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Star Trek Into Darkness

Started by Black Lantern,

383 posts in this topic

Speedy-D

Speedy-D

Posted
Posted
Looking forward to seeing this, but I have a big problem with it:

 

 

I'm very distracted by why the heck Abrams would cast a white guy like Cumberbatch to play an Indian man. ???:taptaptap: The more I ponder it, the more racist it feels. hm People around the web are referring to the film as "Star Trek: Into Whiteness" because of this inexplicable race conundrum of having a white actor play an Indian guy. :blush:

 

 

 

One site's commentary on this topic, with suggestions of actors that could have tackled this role.

 

Bollywood weights in on Star Trek into Whiteness

 

Definitely seems like J.J. may have offended some folks in a very big market.

 

Mister Sulu even had something to add.

 

tumblr_mmjv8gjWSI1rw4bmio2_r1_250.giftumblr_mmjv8gjWSI1rw4bmio1_r1_250.gif

 

 

 

See, aren't we supposed to look past all of this? The first choice to play the villain in this movie was Benecio Del Toro. So, if I'm of Indian heritage, should I be offended that the two renditions of Khan Noonien Singh were both going to be portrayed on the big screen by Latino actors? Does the Dark hair and skin tone make them a more "legitimate" Indian-by-proxy?

 

 

 

Totally agree. This would be like the comic book discussions on here recently where some are hardcore "don't alter my long-time characters" and then being okay with the character in Star Trek. If you believe in an approach, then it should apply to most any historic franchise.

 

 

 

 

I look forward to seeing this movie.

 

This thread is mysterious.

 

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
I don't quite understand the distraction. Its that Khan is played by a white actor and in the Trek world he is supposed to be Native American?

 

Is this J.J. Abrams posting this? I'm guessing it might be. hm:baiting:

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bane

bane

Posted
Posted
For you maybe.

 

For me, excellent performance, really enjoyed it, he did an excellent job.

 

The change did not detract from the movie at all.

 

 

Yea I've heard he's the best villain in any Star Trek movie or show. But it's not just for me, pretty much anybody who's either not white or who is white and interested in issues of race will be distracted by this--you can see in those GIFs that John Cho has it on his mind. I haven't seen it yet--was there any explanation offered in the film for why he's white?

 

 

Its not explained in the movie of his origin as much as it was in the TV show. He's genetically engineered being and he say's his names Khan Noonian Singh and thats that. Nothing more or less.

 

My best friend is Iranian, she saw the movie, loved it. Not once did she say to me "You know what, because Khan is a pasty white guy... it completely ruined the movie for me."

 

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I like pie

I like pie

Posted
Posted
I don't quite understand the distraction. Its that Khan is played by a white actor and in the Trek world he is supposed to be Native American?

 

Is this J.J. Abrams posting this? I'm guessing it might be. hm:baiting:

 

lol

 

I'm just curious. Doesn't make sense to me because I'm pretty sure Ricardo Montalbán was Mexican.

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rob_allan

rob_allan

Posted
Posted
I don't quite understand the distraction. Its that Khan is played by a white actor and in the Trek world he is supposed to be Native American?

 

Is this J.J. Abrams posting this? I'm guessing it might be. hm:baiting:

 

Abrams is racist. He wants a white Human Torch and look what he's doing in the new Star Wars

 

153308063.jpg

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bane

bane

Posted
Posted
I don't quite understand the distraction. Its that Khan is played by a white actor and in the Trek world he is supposed to be Native American?

 

Is this J.J. Abrams posting this? I'm guessing it might be. hm:baiting:

 

lol

 

I'm just curious. Doesn't make sense to me because I'm pretty sure Ricardo Montalbán was Mexican.

 

Yes, he was Mexican.

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Bosco685

Bosco685

Posted
Posted
Looking forward to seeing this, but I have a big problem with it:

 

 

I'm very distracted by why the heck Abrams would cast a white guy like Cumberbatch to play an Indian man. ???:taptaptap: The more I ponder it, the more racist it feels. hm People around the web are referring to the film as "Star Trek: Into Whiteness" because of this inexplicable race conundrum of having a white actor play an Indian guy. :blush:

 

 

 

One site's commentary on this topic, with suggestions of actors that could have tackled this role.

 

Bollywood weights in on Star Trek into Whiteness

 

Definitely seems like J.J. may have offended some folks in a very big market.

 

Mister Sulu even had something to add.

 

tumblr_mmjv8gjWSI1rw4bmio2_r1_250.giftumblr_mmjv8gjWSI1rw4bmio1_r1_250.gif

 

 

 

See, aren't we supposed to look past all of this? The first choice to play the villain in this movie was Benecio Del Toro. So, if I'm of Indian heritage, should I be offended that the two renditions of Khan Noonien Singh were both going to be portrayed on the big screen by Latino actors? Does the Dark hair and skin tone make them a more "legitimate" Indian-by-proxy?

 

 

 

Totally agree. This would be like the comic book discussions on here recently where some are hardcore "don't alter my long-time characters" and then being okay with the character in Star Trek. If you believe in an approach, then it should apply to most any historic franchise.

 

 

 

 

I look forward to seeing this movie.

 

This thread is mysterious.

 

 

Very!

 

mysterious.jpg

 

 

 

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Bosco685

Bosco685

Posted
Posted

Since Pie already said it out in the open, why bother with spoilers?

 

Here is the only "official summary" I can find on Khan.

 

Singh, Khan Noonien

 

(Played by Ricardo Montalban)

 

One of history's most notorious dictators, Khan Noonien Singh was a genetically-bred "superman" of Earth's India in the late 20th century. Khan died in the 23rd century amid another "experiment" gone wrong. Rising to power among others of his kind, his ambition helped further the Eugenics Wars, which involved much of Earth's Third World. Finally facing defeat, he and dozens of followers escaped in the S.S. Botany Bay, a DY-100 vessel modified as a sleeper ship.

 

The Botany Bay drifted through intersteller space for over two centuries, until 2267, when it was discovered by the U.S.S. Enterprise. With his fellow survivors, Khan attempted to seize that starship but failed, and he and his people were sentenced by Captain James T. Kirk to tame the wild M-Class world of Ceti Alpha V. Among those exiled was Lt. Marla McGivers, an Enterprise historian who fell in love with Khan and initially assisted him. Ultimately, she refused to betray Kirk and her shipmates during the tyrant's abortive takeover.

 

On Ceti Alpha V, the band of refugees thought their dream of conquering an entire planet would come true, but six months after being left there, the star system's sixth planet exploded, and the shockwave wreaked havoc on Ceti Alpha V's ecosystem, making it a desert wasteland.

 

In 2285, the embittered Khan commandeered the U.S.S. Reliant and hijacked the top-secret Genesis Device in a plan to exact vengeance against James T. Kirk. Khan failed to defeat his old foe, and died when he detonated the matter-reorganizing, terraforming device, thus annihilating the Reliant and Khan along with it.

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
For you maybe.

 

For me, excellent performance, really enjoyed it, he did an excellent job.

 

The change did not detract from the movie at all.

 

 

Yea I've heard he's the best villain in any Star Trek movie or show. But it's not just for me, pretty much anybody who's either not white or who is white and interested in issues of race will be distracted by this--you can see in those GIFs that John Cho has it on his mind. I haven't seen it yet--was there any explanation offered in the film for why he's white?

 

 

 

Did Roddenberry ever have to explain why he selected a Latin actor to play an Indian villain with the original Khan?

 

 

 

That's a fair question. I actually could never tell what race Montalban was, but I bought him as Indian because he's relatively dark and they gave him an Indian hairstyle and clothes. Roddenberry went to great effort and even risk to put people of different nationalities into Star Trek, but sometimes the network forced him to change his decisions since it was the 1960s and American was still pretty white-centric. Don't know if Montalban was his first choice or not. He definitely made sure to make him as Indian as he could though with the skin tone, hair, name, and even having him look at a painting of himself wearing a turban.

 

startrek02.jpg

 

 

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
So its not that the casting isn't keeping to the story heritage, its more people think Abrams is racist?

 

I doubt it, I suspect it just never occurred to him. I saw him on "The Daily Show" Monday saying that he never was a Star Trek fan before he got the job to direct the movie.

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Bosco685

Bosco685

Posted
Posted
So its not that the casting isn't keeping to the story heritage, its more people think Abrams is racist?

 

I doubt it, I suspect it just never occurred to him. I saw him on "The Daily Show" Monday saying that he never was a Star Trek fan before he got the job to direct the movie.

 

I'm leaning towards this had nothing to do about racism. It was about picking an actor that could really be one heck of a hardcore villain.

 

What hero in a movie or comic would be a hero if they didn't have some insurmountable challenge they had to overcome through amazing strength, bravery, and in some cases intelligence?

 

Otherwise, it would be another boring story that you would forget as soon as you closed the book at page 5, or walked out of the theater.

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Bosco685

Bosco685

Posted
Posted
Since Pie already said it out in the open
:sorry:

 

 

I didn't realize Cumberbatch playing Khan was spoiler realted. Is it supposed to be a secret he is playing khan?

 

 

 

Even the official Star Trek site won't even reference yet who the villain is in the new movie, other than the character's front-loaded name to throw off long-term fans.

 

SHHHHH! Don't tell anyone.

 

 

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
Since Pie already said it out in the open
:sorry:

 

 

I didn't realize Cumberbatch playing Khan was spoiler realated. Is it supposed to be a secret he is playing khan?

 

For some reason Abrams has been keeping it a secret. Supposedly it's not even revealed in the film until halfway through and he goes by a different name for a while during the first half.

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