Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Star Trek
2009 · J.J. Abrams · Star Trek on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Notice the light flares that streak across bridge interiors. (light)
Mindel and the crew often held lights near the lens on purpose, so flares keep bleeding into shots of the Enterprise's bridge and control rooms.
Payoff: The flares argue that the ship is a lived-in, working vessel, not a studio set.
Watch how the camera keeps drifting even during quiet talk. (camera)
Mindel's handheld camera rarely settles, in action or in dialogue, giving even still conversations a restless, searching quality.
Payoff: The unrest keeps you feeling the ship's motion instead of a static stage.
Notice the single defining gesture each new crew member gets. (staging)
Bones arrives with a flask and a complaint, Scotty is found in a frozen outpost, Chekov speaks in a deliberately thick accent, each introduced as a type before a person.
Payoff: Abrams banks on you already knowing these archetypes, so recognition does the work exposition would.
Track how often Kirk acts first and Spock calculates first. (performance)
Pine's Kirk keeps throwing himself into situations by instinct while Quinto's Spock keeps pausing to reason them out, a contrast repeated scene after scene.
Payoff: The film argues neither style alone is enough to solve the crisis they face. In the reading: binomial. Deleuze calls two complementary opposed forces a binomial; Kirk and Spock split one dramatic question into two styles.
Listen for the old Star Trek fanfare inside Giacchino's new score. (sound)
Giacchino builds fresh heroic themes but folds in Alexander Courage's original fanfare, and the score is mixed to reinforce rather than compete with the sound design.
Payoff: The score lets a new film announce itself while still paying tribute to what came before.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch for lens flares and drifting handheld shots; they insist the ship's world extends past the frame.