Current State of the USS Hadhafang
Nov. 6th, 2016 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofleithianHad the same friend I mentioned in my Star Trek VI review over. We had fun. We talked TFA (which was cool), and watched some Danger Committee stuff (it's a juggling show, very funny) and MST3K, which was awesome. And later on discussed bad movie stereotypes (usually the types that showed up in every bad movie, e.g. the jerk, etc.).
The downside was that we watched Star Trek: Nemesis, as Insurrection was misplaced for the moment. How was it? Well, I'll talk about it more under the cut.
I wanted to like this film. Indeed, after the opening scene which started off dull at first before getting more interesting and an actually adorable wedding scene for Riker and Troi, I thought it was going to go along fine. And Shinzon's earlier scenes...I feel massively guilty for saying this, but his backstory scenes were actually well-done, as was his conversation with Picard over dinner.
And then we get to a later scene in the film where Shinzon uses the Viceroy to forge a mental link to rape Counselor Troi while she and Riker are on their honeymoon, mentally and physically. And that's where the film really got tainted for me. While there were still good moments, like with B4, a lot of Shinzon's scenes rang hollow with the knowledge that he did this to Troi -- this absolutely unforgivable act where, other than Troi using the link to find the Viceroy later on and get her share of revenge, it's hardly acknowledged or seems to have any effect on the story itself. The thing is, stories with sexual assault in them can be done well. Last House on the Left is one of them. Speak is one of them. Two works by Cheryl Rainfield, Scars and Stained are two of them. (And Cheryl Rainfield is a child sexual abuse survivor herself, so a lot of it is drawn from her own experience) Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game by Stephen King are two other books that deal with sexual assault/abuse well. Perks of Being A Wallflower another. And unfortunately, that's really a scarce amount of works that actually handle the subject with the gravity and sensitivity it deserves, because a lot of fiction doesn't take it seriously, eroticizes it (from the sporking of Fifty Shades I read on the das_sporking comm, Fifty Shades seems to do that), has Unfortunate Implications galore regarding it (how LOTF treated Tahiri molesting Ben Skywalker, for starters) or uses it just for shock value. And it's terrible, because it's a subject that deserves to be treated with respect, but bad writers simply don't do that. And people who bring up the idea of Gratuitous Rape being bad writing are occasionally accused of censorship -- but here's the thing. Stuff like that isn't courage or honesty in art: it's exploitation, it's trash. And it's the wrong way to take for something like this. Honestly, Troi deserved a lot better than this, she really did.
And it really derails Shinzon's character significantly -- even after the rape scene (which the writers seem to have crammed in without any regard as to how it would affect the story), even after Picard *knows* what Shinzon did to Troi (Troi tells the others on the bridge what happened to her), he's still trying to help Shinzon in some ways. In another, better story I would have admired Picard for what he was doing. Here? It just rings incredibly false and hollow. And it undermines the whole theme of counterparts that Nemesis has set up, because Picard talks about how Shinzon has a bit of himself in him (that point is raised repeatedly over the course of the film), but here's the thing -- Picard isn't a rapist. Picard is actually a good, noble man. And Shinzon didn't need the scene where he raped Troi to show how evil he was. In earlier scenes, the filmmakers set him up as a sort of Moses figure to the Remans -- wanting to lead them out of suffering, out of slavery and evil. All with a deceptive trait to him. Him being deceptive would have worked fine. Him being a villainous sort of Moses would have worked fine. Not this. Seriously, not this. Overall, Shinzon is an unfortunately sloppily constructed character, whose motivations seem to change on a dime and whose character drastically fails after the scene with Troi, and it's the scene with Troi that sticks out in my mind the most thanks to how it casts a shadow over the rest of the film.
So yeah...Nemesis wasn't very good.
So overall? Skip it. Maybe go and find some fan edits of Nemesis instead. Maybe some will disagree with me about certain points I raised in my post, but that's really my take on things.
The downside was that we watched Star Trek: Nemesis, as Insurrection was misplaced for the moment. How was it? Well, I'll talk about it more under the cut.
I wanted to like this film. Indeed, after the opening scene which started off dull at first before getting more interesting and an actually adorable wedding scene for Riker and Troi, I thought it was going to go along fine. And Shinzon's earlier scenes...I feel massively guilty for saying this, but his backstory scenes were actually well-done, as was his conversation with Picard over dinner.
And then we get to a later scene in the film where Shinzon uses the Viceroy to forge a mental link to rape Counselor Troi while she and Riker are on their honeymoon, mentally and physically. And that's where the film really got tainted for me. While there were still good moments, like with B4, a lot of Shinzon's scenes rang hollow with the knowledge that he did this to Troi -- this absolutely unforgivable act where, other than Troi using the link to find the Viceroy later on and get her share of revenge, it's hardly acknowledged or seems to have any effect on the story itself. The thing is, stories with sexual assault in them can be done well. Last House on the Left is one of them. Speak is one of them. Two works by Cheryl Rainfield, Scars and Stained are two of them. (And Cheryl Rainfield is a child sexual abuse survivor herself, so a lot of it is drawn from her own experience) Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game by Stephen King are two other books that deal with sexual assault/abuse well. Perks of Being A Wallflower another. And unfortunately, that's really a scarce amount of works that actually handle the subject with the gravity and sensitivity it deserves, because a lot of fiction doesn't take it seriously, eroticizes it (from the sporking of Fifty Shades I read on the das_sporking comm, Fifty Shades seems to do that), has Unfortunate Implications galore regarding it (how LOTF treated Tahiri molesting Ben Skywalker, for starters) or uses it just for shock value. And it's terrible, because it's a subject that deserves to be treated with respect, but bad writers simply don't do that. And people who bring up the idea of Gratuitous Rape being bad writing are occasionally accused of censorship -- but here's the thing. Stuff like that isn't courage or honesty in art: it's exploitation, it's trash. And it's the wrong way to take for something like this. Honestly, Troi deserved a lot better than this, she really did.
And it really derails Shinzon's character significantly -- even after the rape scene (which the writers seem to have crammed in without any regard as to how it would affect the story), even after Picard *knows* what Shinzon did to Troi (Troi tells the others on the bridge what happened to her), he's still trying to help Shinzon in some ways. In another, better story I would have admired Picard for what he was doing. Here? It just rings incredibly false and hollow. And it undermines the whole theme of counterparts that Nemesis has set up, because Picard talks about how Shinzon has a bit of himself in him (that point is raised repeatedly over the course of the film), but here's the thing -- Picard isn't a rapist. Picard is actually a good, noble man. And Shinzon didn't need the scene where he raped Troi to show how evil he was. In earlier scenes, the filmmakers set him up as a sort of Moses figure to the Remans -- wanting to lead them out of suffering, out of slavery and evil. All with a deceptive trait to him. Him being deceptive would have worked fine. Him being a villainous sort of Moses would have worked fine. Not this. Seriously, not this. Overall, Shinzon is an unfortunately sloppily constructed character, whose motivations seem to change on a dime and whose character drastically fails after the scene with Troi, and it's the scene with Troi that sticks out in my mind the most thanks to how it casts a shadow over the rest of the film.
So yeah...Nemesis wasn't very good.
So overall? Skip it. Maybe go and find some fan edits of Nemesis instead. Maybe some will disagree with me about certain points I raised in my post, but that's really my take on things.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-07 05:24 am (UTC)And yes, the series of ST films are hit and miss - I liked the Next Gen TV series and the movies much less so. It seemed like the writers felt they had to up the ante on angst *Picard's family burning up in a fire, for Pete's sake* and this rape, well, why was it in there?
I haven't seen the reboots of TOS, but in general the themes seem well handled and the angst is, too. Hee, this view I glommed from reading your reviews and general internet gossip.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-07 07:56 pm (UTC)Thanks. I mean, Nemesis definitely wasn't good, but at least stuff like MST3K and Danger Committee was pretty fun. :)
I haven't seen the TV series for TNG, admittedly, but yeah, they did definitely feel the need to up the ante on the angst. Sometimes they did it okay, such as in First Contact, other times, they just really screwed it up (see also here). Definitely agreed in regards to Picard's family though (I mean, poor Picard! And his poor nephew, for that matter), and the rape. I honestly don't know why it was in there except to make Shinzon...more villainous? I don't know. I know it definitely adds a sort of falseness to everything else that follows it. So yeah, it's a bad move.
Sad thing is that in Generations, they already made a sort of pitiable Shinzon-ish figure and did him better, that being Soran. It helped that he had clearly defined goals (get into the Nexus and reunite with his family) and they showed the downside of his goal -- that being the matter of things getting blown up. All of that without having to do what the writers of Nemesis did. Heck, people give Final Frontier a lot of crap, but honestly, Shatner actually didn't do a terrible job with portraying a sympathetic villain. (I think Shatner even described Sybok in STAR TREK MOVIE MEMORIES as "less evil, a bit more of a tortured soul". Which...well, I can't see him as a tortured soul, but I can see him as an antagonist who definitely isn't boring) We see what Sybok can do, and the upsides (helping people) and the downsides (it's kind of invasive) of that power. (Even if it does turn into, for people like Sulu, going Out of Character) And his justifications for what he's doing -- believing he's genuinely healing and helping people. And then there's Khan (both versions), whose motivations are clearly defined and have their downsides that affect the plot without having to...y'know.
And to quote Picard himself, I'm sorry, this is becoming a speech. XD But yeah, I'd say Nemesis is where they jumped the metaphorical shark.
And yeah, the TOS reboots do beautifully. Not to mention their themes -- I remember SFDebris going on about the reboots not having a theme "tapestry" (he thought some stuff didn't fit together, I guess? I dunno) but in all honesty, even if it's not quite a tapestry, the themes are handled well. There's the whole theme of what we do for love, for starters, and how occasionally dangerous it can be (Nero, for example, destroyed Vulcan out of his love for Romulus and his need to get revenge for Romulus, as well as the love for his family and need to get revenge on their behalves. And then there's Khan, whose need for revenge out of love for his crew led him to kill Starfleet officers who likely had nothing to do with what Marcus was doing), the matter of compassion (Kirk is a good example -- him offering assistance to Nero even after all Nero did, even if it didn't work. And ultimately offering some compassion to Khan and even defending him to Marcus after hearing Khan's story. And even having compassion for Krall after Krall's death), the changing face of Starfleet in crisis (Marcus' need for a more militarized Starfleet jumpstarts the plot of Into Darkness, Krall's motivations are basically feeling useless and discarded by Starfleet in more ways than one) -- all a bunch of awesome themes. And the angst is handled pretty well, stuff like Khan's monologue about his crew and what Marcus did to them (not gonna lie, I still despise Marcus for what he did. And the other stuff he did after that), Spock's talk with his father, and so on.
And yeah, the TOS reboots are definitely worth checking out! I recommend them.