Why does Abrams keeps giving the middle finger to Trek fans?

[SGCSG1]

Because Star Trek movies SUCK and LOOSE MONEY

He has to get the word out that his is DIFFERENT and GOOD. 'Movies for the Trek fans' is code for 'cheap, lifeless, rip-off crap like 'Nemesis', 'Insurrection', etc, etc, etc.

There hasn't been a half-way decent Trek film since 1991 for Christ's sake. That's SEVENTEEN YEARS of shitty movies.

This new film is DIFFERENT. IE, it WON'T SUCK. That's the word and it's Rick Berman and every other clown that made all those bad movies who are to blame for the fact that nowadays Trek is synonomous with 'crap movies for that even hard-core fans won't really like and don't make anymoney'.

IT'S THIS MOVIE OR NOTHING FOR THE FUTURE OF TREK. GET ONBOARD OR BE LEFT WITH NO NEW TREK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

YOU GO J.J.! GET THE WORD OUT!!! 'Star Trek 2009' is DIFFERENT!!!! AND BASED ON THE TRAILER IT'S GOING TO BE FANTASTIC!!!!

 

[Jarrott2]

The movie hasn't been released and everyone is uptight and nit picking over nothing. I consider myself a hard core fan and have been since the first TOS aired back in the 60's.
The franchise has to get a new start or it will eventually fade out.
The same crap happened when TNG came out and it ended up being great.
Star Trek has to appeal to a new generation to survive.
I predict there will be alot of history revealed in this new movie.
History that was hinted at but never revealed in detail.
I am just glad that there is a new movie and hopefully a new series will ensue.

 

[ST-One]

I so hope this film turns out so successful and so damn good that there aren't enough crows in the world to be eaten by all the naysayers.

 

[Squiggy]

theres plenty of trek fans out there ! abrams needs to deliver a quality film and they will go see it.not another "enterprise"!

Not enough.

 

[SGCSG1]

I so hope this film turns out so successful and so damn good that there aren't enough crows in the world to be eaten by all the naysayers.

Amen, brother. If you had told me that one of the hottest young directors in Hollywood would spend a hundred and fifty million dollars re-inventing Trek with a great cast and amazing set design and special effects I would have said you were looney-tunes. This movie is a fan DREAM COME TRUE.

And if you'd then told me a whole bunch of Trek fans would do nothing but bitch about every little aspect of it, I'd have said, 'what are you kidding - no one could be that crazy!' But as usual I underestimate the human potential for NOT UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS GOING ON.

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

“We weren’t making a movie for fans of Star Trek. We were making a movie for fans of movies.”

This doesn't even qualify as an insult.

Presumably, "fans of Star Trek" is a subset of "fans of movies." So if you're a member of the former, you're also a member of the latter.

He's not saying "I'm making this movie for a group of people that excludes Star Trek fans."

He's just expanding the base (or trying to, anyway), which has become both a goal and a necessity.

 

[Sci]

“We weren’t making a movie for fans of Star Trek. We were making a movie for fans of movies.”

I mean, fine, even the "I've never been a fan of Star Trek" comes into play here.

We all know what he's doing. Why does he need to throw it in our faces? I've come to understand the Star Trek that I know and love will be available to me in the future only in novel form-- but even with your "reimagining" of Trek, do you have to keep shitting on the life-long fans?

I'm admittedly still pretty excited about this movie because I have an open-mind, and I do "like movies." I loved Transformers, X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, and all the cheesy remakes plaguing our society . I think J.J. Abrams is well-suited to creating something that "most people" will actually find they enjoy, having never seen an episode of Star Trek. Remember, after Nemesis, keeping Star Trek on the big screen required nothing less than a complete overhaul-- back to the basics. I remain cautiously optimistic, but I find it unfortunate that Abrams feels the need to estrange the people who... um... still chat about Star Trek on message boards

He's not giving the mdidle finger to Trek fans. He's giving the middle finger to Trek fans who are pathetic enough to actually care if he gives them the finger or not.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Infanticide? *scratches head* Now JJ is King Herod?

It's called "hyperbole."

 

[Cary L. Brown]

theres plenty of trek fans out there ! abrams needs to deliver a quality film and they will go see it.not another "enterprise"!

Not enough.

Correct.

The issue is that it seems that people... on all sides of this issue... are still dwelling on the "fans versus regular joes" thing, which I will never see as anything more than absolute nonsense.

The fans don't really want something different than what the general audience wants. They just want a little bit MORE (ie, internal consistency) on top of the "good storytelling" that EVERYONE wants.

These two things... good storytelling and internal consistency... are NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.

There aren't enough "hardcore Trek fans" to justify ANY production, even a straight-to-DVD animation project.

But if the movie alienates the "hardcore trek fans,"... aka "the base"... the people who actually have some form of connection to this and care enough to buy all the aftermarket crap we've been shelling out for over the past forty-plus years... then Trek's main value to the studio is gone, isn't it?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

“We weren’t making a movie for fans of Star Trek. We were making a movie for fans of movies.”

I mean, fine, even the "I've never been a fan of Star Trek" comes into play here.

We all know what he's doing. Why does he need to throw it in our faces?

Because he's not talking to you. He's talking to the reporters in the room, and hoping they'll carry the message to non Trek fans - who have not been paying the obsessive attention for the last two years that we have.

Any extraordinary feelings of being offended here are the responsibility of the offended folks, not Abrams. Stop taking yourselves so damned seriously.

 

[btflash]

theres plenty of trek fans out there ! abrams needs to deliver a quality film and they will go see it.not another "enterprise"!

Not enough.

i dont agree. i saw a poll a couple of years ago that stated that 6 out of 10 americans considered themselves star trek fans.thats a huge fan base. the problem i feel has been the product that has been put out there.make a great movie and people will go and see it. its as simple as that.

 

[Admiral Bear]

theres plenty of trek fans out there ! abrams needs to deliver a quality film and they will go see it.not another "enterprise"!

Not enough.

Correct.

The issue is that it seems that people... on all sides of this issue... are still dwelling on the "fans versus regular joes" thing, which I will never see as anything more than absolute nonsense.

The fans don't really want something different than what the general audience wants. They just want a little bit MORE (ie, internal consistency) on top of the "good storytelling" that EVERYONE wants.

These two things... good storytelling and internal consistency... are NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.

There aren't enough "hardcore Trek fans" to justify ANY production, even a straight-to-DVD animation project.

But if the movie alienates the "hardcore trek fans,"... aka "the base"... the people who actually have some form of connection to this and care enough to buy all the aftermarket crap we've been shelling out for over the past forty-plus years... then Trek's main value to the studio is gone, isn't it?

It's quite correct there aren't enough Trek fans to keep the franchise going without the help of the general movie watching public. My one big worry is this. Science fiction films, excluding Star Wars, Transformers and Independence Day (I'm sure there are a few others), have never made an impact at the box office. No Trek film has ever come close to grossing the budget of the new film. Even if the global hard core base of Trek fans watch the film, you're looking at probably $50m worldwide box office gross, plus future DVD/bluray sales. So realistically, you're looking at the non Star Trek watching public to provide $100m in box office takings for this film just for it to break even. Sorry people, ain't going to happen. Paramount are looking at the mother of all stinking losses on this film, even if the film is brilliant.

And why is this? Because people who don't care about Star Trek, people who don't know about Star Trek, and people who don't want to be labeled as sad and pathetic, will for the most part not be going to see this film.

Star Trek has a unique stigma attached to it which will stop this film being commercially successful. I'm afraid that stigma is mainly due to the fans. Star Wars never had the same stigma which is why it's still going strong, and why the albeit terrible prequels did so well.

George Lucas can put out as much crap and label it Star Wars as he wants, and the public will watch it in huge numbers. Paramount puts out a crap Star Trek film and no one watches it.

 

[Squiggy]

theres plenty of trek fans out there ! abrams needs to deliver a quality film and they will go see it.not another "enterprise"!

Not enough.

i dont agree. i saw a poll a couple of years ago that stated that 6 out of 10 americans considered themselves star trek fans.thats a huge fan base. the problem i feel has been the product that has been put out there.make a great movie and people will go and see it. its as simple as that.

That poll was bullshit. If "6 out of 10" people considered themselves "Star Trek fans" then we wouldn't be in this drought right now with no new Trek in almost 4 years. If 60% of people actually liked Star Trek then there would've have been more than enough people watching to keep Trek alive.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

theres plenty of trek fans out there !

No.

 

[Sean Aaron]

IT'S THIS MOVIE OR NOTHING FOR THE FUTURE OF TREK. GET ONBOARD OR BE LEFT WITH NO NEW TREK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

Do I look bovvered?

Stop taking yourselves so damned seriously.

No, YOU stop!

 

[Sharr Khan]

“We weren’t making a movie for fans of Star Trek. We were making a movie for fans of movies.”

That's actually a reasonable and correct way to produce a feature film which many have a fiscal stake in and the very life of said property rests on. Plus there's not special way to make a Trek film, that mindset has limited Star Trek for the worse.

Sharr

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

No, YOU stop!

You, Vulcan! How do YOU vote?!?

 

[sebialex]

That poll was total BS. I consider all statistics bs, if they do not show the number of people participating and a detailed description of the used criteria. I don't know about you but I was in high school a couple of years ago and let me tell you that admitting of watching star trek, was social suicide. Trek is not cool at all. Why? Because of all the technobabble, the silly alien 'traditions' and pathetic attempts at intimate scenarios. The idea and essence of Star Trek is awesome, but the execution is horrible.

 

[HRHTheKING]

Why does Abrams keeps giving the middle finger to Trek fans?

He doesn't.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

Not enough.

i dont agree. i saw a poll a couple of years ago that stated that 6 out of 10 americans considered themselves star trek fans.thats a huge fan base. the problem i feel has been the product that has been put out there.make a great movie and people will go and see it. its as simple as that.

That poll was bullshit. If "6 out of 10" people considered themselves "Star Trek fans" then we wouldn't be in this drought right now with no new Trek in almost 4 years. If 60% of people actually liked Star Trek then there would've have been more than enough people watching to keep Trek alive.

I'm a Star Trek fan and you couldn't have paid me to watch the pablum they were dishing out under that name the last ten years. Being a fan does not mean mindlessly tuning in for anything with the Star Trek brand name slapped on it.

The problem isn't that there aren't enough Star Trek fans, it's that Star Trek fans, like numerous other entertainment consumers, have standards and when they are presented with shit, they turn their noses up at it. They, and the people who would define themselves as "not Star Trek fans". That's why Voyager and Enterprise and Nemesis tanked. They were bad.

Paramount plainly believes there are plenty of Star Trek fans. They have to. Star Trek is their single most profitable franchise, which has kept a steady flow of money coming into their offices for 40 years. There's no other sound business reason to spend $150 million on a new movie. Because the chances that any flick can suddenly make Star Trek 'cool' and 'hip' and the next 'Gossip Girl' are pretty slim. Even given the bad judgment Parmount has displayed in regards to Trek, they aren't that friggin' stupid.

Do they want to expand that base? Of course. Would they be fine if some old hardcore nitpickers fell off in favor of a bunch of new, young fans who could conceivably spend the next 40 years sending them money? That's most likely exactly what they're hoping for. Why else hire Abrams - 'cause if you think Lost isn't a geek fest, you're nuts. It's just a geek fest that attracts hardcores and casual viewers, which they probably see as the solution to their Trek woes.