New 'Star Trek' Trailer, and My Big 'Star Trek' Weekend

If you start with film number 1, you may not return for number 2. It was horrible. I own the others, but I skip that one. Besides the science and the humor, Star Trek is all about the relationships (I can't say that's true for Next Generation because I didn't watch it too much--to me it was *SO* boring-- "Let's have another adventure on the Holodeck.") The relationships sustained the franchise, which is why it's ironic that in real life many of the actors apparently hated Shatner. Guess that's why we call it acting.

Reply

Gee, seriously, I don't know if I'd recommend the films (or the third season, really, it's embarrassing) to know what Star Trek is about. See Wrath of Khan & The Voyage Home ... I still have with (hopefully this isn't a spoiler by now) the whole concept of resurrecting Spock.

Reply

Hopefully you get the director's cut of the first one. The original cut is a jumbled mess of a film that is not worth sitting through. But Khan will more than make up for that one's mistakes.

However, avoid 5 like the plague. Just don't do it...from a diehard second generation Trekkie, this is my sincere advice. Show up for 6...I think it's the most Trek of them all and hopefully Abrams is following in the mold of 2/4/6 for his film.

But yeah...that Trailer is amazing. The HD version is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0xaCB2nLS0

Reply

Just don't watch the first movie as a Trek movie. Look at it as an attempt to merge 2001 with Trek... like the editor watched too much Kubrick. In that light... it's not AS unwatchable.

II is of course classic, III isn't as bad as some people claim, and has some moments of comic overacting. IV is the most lighthearted, but I found it a bit silly when I first saw it. V is so terrible even Roddenberry distanced himself from it. VI is very aware of the age of its crew and plays it right.

Reply

Glad to see some love for VI on these posts. I always thought that was a great Star Trek film, maybe just a notch below 2, but definitely the 2nd best of the bunch. Maybe thats cause it was the only one I was old enough to remember seeing in the theater, but definitely worth checking out. I'm still not sold on this new one. This trailer is better then the other one, but I'm not too hyped just yet. Hopefully it'll be great, but I'm not as big an Abrams fan as most of the online community seems to be.

Reply

Go into the first film to look at the pretty pictures and take a nap after the Enterprise fly-by sequence. As for five, watching it drunk should get you through it with out too much pain.

Reply

Frankly, if you want to get a good sense of TOS, you should watch these great episodes, along with the films 2, 4 & 6 (which I agree wholeheartedly with those above is an excellent Star Trek film):

The Cage or The Menagerie 1 & 2
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Mudd's Women
Balance of Terror (awesome)
Dagger of the Mind
Arena
Tomorrow is Yesterday
A Taste of Armageddon
Space Seed (leads to Wrath of Khan)
City on the Edge of Forever (arguably the best)
Metamorphosis
The Trouble with Tribbles

There are several more, but this is enough.

Enjoy!

Reply

Wow... nice trailer. Very powerful and the music throughout was like a cross between The Dark Knight and The Da Vinci Code (say what you will about DaVinci, it had a good score.)

Reply

The films, alas, are mostly bad. Let's see, of the ones I have seen:

No. 1: Poor man's 2001, as has been said above by someone else I believe... I still find it endearing though (no idea why).

2: Not seen it (yes, I know its the good one).

3: Saw about three seconds and turned it off, it was so bad.

4: Lots of people seem to like this one for some reason. I don't get it.

5: Just... terrible. Battlefield Earth bad (well, nearly).

6: Never seen it (yes, I know its the OTHER good one).

7: Generations I have a soft spot for but by general standards its pretty weak.

8: First Contact is by far the best Trek Movie I've seen.

9: Let us not mention what went on here.

10: Nemesis is mediocre but still the second-best Trek movie I've seen.

Trailer looks awesome BTW.

Reply

Glad to hear you're checking them out Eugene. At the very least it will help you in discussions around here and on other movie websites.

As for my opinion of the movies:

I - I think the first one actually had some good points. Some of the plot elements, casting, and visuals were well done for the time. Unfortunately, as most will agree, there's a large section of the movie that is mind-numbingly dull. If this plot/cast had been in better hands, it could have been wonderful.

II - Classic movie. Ricardo Montalban was amazing, and it seemed to make Shatner step up it a notch and perform better himself. Great story, visuals, and acting (well, except for Kristie Alley, who was HORRIBLE as a Vulcan).

III - A worthy follow-up, but not as 'believable' as its predecessor (as if any of them are believable). Some of the scenes in the last 15 minutes are very well done, making this one worth watching. Plus, Christopher Loyd was awesome as a Klingon, and the chick they got to replace Kristie Alley's character was WAY, WAY, WAY more believable as a Vulcan.

IV - Classic movie. However, you have to understand the original series to understand why they would make this movie, which is light years different than Wrath of Khan, but nearly (but not quite) as good. The original series ALWAYS had a good balance of science fiction and human interaction on Earth or some close substitute for Earth (through time travel or whatever). This is comedic Star Trek set on (then) modern Earth. Very little science in this fiction, but the writing, acting, and story telling are all compelling.

V - You have to feel for William Shatner a bit with this one. It's the only Star Trek movie he directed, and it's abysmal. Don't get me wrong, I think it actually does have it's moments, but it simply has the WORST ending of any Star Trek movie, episode...you name it. Since not everyone has seen it, I won't throw spoilers out there, but bottom line is, they do a decent job of building interest and a little bit of suspense throughout the movie (I know...it's hard to agree with me on that if you've actually seen the ending) but the payoff at the end is SOOOOOOO........... SOOOOOOOOO bad, that you want to slap either Shatner, the writer, the special effects dude, the sound effects guy, or all four of 'em for how poorly the third act was executed.

VI - Should have been called 'The Redemption', since it really makes up for the movie that came before it. As someone else said, it plays on the fact that they aren't spring chickens anymore (not that they were in the last movie or two). Plus, a strong opening sequence, a decent plot taken right from the cold war (and thrown into space), and good acting from seasoned actors make this a joy to watch.

Generations - bad idea. I know that they meant well with the idea of passing the torch and all, but it seemed to have the effect of stifling Patrick Stewart a bit, as he had to share the screen with Shatner in parts. Plus, the casting for the bad guy was lame - great actor - but lame casting. Bottom line - this movie felt forced, but in retrospect, it may have been a necessary bridge to continue the franchise.

First Contact - Classic movie. This is by far my favorite Star Trek movie. The Wrath of Khan kicks ass, but this is a better structured, executed, and acted movie. (slight spoiler for the Wrath of Khan:) The Wrath of Khan needed to use a plot devise that made Kirk look like an amateur. I never believed that Kirk would have made the blunder he makes when the Khan-helmed ship first encounters The Enterprise. Sure, yes...Kirk's human. But come on. They could have written that one part differently. But I digress... First Contact is WONDERFULLY cast. Alice Krige is AMAZING in her role, and just about every other non-regular is fantastic (James Cromwell and Alfre Woodard, in particular).

Insurrection - Bad idea. They basically tried to turn Patrick Stewart's character into Kirk. Meet a beautiful woman on some planet that is under threat and have him fall for her as he tries to save the planet. Bad idea. Bad story. Only half-way decent acting.

Nemesis - Great visuals. Bad bad guy, unremarkable movie. Wow...I can barely remember anything about it, other than Data jumping through space from one ship to another, which I guess was kinda cool.

I am looking forward to the new Star Trek movie not because I'm a trekkie (I am not) but because I like movies that are well done, regardless of what classification they fall under.

I can't believe I just wrote all that.

Jim

Reply

I'll be interested to hear what you make of the original series movies. I also became a fan of Star Trek starting with TNG, but while that remains my favorite of the TV series, I much prefer the movies with the original crew to those featuring Picard, Will, Data and the rest. (Data is actually a significant reason why. I love the character in the series, but I think they ruined him in the movies by giving him the emotion chip.)

If you do enjoy the movies at all, it's worth looking into some of the best episodes of the original series. Besides The Trouble with Tribbles, I'd recommend The City on the Edge of Forever, Balance of Terror, Space Seed, Journey to Babel and The Squire of Gothos. The first two are just great original series episodes (The City on the Edge of Forever is often singled out as the very best of the series), Space Seed, as Adam pointed out, is the backstory for The Wrath of Khan, Journey to Babel is the only episode of the original series to feature Spock's parents, Sarek and Amanda (if you're doing this as background for the new movie, those characters both seem to be in it, and in any case it will give you some background on the relationship between Spock and Sarek before their appearances on TNG), and The Squire of Gothos . . . well, it's just a personal favorite. The title character is to some extent at least the predecessor of Q.

As far as the new trailer goes . . . all I can say is blegh. I love Leonard Nimoy and I was intrigued by the casting of Ben Cross as Sarek, but everything I see of this movie just turns me off even more. I'll just stick to the original six movies and hope that maybe some theater near me will do what yours is doing and show them as a marathon.

Reply

Which showings are you going to? I want to try and make it on Sunday for 5 and 6. By the way, thanks for letting us Bay area dwellers know about this! I had no idea Castro Theatre was doing this; it's awesome!

Reply

I am a big TNG fan, haven't watched TOS all the way through, just caught episodes here and there, but VI is not just my favorite Star Trek movie, but my favorite movie period. Something about these over-the-hill characters coming back and bringing out their greatness again really resonated with me, and the acting, writing, and production on that movie is top-notch. Absolutely wonderful way to put a book end on TOS.

Some of the TNG movies are ok and even good, but I think somehow TOS movies just worked better.

I'm hoping this new ST movie will be good, but I worry. It seems to me Abrams always does amazing casting, incredible visuals, but then somehow the end result can be, shall we say, less than good. Here is hoping though!

Reply