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New Scientist review

urbandk

urbandk

Commodore
Commodore
via Trekmovie

New Scientist review
focuses on the science side of sci-fi and assesses the tech in Star Trek.

The review is spoiler-heavy.

An excerpt:
The Lost creator's new movie has pulled off the tricky feat of enlivening a scenario that many had dismissed as clapped-out, in a way that will satisfy all but the grouchiest of Trekkies. The casting and characterisation is immaculate; the plot and direction are engaging and fast-moving; and fans will be pleased that many familiar motifs are present and correct – it's still unlucky to wear red on the Enterprise, for example.

But what's missing is a big idea. The new movie is about an epic but conceptually mundane conflict, driven by the baddy's thirst for revenge, not the goodies' hunger for knowledge. There's only one new world and very little new life;

...

Ultimately, however, Star Trek was rarely at its best when it was trying to be inspirational. On the contrary, some of its clunkiest and most preachy episodes were those where it tried to address such heavyweight issues as environmentalism, technocracy and genetic inheritance.
Boldly going where many directors have gone before, Abrams manages to give this much-beloved franchise the reboot it needed.
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urbandk said:
But what's missing is a big idea. The new movie is about an epic but conceptually mundane conflict, driven by the baddy's thirst for revenge, not the goodies' hunger for knowledge.
Click to expand...

This has been my biggest fear - but I honestly didn't expect anything deep from J.J. & Crew, anyway; the reviewer mentions how clunky Trek has been when it tried to be thoughtful, and my experience with Abrams has been that he pretends to be thoughtful, but what he really is is obscure and unfocused - ultimately there's very little 'there' there.

So, basically, "great popcorn movie."
 
Ptrope said:
urbandk said:
But what's missing is a big idea. The new movie is about an epic but conceptually mundane conflict, driven by the baddy's thirst for revenge, not the goodies' hunger for knowledge.
Click to expand...

This has been my biggest fear - but I honestly didn't expect anything deep from J.J. & Crew, anyway; the reviewer mentions how clunky Trek has been when it tried to be thoughtful, and my experience with Abrams has been that he pretends to be thoughtful, but what he really is is obscure and unfocused - ultimately there's very little 'there' there.

So, basically, "great popcorn movie."
Click to expand...

So were all the other Star Trek Movies. Maybe TMP could be an exception, but it was framed as a story of a mysterious force threatening Earth, just like most of the others. The crew of the Enterprise weren't trying to seek out new life or new civilizations in any of the movies.
 
I was also hoping for something relatively "deep", such as we saw in many Star Trek TV episodes, but I'll be satisfied with a well-made and intelligent "fun" film.

Even some of the Star Trek films that I consider the best -- TWoK and FC -- did not have deep philosophical or sociological meanings. They were, however, intelligent films -- and so far the reviews for this film seem to suggest that it, too, is intelligent.

Perhaps now that the character introductions are out of the way, "Star Trek 12" will add that "socially relevant" aspect.
 
Samuel T. Cogley said:
At this point, "great [anything] movie" would be an improvement.
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Absolutely. "Really good" or "watchable" movie would be an improvement over the last two.

No Star Trek movie has ever been anything other than a "popcorn movie," despite ST:TMP's paper-thin pretensions.

Jackson_Roykirk said:
Perhaps now that the character introductions are out of the way, "Star Trek 12" will add that "socially relevant" aspect.
Click to expand...

I can live without Trek's vaunted "social relevance," which was rarely front-and-center on TOS and accounted for only a couple of the best TOS episodes (I'd count "Errand Of Mercy" and "A Taste of Armageddon" among those). OTOH, if Abrams is of a mind to, he's probably just the guy to bring back "the mysterious, new and unknown is really, really exciting" aspect of TOS. That's something I've missed for ages.
 
Ptrope said:
urbandk said:
But what's missing is a big idea. The new movie is about an epic but conceptually mundane conflict, driven by the baddy's thirst for revenge, not the goodies' hunger for knowledge.
Click to expand...

This has been my biggest fear - but I honestly didn't expect anything deep from J.J. & Crew, anyway; the reviewer mentions how clunky Trek has been when it tried to be thoughtful, and my experience with Abrams has been that he pretends to be thoughtful, but what he really is is obscure and unfocused - ultimately there's very little 'there' there.

So, basically, "great popcorn movie."
Click to expand...

So are you saying that JJ is "LOST"... :rolleyes:
 
Honestly I never expected anything "deep" from this film, especially from the guys who wrote The Island. I'd never even heard of Abrams before the rumors started floating back in 2006. The revenge plot is old hat, especially for Trek, and the reboot via alternate reality due to the "awesome" theory of quantum mechanics just seems lame. I will however be shelling out cash to see the film. I'm a Trekkie, of course I'm gonna see it.

If it's successful then I hope that Trek 12 will get back to the exploration and new worlds approach of TOS, something that was lacking in the later series. I also hope they redesign the Enterprise, I still think this new one looks like the abortion of the original and the refit. Yeah, I know it probably won't happen. Oh, and give the damn thing a real engineering set.:lol:
 
Starship Polaris said:
I can live without Trek's vaunted "social relevance," which was rarely front-and-center on TOS and accounted for only a couple of the best TOS episodes (I'd count "Errand Of Mercy" and "A Taste of Armageddon" among those). OTOH, if Abrams is of a mind to, he's probably just the guy to bring back "the mysterious, new and unknown is really, really exciting" aspect of TOS. That's something I've missed for ages.
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I agree that much of TOS did not have a socially relevant plot...that's why I said relatively deep plots. Star Trek was first and formost a character-driven and drama-driven TV show that -- when it was at its best -- featured terrific interplay among its three main characters.

When it did exist, the social relevance in a Star Trek episode was usually not included to "send a message to the world" but was mostly there just to provide a vehicle in which the characters could perform that was relevant to a late 1960s progressive audience (relevant to your audience = ratings)

Having said that, I wouldn't mind seeing ST:XII be a film that includes that character interplay AND be thoughtfully relevant...

...But an intelligent film does not need to be about our social ills. The lack of a social message is not the same as saying it is a "popcorn flick". Character interactions could be written in a manner that is intelligent and worthy of more than simply popcorn flick status.
 
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Starship Polaris said:
Samuel T. Cogley said:
At this point, "great [anything] movie" would be an improvement.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. "Really good" or "watchable" movie would be an improvement over the last two.

No Star Trek movie has ever been anything other than a "popcorn movie," despite ST:TMP's paper-thin pretensions.

Jackson_Roykirk said:
Perhaps now that the character introductions are out of the way, "Star Trek 12" will add that "socially relevant" aspect.
Click to expand...

I can live without Trek's vaunted "social relevance," which was rarely front-and-center on TOS
Click to expand...

Erm, it just bothered me. Sorry. But the 'social relevance' of TOS was Civil Rights. as in lots of different sorts of people working together on the starship. We saw this in background characters galore as well as Uhura, Sulu, ... This was great stuff for the time. Easy to forget.

Oh, but you mean...

and accounted for only a couple of the best TOS episodes (I'd count "Errand Of Mercy" and "A Taste of Armageddon" among those). OTOH, if Abrams is of a mind to, he's probably just the guy to bring back "the mysterious, new and unknown is really, really exciting" aspect of TOS. That's something I've missed for ages.
Click to expand...

Someone earlier pointed out how each film, sans a few, always had a villain out to get Earth and the big E crew were Earths only hope. This was as opposed to the TV show where the stories were about the mysterious planet they found and the people there. People usually in need of a little Shatner action.

I always thought ST:Insurrection was the most trek-like format of any of the films. Too bad the Baku were dull.

I think if J.J. Abrams really wanted to make a cool Star Trek film he'd use just the insight you mention Starship P. His terrific talent for mysteries. Star Trek was all about this in the early seasons... I'd hope JJ would stick around for another film. Hope the studio makes all the money from this film as possible (I still predict $120 Mil. first week! I've 3000 quatloos on this!) and forces him to make another one for next summer!
 
For me it's always been more important that Trek have compelling, well-written characters than "big ideas" or deep social relevance.

That's the main reason TOS and DS9 worked so well, and VOY and ENT didn't. Hell, VOY through out all kinds of cool scifi ideas during it's run, but because the characters were so generic and paper-thin, it was impossible to care.
 
davejames said:
For me it's always been more important that Trek have compelling, well-written characters than "big ideas" or deep social relevance.
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I actually thought it was the other way around....characters are important but not as much as the others...TOS's weren't as remotely developed as the other ST series..

RAMA
 
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