Justin Lin is directing Star Trek XIII

[Mudd]

I've no argument with this - I liked The Avengers but didn't find it to be anything like an awesome or even particularly memorable movie. Wheoon's done much better, and on a much smaller screen.

Say what you will about the “drink every time Vin Diesel says “family” game for Fast & Furious 6, but Fast Five was not just a terrific action picture but a pretty great movie, period, and this is coming from someone who didn’t care much for the previous four films. It was a fifth sequel that used its complex continuity to its emotional advantage, and I might on a given day argue that it’s an even better “franchise all-stars to the rescue” movie than The Avengers.

Link

 

[Galileo7]

I am hoping for the best with Lin at the helm.

 

[Leto_II]

Like others have said, Justin Lin is really the one who turned the franchise away from having sex on cars, women just there to be sexy, and silly action scenes. They've been very legitimate heist/thriller movies since Fast Five. Sure they're still action movies, but let's be honest, that's what Trek XIII would have been regardless of who was directing.

This, basically.

Justin Lin took over the F&F franchise at a point where it was basically only one movie or so away from going straight-to-video, and turned it from a cheesy, '70s exploitation-homage for 15-year-old Limp Bizkit fans with a tuning fetish into something much better than it really has any right to be.

He's much more of an auteur, in many respects, than some people will ever give him credit for.

 

[Overgeeked]

He's the director, his job is to help tell the story to the audience. However, he isn't the one coming up with the story.

You're thinking of how it works in TV. In feature films, by contrast, the director is very much the one in charge of the storytelling. Writers in the feature industry are seen as nothing more than hired contractors who are brought in to take the director's (or sometimes the producer's) ideas and convert them into script form. If the director doesn't like the result, the writers either rework it until the director is satisfied or are let go in favor of new writers. And the director is free to keep reworking the script during filming and editing, to the point that the finished film may bear little resemblance to what the credited screenwriters wrote.

Which is exactly why this doesn't bode well for anything except a mindless action movie.

Well, Lin is certainly a talented director. That is a good thing. But I am nervous. Baird was a well known director as well, with some strong titles to his credit, but he was ill suited to direct Nemesis. He did not understand what Trek is and tried to make a cool space action movie that was terribly edited, full of plot holes, and lacked the trek spirit.

The plot holes wouldn't have been Baird's fault, as he had no involvement in the script or story development. Sure, Baird was ignorant of Trek to the point he actually argued with LeVar Burton and tried to convince him that Geordi was an alien, but there are certain things he can't be blamed for.

I want Star Trek to be an intelligent, fun, inspiring movie, true to the Trek spirit, not Fast & Furious IN SPAAAACEEE!!

The other two Abrams movies aren't intelligent or inspiring, so why should this one be either? I want Trek XIII to be either one of two movies:

-An actual honest Trek movie.
-An action movie that doesn't pretend to be anything else.

I'm fine with the fact that it's option 2. The problem with the Abrams movies isn't that they're mindless action movies, it's that they're mindless action movies where the writers believed they were doing intellectual think pieces. The end result comes off as pretentious. Doing an action movie for its own sake will at least give the movie an honest feeling to it.

"Mindless action movie" isn't what I watch Star Trek for. Even the supposed "mindless action movies" the original franchise produced had far more going on than just action. The new stuff... not so much.

 

[HaplessCrewman]

Interesting choice on Paramount's part considering how Justin Lin is considered by some to be a "franchise saver".

Lin's skill as an action director was probably a big factor in Par's choice considering how they still want to court the global market using the universal language of action & violence.

I don't think we're done with the Abramsverse yet. There's still way more homages, callbacks, tributes, characters from the prime universe to "re-interpret". Perhaps the way to look at these Abrams films is as a meta-Star Trek - a time when the series chose to look back upon itself before laying dormant again.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Well, Lin is certainly a talented director. That is a good thing. But I am nervous. Baird was a well known director as well, with some strong titles to his credit, but he was ill suited to direct Nemesis.

Huh? Stuart Baird was a well-known film editor, but he had only directed two movies prior to Nemesis: Executive Decision and US Marshals.

Star Trek: Nemesis was the third (and final) movie he directed, since he subsequently returned to what he was actually good at.

Moral of the story: A good editor doesn't necessarily make a good director.

 

[Makarov]

I don't really see Into Darkness anywhere near a Fast and Furious movie as far as mindless action. For me Trek 09 and Into Darkness aren't mindless/pretentious as seems to be the popular opinion on the boards. Not saying they're perfect, but there are just as many ideas to chew on in Into Darkness as there are in the TNG movies.

 

[johnjm22]

Obviously, this is terrible news.

Lin's movies are pathetic. His cringe-worthy list of credits are as bad as Orci's.

Paramount was disappointed STID was unable to get the younger demographic of other big budget summer movies. I think they hope to change that by hiring Lin.

 

[Kruezerman]

Obviously.

 

[BillJ]

Obviously, this is terrible news.

Losing a loved one is terrible news. This is just a movie.

 

[johnjm22]

Losing a loved one is terrible news. This is just a movie.

CONTEXT
con·text
noun

the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.

We're on a message board talking about a film franchise.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Obviously.

 

[BillJ]

Losing a loved one is terrible news. This is just a movie.

CONTEXT
con·text
noun

the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.

We're on a message board talking about a film franchise.

Yep. And "terrible news" still is a poor way to express your displeasure over a movie. Tends to make one look like one of the "Roddenberry's Vision" loons.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Obviously.

Quite

 

[Mudd]

Lin's movies are pathetic.

He's actually quite good, as are his movies.

 

[johnjm22]

Losing a loved one is terrible news. This is just a movie.

CONTEXT
con·text
noun

the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.

We're on a message board talking about a film franchise.

Yep. And "terrible news" still is a poor way to express your displeasure over a movie. Tends to make one look like one of the "Roddenberry's Vision" loons.

It's terrible news, FOR THE FILM.

No one's dying obviously, and it's not the same thing.

If the whole movie got cancelled, that would be terrible news, FOR THE THE FILM.

The only reason this bothers you so much is because you disagree with my opinion that Lin and his movies suck.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I love F&F movies. And not just because I'm a petrolhead.

They are more substantive than some people give them credit it for. While they're not great dramatic film by any stretch, they're definitely more than just "random action scenes cut together."

More importantly though, Lin seems to have improved with each outing. The first two he did were a little rough around the edges, but last two have both been solid films anyone should be proud of. This shows he's growing as a filmmaker.

It's like a quarterback. His rookie season may have been a rough ride, but he's shown progressional development in his craft. Now lets put him behind an established offence and see what happens.

It's terrible news, FOR THE FILM.

Film doesn't have feelings.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

As one who didn't like The Fast and the Furious films, I actually checked in when Justin Lin came on board and did "Fast Five." That film seemed to actually have a story and a goal (with no filler).

I'm looking forward to see what he does with Trek 3. And, the fact there is a new screenwriter means we should get a film that (hopefully) steps up from STID.

And, chances are that if Trek 3 does well, I'm sure they'll continue with the nuCrew in future films as they did with the 'rebooted' Fast and Furious films (e.g. they were all about the racing, but now their all about the heist - ing and helping law enforcement get criminals).

Another though: Sung Kang is usually in Lin's films, so I wonder if he will make an appearance as a character?

 

[Amaris]

Obviously, this is terrible news.

Lin's movies are pathetic. His cringe-worthy list of credits are as bad as Orci's.

Paramount was disappointed STID was unable to get the younger demographic of other big budget summer movies. I think they hope to change that by hiring Lin.

Oh yeah, I know. STID sucked so bad it only made half a billion dollars, and achieved critical acclaim, like its predecessor. Now they think they can make a third movie using that loser formula that has failed them so far? Hah! Well, I'll show them: I'm only going to go see the movie four or five times. That will show them.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Oh man, if five trips is making a stand, I must have liked STID far less than I thought.