We need a special site for pictures of new species and other things?

[Sho]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

I'd say the fact that nuTrek went out of its way to devise a framing device that would keep the original timeline intact instead of just brazenly rebooting the franchise with no regard for collateral damage is a good indicator of the fear TPTB had of the negative word of mouth an upset fandom might have created.

Re Phase II, I think "World Enough And Time" was eminently watchable and a big leap in quality over what came before (though I enjoyed Koenig in his ep too). The eps since didn't quite attain that level again, though.

 

[Christopher]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

I'd say the fact that nuTrek went out of its way to devise a framing device that would keep the original timeline intact instead of just brazenly rebooting the franchise with no regard for collateral damage is a good indicator of the fear TPTB had of the negative word of mouth an upset fandom might have created.

To an extent, but don't forget that several members of Abrams's "Supreme Court" are themselves devoted Trek fans, and probably had no desire on a personal level to "unmake" the original continuity.

Ultimately, good storytelling comes from creators doing what feels right to them, telling the stories they're passionate about telling. Stories that are based solely on calculations and predictions about what will theoretically satisfy audiences are generally soulless and uninspired.

 

[Sho]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

Right, I phrased this a bit too cynically, my bad. I agree that the creative team was committed to walking this path out of genuine care for the franchise. But I speculate that avoiding upsetting the (Trek, but also generally genre) fandom by appearing careless was also on everybody's (i.e. including the studio folks') minds for financial reasons, because there was an uncertainty just how far beyond the built-in audience the movie could reach, and if it were to lose that, it could tank disastrously.

See Terminator: Salvation falling on its nose after snowballing negative word of mouth just prior and during the opening weekend: the internet allows opinions to spread more swiftly today, and fandom is disproportionally present and visible on the internet. Regular folks will click links to fan-run niche publications circulated in social media and trust their authority in the matter.

So I think that was part of the Supreme Court's pitch to their superiors, and why they got away with the - peculiar, for a blockbuster - complexity this would add to the story.

Edit: Mixed up the Terminators (had Rise in there originally); fixed now.

 

[Christopher]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

See Terminator: Rise of the Machine falling on its nose after snowballing negative word of mouth just prior and during the opening weekend: the internet allows opinions to spread more swiftly today, and fandom is disproportionally present and visible on the internet. Regular folks will click links to fan-run niche publications circulated in social media and trust their authority in the matter.

I'm not prepared to assume that was really that great a factor in the film's failure. After all, it was quite simply a weak film, and that could've been the main reason for its box-office failure independently of any online commentary.

After all, "fandom" alone is too small an audience to make any film successful. Films -- especially the multibajillion-dollar blockbusters that most genre/franchise films are these days -- need to draw in mainstream audiences and casual viewers in order to make a profit. Even if it's true that most of a franchise's fanbase is active online and aware of the word of mouth, they only constitute a fraction of the total audience a film needs to attract in order to succeed. Most moviegoers are not part of an established fanbase -- unless it's a fanbase for a particular actor or director, say -- and so wouldn't be that strongly influenced by what the fans are saying online. They'd probably be more influenced by what professional movie critics or their coworkers around the watercooler said about a film.

(Full disclosure: I actually wrote my comments based on the assumption that you'd said Terminator Salvation, but I think they apply to Rise of the Machines as well. Although Salvation was rather more fiercely trashed by critics.)

 

[Sho]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

Well, I think genre fandom is a multiplier. A fan reaches more people through word of mouth than a non-fan, because the fan is more proactive about spreading and often a trusted resource on the subject. People turn to their movie-loving friends for movie-going advice (everybody in my circle of friends asked me whether the new Trek was worth their while, for example).

But fandom can be either a positive or a negative multiplier, making them a considerable economic factor either way and appeasement a wise thing - there is a reason everybody shows off their films at SDCC now, because its niche audience enjoys disproportionate influence and visibility. I think in the case of nuTrek the studio felt this especially because no one was certain how dependent on its core audience and their sphere of influence the movie was going to be.

However, you are right that fandom's powers are limited. The discrepancy between the critical and boxoffice responses to the abysmal Transformers movies shows that . But OTOH that makes me wonder why Salvation fell so far behind its original opening weekend projections after the pre-weekend social media snowball (I remember all sorts of dumbfounded posts on industry watchblogs who were either hailing or demonizing the powers of the net the week after) and Transformers 2 was seemingly unaffected ...

 

[captcalhoun]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

i'll tell you why ROTF took a metric ass-ton of cash, irrespective of the GeeWun crowd screaming for Bay's head and claiming Transformers to be RUINED FOREVER.

simple.

kids. Transformers is a big deal to kids, a load of kids probably only knew TFs from the 2007 movie or from the Unicron trilogy (Armada/Energon/Cybertron) and kids are, let's face it, not overly critical and probably enjoyed it for what it was (a 2 hour toy commercial featuring robots beating the snot out of each other) and insisted on seeing 2. and then 3.

and i say that as some one who grew up with G1 and actually genuinely enjoyed all 3 Transformers movies.

 

[Yevetha]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

Can we get back in topic?

 

[DimesDan]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

Can we get back in topic?

Is every single one of your posts a question?

 

[Yevetha]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

No.

 

[Yevetha]

Re: We need a special site for pictures of new species and other thing

Is Christopher going to make some new pics for the next DTI book?

I would like to see how Jenna Noi looks like.