6. Star Trek (2009)
J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reinvented Star Trek: The Original Series for the big screen. Using a little light time travel, Abrams managed to separate the film from the wider Star Trek continuity and tell a new origin story for the crew of the Enterprise. It was a clever piece of writing, but that didn’t prevent the film’s unfortunate hidden message.
Star Trek follows an undisciplined version of Kirk (Chris Pine) as he’s reluctantly enlisted into Starfleet. There he meets the far more sensible Spock (Zachary Quinto), and countless other Star Trek stalwarts. However, throughout the film, Kirk is shown disregarding or actively disobeying orders, and at the end, he’s rewarded for his actions.
In essence, Star Trek glorifies Kirk’s arrogance. It emphasizes that he’s justified in doing whatever he wants against the advice of smarter and more experienced people, and then gives him a big pat on the back afterwards. Admittedly, there are characters who call him out for his behavior, but it’s still a pretty awful narrative vein that runs through the entire movie.