First Contact Remastered , what changes could be made ?

[Colonel Midnight]

How about actually SHOWING the dang TNG crew getting back to the 24th century and seeing that everything is okay?

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Amaris]

Having watched the movie last night:


- The initial battle needs to be a little longer. This is, after all, a major enemy of the Federation. So more ships and more cutaways to the Defiant.

- Cut Data's "To Hell with our orders" cutesy line. I gag every time I hear it.

- At the end of the movie, show where the Enterprise returns and maybe an effect or two of the changes they may have made (after all, people did die and history was still altered, if only slightly).


J.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^I think I like that idea!

 

[Finn]

In the end, the Vulcan flips the finger to Cochrane, which happened to be the original Vulcan salute. Cochrane explained it to him quickly what it meant on Earth so they changed it.

Hey, it still would look great next to Nemesis

 

[Aldo]

At the start of the film during the Borg battle we see Voyager appear all of a sudden. We do a quick cut to the bridge where Janeway proclaims they made it back to Earh, everyone rejouices. Not realizing they're in the middle of a Borg battle they all die as the Voyager rams into the side of the Borg cube.

Then we cut into the Borg cube where the Queen goes "Did you guys hear something?" When no one answers she drops the question.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Finn said:
In the end, the Vulcan flips the finger to Cochrane, which happened to be the original Vulcan salute. Cochrane explained it to him quickly what it meant on Earth so they changed it.

Hey, it still would look great next to Nemesis

ROTFLMAO!!!

 

[HRHTheKING]

I didn't like that "forcefield instead of glass" scene.

What happens if the forcefield fails?

 

[Colonel Midnight]

^ 'A long drop, and a sudden stop', perhaps??

(Slightly paraphrased, but it fits...)

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[David cgc]

HRHTheKING said:
I didn't like that "forcefield instead of glass" scene.

What happens if the forcefield fails?

Well, it wasn't a window, it was a hatch (hence the reason it was closed when Picard and Lily got there). There workers and equipment could move directly from a drydock into the jefferies tubes, no doubt.

 

[Squiggy]

Faldor said:
It's not a massive thing but that earth model looked a bit shoddy.

Agreed. Plus it was lacking New Zealand. I don't think we need to fanwank it up by adding TEH KEWL 55 minute battle scene!!!111one. Don't need to center all the attention onto the Defiant, as this movie isn't about the Defiant, nor it's crew.

Christ, alot of people think FC was the only TNG movie worth anything, no need to fuck it up.

 

[trevanian]

Blame Berman for how Earth looked. He and Lauritson made ILM paint out most of their clouds, which is why earth looks like a rand mcnally globe most of the time. Nucler winter indeed, more like a nuclear summer drought.

As the other poster said, remastered doesn't mean mess with, so if you want to ask for changes to the movie ...

fix the cg plasma crap in the engine room, it has no scale and the textures are bad.

MOST IMPORTANT: give the first landing party a shuttlecraft so we can fly over and SEE what WW3 wrought on the U.S. It'd be a good excuse to
bring in some music that sounds like the mournful ROAD WARRIOR stuff of Brian May's. It goes back to the Vehoeven thing about ROBOCOP - you need to see the crucifiction before the resurrection, so you need to SEE how fucked up everything is to contrast with the optimism of Phoenix lifting off.

Personally I'd redesign the flying pianos that pass for escape pods.

I'd also print whatever other takes they had of Picard's big briefing room tantrum and insert the ones where he was less rabid ... the line must be snorted here has never worked for me, it is Stewart's equivalent to Shat's "klingon bastards you've killed my acting career" bit in its awfulness.

Editorially, I'd try flashcutting Picard's preachy stuff about being evolved with his machinegunning of the Borg, just to use a good reaction shot of Alfre seeing through all this ModernTrekTalk to the fact that this guy talks a good game but is just as human as the next bloke who gets cut off in traffic.

I'd cut the chasing Cochrane stuff altogether, and probably Barclay as well. I love Barclay, but not here. By cutting away from the spacewalk stuff, they actually HURT the story development for me.

I'd cut the borg in smokey room with disco lights shot.

I'd play with time-ramping some borg shots, to see if we could actually make them walk fast on occasion. I understand they were playing this as more suspense than action, but mixing it up a little would be nice, even if it violated somebody's canon (as if the queen doesn't take care of that.)

Throw away that terrible PETER PAN shot of Stewart TWIRLING through space above the dish -- the subjective POV shot is fine, but the other shot sucks awfully.

In case you couldn't tell, I really don't like this movie, apart from most of the miniature work and some shots of the guys walking on the hull BEFORE they get to the dish.

 

[Nebusj]

HRHTheKING said:
I didn't like that "forcefield instead of glass" scene.

What happens if the forcefield fails?

As it's not the force field guarding the brig, it will never fail.

 

[Broccoli]

Hirogen Alpha said:
No changes. The effects stand up just fine, and there's no reason to cut any material of the actors or to change any of the music.

Quoted for truth. The movie is fine the way it is. A longer Borg battle? You know how boring that would be? We'd just see ships flying around, as there was no filmed material from what was going inside the ships. There might be some extra Worf stuff, but probably not enough to extend the scene some want it here.

Put a time marker at the beginning of the battle scene? Why? The audience isn't stupid. The Borg were at Earth; when the E-E crew were listening, it was implied that they were not.

See the crew return home? Why? They stopped the Borg. History is saved. Again, the audience isn't stupid. They'll figure it out that the day was saved. I, personally, thought that was a pretty good and unique way to end a Trek film.

Eh, but what do I know?

 

[Manticore]

Broccoli said:

Hirogen Alpha said:
No changes. The effects stand up just fine, and there's no reason to cut any material of the actors or to change any of the music.

Quoted for truth. The movie is fine the way it is. A longer Borg battle? You know how boring that would be? We'd just see ships flying around, as there was no filmed material from what was going inside the ships. There might be some extra Worf stuff, but probably not enough to extend the scene some want it here.

Put a time marker at the beginning of the battle scene? Why? The audience isn't stupid. The Borg were at Earth; when the E-E crew were listening, it was implied that they were not.

See the crew return home? Why? They stopped the Borg. History is saved. Again, the audience isn't stupid. They'll figure it out that the day was saved. I, personally, thought that was a pretty good and unique way to end a Trek film.

Eh, but what do I know?

I agree completely. The film is, for the most part, beautifully paced, and while the fanboy in me would like to see a Sovereign kicking Borg ass (though I would prefer to see one kicking some Dominion ass more. ), I think that it would just make the film take too long to get to the main plot, which is what happens in the past.

 

[Squiggy]

trevanian said:
Blame Berman for how Earth looked.

Don't worry...much like everyone else on this board, I blame Berman for ANYTHING that has sucked in the past 17 years.

OKC Bombing? Berman
9/11? Berman
That F I got in Psych? Berman

 

[Kegek]

^
In fairness he also blamed Peter Lauritson...

trevanian said:
Personally I'd redesign the flying pianos that pass for escape pods.

I wasn't before, but now I'm a huge fan of those pods.

Oh, and I can't see how SFX can repair any of film's problems, the effects were fine. Really, the films that need tinkered SFX are The Final Frontier (for reasons obvious) Generations (no more TV stock footage)! One could also make an argument for The Wrath of Khan (aka: Let's use a lot of TMP shots where we can). And The Motion Picture's improved effects might need a bit of polish.

 

[USS Mariner]

trevanian said:
Blame Berman for how Earth looked. He and Lauritson made ILM paint out most of their clouds, which is why earth looks like a rand mcnally globe most of the time. Nucler winter indeed, more like a nuclear summer drought.

As the other poster said, remastered doesn't mean mess with, so if you want to ask for changes to the movie ...

Or we could just burn the film and spend the money on something with more humanistic aspirations, like hookers.

I don't fucking understand why people worship this movie. This is right behind TFF in terms of atrocious story development and direction, and far [/i]behind[/i] it in acting quality (and lack thereof.)

None of the Trek movies are great films (TMP is decent, and I confess I love the history and development more than the actual film itself.)

First Fucking Contact is no exception.

 

[Kegek]

Mariner Class said:
None of the Trek movies are great films

I wouldn't contest that. But the effects are purdy. Which is neither here nor there. Ebert has trashed the SFX of Casablanca, and while I think he was a bit harsh, it does hit an essential point: The quality of the special effects does not equate to the quality of a movie.

 

[trevanian]

Squiggyfm said:

trevanian said:
Blame Berman for how Earth looked.

Don't worry...much like everyone else on this board, I blame Berman for ANYTHING that has sucked in the past 17 years.

OKC Bombing? Berman
9/11? Berman
That F I got in Psych? Berman

I like blaming Berman for his own artistic/creative decisions, which impact a lot of areas in ModernTrek. I think the criticisms are extremely valid. Do I thank him for anything? Yeah, for not pissing too much on DS9. This dates back to the first interviews I ever read with him, when he was being dismissive of some TOS aspects as being way too crude, WHEN AT THE TIME TNG WAS USING THE SAME FAKE PLANETSCAPES AND MAKEUPS THAT WERE SOMETIMES EVEN WORSE (Final Mission aliens, anyone? If those guys sneeze, they will break their skull from the parts hooking over the mouth.)

He made trains run on time, and he hired Piller. That's about it from where I stand.

 

[Kegek]

trevanian said:
He made trains run on time, and he hired Piller. That's about it from where I stand.

Those are both big pluses, in my view. Berman was as good as his collaborators and his level of involvement - the less, the better - check his Memory Alpha listing and one can see an increasing number of story and teleplay credits as the years wore on. Piller essentially saved TNG and made it the show it was, and many of the Young Turks who did the best work on the show thereafter were brought onboard by him.