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new "Star Trek" trailer

I'm not a Trekkie, although I've seen a few of the movies, mostly on TV. But, just for interest's sake I thought I'd post an excerpt from Ross Douthat's blog to see what you guys thought of his views.

The bootleg trailer for J.J. Abrams' Trek film is here, though probably not for long, and it kicks you upside the head like a good Romulan ale. The spoilers that have leaked out thus far, though, are less encouraging.

A while back, in a debate with Peter Suderman that's vanished into the American Scene's lost archives, I argued that the Trek franchise needed a complete reboot - one that keeps the iconic characters, keeps the Enterprise's five-year mission, and keeps the basic outlines of the Federation-Klingons-Romulan political dynamic, but otherwise untangles itself from the burden of maintaining real continuity with the five television series and ten movies that have come before.

I suggested Batman Begins as a model, and wrote: "If Star Trek is going to boldly go into the twenty-first century, it needs to consider becoming something a little bit more like the Superman and Batman stories - that is, a pop culture mythology that can be reinterpreted and refashioned every generation or so."

But it looks like the franchise's custodians decided not to take the leap: Based on what we know about Abrams' Star Trek, it sounds like a straightforward, none-too-imaginative prequel to the original series - and worse still, one that's sufficiently insecure about its relationship to the canon (and the fan base, presumably) that it's shoehorned in Leonard Nimoy as a time-traveling Spock, in the same way that the first Next Generation film felt compelled to shoehorn in a quasi-time-traveling James T. Kirk. Nothing soured me on the Trek franchise quite as much as its promiscuous use of time travel (culminating, of course in the absurd "Temporal Cold War" from Star Trek: Enterprise), and Abrams' decision to haul it out immediately as an excuse for a Nimoy cameo is a pretty bad sign, both for this film and for any others that end up following.
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More here.
 
Oh come on, time travel is pretty much a staple of Star Trek. Yes, there have been some pretty lame uses of it like the temporal cold war but to just say it will be horrible because of time travel is just absurd. By no means am I defending this movie though. We got two trailers and frankly I'm not a fan of Abrams (I think he is overhyped and he can't resolve a story to save his life). Still, to just throw the movie out because it shares a plot device with a failed series is absurd.

Here is an example. I hate how scifi and fantasy always has the hero be some poor farmer who loses his entire family and/or village due to some evil tyrant who decides to wipe them all out for kicks and giggles. Therefore Star Wars is bad because Luke lost his aunt and uncle when the stormtroopers decided to play target practice (lets ignore the prequels shall we).

Yes, the staples of fiction can be misused. Time travel is certainly a tempting deus ex machina. But lets withhold judgement until we have more than two trailers, please.
 
Who is Ross Douthat and why do I care about his opinion?

Anyway, I think its awesome. With today's Iron Men, Batmen and Transformers, a Star Trek has to compete with those movies. If they go back to the old way Paramount won't make money and they will ignore Star Trek. If you hate this movie you can ignore it and never watch Star Trek again, or you can stop acting like this movie will destroy the franchise (and it will do the opposite) and let the rest of us fans enjoy it.

Its either this movie this way, or no more Trek.
 
I was looking forward to it, until I found out they all came back, the old Characters. The enterprise had 2 captains before Kirk, Robert April and Chris Pike. And Spock was with Pike first. I may end up passing on it, and wait for Enterprise to make a movie.
 
iMac-Knight said:
I was looking forward to it, until I found out they all came back, the old Characters. The enterprise had 2 captains before Kirk, Robert April and Chris Pike. And Spock was with Pike first. I may end up passing on it, and wait for Enterprise to make a movie.
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Star Trek: Enterprise? The series? As much as I loved the show, I can never see that happening.
 
Honestly, I think the people that complain about lore stuff are the problem. You can't move forward with a series if you're always clinging to the past. How many times has batman radically changed and rewritten it's own history?
 
Blue Velvet said:
I'm not a Trekkie, although I've seen a few of the movies, mostly on TV. But, just for interest's sake I thought I'd post an excerpt from Ross Douthat's blog to see what you guys thought of his views.
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I'm not a huge fan anymore, but at the time of Generations, I was, and I went on opening night with a theater full of Michigan engineering undergrads (well, the ones who waited till the evening and didn't cut class to go ... erm, or wait, maybe I did skip out to go, I don't remember now).

The whole audience gave an ovation when Kirk died. :eek: :eek:

P.S. I'm with them on the "reimagined mythology" idea, except it should not suck like the Batman movies do. :(
 
NAG said:
tHere is an example. I hate how scifi and fantasy always has the hero be some poor farmer who loses his entire family and/or village due to some evil tyrant who decides to wipe them all out for kicks and giggles.
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“No, I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.” + Kodos the Executioner
 
And please don't look at this trailer as just FX covering a thin plot. Its a trailer, meant to get your blood pumping. Its only 2 minuets of a 2 hour movie.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Possibly because he talks about the canon whereas you talk about a franchise.
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Ok, but this movie is trying to save a franchise; and I support it for doing that. If it has to change canon to do that, fine by me.
 
runplaysleeprun said:
i'm excited. I keep looking at "Sylar" from hero's playing spock and expect him to be evil.
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Yeah I'm pretty stoked on it and I agree about Sylar. :)
Although seeing Harold (John Cho) in it just makes me giggle. I expect him to be seeking out the nearest White Castle.

I honestly can't wait to see it though.
 
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