Do you think this movie will make Star Trek 'cool'??

[Sec31Mike]

Nope. I think it's going to stand out like a sore thumb with a christmas release. It will be competing with all the family oriented, mass appeal feel good movies. I don't think john Q. Public is going to go see it even for curiosity.

If they wanted to make this have any chance of box office success they need to release it in the same season as all the mainstream sci-fi-ish films. That way the sci-fi crowd will be more inclined to go see it.

 

[OmarB]

Samuel T. Cogley said:

OmarB said:
Cool, no. It's something that can cross over but with a winter release non-trek fans are not gonna make a point of leaving their homes in freezing temps to see what they might think is nerd-faire.

You are really hung up on the winter issue, OmarB.

That's the third time in ten minutes I've seen you make that comment.

Winter must be really fucking severe where you live.

I gotta stay in NY this winter rather than returning home to Miami. Work and crap ya know.

 

[Balthier the Great]

Sec31Mike said:
Nope. I think it's going to stand out like a sore thumb with a christmas release. It will be competing with all the family oriented, mass appeal feel good movies. I don't think john Q. Public is going to go see it even for curiosity.

If they wanted to make this have any chance of box office success they need to release it in the same season as all the mainstream sci-fi-ish films. That way the sci-fi crowd will be more inclined to go see it.

Well, I don't think winning the mainstream is even possible. Scifi itself has always been a pretty niche genre, and most people just aren't into it enough to even pay attention.

Mainstream movies are action movies, maybe a comedy every once in a while, but I don't think most people have been eagerly awaiting scifi movies -- excepting Star Wars since the late 1950's. Most scifi just won't get a big audience, and the ones that do are usually the X-files type of scifi where everything happens on the ground and the heros work for the American CIA.

If I were in charge, I'd try to make the best scifi possible, than put it on DVD or Blu-Ray and sell it directly to the scifi fans. Nobody else gives a crap.

 

[OmarB]

I hear you man but selling DVDs to sci-fi fans is preaching to the choir. To grow and get new fans sci-fi must be open to the widest audience possible not merely marketed to niche group. The kid who would see ST for the first time wouldn't get a chance to if it's marketed directly to us fans.

 

[Super Grover]

no.

 

[Stardate]

nope,unfortunately earth is still filled with stupid people .

 

[Batal]

I think people will come to see the film out of curiosity.
If it is good, they will come back. Unfortunately though Star Trek and being a geek will be together like peas and carrotts. Fortunately for me, I don't care what other people think. I think alot of Trek fans worries about what the "mainstream" thinks and forget the obvious "It's all for fun"

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I thought being a geek was cool now! That's what the TV reviewers say...Heroes, Reaper, Chuck, everyone likes geeks in the lead for TV shows...? Have the TV reviewers been lying to us?

 

[seigezunt]

if we're logging into a Trek BBS with regularity, do you think we care about whether we're cool? :-)

 

[Balthier the Great]

OmarB said:
I hear you man but selling DVDs to sci-fi fans is preaching to the choir. To grow and get new fans sci-fi must be open to the widest audience possible not merely marketed to niche group. The kid who would see ST for the first time wouldn't get a chance to if it's marketed directly to us fans.

But scifi doesn't have the appeal to make a blockbuster movie. I'm not talking about novels or comic books or TV. Those things are probably low-buget enough to turn a profit even if only scifi fans buy/watch them. But since the vast majority would rather watch Survivor or a game show or a comedy than science fiction, I seriously doubt that a scifi film is going to clear 200 million.

It's not a question of trying to get scifi back into the mainstream. It was never really mainstream in the first place. Even TOS and TNG at their peak never made it on the nielson's list (I'll post the link when I find it again). Scifi fans are a small but very loud group of people. Most mainstream folks just don't care. At least not in big enough numbers to make a scifi film a blockbuster.

And fans do find what they want even if it's Direct-to-DVD. Anime does pretty well, even though the only ones on TV are of the Pokemon/DBZ/Naruto variety. And there's always Christmas, birthdays, graduation. People would talk about it on the internet, and it would shockingly enough be sold in stores. I'm not talking about making Trek XI a direct mail order that arrives in a brown paper wrapper, just not putting it out as a feature film.

The problem with making it a feature film is that it would have to be mainstream and it would have to sell a lot of tickets very quickly, probably be #1 at the box office the first weekend. If not, I think you're seeing the end of the Trek series. If they'd done what B5 is doing, they don't need to be mainstream, and they don't need to be #1 on the first weekend. They just need to make back what they spend making the movie.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Austin 3:16 said:I know the whole idea of this movie is to try to get Star Trek to appeal to mainstream moviegoers. With that being said, if this movie is a massive success, will it actually turn Trek from being nerdy into being "cool" (like how The Matrix USED to be before it turned nerdy thanks to its two sequels) and more socially acceptable? What do you think?

I hope it doesn't make it "cool."

I can immediately hear the horror from those who are assuming I'm saying that I want "Trek" to be an exclusive little club. But that's not what I'm saying, at all.

What I AM saying is that "cool" is a term that is usually used to describe trends and styles and fashions. Something that is "cool" one year is "uncool" the next. I still LOVE my "Member's Only" jacket... it's comfortable and practical... but it's "out of style" so I'm not supposed to wear it anymore... go figure.

"Cool" isn't about QUALITY, as much as it's about "trendiness."

That's why I don't ever want Star Trek to become "cool." I want it to be thought of as "a classic." Where the quality is recognized, and it's not going to "go out of style" next year when whatever made it "cool" this year becomes "uncool" next year.

Generally speaking, when someone tries to make something "cool" they simply attach it to current trendiness... and that inevitably hurts it in the long term. But things that are made without respect to whether or not they're "cool," only with respect to whether or not they're GOOD... those are the classics.

Trek shouldn't ever be cool... but it should always be classic.

 

[MANT!]

Hmm I do remember hearing the same types of arguments over TMP back in the late 70's..and TMP started the trend of Trek films making money,culminating with TVH, which later begat TNG, allowing Trek to enter the mainstream in the early 90s. Remember,Science Fiction never was "mainstream" however after Star Wars back in '77, "Future Fantasy" was for nearly 3 decades..(examples include the Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Terminator, and Matrix franchises) Right now PURE fantasy rules the roost in box office appeal (LOTR and Harry Potter anyone)? As the Harry Potter films are just starting to wane as the current flavor of the mainstream, along comes the studios trying for "the Next Big Thing" and one of them appears to be backing Star Trek..If it has a good story that can catch the public's magination..it'll make a lot of money (probably will anyway just because of the curisoity factor)..but will it make Trek cool? Only the general public can decide that..not us Trek fans.

 

[I am not Spock]

I highly doubt it. At best, the mainstream audiences might consider this particular film (and its sequels, should there be any) 'cool', but the old stuff might still be seen as 'nerdy'.

Like what's happened with the 'Batman Begins' movie and the revival of Dr Who. People like those reimaginings, but aren't bothered to check out the original versions.

Star Trek will probably never be 'cool' again. For some reason, Star Wars is acceptable to the mainstream but Trek isn't. I conducted a little experiment yesterday. I put on a Trek DVD, and my non-fan brother starting making fun of it. I immediately put on a Star Wars DVD and he sat down and started watching. Go figure.

 

[mr.peany]

Make Star Trek cool? Trek is already cool. Those who think it is not cool are uncool themseleves.

 

[Supervisor 194]

The new movie will not make the public at large suddenly think middle-aged fat guys wearing ill-fitting costumes to conventions devoted to a 40+ year old tv show are cool.

However, if the new movie is GOOD, then the public may very well think that THIS iteration of Trek is cool and support it financially. And that's all that really matters to the bean-counters anyway.

 

[Kurgan]

It's not going to make Trek any more "cool" or appealing to outsiders than it currently does, besides HOPEFULLY making them curious enough to draw them into the cinemas to see a fun flick of which they don't need the vast knowledge of Trek canon to figure out what's going on.What it might do is to help repair the cracks that have formed in Trek fandom oer the past 15 years and unite some of them again.This movie gives us all(fans of the various Trek series,etc.)something to hope for and be excited about, instead of giving just Next Gen fans alone a movie to look forward to.There's ALOT riding on this movie and the closer we get the more excited i'm getting about it.

Rumor has it Paramount is giving Abrams $150 million to make the movie(the largest budget of any Trek movie), so it's GOT TO BE GOOD.

 

[Woulfe]

Star Trek Cool ?
Was it ever cool ?
Are Nerds Cool ?

Granted nerds run the world thanks to computers, but we're still viewed as uncool, geekish, ect ect ect.

Then again Galaxy Quest was a huge hit even with the so called 'Mainstream' types and it was a nod to Trek and Trek fandom without painting it in an overall negitive light.

Yes some of us can be overly obssesive, but for the most part we do have lives outside of the fandom like GQ tryed to show those who've only seen just one side of it.

I for one saw GQ as a ligit Trek film, mostly because it rang true to the idea of teamwork, friendship, ect more then the more 'recent' actual Trek films did.

So, Star Trek Cool ? Maybe.

 

[Starkers]

Woulfe said:
Star Trek Cool ?
Was it ever cool ?
Are Nerds Cool ?

Granted nerds run the world thanks to computers, but we're still viewed as uncool, geekish, ect ect ect.

Then again Galaxy Quest was a huge hit even with the so called 'Mainstream' types and it was a nod to Trek and Trek fandom without painting it in an overall negitive light.

Yes some of us can be overly obssesive, but for the most part we do have lives outside of the fandom like GQ tryed to show those who've only seen just one side of it.

I for one saw GQ as a ligit Trek film, mostly because it rang true to the idea of teamwork, friendship, ect more then the more 'recent' actual Trek films did.

So, Star Trek Cool ? Maybe.

Hear hear, hell I thought GQ was the best Trek film since First Contact (closely followed by Master and Commander!)

I don't know if I want Trek to be 'cool'. Popular yes, but maybe not cool.

The trouble with anything that's cool, for the most part, is that eventually the coolness wears off.

 

[Mr Bungle]

I'm sure this movie won't undo the image of geekiness and bad taste Trek has acquired over the years. Trek won't be accepted as 'cool' by mainstream audience, and I'm perfectly fine with that. As long as I get a good new Trek movie I couldn't give a rat's ass what the general public thinks.

But I am going to tease my Trek-detesting, Simon Pegg-appreciating friend with the recent Scotty casting.

 

[22 Stars]

The real question is will Trek XI make Trek GOOD again? Relevant again? A fixture in the pop-culture lexicon again? LOTR trilogy did that. Even the poorly exectued SW prequels did that.