spoiler alert and unpopular opinion: I didn't like Star Trek: Into Darkness
Specifically I thought the treatment of Nyota Uhura's character was, quite frankly, offensive.
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura is a professional. She is a bridge officer on the Enterprise, Starfleet's flag ship. She got there by being a competent, professional, intelligent, knowledgeable person.
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura would neither pick a fight with her boyfriend on the flight down toward a known hostile planet where they were going to attempt to capture an incredibly dangerous murderer, nor would she act visibly snarky and, for lack of a better term, pissed off at said boyfriend whilst on duty on the bridge.
Also when Kirk asked whether or not Uhura and Spock would be all right working together, Uhura said something like "Of course" and walked away, and Spock replied "Uncertain," the whole thing read as an "Ugh, women, amirite?" sort of jab, which was... auuuuuuugh. What a bloody train wreck.
Another thing about the movie that bothered me is that while I know that Benedict Cumberbatch can act, he can act a brilliantly wide range of characters--his entire performance in ST:ID read as "evil Sherlock." I feel like JJ Abrams was instructing him to play Sherlock, and it was... unfortunate. It was perfectly acted "evil Sherlock," but I wish that it had been different.
Also, having Benedict play that role at all was... problematic, to borrow a buzzword. Whitewashing is uncool, and cashing in on Benedict's newfound fame by whitewashing a POC character is quite intensely Not Good.
I didn't really like the movie. I thought a lot of it was gratuitous, and frankly a lot of the scenes that were supposed to be touching or heart-wrenching just seemed cheesy.
It was pretty shippy, though. I enjoyed that.
All in all, I can't say I liked it. I'll get off my soapbox now.







