So... Star Trek and Wolverine walk into a bar. Wolverine pops out those shiny CGI claws and goes "rawr." Star Trek beams him into oblivion. Ranking my favorite films so far this summer: 1. Star Trek 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Wolverine. But only because I'm being nice. Interestingly, both Star Trek and Wolverine seek to do the same thing: Take an existing franchise with a large body of cinematic, print, and illustrated canon, and tell a revelatory, dramatic prequel story. Both franchises are burdened with reams of fanboy-only factoids, emotional baggage, and pop-culture awareness. Both are decades old. Both face the challenge of engaging the audience in spite of the fact that most of us already know who has to live because we've seen what happens next. Both films must grin fearlessly in the face of an increasingly cynical movie-going public, an angry public which has been fed a steady diet of sci-fi-action-adventure-franchise, and is coming to this film with irritable bowel syndrome. Star Trek succeeded where Wolverine failed. I won't try to pursue the "irritable bowel" metaphor any further because I'm not a doctor, and I try to save my best poo jokes for the strip. Star Trek is easily my #1 favorite for the year (not saying much, I know) and if it had come out LAST year it would have been my favorite then, too. Or maybe tied with WALL*E. That's a tough call, because the films are so very, very different. I'll say this much: If you're a cynical movie-goer, tired of franchise movies, embarrassed at having ever been a Trekker/Trekkie/Trek-fan, but you loved Serenity, you need to reward Paramount Pictures' good behavior by seeing this film. If Star Trek and Serenity were to walk into a bar... well, I think we'd see a drinking game between Browncoats and Vulcans. There'd be too much mutual respect for a fight. Feel free to discuss. Be warned, the discussion will contain spoilers...
