Holy crap, that was fun!

Now, I’ve been an over the top Trek fan since The Next Generation: Season Three. I even submitted some scripts way back when (an anger inducing and embarrassing story for another time). I lived and breathed that world.  I understood the technobabble. I choked a little when they started breaking rules the second after Roddenberry checked out. I loved TNG and liked DS9 right up til that Klingon War stuff when they fleshed out Garrek. I preferred the mystery around that character by far, and it felt kinda strange when it turned out he wasn’t gay. I couldn’t watch Voyager and hear Janeway without seeing Jane Curtin in her Conehead get up yelling, “Unacceptable! Unacceptable!” Enterprise was briefly interesting and soft-core pornish. All in all, the franchise needed new blood.

So, I’m watching this new movie and it feels fresh and reminiscent and charming as all get out. I ignore the prancing through Black Holes like it’s 1979, the supernova that catches everyone off guard and sneaks up on a planet unawares, and the whack-a-doo cadet cruise promotion to Captain. I ignore this all because it’s fun, and it’s make believe. I used to like reality in my sci-fi/fantasy as much (or more) than the next guy, but let’s face it, the late Ricardo Montalban never managed to take over a quarter of the Earth as emperor in the 90’s, so… you know… you gotta let it go.

I was never a huge fan of the original series, but it’s really hard not to love these new cast as the old characters. It was a well scripted, wonderfully paced, and fun adventure. It’s great escapism and surprisingly clean. I’m very glad Star Trek is kicking Wolverine’s ass (95% approval vs. 36% on Rotten Tomatoes). It gives me a little more faith in humanity. A little.

All in all, I’d give Star Trek 6 ridiculous promotions out of a possible 7.

Imagine my surprise Sunday night, to be surfing through the guide and find the premiere of an animated show made up of two of my lost loves - Arrested Development and Pushing Daisies.  When those shows were cancelled, I pretty much lost faith in humanity (silly to do over TV, I know, but they were AWFULLY good). 

Now, Arrested’s creator Mitchell Hurwitz’s come up with (which is to say he’s made an animated version of an Australian TV show from a couple of years ago with) an equally poorly named comedy about a group of jaded and broken school teachers.  Sit Down, Shut Up (really not a good name) is a way to re-unite the Awesome McAwesome Teen Wolf 2 (Jason Bateman), Devon Banks (Will Arnett), and Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) with my much-loved Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth).  The critics flat out hated it, but what the hell.  They loved Arrested Development and it didn’t save it from the axe.

So, I’m left feeling pessimistically hopeful.  I love those guys and would watch them do most anything, but the critic’s hate it.  It seemed to have some potential, but it’s being handled by FOX (I read about it seconds before it aired for cryin’ out loud).  It’s got the fast paced wit that I love, but it’s filled with some obviously crude and low brow stuff too (which might help it survive in today’s world of cow-tippers and UFC fans). I’m only really watching Lost and 30 Rock right now, but that bounces back and forth as to whether it’s a good or bad thing. I guess deep down, I want it to be good and I want it to be something that lasts, but I can’t even pretend to understand what elements come together to make that happen.

These DC direct to DVD features won me over with Justice League: the New Frontier to the point that I purchased the new Wonder Woman Animated DVD sight unseen. Anything Bruce Timm touches is usually gold and it’s got Fillion doing the voice of Steve Trevor. On top of that, I was a huge fan of George Perez’s post-Crisis revamp of the character back in the 80’s. In fact, I was expecting this movie to be a sleeker, stylized version of the first few issues of that run. It wasn’t, and while my wife suggested that is WAS quite good, I had a few problems with it.

1.  The Script.  I like that Wonder Woman is a character that embodies feminism. I especially like it when she can accomplish that role without being in-your-face or over-the-top (or any other hyphenated three word clichés). This movie script managed to both throw it in your face AND undermine the feminism at the same time (which was kinda weird).  You’ve got WW yelling curses at unjust gender inequalities one minute (after Trevor tries to get her drunk and naked), then taking the time during the final battle climax to pose and tell the God of War, “you hit like a girl.”  All the amazons wanna kill Trevor for commenting on Wonder Woman’s rack under forced confession, but gather around and cheer as the couple smooches at the base of the Washington Monument in the end.

2. Kid Show/Not Kid Show. I know it’s silly to overanalyze the finer script details of a kid’s cartoon, but the bloody thing was PG-13. And rightly so. There was a TON of violence and a handful of decapitations. What’s more, almost every line out of Trevor’s mouth was a little too lewd for the kiddies. I read a glowing review from someone who let their 10 and 2 year old children watch it, and I’ll say that was a bad call. DC should decide which side of the kid/adult line they wanna straddle rather than bouncing back and forth. I was left with the idea that the movie’s specific target audience was the Simpson’s Comic Book Guy.

Mind you, the special feature documentaries were plenty cool and interesting (and full of nifty trivia tid-bits like Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston, being the inventor of the lie-detector), but I like that kind of stuff, so for all I know they were boring.

I ended up climbing under our stairs to dig out the first twelve issues of the Perez series (no small task I assure you) just to see if my memory was playing tricks on me. It wasn’t. Even now, a hundred years later, the story and tone and artwork are all better than anything that’s been done before or since (the image of DC’s cover for issue #1 displayed above in all its thoughtfully stolen off the net glory). What I remember most is how Perez portrayed the character.  She was as gorgeous as any of the gals Perez drew, but somehow (and this should be considered a Very Big Deal as it was a comic book and I was in my late teens) he managed to convey a combination of power and grace and soul that the character deserved. She was beautiful and wearing next to nothing, but you respected and revered her.

I’d give the DVD three 80s reaffirmations out of five.