J.J. admits keeping Khan's identity a secret was a mistake

[Bad Thoughts]

I would have at least thought it to be clever, in a meta sort-of-way, if Harrison had been a Khan clone.

 

[DarthPipes]

JJ should have just stuck with John Harrison and actually try and build some momentum to this new Trek universe. And instead of a reboot we got a rehash. What really irks me is that $195 million went into this movie and there was a significant delay since JJ wanted the right script (or something he said in 2012 or 2011?) and this was it? A finished product which amounted to no more than an average blockbuster summer movie?

With all that time and money the final outcome was something rather timid and unadventurous. It would have been cool to simply explore a lot more the consequences of what happened in ST 2009, and ST 2009 -- a decent movie by the way -- did some insane stuff and it felt daring and adventurous.

I wonder if STID is a beginning of a trend for new ST movies. Are they going to be a collection of Star Trek's greatest 'hits' or iconic characters/moments? If JJ and Hollywood are anything to go by they're going to be playing increasingly safe... And boring.

TMP was more of a rehash of The Changeling than STID was a rehash of TWOK, and this is despite the fact that a few individual scenes were beamed largely intact from TWOK straight into STID. I'm not trying to excuse STID for its faults. Rather, I'm simply pointing out that there not being much new in Trek films would be, well, nothing new, except that not having anything new to offer frankly isn't true of STID. The drone strike metaphor alone was worth the price of admission; for being critical of ongoing US policy in a time of war, how can anyone call that timid?

As for STID being "no more than an average blockbuster", well, first of all, "average blockbuster" is an oxymoron. If every Trek film were an average blockbuster, then we'd be sure of Trek movies forever. So, yay! Secondly, [domestic, worldwide] whaddayawant? Look at what STID beat: Wolverine, my goodness it creamed the Johnny Depp vehicle, it's almost certainly gonna hammer Thor domestically....

That's the problem. Star Trek has a rich backstory to draw from and they would be foolish not to. But then they run the risk of being more rehashes that something original And I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness very much.

The one storyline I wish they would ditch for the next movie is the "bad man with a big gun." That has literally been the premise of the last three films going back to Nemesis. Enough with the superships already. How about we have the Enterprise in an actual firefight with a real ship?

 

[The Wormhole]

My problem with JJ is I'm not sure if he's more interested in making a good movie or a money making movie. Did he really think that Khan would be better, or did he allow the script to be compromised because he thought it would increase the $$$?

Abrams movies do tend to be simply a checklist of all the various ingredients that are believed to pull in lots of money at the box office. And for the most part, I guess he does pull in money, even if the movies are very shallow and one note. Sure STID is a blast to watch once, even I gave it a glowing and positive review when I saw it in theatres. But on subsequent viewings, it doesn't really hold up that well.

JJ should have just stuck with John Harrison...

Admittedly, given that most of the recent Trek movies have in some way ripped off TWOK and the villains are mostly Khan knock-offs it's good that they finally have used Khan as the villain and re-hashed TWOK just so they can finally get that out of their system.

 

[ralph]

I don´t know if someone has already said it but in my opinion, Cumberbatch played an augment, created a character so brilliantly and shaped it in his own way that he didn’t need to be Khan.

 

[Ryan8bit]

I don't think Shinzon in himself is really that much of a Khan ripoff. I think the whole story of Nemesis definitely did take a lot of cues from the story Wrath of Khan though. That's probably part of the reason Shinzon gets likened to him.

The new villain didn't necessarily have to be Khan, but there probably would have been comparisons if he wasn't. I'm sure the next villain will be compared too... especially if they can't stop doing the madman who wants to destroy Earth type junk.

 

[Kelthaz]

Shinzon's character isn't a Khan rip off, but Shinzon's role in the film was a Khan ripoff.

 

[Hober Mallow]

JJ should have just stuck with John Harrison and actually try and build some momentum to this new Trek universe. And instead of a reboot we got a rehash. What really irks me is that $195 million went into this movie and there was a significant delay since JJ wanted the right script (or something he said in 2012 or 2011?) and this was it? A finished product which amounted to no more than an average blockbuster summer movie?

I didn't like the movie, but it had nothing to do with the inclusion of Khan. Mostly it was the fact that we got the exact same plot -- Evil Bad Guy[TM] from another time is out for revenge -- two films in a row. Something a little more imaginative would be nice for the next film.

 

[thumbtack]

That question from the interviewer felt planted to me, because JJ wanted to send out a message.

No.

Fanboy rage did nothing to harm Iron Man 3, and fanboy fawning did nothing to help Pacific Rim. Star Trek is no different.

Abrams' inference that Hollywood simply doesn't give a shit about fan opinion may have been his only entirely truthful statement in that interview.


.

 

[Set Harth]

Iron Man 3 profited from goodwill toward The Avengers.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Iron Man 3 profited from goodwill toward The Avengers.

Then, why won't Thor 2, to the same degree?

 

[Set Harth]

Because of Iron Man 3?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Ah, so IM3 is #1 for reasons besides just goodwill to The Avengers.

 

[Agenda]

Would a movie without Khan have been more successful at the box office? I think the inclusion of Khan muddled the plot more than helped it. And since Khan wasn't even used as a marketing tool to begin with, I don't see why it truly helped.

Did the majority of fans "really" want Khan or was it more that Abrams and co. assumed that fans wanted Khan? I think a few people wanted him, but I think it's more the latter. I suspect the Abrams brain trust were under some notion that they were giving a valentine (lol Enterprise) to the fans, like they were doing us a favor or something. I think that most of us would prefer that the past remain the past and that the Trekiverse move on to brave new things.

Hollywood always seems to do this. It's like it has this remake mentality where they constantly want to push the old and familiar on to us. But they rarely replicate the old magic, and it often comes across as a pale imitation. Superman Returns suffered from this, so did Prometheus, and so did this film.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Khan himself weighs in...

‘What a dickhead,’ chuckled Cumberbatch when informed of Abrams’ comments.
‘The amount of times we had to lie for him… the amount of times I had to talk about it not being my character! No, I love him,’ continues the star, ‘but I don’t know if it was a bad or a good thing… the intention was to have a reveal in the audience that was going to be thrilling. That worked to an extent. Not everybody knew what they were in for when they went into the theatre… for those people it was a good thing… There was a verbal and physical reaction to it [in theatres I saw it in], so it kind of works.’

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sc...k-darkness-villain-mystery-calls-jj-dick.html

 

[M.A.C.O.]

^ That is brilliant.

 

[JWPlatt]

I wondered if maybe King Daniel invented that quote just as parody. But there it is in the article. My respect for Cumberbatch just went up like a good stock to even jest that Abrams is a dickhead. Which he is. As with all humor, there has to be some truth for it to be funny and the article went on to illuminate Cumberbatch's play on that. Nice work all around, unless GFR is a parody site like Onion - I don't know..

 

[Dukhat]

I wondered if maybe King Daniel invented that quote just as parody. But there it is in the article. My respect for Cumberbatch just went up like a good stock to even jest that Abrams is a dickhead. Which he is. As with all humor, there has to be some truth for it to be funny and the article went on to illuminate Cumberbatch's play on that. Nice work all around, unless GFR is a parody site like Onion - I don't know..

Er, no, you're taking this completely out of context. Anyone with an ounce of sense (or who is not already extremely biased and a self-proclaimed Abrams-hater as you seem to be) can see that Cumberbatch feels nothing of the sort toward Abrams. His quote is analogous to me calling my deceased wealthy father a "dickhead" for only leaving me 99 million dollars in his will instead of a hundred million.

 

[M'Sharak]

I wondered if maybe King Daniel invented that quote just as parody. But there it is in the article. My respect for Cumberbatch just went up like a good stock to even jest that Abrams is a dickhead. Which he is. As with all humor, there has to be some truth for it to be funny and the article went on to illuminate Cumberbatch's play on that. Nice work all around, unless GFR is a parody site like Onion - I don't know..

Not really a parody site—they do report legitimate sci-fi entertainment and science news stories—but they are known on occasion to be rather irreverent. This would be one such occasion. Probably.

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/about-us
http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/

 

[UFO]

^ That is brilliant.

Well, in my opinion, what's really brilliant is that Cumberbatch impersonator they got in to read their script for that fake interview (about half-way down the page). Now he's fantastic! Where did they find that guy?

 

[BillJ]

I wondered if maybe King Daniel invented that quote just as parody. But there it is in the article. My respect for Cumberbatch just went up like a good stock to even jest that Abrams is a dickhead. Which he is. As with all humor, there has to be some truth for it to be funny and the article went on to illuminate Cumberbatch's play on that. Nice work all around, unless GFR is a parody site like Onion - I don't know..

If he truly thought Abrams was a dickhead, why would he want to work with him again? Supposedly, he's already signed on for Star Wars: Episode VII and has said he'd like to play Khan again.