March 09, 2007
The Next Star Trek Movie: More of the Same Crap
So Sci Fi Wire posted a story about the next Star Trek movie: The Movie's Star Trek. Period.
The story is extremely light on details, but Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci, writers for the next Trek flick, throw out some tidbits that I just can't resist commenting on:
"The movie will be titled, simply, Star Trek"
RED ALERT, notify all the Star Trek fan associations immediately! No semi-colons or subtitles this time! But on a more serious note, thats an interesting 180 from the stance they took with "Enterprise," where they tried to remove any reference to the shows Trek heritage in the title. Maybe it represents a turning around on the part of the Paramount Hollywood elites, and a recognition that the Star Trek franchise is actually a powerful and valuable brand?
Not likely.
"it will take place aboard a starship"
This one is just too easy, so I'm going to leave it alone.
"and they're OK with Matt Damon playing Capt. James T. Kirk...Not that the writers confirmed that Damon had been cast, as rumored."
Is this what we're reduced to in Star Trek fandom these days? Wondering if MATT DAMON will now be the face of the new Battlestar Galactic--err--Star Trek? What about focusing on engaging stories with space-bound metaphors that challenge us to think about our own lives? What about characters that we care about? What about real risk and a sense of adventure, the kind of thing that set our hearts on fire as children and adolescents?
Alas, no. We get this:
"The writers wouldn't discuss details of the story, other than to say it is a reimagining of the franchise that will remain true to its history, but aim for the broadest audience possible. Kurtzman promised: 'There will be more action in this movie than any Trek that's preceded it.'"
Because, you know, that's really what Star Trek needs. Maybe if we just water it down to better appeal to the Dawson's Creek audience and fill it with more fighting and explosions, that will solve the franchise's problems. I mean, heck, it worked for Enterprise, didn't it? It worked for Star Trek: Nemesis, didn't it?
Both Enterprise and Star Trek Nemesis were (to one extent or another) predicated on the false assumption that what's "wrong with Star Trek" can ultimately be fixed by straying farther and farther from Gene Rodenberry's vision. If we fill it with tighter skirts, more action, and less character development, then every 13-35 year old in America will flock to it, right? Wrong.
This movie is going to fail. Just like Nemesis failed. Just like Enterprise failed. Why? Because it's just another attempt to re-write Star Trek from the ground up. It doesn't need to be re-written, it doesn't need to be remixed. It's an established brand that millions of people appreciate and are comfortable with. People seem to forget that Star Trek TNG was hugely rated, and it didn't have to resort to the kind of nonsense that we've seen recently in the franchise.
You don't bring Star Trek into the 21st century (in the entertainment sense) by re-writing it from the ground up. No, you ADD something to the already familiar mix. Starting over from the ground up is what caused so much trouble for Voyager, and what doomed Enterprise to failure before it began. TNG didn't go off the air because of bad ratings, that show went out with a bang. Start back there, and build off of it. What about having a story where the crew is joined by the first Romulan Starfleet officer? Or Cardassian, for that matter. What if the Breen want to join the Federation and there's a plot to stop it from happening? These people have gone through several bloody wars, and the mixing of cultures is going to cause tension on personal, community, and galactic levels. There's a lot of opportunity for drama in that situation alone . . . but somehow it's better to hire people to work on Star Trek who can't tell if Geordi LaForge is an alien or not, and have no concept of what "continuity" means.
Yeah, good job, Paramount.
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Technorati: Star Trek
Posted by MarcXavier at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2007
Are Movie Theaters Finally Getting A Clue?
Techdirt has a rather interesting story titled "Movie Theaters Are Just Now Figuring Out That They Need To Be More Responsive To Demand?"
In it, contributor Mike drops the following: "In fact, it's almost amazing to find out that theaters are just now starting to think about more actively responding to demand by using digital distribution systems that not only allow them to boot out bad movies after just a few showings, but also bring in more independent films for special showings for smaller audiences. Being able to better target more markets is a huge step up -- but it's something that the theaters should have started preparing for a decade ago, rather than today."
It's good to see that finally another part of the Entertainment Distribution Machine is starting to pick up on the good stuff Web2.0 has provided us with. In fact, just ignoring all the good techy-goodness kind of feeling that this fills me with, it's just a SMART business practice. The fact that this is starting to catch on is an early sign that the cartel that has controlled mass distribution channels is beginning to crack. Ideally, the next big one will be a low-budget movie (possibly from the web) that gets caught up in this "digital democracy" and voted up to the top, ala the front page of Digg.
Or maybe not. Who knows.
Here's to hoping.
Technorati: Media
Posted by MarcXavier at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)
