Levar Burton aka Geordi La Forge criticizes Star Trek 2009

[Tom Servo]

Ben Affleck is a very good mainstream Hollywood director and Spielberg showed he's still got it with Lincoln. Plenty of great directors out there so don't dismiss modern mainstream cinema on the strength of JJ Abrams' oeuvre. People like him and Michael Bay make their dumb stuff as loud as possible in order to make the audience docile and defeated enough to accept it.

This is one of the most poorly thought out comments I've seen on this board in a long time. Neither Affleck or Spielberg made big-budget action adventure films the last time out.

Audiences have certain expectations when they go to movies that are science-fiction or space opera. They want fast paced films with lots of explosions, it simply is what it is.

I simply don't know any of these "defeated" ticket buyers you continue to go on about. People aren't going to buy tickets to films they don't want to see, it is as simple as that.

Wait so you're saying Abrams DIDN'T break into your house and beat you with a pipe and loud music till you broke down and saw his film?

Shit. I could probably sue for that.

 

[SalvorHardin]

Ben Affleck is a very good mainstream Hollywood director and Spielberg showed he's still got it with Lincoln. Plenty of great directors out there so don't dismiss modern mainstream cinema on the strength of JJ Abrams' oeuvre. People like him and Michael Bay make their dumb stuff as loud as possible in order to make the audience docile and defeated enough to accept it.

This is one of the most poorly thought out comments I've seen on this board in a long time. Neither Affleck or Spielberg made big-budget action adventure films the last time out.

Audiences have certain expectations when they go to movies that are science-fiction or space opera. They want fast paced films with lots of explosions, it simply is what it is.

I simply don't know any of these "defeated" ticket buyers you continue to go on about. People aren't going to buy tickets to films they don't want to see, it is as simple as that.

Wait so you're saying Abrams DIDN'T break into your house and beat you with a pipe and loud music till you broke down and saw his film?

Shit. I could probably sue for that.

I hear he will be doing abductions and anal probings this time around.
We should expect him sometime in the next month.

 

[BillJ]

Wait so you're saying Abrams DIDN'T break into your house and beat you with a pipe and loud music till you broke down and saw his film?

Abrams tried, but LeVar Burton swooped in to save the day!

 

[Jeyl]

If anything, the potential continued success of AbramsTrek may give a ray of hope to some future ST projects -- perhaps maybe a TNG re-visit in several years (albeit with a different cast, most likely).

Oh, yeah. That's going to be something to look forward to. The same stuff all over again. Don't broaden the universe and don't take any chances. Stick with what's familiar and recycle the same old tropes all over again.

 

[Squiggy]

[but let's face it. since the 90's movies have been going into a steady decline.

Lincoln $180 million as of March 5th

Argo hits $200 million

That said, both films are very good as well as commercially successful.

I believe JJ makes very good commercially successful films as well. That's why Disney hired him to do wars as well.

To elaborate, I meant that "most" movies not all. There is the occasional Gem.

People in the 80s thought that about the 60s. People in the 60s though that about the 40s. People 20 years from now will say that about today.

Nostalgia. It's a helluva drug.

 

[DalekJim]

Audiences have certain expectations when they go to movies that are science-fiction or space opera. They want fast paced films with lots of explosions, it simply is what it is.

And I don't share your taste in movies at all, thankfully. I'd also say that the great box office success of movies like Inception, Prometheus and Looper shows that audiences will also like more ideas driven sci-fi/fantasy movies instead of Transformers or Abrams Trek level of cookie cutter runarounds.

Dumb people are the majority and I understand from a financial perspective why big expensive movies should be aimed at them but I shouldn't really be happy about it. I loved The Hobbit and saw it 5 times in the cinema over Christmas. Big budget blockbusters don't have to resemble what Orci and Kurtzman write. Audiences for a while were so defeated that they just ate it up but people like Christopher Nolan have tried to elevate the blockbuster action movie in to something slightly more cerebral. I'd like Star Trek to follow suit.

Wait so you're saying Abrams DIDN'T break into your house and beat you with a pipe and loud music till you broke down and saw his film?

These types of replies are so formulaic and empty. Reminds me of on Star Wars forums how people would reply to anybody that didn't gush about The Phantom Menace with posts like "Did George Lucas rape your childhood or something!?. It's not even a valid point and offers nothing to the discussion.

 

[Squiggy]

Dumb people are the majority and I understand from a financial perspective why big expensive movies should be aimed at them but I shouldn't really be happy about it. I loved The Hobbit and saw it 5 times in the cinema over Christmas. Big budget blockbusters don't have to resemble what Orci and Kurtzman write.

Comparing a work of Tolken to a work of Orci makes invalidates pretty much you ever have, and ever will do.

 

[DalekJim]

Comparing a work of Tolken to a work of Orci makes invalidates pretty much you ever have, and ever will do.

I struggled to even make out what this post means as it's such a mess but I think I got it.

Tolkien is uh, dead. He didn't have any involvement with the movie.

 

[Sindatur]

Ben Affleck is a very good mainstream Hollywood director and Spielberg showed he's still got it with Lincoln. Plenty of great directors out there so don't dismiss modern mainstream cinema on the strength of JJ Abrams' oeuvre. People like him and Michael Bay make their dumb stuff as loud as possible in order to make the audience docile and defeated enough to accept it.

This is one of the most poorly thought out comments I've seen on this board in a long time. Neither Affleck or Spielberg made big-budget action adventure films the last time out.

Audiences have certain expectations when they go to movies that are science-fiction or space opera. They want fast paced films with lots of explosions, it simply is what it is.

I simply don't know any of these "defeated" ticket buyers you continue to go on about. People aren't going to buy tickets to films they don't want to see, it is as simple as that.

Wait so you're saying Abrams DIDN'T break into your house and beat you with a pipe and loud music till you broke down and saw his film?

Shit. I could probably sue for that.

I went volutarily. Those visits of encouragement were only for those who needed to be encouraged to go see it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Comparing a work of Tolken to a work of Orci makes invalidates pretty much you ever have, and ever will do.

I struggled to even make out what this post means as it's such a mess but I think I got it.

Tolkien is uh, dead. He didn't have any involvement with the movie.

So Jackson came up with that film all by himself?

No the majority of the film going audience aren't dumb as you so graciously put it. And seeing the Hobbit 5 times doesn't make you an intelligent discriminating viewer.

 

[Kruezerman]

Can I ask an honest question? What is a "smart" movie?

What makes a film "intelligent?"

 

[Nerys Myk]

Can I ask an honest question? What is a "smart" movie?

What makes a film "intelligent?"

Its IQ score.

 

[Squiggy]

Comparing a work of Tolken to a work of Orci makes invalidates pretty much you ever have, and ever will do.

I struggled to even make out what this post means as it's such a mess but I think I got it.

Tolkien is uh, dead. He didn't have any involvement with the movie.

And who wrote The Hobbit?

 

[BillJ]

And I don't share your taste in movies at all, thankfully.

Yet, we both rank The Motion Picture as the best Trek movie...

 

[BillJ]

Can I ask an honest question? What is a "smart" movie?

What makes a film "intelligent?"

It just something people tell themselves so they feel their opinion carries more weight than it actually does.

 

[thumbtack]

Can I ask an honest question? What is a "smart" movie?

What makes a film "intelligent?"

It's widely known that only movies and tv series set within the old canon are capable of being smart and meaningful.




Yeah, CBS/Paramount aint buying it, either.

 

[yousirname]

In fact, it's widely known that the original canon represents the pinnacle of human aesthetic and philosophical achievement. TUC brought down the USSR, TVH ended the whale trade and Rawls' A Theory of Justice was inspired by Mirror, Mirror.

And then Abrams had to go and shit all over it. Boo-urns.

 

[Squiggy]

North Korea threatens to nuke us.

Star Trek opens in a couple of months.

Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Doug Drexler has linked to LeVar's comments on Facebook and seems to believe him 100% that Abrams said he wants his Trek to be the "only" one - but of course won't specify any source.

 

[BillJ]

Doug Drexler has linked to LeVar's comments on Facebook and seems to believe him 100% that Abrams said he wants his Trek to be the "only" one - but of course won't specify any source.

But even if the story is true, isn't that human nature? When I was single and was with someone, I wanted to be so good that she couldn't remember her name much less the guys/gals she had been with before me.