erik lundegaard

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Sunday May 10, 2009

“Star Trek”/“Star Wars” Parallels

Anyone else notice the parallels between the latest “Star Trek” and the original “Star Wars”? Examples:

  1. Opening battle between a small ship and a GIGANTIC ship, which immediately has us rooting for the small ship—the underdog. Meanwhile, what escapes from the small ship is the key to the eventual destruction of the gigantic ship.
  2. The fatherless, seemingly parentless, farmboy gazing up at the stars, at what he might be.
  3. Star Trek poster, J.J. AbramsThe destruction, a third of the way through the film, of an entire planet and its billions of souls, which affects several main characters greatly.
  4. The discovery of the hooded wise man in the cave, who teaches the young buck the proper way and his proper destiny.
  5. The destruction of the bad guys by the two archetypal characters: in “Star Wars,” innocent and rebel; here, extrovert and introvert, emotion and logic. In both films, these two characters start out enemies but become fast friends.
  6. In the end, the triumphant farmboy is feted at a medal ceremony in front of the entire fleet. 

That's just off the top of my head. More? Anyone?

ADDENDUM: In this construct, Uhura has the Princess Leia role: the feisty girl the farmboy is after and the other guy winds up with. In the original “Star Trek” series, the threeway was between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, with Kirk listening to input from both logic (Spock) and emotion (McCoy) and then deciding on the best course of action. But in this film, Uhura seems to have a bigger part than McCoy. Part of the “Star Wars”izaton of the series? Who knows?

ADDENDUM: Via a back-and-forth on Facebook, we got this:

Spock: Jim, the statistical likelihood that our plan will succeed is 4.3 percent
Kirk: Spock, it'll work.

Compared with:

C-3PO: Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Han Solo: Never tell me the odds!

ADDENDUM, 8/7: “Star Trek: Confusion”

Posted at 12:54 PM on Sunday May 10, 2009 in category Movie Reviews - 2009