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arcanelegacyI don't get mad over my fiction very often. (Okay, that's a lie.) I usually get angry about what I feel is pretty valid stuff. But twice (!!) already this week I've been presented with little details about upcoming Things I Care About (or Kinda Care About) that are making the nerd in me rage - and rage hard.
First: Star Trek.
I've been hearing rumbling rumors that Benedict Cumberbatch's character in Star Trek Into Darkness may, in fact, be Khan.
This irritates me.
Oh, lawd, does this irritate me.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love Khan. He's a great villain. I completely agree that The Wrath of Khan is one of the greatest Star Trek films ever made.
But.
Buuuuut.
This is an alternate universe. Yes, you can make the argument that Khan was originally created BEFORE Spock Prime had the chance to come back and fuck up the timeline, splitting it into TOS and Nu!Trek, so there's a logical following that Khan could still be a player in Into Darkness or later Nu!Trek films without ruining continuity. I'll gladly grant that. I was granting that to the writers long before Into Darkness was even being written. If they wanted to use Khan, they could - the means were already there.
But. Again: this is an alternate universe. A chance to start anew, to rewrite and do more with the series now than ever could be done with Star Trek when it was originally airing. There is SO MUCH ground that can be covered - all of which is new, or new to Star Trek. So why, why, are we rehashing a villain, especially so soon? Why does it have to be Khan? What's wrong with leaving him as this John Hamilton, or whatever the fuck code name they're using for Cumberbatch's character?
And why, if the rumors are true, did they fucking whitewash Khan into Benedict Cumberbatch?!
Second, the first trailer for Ender's Game was finally released. While I have no intention of seeing this film any time soon (Orson Scott Card is not getting ANY financial support from me in the foreseeable future and possibly beyond that), I do still have fond memories of the first time I read the book and am vaguely curious about its translation to film, so I clicked on the trailer.
The Battle Room is made of glass. You can see the Earth down below. Now, this is cool - except for the fact that the big point of the Battle Room was how damn disorienting it was. Solid colors, no gravity, no sense of up or down. The whole big thing in the book is that Ender managed to find a way to give himself (and later, his team) orientation in that space. The enemy's gate is down. It was one of the first really good signs to the reader that Ender wasn't just special, he was SPECIAL.
So tell me. How the sweet hell is that going to be an important part of the movie when YOU CAN SEE THE EARTH BELOW YOU while fighting? I had wondered if maybe it'd only be transparent when it's not in use and then it would go opaque when battles started in it, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
/nerd rage
FURTHER BECAUSE I CAN:
Tony, Tony, that car was not one of yours. It could not drive itself. You needed to - look, I know it's Christmas and you're in a hurry and there's almost no one on the road but that car cannot drive itself and you need to keep your eyes on the road, not read reports borrowed from a dead vet's wife. THE ROAD, TONY. Also you need to steer. Tony. Tony. STEER THE DAMN CAR AND KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD BEFORE YOU KILL YOURSELF.
...In short: nerd rage in IM3 means that Tony Stark did not drive the car he so surreptitiously stole from the not-dead, Extremis-infected agent and instead took the time to read reports.
He didn't even try driving the car with his KNEES, which I might've kinda bought.
First: Star Trek.
I've been hearing rumbling rumors that Benedict Cumberbatch's character in Star Trek Into Darkness may, in fact, be Khan.
This irritates me.
Oh, lawd, does this irritate me.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love Khan. He's a great villain. I completely agree that The Wrath of Khan is one of the greatest Star Trek films ever made.
But.
Buuuuut.
This is an alternate universe. Yes, you can make the argument that Khan was originally created BEFORE Spock Prime had the chance to come back and fuck up the timeline, splitting it into TOS and Nu!Trek, so there's a logical following that Khan could still be a player in Into Darkness or later Nu!Trek films without ruining continuity. I'll gladly grant that. I was granting that to the writers long before Into Darkness was even being written. If they wanted to use Khan, they could - the means were already there.
But. Again: this is an alternate universe. A chance to start anew, to rewrite and do more with the series now than ever could be done with Star Trek when it was originally airing. There is SO MUCH ground that can be covered - all of which is new, or new to Star Trek. So why, why, are we rehashing a villain, especially so soon? Why does it have to be Khan? What's wrong with leaving him as this John Hamilton, or whatever the fuck code name they're using for Cumberbatch's character?
And why, if the rumors are true, did they fucking whitewash Khan into Benedict Cumberbatch?!
Second, the first trailer for Ender's Game was finally released. While I have no intention of seeing this film any time soon (Orson Scott Card is not getting ANY financial support from me in the foreseeable future and possibly beyond that), I do still have fond memories of the first time I read the book and am vaguely curious about its translation to film, so I clicked on the trailer.
The Battle Room is made of glass. You can see the Earth down below. Now, this is cool - except for the fact that the big point of the Battle Room was how damn disorienting it was. Solid colors, no gravity, no sense of up or down. The whole big thing in the book is that Ender managed to find a way to give himself (and later, his team) orientation in that space. The enemy's gate is down. It was one of the first really good signs to the reader that Ender wasn't just special, he was SPECIAL.
So tell me. How the sweet hell is that going to be an important part of the movie when YOU CAN SEE THE EARTH BELOW YOU while fighting? I had wondered if maybe it'd only be transparent when it's not in use and then it would go opaque when battles started in it, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
/nerd rage
FURTHER BECAUSE I CAN:
Tony, Tony, that car was not one of yours. It could not drive itself. You needed to - look, I know it's Christmas and you're in a hurry and there's almost no one on the road but that car cannot drive itself and you need to keep your eyes on the road, not read reports borrowed from a dead vet's wife. THE ROAD, TONY. Also you need to steer. Tony. Tony. STEER THE DAMN CAR AND KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD BEFORE YOU KILL YOURSELF.
...In short: nerd rage in IM3 means that Tony Stark did not drive the car he so surreptitiously stole from the not-dead, Extremis-infected agent and instead took the time to read reports.
He didn't even try driving the car with his KNEES, which I might've kinda bought.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-09 05:52 pm (UTC)I didn't notice it much for the first Nu!Trek, but for ITD, JJ really seems to be going with a "MY TREK SHALL BE ONLY TREK" and just... no. No. That is the only reason I can see for retreading what is possibly one of the greatest and widely known TOS plotlines.
What's really compounding my frustration over this is that my best friend in the world, is a die hard Trek fan. (We met back in high school band because he wore his combadge and I recognized it and I wanted to talk Star Trek because I wasn't sure I was going to stay in band and thus a friendship was born) HE IS SO EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE and because of that and him finishing up a musical education degree, he is completely spoiler free. And he keeps texting me about our plans to see it opening night and I am having so much of a hard time mustering enthusiasm because of this little reveal. And I don't want to dampen his enjoyment. Because unless he does something absolutely amazing with Cumberbatch as Khan, I am going to have issues turning off my brain for this movie.
(I realize part of that is my general dislike of Cumberbatch, but still. RAR.)
I am still praying and hoping that this is still all part of some misleading twist.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-09 06:26 pm (UTC)And now I worry that's going away, all because JJ has an ego.
I was first tipped off by a gif'd interview with John Cho going around Tumblr. He mentioned that Khan was a POC, which, to me, was stating the obvious -- until I thought about it, and why he might be mentioning it. And then the rage set in. Khan doesn't need to be retread, not at this point. Khan's whole point in TOS was to teach Kirk about hubris. I don't know that Nu!Kirk is at a point where that's a good lesson for him to learn. This feels like too much too soon. So unless there's stuff we're missing (and why not tell us THAT story, huh?) I worry this is going to be overkill at a time when there's nothing to really even kill.
I am also sad because the trailers make it look and sound interesting. Like. I thought that Hamilton or whatever code they're using was...disillusioned by Starfleet, like its systems had failed him and left him with the belief that it wasn't the safety net that it promised to be. Cumberbatch's voiceover lines in the trailers made it seem like he wanted to focus on tearing Starfleet down from the inside to prove to everyone - all those poor people who still believe Starfleet cannot and will not ever fail them - that they are dead wrong. It sounds like terrorism in an age and a world where that kind of terrorism isn't supposed to exist.
To me, that's an interesting enemy. And it's NOT something Khan could or would do. (And, fuck, if they don't go with that in this film I WILL WRITE THAT BLOODY STORY because I LIKE THIS PLOTLINE A LOT.)
And I worry still because Nu!Kirk has never before encountered Khan. That was the beauty of Wrath of Khan. Khan's first encounter with Kirk and the Enterprise ended relatively well, with Khan and his followers going to colonize a planet. What happened later was not Kirk's fault, but it still felt genuine when Khan came back and sought revenge. Nu!Kirk - unless they do a bug-ton of backstory and juggling - hasn't encountered Khan in the new timeline, so how are they going to handle that? Why does Cumberbatch's character want so badly to single Kirk out when Kirk hasn't had the chance to do a whole hell of a lot?
I am still hopeful it won't be Khan. For both yours and your friend's sake. Because, wow. Your friend (to say nothing of you!) deserve to have a good movie, one that's worthy of entering the 'Trek canon, not one that is trying to eclipse 'Trek canon.