could you elaborate? While I have some worries about too many characters, these castings don't indictae how much screentime they actually have. How is it fanwank?
Well, the point of a film needs to be to tell a story. Any character who is not central to the story... who's being thrown into the mix to "punch a ticket"... isn't going to help tell that story.
IF this is true... then what they're doing is saying "Enterprise... check. Kirk... check. Spock... check. McCoy.. check. Sulu... check. Uhura... check. Scotty... check. Chekov... check. Rand... check. Chapel... check. We've got a Star Trek movie!"
But, Star Trek... GOOD Star Trek... wasn't ever about "giving each character their moment." That's one of the things that turned non-Trek fans OFF from the Berman-era flicks. People who aren't Trek fans didn't CARE about the little "character bits" that were unrelated to the central plot of the movie, and were (as I've observed at least) fairly well TURNED OFF by that.
Everything we've seen or heard from the people actually working on the film implies (though it doesn't conclusively STATE) that this film is set prior to TOS. IF that is the case... most of these characters have no place in the film!.
On the other hand... if they're using all these characters, that means that this film must be set during the same timeframe as TOS. Which seems to imply (at least to me) that some of the OTHER things that have been said haven't been clear.
Why do I say that it seems to hinting at "fanwankish?" Because it's about checking off "kewl things on a list" rather than telling a great story.
That's not to say that a great story can't be told with all of these characters present... but it seems to me that it's more of a DISTRACTION than it is a benefit.
This movie needs to have as few distractions from the plot as possible... and needs to have one hell of a compelling, absorbing, exciting, and PERSONAL plot. Having "today's hottest stars" or having "a totally kewlified new Enterprise" or "having every single character from the seasonal "Bridge Ensemble Photo" present, though recast... I don't see how any of that lends towards telling a great story.
Focusing on the wrong things is typical what I was referring to. On checkboxes rather than on storytelling.
Make sense?
