Star Trek

Post by **William** » April 8th, 2009, 12:12 pm

GeorgeC wrote:No, Rand...

They premiered TEN minutes of the film in Austin, Texas.

No, they did not just show the ten minute preview...they showed the whole d--n movie!

Excerpted from
http://trekmovie.com/2009/04/06/austin- ... rek-movie/ :

According to our man on the scene, the evening started off normally at the Fantastic Fest Star Trek event at the Alamo Draughthouse Theater in Austin, Texas on Monday night. Star Trek filmmakers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof kicked things off by telling the crowd of around 200, that they would be seeing the Star Trek preview after Wrath of Khan. Two minutes in to the showing of TWOK, the film appeared to have ‘melted’ and the guys came back out on the stage and appeared to be stalling for time while the film was fixed…and then, wearing a ball cap, Leonard Nimoy came out in front of the audience holding a film can.

Nimoy noted to the crowd that it just didn’t seem fair that people in Australia were the first to see the film and asked them "wouldn’t you rather see the new movie?" And apparently the crowd went wild. After that they showed the entire new Star Trek movie.

Post by **Randall** » April 8th, 2009, 11:14 pm

Told ya so, Georgie.

Obviously, you didn't actually read the stories at AICN.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » April 8th, 2009, 11:33 pm

Cut me slack on it.

Between the general stupidity and editorializing on things that have nothing to do with films -- and Harry K's very disturbing personal stories --, it's a nasty site to navigate and frankly I spend a lot less time there than I used to.

After the explosion of new-found nastiness over the past two years at AICN and their inability to review a bunch of films without four-letter words or sexually explicit imagery, it got to be a chore to read through the site...

That's in a nutshell the problem with AICN.

It's a lot like a horse stable that hasn't been cleaned in 30 years!

It's interesting to note that another poster linked to a TREK website and not AICN to spill the news about the Austin showing.

Trek sites are notoriously snippy, too, but nowhere near as nasty and frat-like as AICN generally is.

Post by **Randall** » April 9th, 2009, 1:16 am

I enjoy talking with you, buddy, but I'll cut you some slack when you stop lecturing on something that you haven't actually read up on. I'd suggest that, next time, you shouldn't be so dismissive when you are given information. Your dislike of AICN has nothing to do with the factuality of the Austin screening. There were, as you now noted, other places to check the info before telling me I was wrong.

Right?

Post by **Ben** » April 9th, 2009, 7:00 am

He's not your buddy, friend...

Post by **CyrusGrissom** » April 9th, 2009, 8:26 am

Now this is one of my most anticapted movies of the year, it could save the series.

Post by **Ben** » April 9th, 2009, 8:39 am

I think it already has...Star Trek "II" is already being written...

Post by **eddievalient** » April 21st, 2009, 12:50 pm

So far, Rotten Tomatoes is showing seven reviews for this film, all positive (some more than others). I think that's a good sign. To clarify something using the screenwriters' words, this isn't considered a "page 1 reinvention" like the current Battlestar Galactica. It's an "alternate timeline", which essentially means they can keep the things they like and change or update the things they don't. Works for me. 17 more days to go...

Post by **Dacey** » April 22nd, 2009, 1:10 pm

Actually, the response seems to be *very* good so far, at least judging from this article:

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0754512/

Post by **ShyViolet** » April 23rd, 2009, 5:28 pm

So far, Rotten Tomatoes is showing seven reviews for this film, all positive (some more than others). I think that's a good sign. To clarify something using the screenwriters' words, this isn't considered a "page 1 reinvention" like the current Battlestar Galactica. It's an "alternate timeline", which essentially means they can keep the things they like and change or update the things they don't.

I'm kind of unsure about this. It looks like a fun, flashy film with lots of action but as somewhat of a Trek fan (specifically TOS) I don't know if it's good that they're keeping things they like but discarding others. I mean, wouldn't fans want them to be as true as possible?

I think the younger Kirk would be brash and confident but also deeper than one would think. Particularly because of his notion that he could "cheat death" by re-programming the Kobiyashu Maru (no-win scenario) test at the Academy so he could win. (he reflects on this in Kahn) He also sacrifices everything in III so he could save Spock, and seems much more broody in the later films than he did in the series. IMO the roots of that should be explored in his younger self, but it doesn't seem like they're going that way and I find that somewhat disappointing.

EDIT: Also, if Spock's anguish/struggle with his half-human roots isn't really touched on, (although from the trailer they do give it a token mention) I don't really know what the point of the film is other than to resurrect yet another franchise and retool it for a new audience. There's more to Star Trek than just battles in space.

Post by **Ben** » April 23rd, 2009, 6:32 pm

Problem is...if they go back <I>too</I> far it basically becomes an origin film. The intent for this is to kick-start a new franchise, and that ain't gonna happen if general audiences don't get what they think they're going to get: Kirk and Spock in space.

The geeks would love it, of course, if we went back and delved into character, but the general audiences that are going to make this a hit and therefore drive another one to be made aren't going to recommend it or come back a second time if all they get is 80 minutes of Starfleet Academy and a ten minute space battle at the end.

Now...there's always room for further flashbacks in future films...

Post by **eddievalient** » April 25th, 2009, 11:05 am

For anyone who cares, Amazon has marked down many of the Star Trek dvds to the lowest price I've ever seen. I snagged the first three seasons of DS9 for $37 apiece (and if the sale is still going on in a few weeks I'll order the rest). TNG is still out of my price range, but the rest of them are really low. If you want it, it seems that now's the time.

Post by **Sunday** » April 25th, 2009, 11:44 am

^ Still out of my price range. lol, I'm checking the entire series out from the library for pity's sake!

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » April 25th, 2009, 1:18 pm

I'm passing on the Blu-rays right now as I just got the DVDs from the past 2-disc and TOS Season set releases mere months ago.

FYI, I think the DVDs for TOS came in neater packaging than what the Blu-ray season sets are getting. However, don't let the packaging influence your decision. Blu-ray IS the way to go if you don't have Star Trek already. Reviews from The Digital Bits on the new Blu-ray TOS Season 1 set have been fabulous and the Bits webmaster is a major Trekkie so that's comforting in that sense.

The movies I can live without in hi-res for a while longer. I would definitely like to the get TMP back in its original theatrical version sooner or later, though. Sets are still less expensive per film at any rate.

IF you are on the fence about pricing and that makes your decisions for you, definitely look into getting the TOS Blu-ray sets (movies or original TV series with BOTH unedited original versions and revised effects in hi-def for BOTH versions) off of Amazon. They were running an incredible discount on these sets the other day. It's around 50% off, maybe slightly better. Very good deals for Blu-ray for sure!

I just don't have the spare cash for this right now and there are about a million other things I want to get first ahead of this since I have the DVD versions already... Extras are being changed in the Blu-ray sets, but, again Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits is reassuring people all IS well with the new Blu-releases of the Original Cast movies and TOS Season 1 Set.

As for the new movie, no more comments from me on the sets and designs from.

I'm sick of my complaints on those, too!

I will reiterate that I'm very cautious about this. My concerns are mainly about the characterizations. There was a delicate chemistry between the original cast members that was never replicated in the other Star Trek spin-offs. Seeing as somebody had the cajones to recast Kirk and Spock in my lifetime, it's a huge leap of faith to suppose it will be as good and as memorable as the already iconic original Star Trek. Lightning does not strike twice very often and it's been my perception people are often too anxious to pass good reviews on something because they want it to be good! A lot of the people posting new reviews (the very few available from people lucky to get in the sneak previews) are NOT huge Star Trek fans and casual fans just don't "get" what made the original Star Trek so special.

Star Trek not only had a great original cast but had producers who strived for the highest quality with the budgets and time constraints they had to work with and great writers who wrote excellent dramatic science fiction and KNEW how to use the TV format.

This movie seems to be yet another Star Trek film trying to emulate Star Wars within a Trek perspective/locale. That just doesn't work well unless it's a character piece and is aided by a memorable villain (which is why Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan still holds up as the best-regarded film of the whole lot). As much as I'd like a GOOD Star Trek film to be about exploration which was the stated point of TOS in Kirk's opening narrative ("Space... the Final Frontier..."), the films that have been about exploration (Star Trek: TMP, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier) have been the worst of the original lot of 6 films. That said, they still beat the TNG films for pure character chemistry... TNG just never had the charisma the original Star Trek series had for me.

Post by **Ben** » April 25th, 2009, 4:38 pm

I'm still very interested in either the six-film original crew set, or a ten film original film series set, if it ever shows.

But I still think the "trilogy" idea stinks. Whatever else can be said about it, TMP set up the Trek universe for the movies and it works well enough as a first movie from which Kahn can grow. Cutting it out is like jumping right in on the second act...which we are.