Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Aide?

[Silent_Bob]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

I don't understand how long time fans can view this latest movie and NOT be insulted. Seriously. Because they had a cameo of a tribble, we're expected to swoon? There wasn't even a hint of moral understory. Especially after all the hype, I was completely depressed after seeing it.

I posted a review of my own on my blog: http://thirdcathode.blogspot.com/2009/05/movie-review-star-trek-2009.html

Since nearly everyone else seems to have loved the movie, I would like to hear from fans who had negative reactions as I did - why did no one else find the film insulting?

I didnt like the film much, but i didnt find it insulting. My main problems with the film are similar to your own.

What i find rather amusing is that people are praising this film as the best yet, when it felt like a slightly better executed version of Nemesis - Pseudo-Romulan Villain? Check, Great Big Dark Evil Ship with Doomsday Device Technology? Check, Villain has an Irrational Grudge against a main character? Check, Retread of The Wrath of Khan? Check.

Some things were done well, i will grant them that, Karl Urban was fantastic as McCoy, and Pine was fairly good as Kirk. In fact every cast member, except one, was well chosen. The exception of course, in my opinion, was Simon Pegg. Sorry but his interpretation of Scotty was abysmal. I just wish they had had the sense to go with McGillion, a decent actor.

So anyway, i didnt find the film insulting, nor disappointing. It was exactly how i expected it to be, shallow, average and filled with plotholes. I will probably see the sequel, but if thats just as bad then i'll wait for the the next reboot.

 

[Admiral_Jinky]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

Very, very well said Tralah.

 

[Squiggy]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

But hey... IM A TREKKIE, IVE BEEN SLAGGED, JEERED, LAUGHED AT, AND INSULTED FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER....

... and you are so masochistic that you don't want it to stop?

and if that's said with a serious tone.
There are not emoticons to express how i feel.

Here's one:

How's that?

 

[DeafPoet]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

If the only thing JJ does is force purist hacks out of the fanbase...that's more than enough. Have fun whacking off to the Desilu logo.

Thats an absolutely disgraceful thing to say. And let me assure you, we Trekkies who havent bought into this TOSH will still be here in years to come, Why?

Because we have been here all along. Blow ins and newbies will either accept that fact, or laugh, and jeer, and slag, and insult...

Dude, most of us who like the film have been Trekkies for most of our lives too. We've been "here" just as long as you have.

Get off your high horse for three seconds.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

Really, as if we, the people who like the new Trek, had just crashed the party. I've been a fan ever since I saw the first TOS re-runs twenty years ago, when I was six years old.

 

[ST-One]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

I'm a fan for over 22 years now, and I will not allow him to lecture me about the qualities of what makes a good Star Trek-fan.

 

[Silent_Bob]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

Do we really have to resort to "I'm a better fan than you" for discussions about whether we like the new film or not? For feths sake we are all posting on a message board called TrekBBS, i dont think any of us needs to provide credentials to prove our status as Trekkies.

I didnt think the film was that great, i also didnt like Voyager. Does that mean that i consider myself a "Better" Fan than those that did? Of course bloody not, and really if you have to resort to insulting those with a different opinion in an argument, your hindering not helping your point.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

That's exactly what we're saying.

Hey, I was about to abuse the "I will not allow you to lecture me" line as well, you beat me to it.

 

[TheGodBen]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

Thats an absolutely disgraceful thing to say. And let me assure you, we Trekkies who havent bought into this TOSH will still be here in years to come, Why?

Because we have been here all along. Blow ins and newbies will either accept that fact, or laugh, and jeer, and slag, and insult... blah blah blah, capital letters will make my point more effective.

Seriously, tone it down. I too was disappointed by this movie and have trouble understanding why people love it so much, but there is no reason to take it as an affront. It is a bad movie, nothing more, debate it on its merits or lack thereof because you are making this side of the debate look like a bunch of obsessive loons.

As a lawyer I am an educated fan. When I see movies and TV I like to think. That's why I have been a fan of Star Trek for 30 years. Most of it, especially TOS, made me think. This new movie doesn't make my think. That isn't important to the breed of fan who just wants to see ship fights, but it is imprortant to this fan.

This fan too. I have no allusions that Star Trek is an intellectual masterpiece, but the best of Trek normally attempted to get the audience to think while this film tried to stop me from thinking by distracting me with monster chase scenes. It is unfortunate that this is the direction the franchise is heading, but people seem to like it and it makes a lot of money so there is no way that I can possibly win this argument. I just want something more from my entertainment.

 

[El Chupacabra]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

As a lawyer I am an educated fan. When I see movies and TV I like to think. That's why I have been a fan of Star Trek for 30 years. Most of it, especially TOS, made me think. This new movie doesn't make my think. That isn't important to the breed of fan who just wants to see ship fights, but it is imprortant to this fan.

This fan too. I have no allusions that Star Trek is an intellectual masterpiece, but the best of Trek normally attempted to get the audience to think while this film tried to stop me from thinking by distracting me with monster chase scenes. It is unfortunate that this is the direction the franchise is heading, but people seem to like it and it makes a lot of money so there is no way that I can possibly win this argument. I just want something more from my entertainment.

I'm not so sure I agree. Whether Abrams is the right person to do it is very questionable, but I see no reason why you can't have all the way bam nonsense and also a brain. The audience went in droves to see Casino Royale. That was a reboot with "wow" level action and pace, but it suceeds as an intelligent movie as well as it slows down occasionally just enough to remind us about the feelings Bond has and how it is shaping him as a person, thus staying true to the original property. JJ Trek doesn't do that. It doesn't require us to think and there is absolutely fuck all attempt to "boldly go where no man has gone before" and learn new things about the human experience at any point in the picture. All other complaints aside about the new timeline, there really is no excuse for not bringing back a little of "thinking man's Trek" for the sequel. You don't need to rid the general audience of its explosions in order to do that.

 

[TheGodBen]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

All other complaints aside about the new timeline, there really is no excuse for not bringing back a little of "thinking man's Trek" for the sequel. You don't need to rid the general audience of its explosions in order to do that.

There is a very good reason why they wont; this new movie is making a shitload of money and there is absolutely no incentive to change this successful formula. I hope that they do because I would like to go see the next movie and manage to enjoy it, but I'm not optimistic that it is going to happen.

 

[Balrog]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

I think it's funny that the Trekkie article on theonion.com is the first truthful article they've ever written...

 

[TheGodBen]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

I think it's funny that the Trekkie article on theonion.com is the first truthful article they've ever written...

I can't wait to see that three hour deleted scene about the Andorian ambassador, it should be riveting.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

Well my original impression was favorable, (I voted above average) but the more I thought about it over the weekend, the more the story fell apart for me.

But I had a co-worker say to me this morning that he flat out didn't like it which surprised me. He brought up an interesting comparison this morning that I haven't seen yet anywhere but could have easily missed in the plethora of threads and posts. His main gripe was that this was "Nemesis" all over again. A rogue Romulan coming to destroy earth. Which after thinking about it, I realize there was at least a little bit of truth to what he said.

It was an enjoyable film for me, but there were far too many "No way!" elements in it (like Kirk running into Spock Prime, or Kirk's rapid ascension to Captain). It's a movie that's best enjoyed just taking in the visual splendor and admiring the performances of such people as Karl Urban and don't spend any time thinking about the story.

 

[Lumen]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

That's silly. Star Trek fans -- whatever is left of them -- aren't numerous enough to make this opening any bigger.

So, let me get this straight, Wolverine's fanbase had nothing to do with it's higher grosses? Then how do you explain it's success?

That's right. Most of the people who saw Wolverine, or any of the X-Men films for that matter, are not intimately familiar with the source material. They like action films and think Hugh Jackman kicks ass as Wolverine. But Wolverine is the fourth in a line of films in a successful franchise -- Star Trek is no such thing. Comparing a franchise with a growing fanbase to one with a shrinking fanbase is pretty silly, as I said. There are a lot more fans of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine than there are of Star Trek -- at least, there were two weeks ago. Things may be different in a couple months.

The returns on sequel films are completely driven by fan loyalty. That's why the Star Wars films rank as high as they do. We'll see what the fans really think when it comes to second week box office returns. Sinks like a stone, watch the budget numbers and the possibility of a second film get smaller and smaller...

This isn't a "sequel film" by any reasonable definition of the term. It's a remake, and the sales of a remake are not driven by fan loyalty but a bunch of other things that cheap reductionism is too simple to account for.

And Star Wars didn't do well because all of its fans from 1970s showed up -- it did well because it made itself cool enough for teens and kids who weren't alive back then to check it out. Many members of that generation, myself included, were introduced to Star Wars by The Phantom Menace (I welcome your sympathies).

 

[Nardpuncher]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

I've been a fan for 24 years, loved the new movie, and think the new movie's job is not to make us think about the whole human condition or act intellectual or whatever else detractors may say to make them feel like they were part of something "too cerebral" as Roddenberry put it.
Thing is I doubt the execs at NBC ever said that abck in the day...Roddenberry probably made it up so that fans that wanted to feel like they were too smart for normal TV shows were having their likes justified.

The movie does a fine job examining the human condition....it just didn't beat you over thehead with it.
Remember the way Voyager would do it with that terrible 7 o f9? She'd ask silly things like "Why do people feel this need to consume nutrition in groups on the anniversary of their birth?" Christ...6 year-olds knew why...then the next week she'd forget everything anyway, and ask another stupid question about why people smile or some crap.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

The film's main purpose was to be an ENEMA for fans, like the OP, so as to wash them away and make way for a new generation of fans...

It is working.

Rob

 

[El Chupacabra]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

All other complaints aside about the new timeline, there really is no excuse for not bringing back a little of "thinking man's Trek" for the sequel. You don't need to rid the general audience of its explosions in order to do that.

There is a very good reason why they wont; this new movie is making a shitload of money and there is absolutely no incentive to change this successful formula. I hope that they do because I would like to go see the next movie and manage to enjoy it, but I'm not optimistic that it is going to happen.

Being that Bob Orci is a Trekkie and reads these forums (well the boards at TrekMovie anyhow) I'm hoping that he will consider some of the comments made by the long term fans who didn't have an orgasm over this picture, with a view to drawing those fans into the sequel for even more revenue.

 

[El Chupacabra]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

The film's main purpose was to be an ENEMA for fans, like the OP, so as to wash them away and make way for a new generation of fans...

It is working.

Rob

Those fans to be washed away are the fans that have contributed to Paramount's $2.5 billion haul over the 40 years and made this latest effort possible. If that is the intention, which I doubt, then they'd be getting a great bug "fuck you" from me.

 

[Jeyl]

Re: Come on people - am I the only fan who can't drink Abrams' Cool Ai

The movie does a fine job examining the human condition.

Which is what exactly? Being a self-centered, dis-respecting, officer assaulting, order disobeying scum bag makes you completely fit for command responsibilities?