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Justin Lin on the Trailer and Beyond's Clash of Philosophies

Ryan Thomas Riddle

Ryan Thomas Riddle

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Thought this deserved a thread of its own. Justin Lin talks about the trailer and what Beyond is really about beyond (pun intended) the action emphasized in the trailer.

See: http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/12/15/its-a-clash-of-philosophies-in-star-trek-beyond

EDIT:

Apparently there are a few other articles with more comments from Lin.

Thanks to the other members of the board who pointed it out.

Malaika said:
Is the article the same as this one?
http://collider.com/star-trek-3-beyond-justin-lin-interview/
I prefer the whole interview minus Faraci's comments
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BeatleJWOL said:
Trekcore's post from today is a nice roundup of Lin's interviews lately:
http://trekcore.com/blog/2015/12/justin-lin-on-star-trek-beyond-trailer-and-more/

So the Bermanites have their damned philosophy in the movie. The director said so. Can the rest of us get back to having some fun Star Trek now?
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It all sounds good. I hope it translates well on film too.:bolian:


And since the trailer has been the big thing the last couple of days, I think this needs to be quoted again and again

The internet had a weird reaction to the Star Trek Beyond teaser yesterday - it complained that there was too much action and not enough social commentary and stuff.

I mean, it's a 90 second teaser intended to let mainstream audiences know there's a new Trek movie coming and that it's fun, so I'm not quite sure why so many jumped to conclusions. We're not as media literate as we think we are, maybe.
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I got a little misty-eyed reading that.

Actually, the possibility of a philosophical clash was suggested in trailer #1, not just in the line, "This is where the frontier pushes back," but also and maybe even more so in the line, "I know why you're here." Mix those with Scotty's line, "Let's hope this doesn't get messy," and you've got the possibility of ideological motivations leading to confrontation.
 
Interesting musings. I, too, am looking forward to seeing how these ideas are expressed in the final product.

It's sad that some fans are already passing harsh judgment on a movie that nobody has seen yet, just based on a 90-second studio-mandated trailer.

Kor
 
Ryan Thomas Riddle said:
Thought this deserved a thread of its own. Justin Lin talks about the trailer and what Beyond is really about beyond (pun intended) the action emphasized in the trailer.

See: http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/12/15/its-a-clash-of-philosophies-in-star-trek-beyond
Click to expand...


Sounds great to me. Star Trek can be both action-packed and philosophically challenging, and it sounds like that's what we're getting. If Lin pulls off the goals he's described for this film, I will be more than satisfied.

And put me in the camp of those who think the criticism of the trailer is overblown. If it weren't for Sabotage, we wouldn't be seeing this backlash.
 
I'd rather take Sabotage over another generic hum-heavy Hans Zimmer score, to be quiet honest. His scores always sound like they're *about* to hit an apex, and then dial it down to a more medium line. I like bombast in my adventure: Williams, Goldsmith, Giachinno, and yes, the Beastie Boys!

This is the opposite approach of what Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof did in Star Trek Into Darkness, which was to say 'Maybe the Federation is rotten.' Lin's approach reminds me of the best possible approach to Superman - take this positive, hopeful character and put him through the ringer enough to test his positivity and ideals. The challenge isn't whether Superman or Captain Kirk wins, it's whether they maintain their ideals.
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And frankly, that's one of the reasons why I love DS9 so much; That deconstruction of the Federation to see why it stands the test of time isn't something that can be explained in a trailer; it took several seasons to do it. I'm hoping the movie can accomplish that, but it seems to be off to a good start (the frontier "pushing back.")
 
Great interview. It does seem like Lin has a handle of what makes Star Trek work (Which is very subjective to so many people) and that is why I can't wait till the second trailer. If he follows through on what this interview highlighted, I think Beyond could be a real real good Star Trek film, and a fun Summer film too. So what if it's like Gaurdians. Gaurdians was excellent and made a ton of money. I want Star Trek to be excellent and make tons of money too.
 
Lin either is a huge Star Trek fan or has the best lips for PR we could ever ask for. I was only a little worried when we got the initial trailer in German. Now I'm sold. This could be awesome.
 
I like that they're continuing to develop the relevant to the present day political issues carried over from STID (drone strikes, preemptive war, assassinations, etc.), this time essentially focusing on the spaceborne equivalent of guerrilla warfare, which is something we've never seen in a Trek film before. The closest TV equivalents would be the Vaadwaur, Swarm, and Kazon from Voyager, and the Maquis and occasionally the Jem'Hadar from DS9, but even this is a fairly unique take on the swarming and ramming attacks.

It starts with the attack on the Enterprise that you see in the trailer. This reflects part of what Lin is trying to say with this film.

Star Trek has a very 1960s sensibility - who has the bigger ships wins. But if you look at the attack, these ships are 40 feet long but there are 40,000 of them. I think even in the way they’re being encountered… What makes Star Trek scifi great is that you can acknowledge what’s happening today. The way we are as a country and the way we engage in conflict, in this Star Trek you see that it’s different [from the 60s].

It's a real post-9/11 view of conflict (although it's also post-Vietnam, it's just that the Cold War overshadowed the lessons there) in that it's about asymmetrical warfare. The little guy can take down the more advanced big guy by attacking in ways that are both surprising and overwhelming. Yes, the Enterprise could blow up any one of those ships, but there are 40,000 ramming into the hull. Yes, we can take out terrorists with drone strikes, but there are always hundreds more.
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You might destroy half their force, but if they have a committed enough populace ready to die for their beliefs, and their ships are cheap and easy to mass produce, they can just keep feeding them into the grinder until they wear down their enemies will to fight.

It has a lot in common with suicide bombers in cars, or gunboats taking on Navy ships in swarms.

Interesting.
 
Well, this is exactly why Elba's voice over in the trailer pleased me so.
 
It is? I didn't read his article
The collider article is the only one I see 'admitting' he did the interview for a group , Faraci seemed to imply he had the exclusive but probably we just read a different transcript of one group interview
 
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