fiction movie.

WoK was about getting old, about facing death, about dealing with the ghosts of your past. Also, if you PAY ATTENTION to the action scenes, you’ll see HOW Kirk beats Khan despite the fact that Khan is much more intelligent. There are several major points there that you clearly missed. There’s more there about the Cold War, but that’s peppered throughout all of Star Trek and if you’ve missed that, I question your ability to analyze anything.

This new movie is about parent issues. It’s also about how people deal with loss: Nero, Kirk and both Spocks. But, I think that it was mainly about the fact that what made Kirk and Spock great is their relationship with one another. Each one brings out the best in the other. There’s probably more there, but I’ve only seen the thing once.

I saw this movie yesterday, and I can see why people would call this “the ‘best’ since Wrath of Kahn.” WoK was just mindless action, and the remake was just as mindless, if not more so. Sure, the characterization of the cast was great, but other than that?

The fantastic thing about Star Trek movies is that they make you think. The Voyage Home talked about endangered species. Undiscovered Country talked about hatred, and making peace with enemies. Insurrection talked about the search for eternal youth. But this? In order: Spacefight, fistfight, fistfight, fistfight, chase, fistfight, gunfight… well, you get the idea.

Where was the intellect? Heck, where was the temporal Starfleet? You know they would have stepped in and kept the timeline intact. But the people behind this, they were so intent on doing this nouveau Trek that they threw all that out the window.

On a final note, before I get too long-winded: what is Star Trek without an intellectual lesson? The answer: just another Star Wars.

This movie was an excellent piece of film, and I’m looking forward to the sequel and the Blu-Ray release.

As for Sulu – I think he got a reasonable amount of air time, but he needed more lines (just a few, though).