To bravely go where white men always do

[muckefuck]

I queued Galaxy Quest knowing only that it was a decently-reviewed Star Trek parody that might appeal to both me and the Old Man and having but the vaguest notion of the plot (aliens contact the cast of a cult scifi show thinking they're real and ask them to help out). About twenty minutes in, I said to myself, Oh God, this is another white saviour film. I had to shut down that thought altogether to keep watching. Thirty minutes in, I was struck by the near absence of female actors (the IMDb entry notes that the Alien Love Interest role was beefed up "after the producers noticed Sigourney Weaver was the only female main character"), and in order not to let that bother me I had to tell myself this was a conscious choice to reflect the sexism of the original source material.

So after walling off a good part of my critical brain, I managed to find it an amusing diversion (at least until the disc began skipping and I nearly threw something at the TV). There were cute touches, more fanboy injokes than I had any chance of ever getting, and a clutch of character actors I enjoy seeing. Chief among these is Enrico Colantoni (i.e. Veronica Mars' dad) whose performance as the leader of the alien race was about ten times better than it needed to be. I couldn't figure out why no one but him seemed to have the Thermians' melodically nonhuman intonation down pat, then I found out that he invented it himself.

Comments

[mollyc-q.livejournal.com]

Galaxy Quest is one of my favorite silly comedy movies for several reasons, not the least among them was nearly every review I can recall seeing before I saw it in the theaters said in one of the opening lines, "I know Tim Allen is in this movie, see it anyway...." The luckiest man in show business was well satirized by Tim Allen. I remember thinking as I entered the theater, " please don't be epically cruel to the fandom" I was apprehensive as someone who has never attended a "con" of any kind. My conclusion after my first viewing, the fangirl&boy in-jokes are practically a love letter to SciFi fans everywhere.

"Thirty minutes in, I was struck by the near absence of female actors (the IMDb entry notes that the Alien Love Interest role was beefed up "after the producers noticed Sigourney Weaver was the only female main character"), and in order not to let that bother me I had to tell myself this was a conscious choice to reflect the sexism of the original source material."

Sigorney Weaver saying effectively " I have one job on this ship (its idiotic, sexist and redundant) and I am going to do it" was a good start on addressing the dynamic. Arguably, Justin Long's role could have gone to a girl. That said the Long and the other kid actors did really well, they captured the ernest, obsessive attention to detail and the fantasy of nearly all fans everywhere. His mother shrugging and saying, "At least he's getting outside..." after Long scampers off with an arm load of roman candles - that could have been any D & D, Dr. Who or other form of SciFi geek's parents. Tony Shaloub, Missi Pyle, Sam Rockwell, Alan Rickman are hilarious, but Veronica's dad I agree was magnificent. No such thing as a small role, only small actors - that they thought to create Sam Rockwells character was a nice touch.

The "cute aliens" that are not, at all , everything needlessly complicated about the ship - really this was built for Star Trek fans. Its such a bracing parody of Star Trek that there is no escaping the White Saviour aspect of it. Mathazar and the Thermian's ultimate story seemed a decent compromise. But the White Human Saviour thing in movies, its why I can't watch Avatar (I have professional reasons to try to sit through it a few times) willingly without wanting to commit some kind act against "The White Man" for all of Giraffe kind and fellow species, or tap the TV over. So, the follow up to Galaxy Quest for my money is John Scalzi's Red Shirts, and that takes the thorough parody of the genre (story conventions and straw man characters and and and) a few steps further but with far more women integrated into the story lines. Apparently FX is going to make a miniseries out of it, but the book is worth picking up - its a quick very funny read, and the codas are nice play out of the logic he's satirizing - and its good story telling.