Over at lj, I got into a quick talk about ranking of ST films and someone was surprised I liked this one better than The Undiscovered Country, so I had to reveal my UC dislike all over again. (Note to self: you're still in a distinct minority there.) It's not that I loathe the entire film: Captain Sulu at the start was good to see. Also Iman turning into William Shatner as the shapeshifter tells Kirk that's whom he really would like to fuck was worth the price of admission, and of course I'm happy René Auberjonois and Michael Dorn got cameos. But other than that. Yeah.

I still think it's a powerful choice for an American franchise at this particular point - made, unless I'm mistaken about the shooting time, when the Republicans kept harping on how Zero Dark Thirty was surely going to be a propaganda movie for Obama before it was released (when it was actually released the question of whether it was pro torture completely shifted debate focus, but I thought the assumption beforehand that a film about the successful kill-the-terrorist-scum-in-KronosPakistan just had to be about making people feel good re: the goverment was incredibly telling). Mind you, of course I also think they kept a door open for Cumberbatch to return, but not in a way that means they're obliged to follow up, because the way his career is going, they might not be able to afford him some years down the line (or he could simply be unavailable due to other projects). But other than non-human antagonists like V'Ger or the Whale Calling Space Probe, which are not evil and cause damage mostly due to miscommunication, isn't this the first main antagonist who survives an ST film instead of dying?

(FILM, of course. On the tv shows we had lots. Cue rambling about adopting Trek for the big screen, full stop.)