Star Trash

People had been waiting since 2002 for the return of Star Trek. There had been a few times that it appeared that the last entry in the franchise, Nemesis (which scored a 36% at Rotten Tomatoes and a 50% at Metacritic), would be its last. It was a bad movie that performed poorly at the box office and seemed to show that this franchise had become tired and stale.

Flash forward 5 years and the buzz surrounding Star Trek was building. There really was no way that Paramount was going to let this franchise die without one last kick at the can. So they brought on [I]Lost[/I] creator JJ Abrams to reboot the series ala Batman Begins.

Two years later I and many waited with bated breath for the first glimpse of the revamped Star Trek. That first glimpse was a trailer filled with splashy special effects, big explosions and cheesy dialogue. I wasn't a good start in my opinion. I reserved judgment. It was merely the first trailer and there was time to show that this movie was going to be more than [I]Independence Day[/I] set in space. As the trailers came and the buzz built my expectations for the film fell. I had hoped for more from JJ Abrams than what was being shown in the trailers, but the real test would be the movie.

So when the movie hit last week, I and several friends descended on the local movie theater for take in the revamped Star Trek. My fears from the trailers were exceeded and I left the theater bitterly disappointed.

Why?

First, is the idea that Star Trek was and should be a story about ideas rather than an action vehicle. It was Utopian fiction that enabled its creators to look to what was good in humanity, construct a future that would show us a better path and allow them to comment on our present in the best fashion of Utopian fiction.

Star Wars was the series about action and thin stories. Which is why both were able to survive for years along side one another and succeed. They filled different niches within the market and did so quite well. It was when these differing franchises delved into the sphere of the other that they typically failed.

This new Star Trek is simply a vehicle for a big special effects budget that races from one pointless explosion to the next with little left in between for something that might be considered a plot or character development.

This brings me to my second complaint: character development. Star Trek was always a show of layered characters. Kirk was always the lead with Spock his faithful number two. Below these were Scotty and Bones, followed by Chekov, Uhura and Sulu. Its much the same in this new movie, with some elevation of Sulu and Uhura. However there is nothing in the character of Kirk (the stories driving force) that denotes depth of character. He is a living breathing cliche.

Our first glimpse of Kirk is as a young boy who shows no concern for others. He is a selfish petulant child driven by ego. Our second glimpse of Kirk is him as bad boy ladies man with a chip on his shoulder against the organization that cost him his father. Our third glimpse of Kirk takes place at Star Fleet Academy where both of these elements of his character blend to give us a man who the night before cheating on a test is macking on the gratuitous green skinned girl. There is nothing in these scenes prior to the string of events that would ludicrously lead to his promotion to captain that would lead us to believe that he has the depth of character required to become a Star Fleet captain, or a character which I should give a shit about.

My third complaint concerns the plot. The purpose of the movie is to reboot the franchise and in so doing free it from much if not all of the canon that came before it. So in best Star Trek fashion time travel and alternate realities are bent to the will of Abrams and we are given a scenario where a mining ship is the most powerful vessel in the galaxy, time traveling black holes and the uber convenient presence of the elder Spock.

A hard working, everyday Romulan witnesses the destruction of Romulus despite the best efforts of Ambasador Spock, in a mind blowing consequence of a black hole forming as a result of the detonation of red matter, this Romulan's mining ship is transported more than a century into the past. Our appropriately named antagonist, Nero, vows vengeance on Spock and the Federation who brought about the end of Romulus.

Of course we are to let go of the fact that black holes don't allow for time travel. We see black holes three times in the movie. The first is when Nero destroys Vulcan, the second is in the mind meld that details Nero's motivations and machinations, and the third is in the movies climactic confrontation between Nero and Kirk. In two of these cases a black hole functions properly. The one that enables the reality altering ramifications for the lives of our Star Trek crew (and enables the franchise reboot) is a flawed use of a black hole.

A black hole is not a hole. It is an object of sufficiently dense mass and gravitational force that even light can't escape it. This gives us the the term 'event horizon', that point at which light is able to escape the gravitational force of the black hole.

So when we see a black hole created at the heart of Vulcan and we see all matter being sucked into it, this would be a realistic use of a black hole. The planet would be destroyed by the gravitational force of the black hole.

When we see Nero's ship being destroyed by a black hole it is a poor utilization of the black hole. In our first instance we see a planet being torn asunder in seconds. This time we see Nero's ship slowly coming under the devastating effects of the black hole. Why did it work so quickly in the first instance and not in the second? Oh right so that you can have this stupid little scene on the bridge of the Enterprise showing the bonding of Kirk and Spock and of course to give a chance for a light show as Kirk destroys Nero. Of course its bisected by a black hole, the thing that destroys planets, so this is merely a self gratifying circle jerk on the part of the Enterprise crew.

We then see the Enterprise on the threshold of the event horizon and being sucked into the black hole. Of course the black hole gets its name from the absence of light and yet we can see light behind the Enterprise so it should be safe, especially for a ship that can travel 3 times the speed of light. Merely another gratuitous action point.

The third time a black hole is used (second in the movie, first in chronological order) it is an actual hole that allows for time travel. Patently absurd.

Enough digression concerning black holes and get back to the plot. So a petulant, womanizing ego driven Kirk is being brought up on charges of academic malfeasance. A charge that should cost him is career in Star Fleet but lucky for us it is at this very moment that Nero launches his attack on Vulcan saving us from a fate without Kirk in Star Trek.

Of course he's on academic suspension and isn't allowed to go, so Bones breaks about 15 different regulations and smuggles Kirk on board the Enterprise leading to what are supposed to be comic moments of Kirk falling unconscious, a numb tongue and inflated hands. Of course it is this very illegal action that saves humanity from destruction. All hail Kirk!

So Kirk is able to convince Captain Pike that they are heading into a trap and in yet another moment of absurdity Kirk is made 1st officer upon Pike's departure from Enterprise.

This leads to the butting of heads between Spock and Kirk, leading to the expulsion of Kirk from Enterprise in time to meet up with Ambassador Spock who is there to try and fill in as many plot holes as possible.

From here things get simply atrocious.

What this movie really is is one long series of action sequences strung together loosely.

First scene in the movie, action sequence. Next scene, action sequence. Next scene, action sequence. Next scene we break it up with a little human on alien sex scene. Then comes a faux action sequence. Then an instance of intrigue. Then an action sequence. It goes on this way for nearly two hours.

Anyways, I've even tired of this critique, but I'll mention a few other moments in the movie that I found particularly absurd and insulting.

1. The promotion of Kirk: At the end of the movie we are treated to a scene where Kirk is promoted from cadet on academic suspension facing expulsion from Starfleet to captain. He jumps six officer grades and is promoted straight to captain because of one days work. Imagine if you will a cadet at Annapolis facing expulsion being thrust into action and after one battle being promoted from flawed cadet to ship captain. Never happen right? Right, but in this absurd version of Star Trek we are to applaud it.

2. Kirk: As I mentioned previously Kirk is a cliche of no depth. As the movie's titular protagonist there is supposed to be something there that draws us towards him and root for him. Personally Kirk was a two dimensional character who I'd like to see flushed out an air lock as sit in the captain's chair.

3. Formulaic: The movie follows the action movie formula to a tee, even if it means adding in rather unnecessary and even absurd action sequences in order to meet its 1:10 ratio of action sequences to script pages. As with other movies that follow this formula, action is used as a crutch to prop up a poorly written film and to distract the audience from the poor plot, plot holes, poor acting and general shitty nature of the film.

Thanks for the idea Mr. Cafferty

Each morning before school I check out the latest headlines on CNN. Why CNN specifically, well it’s because it’s the only English language news station on the dial. Besides I don’t feel like watching the remnants of Korean soft core porn still airing at 7am.

Beginning at 7am on CNN is The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. For the most part they talk about how good a job Obama is doing and toss in a few other headlines. A regular segment of the program is The Cafferty file with Jack Cafferty. In case you’re not familiar with him, he comes on for a two minute segment, mentions a headline, offers up his own brief opinion and then poses a poll question that people are encouraged to take part in on their website.

Today Mr. Cafferty mentioned the Pope’s recent comments on condom usage in Africa. He began his segment by stating that “it’s time for the Catholic Church to enter the 21st century; or at least try to drag itself out of the 13th.” I always find this sort of statement puzzling. I guess consistency is a problem in the modern world. Wouldn’t you want an organization that bills itself as being the representatives of God on earth to strive for consistency in its message, rather than simply going with the flow? I know I do, but then again I’m not Catholic. Should they come out and say that God is wrong, or perhaps one would prefer that they claim that they finally received divine instruction regarding condoms?

Mr. Cafferty went on to say “in his first public comments on condom use, the pope told reporters that AIDS “is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.” Huh?

I’m fairly confident that Mr. Cafferty disagrees with the Pope. The Vatican’s stance on the issue should come as no surprise to anyone; they “encourage[e] sexual abstinence as the way to stop the disease from spreading.” Well obviously that wouldn’t work or at the very least one thinks that it is impractical. I don’t think that anyone would seriously argue that sexual abstinence would not be a major force for stopping the spread of HIV, so it seems that Mr. Cafferty and perhaps billions of others feel that it is simply impractical.

Not an uncommon stance in our over sexed western culture, where sex is used to sell shoes to ten year old girls and video games to ten year old boys. Despite the wishes of the Vatican, western societies focus on education as the main force for combating HIV. It is argued that if people are educated on the subject and condoms are made available then the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (along with unwanted pregnancies) would be halted.

Well this doesn’t seem to work either. In the end people are rather stupid creatures despite our collective protestations to such a sentiment. As an example one can look at smoking. Despite intensive and somewhat intrusive educational campaigns concerning the dangers of smoking people continue to smoke and in fact everyday new people start smoking. The same appears to hold true for sexual safety.

Despite decades of sexual education in the classroom, and condoms being made available for free to people who need them, HIV infection rates have hit epidemic proportions in Washington D.C. “A new report shows three percent of Washington D.C.’s residents have HIV or AIDS. That translates to almost 3,000 people for every 100,000 population. That figure represents a “severe epidemic.” One health official says Washington’s rates are higher than parts of West Africa — and “on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya.”

One would think that this is an impossibility given our modern cultural attitude towards education being the panacea to all that ails us. In fact it looks like the 3% figure being bandied about may not be the accurate number. “"When they've tested large groups of the District population it looks like the prevalence is actually about 5%, which is higher than the 3% but a lot of the people haven't been tested yet," said Dr Raymond Martins.” In fact there are infection rates higher than 5% amongst those aged 40 – 49 (7.2%) as well as amongst Black men (6.5%).

Many people look down on the Pope and his comments as being antiquated or perhaps even malicious, but in the end they ring with truth. Abstinence is the only thing that will halt the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV. Condom usage promotes an air of invincibility that even condom manufacturers won’t attest to, as condoms are not 100% effective. Yet a culture that focuses on sex, hedonism and the notion that it can have it all now can lead to a lifestyle of promiscuous sex (not for everyone obviously) which given basic human nature increases the odds of mistakes happening. Unfortunately in this ‘game’ the consequences of mistakes are death, but who wants to think about that when their feeling horny?

A whirlwind

Five years ago it was February 2004 and I was knee deep in history books and literary works. It was my third year of University, I was working weekends at a homeless shelter and the idea of living in Asia was about as realistic as winning the lottery.

Five years later and here I sit in Seoul, South Korea about to document my time in Beijing, China. It is truly amazing what life can bring and what God has blessed me with.

The trip to Incheon on Saturday was uneventful but tiring. Spending 5 plus hours on a train, only to spend another hour on the subway is not the most exciting time, but at least I got a good deal of reading done. I also had a decent conversation with a yound woman who was on her way to Seoul for winter vacation.

I rose early on Sunday morning for my flight to Beijing. The flight was pleasant enough. The plane was only about half full so I had a whole row to myself. Two hours after take off I was in Beijing.

A view of the new Terminal 3 from my airplane

The trip into the city was rather agravating (Tip: take the airport express train; it cost 25 yuan but it is worth it). I chose to save a few yuan and take the shuttle bus. For 16 yuan it was supposed to take me to the railway station. Instead it dropped me off on a random street corner next to a gathered group of ricshaw drivers who were more than willing to try and fleece you from as much money as possible (Story: a couple friends of mine took a ricshaw and after negotiating a 3 yuan fare were dropped off at their destination only find out that the driver was demanding 300 yuan). Luckily enough I found a subway entrance and one of the attendants was very helpful in directing me to the subway stop nearest my hotel.

A short subway ride later (Tip: use the subway; for 2 yuan you can go all over the city; the base cab fare is 10 yuan) I tired, sore and irritated. All I wanted was to find my hotel. Unfortunately I got turned around and after a 15 minute walk decided I was going the wrong way. After dragging my suitcase through the city for about 45 minutes I finally arrived at my hotel.

From there it was all good.

After a quick shower to freshen up I got on the subway and headed off to the Olympic park. The Birds Nest stadium is a sight to behold. The whole area is really impressive and was filled with families out for an afternoon stroll and celebrating the New Year holiday.

Birdsnest Stadium

I spent the evening strolling the streets of Beijing and made my way to Tian'anmen Square and the entry gate to the Forbidden City. There were people everywhere, everything was lit up but to my disappointment Tian'anmen was closed off.

Tian'anmen Square at night

Monday morning I arose early with the intent of visting the Temple of Heaven. Instead of reading the clearly labeled signs in the subway station, I decided to simply head out the nearest exit and ended up walking a couple kilometers the wrong way before getting back on the subway, riding it back to the stop where I had gotten off and being smart about things.

The Temple of Heaven was amazing. For 30 yuan you get to see virtually everything. Entering the park from the East Gate I was witness to groups of people dancing and playing hacky-sac. The Temple itself was breathtaking and luckily there weren't too many people there. If you ever go to Beijing I highly recommend visitin the Temple.

A view of the Temple from the south

Later that afternoon I met up with some friends from Mokpo and we headed off to the Summer Palace. We got there too late to get a full access entry ticket but in the end it mattered little. The palace itself was beautiful, but its the trek up to the Tower of Buddhist Incence was worth the trip. The unfortunate thing about being at the Palace was that it showed how polluted the air in Beijing is.

Hazy in the Beijing smog

Monday night was the last night of the Lunar New Year holiday. My friends and I wandered down to the Tian'anmen Square area after a nice Chinese dinner. The night was alive with the sights and sounds of fireworks. They were all around and lasted long into the night.

Tuesday began with an early start; waking before six AM. I met my friends in Tian'anmen Square to witness the ceremonial flag raising that takes place there every day. I was surprised by the crowds. I kept forgetting how many people there are in China and how many of them have probably never been to Beijing or Tian'anmen before.

Of course the square was under strict security, the entire square has been fenced off and is closed to the public during the evening and night (this year will mark the 20th anniversary of the Tian'anmen Square protests in 1989 [a forbidden topic within China] that brought to prominence the brave unkown man who stared down a line of tanks). Everyone entering the square had to pass their bags through an x-ray scanner (much like in an airport - the same is true for the Beijing subway system), while individuals were patted down by a security guard with a metal detecting wand. I, assuming it is because I was a foreigner, was simply waved through the search process. I couldn't believe that I was standing in Tian'anmen Square. I simply stopped and stood for a moment trying to take it all in.

The flag raising ceremony was somewhat underwhelming. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but it was something much grander than what I witnessed.

After the flag raising, we toured the Square and then headed in to see the famous mausoleum of Chairman Mao. Being only a few feet from a mass murderer who is revered as a hero was somewhat chilling. I was told by some Chinese people that I met that Mao "taught the Chinese people to stand up." I found it hard to really discuss or understand the level of historical revisionism at play in China.

The exit of Mao's mausoleum

After the Square we went across the street to the Forbidden City (Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City form the heart of Beijing, with the south gate for the Forbidden City bordering the north side of Tian'anmen Square). I had heard that this place wasn't all that impressive; that much of it was closed off to the public and as such that there wasn't much to see. That is not the case. The place is immense, filled with giant squares, meandering alleyways and numerous courtyards. We spent nearly five hours touring the grounds leaving us foot weary and hungry.

Interior Courtyard of the Forbidden City

We made an attempt to visit the Lama Temple after our tour of the Forbidden City but got there too late, so we decided that a little rest would do us good. Back at the hotel I watched some basketball and wrote postcards for friends and family back home. Then walked down to meet my friends for dinner. We had decided on going for Peking Duck. It was my first time having duck and it was quite delicious. I was again underwhelmed by the dinner. For some reason I thought Peking Duck would be some grand dinner experience. It was cheap though, costing us about $20 each. We were even given a certificate for our duck claiming that it was the 424,349th (or some such number) that the restaurant had served since its founding in the mid to late 1800s.

Wednesday was another early day. I met my friends at their hostel for our tour to the Great Wall of China. From Beijing there are three sections of the Wall open to tourists. Badaling is the most popular with tourists and is usually quite busy. Simatai is further afield and is a major hike. We settled on the middle ground of Mutianyu. I was pleased with this choice as it only took 2 hours to get there and while there were people there, they wouldn't be considered crowds. Add in that it was a beautiful day and it was a great experience.

The Great Wall of China

The views were amazing and the hike was middling. For the most part it was like walking on a rolling hill but there were a few parts that were decent hike up the mountain. This was another place where I simply had to stop for a moment and let it soak in that I was really standing on China's Great Wall (despite what you may have heard, the Great Wall is not visible from space or the moon. Seeing the GW from the moon would be like seeing a single human hair from two miles away). The trip up the mountain was a decent hike of a bout a kilometre but the decent was much more fun. They have a metal slide that you can ride down for the approximate cost of $8. You sit on carts that have wheels and a friction brake. You could really build up some great speeds going down the moutain. It was a lot of fun.

When we signed up for the tour we were told that we would leave at 8am and return by 5pm. So we figured that this would leave us about 5 hours (10am - 3pm) to tour the wall. When we arrived at the Wall though we were told that we would be leaving at 1pm. At first we were disappointed but it turned out to be a blessing. It gave us plenty of time to tour the Wall and additionally gave us the time needed to visit the Lama Temple that we missed out on the day before.

The Lama Temple is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist temples in the world. As we were walking there we passed numerous shops that were selling incense. Not a little bit of incense, but a lot of incense. Store front after store front was full of it. At that point I didn't understand why, but I soon found out.

A bell in the inner courtyard

Inside the Temple people were worshipping. Part of that worship was the burning of incense. People would kneel in front of a statue of either Buddha or other Buddhist icon and hold three lit sticks of incense to their forhead as they bowed repeatedly towards the statue. Inside the temple there were dozens of such statues and each of them there were large braziers for the lit incence. Burning incense inside the buildings was not allowed so some would prefer to go inside the buildings and perform the process with unlit incense. They would then leave the incense in front of the statue. Monks came by at the end of the day and put the unlit incense in the braziers so that they too, in the end, were lit.

The temple was beautiful and the statues that it contained were amazing. The Lama Temple contains an 18m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single piece of sandalwood. Despite this I didn't take many pictures. At first I acted like I had at the Forbidden Palace or Great Wall, but I quickly realized that this was an active place of worship and my gawking after all of it like a tourist was disrespectful. As such I simply toured the temple and tried to see as much as possible but tried to keep my picture taking respectful.

That night we met some friends who were also in China but were on their way to Xi'an to see the famous Terracotta Army. Our plans for dinner didn't work out and so we settled on a diner which had a very extensive menu (over 200 items). It was a good way to end my time in Beijing.

The following morning it was threatening rain. After making sure that I had everything ready to go I went for a short stroll and mailed some postcards before heading to the airport via the subway. The flight back to Seoul was uneventful, as was the trip into the city by subway. When I emerged from the subway in Insadong it was raining lightly so I settled on a quick bite to eat and an early night.

I woke up Friday morning to find it pouring down rain and my desire for walking waning. After a couple hours of nothingness I decided to visit the War Museum next door to the American Military base. It was an interesting place and I was able to learn some things about the Korean war, which I enjoyed.

When I left it had stopped raining so I walked to Itaewan and strolled through the area before grabbing a sub at Subway and headed on back to my hotel. A little later I returned to Itaewan to visit the Hollywood Grill where they air rugby games in hopes that they would be airing some Super 14 matches but they weren't. I had a good conversation with an English teacher working in Seoul and about midnight left for my hotel.

On Saturday morning I decided to head to the Seoul Art Gallery. I had seen an advertisement the day before on TV for a showing of works by Gustav Klimt, my favorite painter. The exhibition was both amazing and disappointing. I learned about Klimt and got to see a great many of his study drawings but I had hoped to see some of his more famous works such as his Pallas Athene, the Tree of Life or The Kiss (2), but they weren't there. They did have a recreation of his Beethoven Frieze though, which was very impressive.

After the art gallery I met up with a friend who came to meet up with me from Ulsan and we went to the Yongsan Electronics Market in search of a new external hard drive. This was followed up by another tour of Itaewan, dinner at an Outback Steakhouse and some drinks at the Hollywood Grill where we were able to watch a bit of the Six Nations match between France and Scotland.

Sunday was an easy day of touring through Insadong in the morning followed by a bus ride back to Suncheon in the afternoon.

After 8 days I was back home and exhausted.

It was a wonderful trip.

I can't wait for next year's.