More Hormones and Hype

Rating: 4/10 (18 May 2009)

There are plenty of teen "coming of age" movies out there. They all follow a similar formula: youth is picked on by bully, youth rebels against the authority that does not recognize how great youth is and has allowed the bullying, for the older teens there is sex, parents or other role models die, some bully is defeated and the final recognition of the youth's greatness. From "Stand By Me" to "Harry Potter" to any of about a million other stories. You can't go wrong with this formula because there are many teenagers, and those that remember being teenagers (a few who will never grow out of being teenagers), and we all love sex, battle scenes, and triumphant heroes. This new "Star Trek" movie has that in buckets. However, if you have come to see anything that has more than the paper thin appearance of "Star Trek" characters, stories, or the like, I can't see how you would enjoy the movie. I grew up in Houston and our group of kids loved to watch the original "Star Trek" series reruns in the 1970s and, although I haven't stayed with the subsequent series like "The Next Generation", I was intrigued with seeing a retake on the original. While a pleasant summer action film, I just didn't see anything in it that reminded me of "Star Trek." If I remember correctly, the series was about the happy results of Earth applying the thoughtful science and diplomacy brought by the Vulcans, in part, and, without being ravished by hunger, war, etc., focusing our energies on exploration and discovery. It was harmless fun with a message of hope. This film is disturbing to me because of what it does with Gene Rodenberry's message that we can be so much more if we can take control of ourselves instead of trying to control each other. In this new movie, there are no adult voices to counter all the violence and impulse. No one to voice that you can feel anything you wish to feel and chose to act in any way you wish to act, but there are consequences. This usually falls on the Vulcans but they seem to have decided to flush their philosophy and culture down the loo in order to enjoy kicking some ass. In this movie, no one grows up. I am sure with such success we will see another one of these things, oh well, to quote the new and improved Spock, "Good Luck."