That's the naive, intellectual view from the ivory tower on it. They don't go "yeah, it's the same God" and kill each other because of "some disagreement over the specifics". De facto, it's three very different Gods.
Are there any SPECIAL EFFECTS that you actually like in TFF?
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That's the naive, intellectual view from the ivory tower on it. They don't go "yeah, it's the same God" and kill each other because of "some disagreement over the specifics". De facto, it's three very different Gods.
The Christian Bible incorporates the Jewish holy texts as its first five books. Obviously they're the same God. The disagreement is over things like how to worship that God, which claims about that God's actions and dictates are correct, whether a historical figure reputed to be the son/avatar of that God actually is or not, that sort of thing. The identity of the God in question is not in dispute.
Nah, not directing, but dictating the story. Nowhere was it mentioned that he had to supply the story. Nimoy did in TVH, which is probably why Paramount just figured "sure, he's got the story". Honestly, the best thing would have been to have someone else come up with the plot and let Shatner direct. Visually (effects aside) the film is outstanding. Shatner's creativity and ability to compose effective shots really give the film an epic scope.
Sadly, Shatner probably would have threatened to walk if they rejected his story outsight, and Trek was a Cash Cow at that point. Those guys had shitloads of clout.
Well, they agreed, then didn't. Nimoy's detailed how he was told he got the job, then heard nothing for weeks. Finally he called the head of the studio who told him that Paramount didn't feel right giving the job to a man who put "kill Spock" in his contract for Star Trek II. When Nimoy pointed out that wasn't true, and to go check the file, he was then finally officially hired as director.
What I find interesting is that TFF is at the US box office just behind The Abyss, and way in front of Licence to Kill, in a year that was an extremely great year for movies.
Batman, Indiana Jones 3, Lethal Weapon 2, Look Who's Talking, Back to the Future II, Ghostbusters II, Driving Miss Daisy, Dead Poets Society, When Harry Met Sally, The War of the Roses, Christmas Vacation, Field of Dreams, Tango & Cash, Harlem Nights, Sea of Love, The Abyss, The Final Frontier, Black Rain, K-9, License to Kill, WTF!
For comparison, Star Trek Nemesis is somewhere behind Jackass: The Movie or The Tuxedo, and in front of Collateral Damage, Resident Evil and Enough.
Batman, Indiana Jones 3, Lethal Weapon 2, Look Who's Talking, Back to the Future II, Ghostbusters II, Driving Miss Daisy, Dead Poets Society, When Harry Met Sally, The War of the Roses, Christmas Vacation, Field of Dreams, Tango & Cash, Harlem Nights, Sea of Love, The Abyss, The Final Frontier, Black Rain, K-9, License to Kill, WTF!
For comparison, Star Trek Nemesis is somewhere behind Jackass: The Movie or The Tuxedo, and in front of Collateral Damage, Resident Evil and Enough.
What I find interesting is that some people think, if they do not like something other people also do not like it.
So there are people who do not like TFF for the bad CG, others do not like Trek09 because the overkill with lens flares.
But somehow they do well on the box office. Could it be the mainstrean ordeance like what they are seeing, looking beyond CG or flares?
It wasn't CG. It came out in 1989, back when the use of computers in visual effects was mostly limited to motion-control camera work. TFF's effects were done with standard optical techniques: miniatures, bluescreen composites, matte paintings, cel animation, etc.
Even today, it's a mistake to use "CG" as a catchall term for visual effects. Computer graphics are just one of the techniques used to create cinematic visual effects. Classic techniques such as miniatures and animatronics are still used, though not as universally as they used to be.
But "VFX" takes much longer to type than "CG"!!!
Getting back on the FX track, I really like Syd Dutton's matte paintings. They're one of the few visual saving graces IMO.
I know this has probably been discussed before, but if the WGA strike hadn't happened, and the film had had more lead time, could they have actually gotten ILM? Or would the budget cuts have still been deep enough to have made it an impossibility?
I sometimes wonder what would happen if, even if they hadn't been able to get ILM, the budget hadn't been so tight that they might have been able to go with Apogee, Dream Quest or Boss, all of whom had plenty of people on staff who had had actual previous Trek film FX experience. Apogee worked on TMP, of course; Dream Quest had quite a few former Trumbull people who had worked on TMP; and Boss had Trumbull vets as well as ex-ILM staff who had worked on Trek II.
Ah, it's just a big "what if". It probably wouldn't have changed my opinion about the story or the writing, but at least the FX would have been better than what we got.
But anyway, all that aside, Dutton's mattes definitely qualify as "like" for me. And that Enterprise-in-front-of-the-moon shot.
I know this has probably been discussed before, but if the WGA strike hadn't happened, and the film had had more lead time, could they have actually gotten ILM? Or would the budget cuts have still been deep enough to have made it an impossibility?
I sometimes wonder what would happen if, even if they hadn't been able to get ILM, the budget hadn't been so tight that they might have been able to go with Apogee, Dream Quest or Boss, all of whom had plenty of people on staff who had had actual previous Trek film FX experience. Apogee worked on TMP, of course; Dream Quest had quite a few former Trumbull people who had worked on TMP; and Boss had Trumbull vets as well as ex-ILM staff who had worked on Trek II.
Ah, it's just a big "what if". It probably wouldn't have changed my opinion about the story or the writing, but at least the FX would have been better than what we got.
But anyway, all that aside, Dutton's mattes definitely qualify as "like" for me. And that Enterprise-in-front-of-the-moon shot.
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I like the shot of the Enterprise in spacedock ... wait a minute, that's a stock shot. Damn, I guess there aren't any effects in TFF I like.
