trailer break: ‘Star Trek’
Take a break from work: watch a movie trailer...
(Or, the Star Trek trailer at Apple Trailers: bigger, crisper, clearer.)
The wait is not over! In a parallel universe where Paramount didn’t move the release date from now to next bloody summer, the wait is over. But not here. Not in this universe. In what sense is the wait over?
Bastards.
This release-date-postponement thing could in fact mean we’re living in the evil mirror-image universe. Has anyone checked Paramount execs for evil little goatees and ritual knives at their waists? It would explain so much.
Honestly, I think I’m more disappointed over Trek getting pushed to next summer than I am Harry Potter getting the same treatment. I got chills watching this -- chills. Chills like haven’t gotten since, I think, that first Phantom Menace trailer a decade ago. I don’t mean to suggest that this is gonna turn out the way that did -- I trust J.J. Abrams a helluva lot more than I trust George Lucas these days. I just mean: Holy crap, new Star Trek!
For fun, the license plate on Kirk’s (borrowed? stolen?) sports car:
(Not much else to do there out among the arcologies of Iowa, I guess.)
Building starships at the bottom of a gravity well?
(That doesn’t seem like the smartest thing ever.)
Zachary Quinto looks amazing as Spock:
Ditto Simon Pegg as Scotty:
Bruce Greenwood as Christopher Pike? Coolest. Casting. Ever.
Stargate’s Paul McGillion is in this (though not, as far as I could tell, in the trailer)? Suh-weet!
Eric Bana is unrecognizable. Damn.
Final thought: That is sooo the rock monster from Galaxy Quest, isn’t it:
Star Trek opens in the U.S. and in the U.K. on May 8, 2009.
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comments
posted by t6 (Wed Nov 19 08, 12:11PM)
I was excited...then watching the trailer two things dampened my enthusiasm.
1) Disrobing Uhura. What's up with that? Uhura is awesome, I hope they don't just keep her as objectified cheesecake.
2) Too much Kirk. I don't like Kirk. I never have. He was a terrible captain, and just skeezy. I liked the rest of the crew. This looks like it is going to be more valorization of Kirk the representative of the patriarchy and the American exceptionalist rugged individual. Irritating.
posted by PaulW (Wed Nov 19 08, 12:12PM)
We are indeed in the Mirror Universe. Actually it's the Matrix/Mirror Universe, where our Agonizer Booth and Battery Containment Tube are one and the same.
I'm actually a little apprehensive aboot this film: I'm worried this will be less Batman Begins (reboot that did it right) and more Phantom Menace (a prequel that did it so wrong that, to quote our patron geek Simon, it STILL HURTS Bilbo...!)
1) My biggest problem: the bad guys are gonna be Romulans and not Klingons.
2) It looks as though the movie will be a reboot of characters' origins (like a rehash of a proposed Starfleet Academy script that floated about in the early 90s), but which could eliminate a lot of the cool background stories of our heroes (will Kirk still take the Kobayashi Maru test three times?). And are we getting Chekhov too soon into the story mix...?
3) Even-numbered Galaxy Quests DON'T SUCK. Wait a mo...
posted by Alex Knapp (Wed Nov 19 08, 12:42PM)
[geek] Actually, Kirk took it three times in the non-canon novel Kobayashi Maru. In Star Trek II, this fact is not mentioned at all. So if he doesn't take it thrice in the film, that's not a continuity glitch. [/geek]
posted by PaulW (Wed Nov 19 08, 1:42PM)
Dear Alex: It was in Khan. It is canon. Here's the quote.
SPOCK: The Kobayashi Maru scenario frequently wreaks havoc on students and equipment. As I recall you took the test three times yourself. Your final solution was, shall we say, unique?
KIRK: It had the virtue of never having been tried.
posted by Alex Knapp (Wed Nov 19 08, 2:34PM)
PaulW -
I have been officially schooled.
posted by Laurie D. T. Mann (Wed Nov 19 08, 3:09PM)
I thought it was pretty good. I agree there was a bit much Kirk in it, but he always was the star.
Jim saw the trailer in the theater, and said the great thing was you had no clue what the movie was about until the kid gave his name.
posted by PaulW (Wed Nov 19 08, 4:21PM)
I was more aiming for Pwned, but Schooled works.
While I've stated the things that worry me, I do want to state the things that pique my interests:
1) Simon Pegg as Scotty was a casting coup. Although I worry they're gonna have to remove a finger to match him to Doohan.
2) Orion slave girls. Yes, they are fanservicing the nerdboys with this move.
3) Winona Ryder as Amanda Grayson. Actually, this is depressing me. The goth girl of my generation is now old enough to play Spock's mom. :(
4) Jet packs. The guy running Mightygodking has it right. Jet packs + Star Trek = win and awesome.
5) Sulu and Chekhov Go To White Castle: oh cmon it had to be said!
posted by Michael (Wed Nov 19 08, 4:33PM)
"Jim saw the trailer in the theater, and said the great thing was you had no clue what the movie was about until the kid gave his name."
Ditto. My friend and I both thought it was just some commercial for Mountain Dew or something.
And I'm with you about the concept of building a starship on the planet. (Then again, that's how the SGC built the Prometheus...and if they can simulate gravity on a starship, why can't they simulate lack of gravity in a planet-based shipyard?)
...Okay, done geeking out, for the moment. ;)
posted by M. D. (Wed Nov 19 08, 4:37PM)
Of course they are evil. That is why they have the line "The wait is over" at the end of the trailer for a movie that is not going to be out for six months.
posted by the rook (Wed Nov 19 08, 5:55PM)
i'm still prepared for a lot of retconning.
still, what does the younger james t. kirk have against vintage american sports cars?
posted by Michael (Wed Nov 19 08, 5:59PM)
I just figured he had some sort of degenerative optical condition that rendered him unable to see gigantic gaping chasms.
posted by Anne-Kari (Wed Nov 19 08, 7:12PM)
I don't know how well JJ will pull this off, but I am willing to forgive almost anything this time around, in part because of the near-perfect casting... in part because of how massively the Star Trek franchise impacted my youth.
Though my adult tastes run more to the Firefly phenom for its layered and gritty portrayal of a possible future, my childhood remains firmly rooted in the inspiring episodes of TOS and all they represented to a young mind - adventure, danger, conflicts of ethics, possiblities....
One of my very first documented sentences as a child was "Oh NO, Captain, look out!". If you doubt me, just ask my parents :)
This trailer just gets me so excited all over again.
posted by MaryAnn (Wed Nov 19 08, 7:48PM)
Oh, we are all such geeks. I love you all.
I’d like to think that this will be a smackdown of Kirk as a (supposed) paragon of American malehood. I’m probably going to be disappointed in this, but I’d still like to think it.
The first time I watched the trailer on YouTube, I thought: WTF, they’re putting ads before the trailers now? :->
I worry that they had to physical eject Pegg from the set once the shoot was done. Because he is One Of Us, and surely was unwilling to let the fantasy end.
Yeah, but they were working in the very early 21st century -- it would have been tougher to hide a starship shipyards in orbit than one on the surface. (Hey, what’s with all previously unannounced shuttle launches?) Though perhaps sending up materiel from Baikonur could have been kept secret...
That’s exactly it for me, too. *Trek* was one of my very first experiences in geekiness. It’s part of what made me a geek who like Firefly-esque depictions of the future. So no matter what direction this *Trek* movie takes, it’ll be... *interesting,* even if it fails.
posted by MaryAnn (Wed Nov 19 08, 7:50PM)
Also: I cannot look at that screengrab of Quinto as Spock and not grin. It's just not possible.
posted by blake (Wed Nov 19 08, 9:04PM)
I thought the Enterprise was built in space ?
I'm not a Trekker so I don't know...
The only ep I like of the original series was the one with Capt. Pike
I only enjoyed Trek when the Borg turned up. Or Tribbles.
Oh, and Seven Of Nine was hot. Totally smoking hot.
Same goes for Dax
The mini skirts appear to be back in the new film !!!
I'm gotta admit I'm looking forward to the new film. Despite the fact that the trailer doesn't tell you the plot which is never a good sign
posted by Mark (Wed Nov 19 08, 9:20PM)
Clearly not this one...
I disagree; trailers which walk you through the movie in advance often give me the impression that I don't need to see the movie.
posted by blake (Wed Nov 19 08, 9:31PM)
Nope. You don't want them to show you the good stuff, however, you do actually want to know what's going on.
From this trailer I know:
Space
Kirk and Crew
Classic uniforms
The Jurassic Park trailer gave you the plot and kept the good stuff.
But then again, Jurassic Park always did everthing right.
I want to watch Jurassic Park.
Right now.
posted by NorthernStar (Thu Nov 20 08, 4:58AM)
May? May! And that's just the American release date!
That looks amazing (even the car-in-the-desert, which should have come across as macho-b****cks but didn't.)
I love how it maintains just enough of the classic series to look Trek but still appears fresh and new. (IMO, part of the problem with the last few Trek films was that all the sets, and even the characters, were so familiar that the sense of wonder was lost.)
posted by PaulW (Thu Nov 20 08, 9:54AM)
I'm with those who are posting it makes little sense to show the Enterprise being built Earth-bound. It would have been a bit more dramatic, more awe-inspiring, to have Kirk look up at the night sky, and see from a low orbit the construction platform all lit up like a star beckoning him out into space...
posted by PaulW (Thu Nov 20 08, 11:16AM)
Here's the MightyGodKing review of the trailer. NSFW
posted by MaryAnn (Thu Nov 20 08, 7:05PM)
Oh, man, that review is funny. It's true, though: Kirk *will* fuck anything that moves. I have secret insider knowledge that that's why Spock attacks him in that bit, cuz Spock likes Kirk, but he doesn't like him like him.
I'm not sure it's fair to say that Kirk deliberately drives that irreplacable vintage sports car off the cliff. He sure looks surprised to find that gaping chasm in front of him. I think it's the doing of those same bad aliens that killed Tripp's sister by blasting a gaping chasm through Florida. I think those aliens decided to jump ahead in time and kill Kirk before he can make a major nuisance of himself among the member species of Galactic Bad Guys. So they put the gaping chasm right in the path of that vintage sports car. It was all part of their evil plan.
posted by MaryAnn (Thu Nov 20 08, 7:07PM)
Anyway, that's the plot of the film, for everyone who needs to know. Because I know there are literally dozens of geeks who will refuse to see this film if they don't like the way the plot sounds.
posted by PaulW (Thu Nov 20 08, 7:18PM)
Wait! That rock creature's a Horta! They're not supposed to run into Horta until episode 25! NOOoooooooooooo (poor geek soul gets crushed)
posted by blake (Thu Nov 20 08, 8:26PM)
I know who's to blame for this trailer...
"KHHHHHHAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!!!"
posted by JayK (Fri Nov 21 08, 2:19PM)
I honestly don’t know what to think or what to feel over this new Trek film. I of course would love to see a new film or series provided it were done right, and I truly question J.J’s vision or plot with this film.
My big problems with this are #1, You simple don’t recast James Kirk, or the original cast. Like Shattner/Kirk or not, he is the original captain, the one who launched the franchise and made the show famous. He is the most recognizable “captain” or rather fictional commander anywhere around the world. You simply don’t recast him or his crew. Leave what has already been created and established alone.
#2, my second problem is that this movie looks like it’s going to fly in the face of everything that has been created before. Star Trek already has a well established back story; ie, History and chronology. It’s there in all the episodes of ST: TOS, ST: TAS, ST: TNG, ST: DS9, ST: VOY, as well as printed material concerning the official ST Cannon, primarily the ST Encyclopedia, ST Chronology and various writers guides. And that was the problem with Enterprise, in that it went against the already established “history” and chronology established in the other series. And this new Trek films looks like it intends to continue the off set ham handed mockery that was Enterprise. ( which was for all intents and purposes a spoof of Star Trek because the name Star Trek never appeared in the opening title until after it came out on DVD when it was added in, and the whole series ended up being one big holodeck adventure anyway.)
If you read the Chronology we know that the USS Enterprise was already built and launched before Kirk entered the academy, first under command of Capt. Robert April, then Capt. Chris Pike, and had already completed a2 five year missions before Kirk Took Command. And yes as a matter of reference, the USS Enterprise was built at San Francisco Ship Yards, which is in Orbit, not out in the desert. All of the yards are in space; San Francisco yard, Dry Dock, Earth Station McKinley are all in orbit! And the Utopia Planitia Yards are in orbit of Mars.
Kirk never served with Chris Pike, he served on two other ships prior to the Enterprise. He was made first Office or the USS Farragut, and Chekov was not on the Enterprise because he was still in the Academy during the First Season. It also looks like the designers of this show didn’t even try to make the ships look low tech to match the design of The Original Series. Its also curious where this Uhora Kirk relationship comes from in this new film. And why are there Remens in this film?
There is more that I could address, but I’ll save that for another day. If they had made this a movie about Christopher Pike, I think it might be more acceptable. Speaking as a hard-core fan, and a true trek conservative, I have very strong apprehensions about this film, and although the trailer is kinda cool, I wonder what JJ Abrams will do to the franchise. Reboots rarely if ever work. ( the Batman being the only exception)
posted by MaryAnn (Fri Nov 21 08, 3:37PM)
You do if they have to be young again!
posted by blake (Fri Nov 21 08, 7:21PM)
Hey, JayK, the Bond reboot of Casino Royale worked pretty well.
posted by Mischief Maker (Wed Nov 26 08, 10:51AM)
Wow, so yippie skippie Anakin Kirk was destined for greatness because he was a colossal dumbass?
Is Nosferatu with a switchblade scepter supposed to be the bad guy? Or is this going to be an episode like the lava monster one where in their hunt for the ugly monster, the federation discovers that THEY are the monsters? I predict a morally ambiguous sci-fi plot that tells us something about ourselves!
posted by bitchen frizzy (Wed Nov 26 08, 11:33AM)
JayK has a valid point. Unless this movie is so good that it can succeed on its own merits with viewers who are not Star Trek fans, it's going to need Trekkies/ers as its core audience. And this one looks like it's going beyond "reboot" and into "rewrite". That definitely didn't work for "Enterprise".
posted by Michael (Wed Nov 26 08, 12:44PM)
It's entirely possible that Enterprise is to Batman and Robin as this movie will be to Batman Begins.
...Then again, it's also entirely possible that it won't be. (Aren't possibilities fun?) :D
posted by Gee (Wed Nov 26 08, 2:11PM)
I realise I am probably in a minority :-), but I have to stand up here and declare that I loved Enterprise. I'm disappointed that Archer and his crew didn't get to make it to a fifth season or even better, to the big screen.
The final Enterprise episode was appalling. It short-changed Enterprise fans and simultaneously wrecked what had been an excellent episode of TNG. I can't believe how much that still rankles with me! It will certainly require me to overcome considerable resistance to go and see the film. Usually I can shrug such annoyances off, but there is just something about this that lies festering. :-)
posted by Jason (Mon Dec 15 08, 7:59PM)
Sorry, but this Trek reboot looks awesome, and I am fine with modern young actors playing the important parts. I grew up with trek, watched it all, enjoyed it all. I was never a "trekkie" though, so I do not care about continuity with whatever books were written or any of that. It would be nice, but sometimes a fresh look at an old friend is needed. Batman Begins showed it could be done, I am hoping it can be done again. Of course, Firefly/Serenity ruined me for average sci-fi, now I am more picky about my robots and explosions...