Happy 19th Birthday, Star Trek Generations!

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies I-X' started by cooleddie74, Nov 18, 2013.

  1. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    As long as Chris Pine's Kirk can avoid creaky metal bridges in craggy, rocky desert environments he should be just fine.
     
  2. MikeS

    MikeS Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Nineteen years? Nineteen years! I feel old!
     
  3. Hober Mallow

    Hober Mallow Commodore Commodore

    And that's at the end of the film, after they'd already insulted the audience's intelligence with the story.
     
  4. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I won't argue that the 1701-D was used to maximum effect and benefit in Generations and her destruction was likely just another "bang-pow-zowie-that's awesome" moment designed to get eyeballs into theaters (why else spoil the ship's destruction in a couple of the trailers before the film even premiered?), but I wouldn't say she was treated in an insulting manner. She wasn't given the affection nor time she deserved on the big screen but I think it was more a case of wanting to focus on the final adventure of James T. Kirk and on Picard's emotional chaos over losing his family members and feeling unfulfilled and empty because he doesn't have a wife and children of his own.

    The final moments where Picard and Riker reflect on the meaning of life and the passage of time were beautiful and some of the best moments in the entire film. I wish the Enterprise-D had been in at least one more film but I don't think she was disrespected. Picard and Riker seemed to genuinely regret and mourn the loss of their ship and at least part of the vessel survived until the very end of the movie so we could see that great bridge set one last time.
     
  5. Peach Wookiee

    Peach Wookiee Cuddly Mod of Doom Moderator

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    I remember being very excited to see the film. I was fourteen and dragged my parents to the theater. They... tolerated the Movie. I loved it!
     
  6. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It's easy to forget how huge ST genuinely was in 1994-96. It was literally everywhere, and it seemed to to me that it was resonating with an audience beyond even the hardcore fanbase. I think it probably had a 'cultural cache' that was bigger at that point in time that it has had at any other point, before or since.
     
  7. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I stumbled over this trailer, and - while I like Star Trek - I can understand why some people don't care for it.

    [yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_AioR_vGKI[/yt]

    The first 30 seconds tease a mysterious, moody, hard scifi film. I really like this. But then... it becomes Star Trek. Meh.
     
  8. Saito S

    Saito S Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I do think the ship was "disrespected" to a degree, by one really stupid factor: the Bird of Prey. Shields or no shields, having the E-D get taken down by that dinky little thing was just weird.

    And that said: Quite frankly, I might be able to go ok, weird but maybe I can buy it, if it weren't for the out-of-universe explanation for why they didn't give the Duras sisters a battleship: they realized they could save money by reusing the explosion footage from TUC if they made the ship a BoP. That is just too lame for words. The E-D gets taken down by the starship equivalent of a mosquito so the producers could cheap out on effects. That's pretty unsatisfying (to say nothing of the fact that, after that drawn-out battle scene, having the enemy ship explosion being recycled footage from a previous movie was unsatisfying in and of itself!).

    Still, bittersweet though it is due to the ship's demise, seeing what remains to this day my favorite Trek ship design flying about on the big screen was amazing. The film was certainly heavily flawed (the plot was a mess, especially everything about the nexus :lol:), but I've always regarded it fondly anyway. It felt very grand and epic, partially because of the excellent music as previously noted, but also because of one particular element that I feel has never been equaled: the ship cinematography. There were a lot of really interesting, "non-standard" shots of ship movements, i.e. extreme close-ups and shots from different angles, ships flying into the camera, etc., that in the TV shows (and even in the other movies) would usually have just been "standard" side or front-on views from a comfortable distance. Really love that aspect of GEN.

    As for Kirk: I understand that a lot of people were dissatisfied with how he died, but I never had much of a problem with that. He dies to help save millions of people, none of whom will ever know his name or that he saved them, because it was the right thing to do. Seemed very Kirk-ian to me.
     
  9. Khan 2.0

    Khan 2.0 Commodore Commodore

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    that opening 30 seconds of the trailer does sound like a really great dark 2001 type SF movie (like Interstellar will hopefully be)

    i think the FC teaser also started out with something similar...made you think it was a stand alone SF film (in this case another ID4 type alien invasion type movie)...you can imagine audiences going 'oh cool another alien invasion movie!'... then...'oh...star trek...'
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxYwOCRxOLM

    regarding Generations, the teaser trailer has the same opening as the main one - but it then really gave the impression it would be a Yesterdays Enterprise style tale with Kirk on board the Enterprise D (complete with the FX shots from the tv show)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV8ushOaJi8&feature=related
     
  10. Shat Happens

    Shat Happens Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Happy 19th birthday, Generations movie -- and happy 21st birthday, shot of the Klingon ship exploding.
     
  11. Saito S

    Saito S Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    :lol:
     
  12. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    :lol:

    True dat.

    I'm pretty sure I saw that Bird-of-Prey explode at the end of a 1993 laxative commercial.
     
  13. Khan 2.0

    Khan 2.0 Commodore Commodore

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    Generations FX team guy - oh man how we going to do this shot of the BOP blowing up?

    FX guy at the back - erm remember that scene in Star Trek II of the enterprise in space dock....
     
  14. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    People always rag on the stock footage of the BoP exploding, but let's be honest, it's hardly the only piece of stock used in GENS, is it? But nobody ever moans about the stock shots of the Enterprise at warp being cribbed straight from the TV series...
     
  15. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The shot of the Enterprise-D right before the Stellar Cartography sequence is the same-old flyby you see in umpteen episodes of TNG, just blown up for the big screen (and not all that smoothly either).
     
  16. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Be grateful, because that was the first time they recognized they could do a TNG remastered at some point eventually.
     
  17. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Oh, it looked better than the TV flyby. It just looked like a less expensive and sophisticated TV optical effect transferred and then blown up for a big screen audience, that's all. They cut corners where they could to speed up production and make sure the film was in theaters by Thanksgiving of '94.
     
  18. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    I used to collect the film posters, and the Generations poster was the last one I had. I liked it enough to have it framed. Then, the first time I moved with it, it got destroyed. Along with one of my Bodum cups, just like the ones Picard drank his tea out of. Gave up on posters after that, but still have one of the cups.
     
  19. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    To this day it remains one of my two favorite Trek film posters.

    [​IMG]
     
  20. Joe_Atari

    Joe_Atari Commander Red Shirt

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    I just had birthday cake coming out of my nose... :rofl:

    And it's almost 22 years since TUC, right?