Star Trek: Beyond (July 22, 2016)

For those of you complaining about Star Wars overload, the trailer for the new Star Trek film has just been released. J.J. Abrams, the director of the last two Star Trek films, (obviously) did not direct this one. This one was directed by Justin Lin, the director of The Fast and the Furious films 3, 4, 5, and 6.

 

It'll be interesting to see the reaction this trailer gets, that's all I'll say for now.

 

It looks amazing!

 

Amazingly bad.

 

Amazingly good!

 

I thinks it's safe to say that there will be a multitude of negative reactions from Star Trek zealots who are predisposed to hating the new films. They've already made up their minds that they're not going to like it.

 

I know they established that Kirk liked the Beastie Boys in the first movie but still... a whole trailer scored with it doesn't seem very Trekky.

 

Looks like an action film.

 

I thinks it's safe to say that there will be a multitude of positive reactions from NuTrek zealots who are predisposed to loving the new films. They've already made up their minds that they're going to like it.

 

That's a positive attitude to have, don't ya think? It beats the negative alternative.

 

The problem is that the first ten Star Trek films put a lot of people to sleep. They were extensions of the TV series, so those who didn't watch those series were left in the dark. Not a lot of people outside of Star Trek fans thought much of the films. The studio needs to establish that Star Trek is a dramatic series, not an action series. I liked the last two films, and I think they had greater mass appeal than the first ten films.

Star Trek should be a drama set aboard a spaceship, but the problem is that not many people understand Star Trek. The property is inevitably compared to Star Wars when in reality they are nothing alike. Star Wars is an adventure; Star Trek is a story of the interactions and relationships developed in a confined space.

There is pressure for the films to appeal to a wider audience. Star Trek is quickly becoming an action-comedy franchise because the masses don't exactly understand it and so don't have the proper expectations for it; the objective of the studio, meanwhile, is to pull in a wider demographic. People don't want to be bored sitting through Star Trek, expecting it to be like Star Wars.

Star Trek needs to be its own thing. It's a drama at heart. It's sort of like the first half of the new Fantastic Four . . . a little bit of exploration, and a lot of talking in a few areas. Of course, the execution needs to be better than what we got with Fantastic Four (2015). The studio has to be brave enough to establish a different tone for the franchise. That would mean possibly narrowing its audience.

Of course, you can never get away from the comparisons with Star Wars. The studio, thus, has two options:

1. Try to compete with Star Wars.
2. Resign itself to having Star Trek be perceived as the boring space franchise.

The studio has had success reinventing the franchise. Star Trek (2009) proved this. They didn't sacrifice the quality of the film just to make it exciting; it was less faithful to the original vision of the franchise, but it was an enjoyable film. It was just different than what fans were used to. There is no perceived need to limit the audience for Star Trek by keeping it within the genre of drama, especially if the filmmakers hit a home run and possibly create a very good film somewhere down the line. By taking the action-comedy route, they are playing things safe and appealing to a larger audience. By remaining a drama, the studio would confine itself to having a small audience, even if the films turn out to be strong dramas that remain faithful to the spirit of the franchise. People just don't want to be bored watching a space film.

To non-Star Trek fans, those first ten films were not fun to watch. People, likewise, were bored with the new Fantastic Four.

 

I have to throw my hat into the "not liking what I'm seeing" camp. However, as a life-long Trek fan, I'll obviously be going to see it in the hopes that there is a great STORY behind all of the derivative NuTrek action vignettes.

 

Let's not forget that we are reacting to a 95 second teaser trailer. Trailers pack as much stuff into them as possible to get audiences excited.

 

For all the carping about Abrams' Star Trek movies being too action-oriented, the first one, at least, did devote quite a lot of time to the characters' interactions and relationships. The second one... I'd have to go back and remind myself.

 

The 2009 film, in my opinion, is the best Star Trek film to date. I like Generations for the novelty of seeing Picard and Kirk together, but this was the high point of its action:



For most people, this was a "wait for VHS" or "I probably just won't see it" type of film. For some casual Star Trek fans, it was an "I'll see the re-run on TV during the Star Trek marathon" type of film. Star Trek was never the kind of series that would pack theaters. That had to change.

The 2009 film offered the right mix and established a strong tone. The subsequent films haven't lived up to that level.

 

It's a trailer that consists primarily of action scenes. I'm not going to be basing any opinions on that minuscule amount of information. Though I'm sure we'll start to see full film reviews from the "psychic critics" based on 90 seconds of chopped together footage any second now...

 

It's ironic that people complain about action in Star Trek considering that TOS was a space western with plenty of action.

 

I don't like the first two films and I find the Fast and Furious movies to be mind numbing stupid so I will just skip this one.

 

One notable thing about this movie -- it seems like it's actually a story about the Enterprise on its "five year mission," discovering a planet and investigating, something that was the core of the television series but which never happened in the movies (with the exception, I think, of one of the Next Generation movies).

 

As a late 20's something Female, they totally lost me.

Silly music, explosions, noise and action.
Wow, what a deep movie this will be.

Sorry, but Star Trek seems juvenile when all it has is action.
When it has only drama it is boring.

Make something that has a story/drama/suspense/wonder, then a bit of action to keep it fun, not the other way around!

I do have some 12-15 year old cousins that it seems to be made for exactly.
Sad

 

Wrong.
Star Trek at its heart was a character driven drama in space, with science fiction elements, and a moderate amount of action from time to time.
At least try to be accurate.
(I do not like old time star trek that much)

It was never very action driven.
They have simply turned it into something that does not even mildly resemble much of what made it Star Trek, to push it onto unwashed masses.

At least own the truth of it.

 

It is important to maintain a good blend of action and drama, so I agree with your assessment. A lot of the older Star Trek material leans too far towards the dramatic side of the property; Into Darkness (which I haven't seen) appears to lean too far towards the action side based on what a lot of people have said. This new one is even more extreme. I don't want Star Trek to be The Fast and the Furious or G.I. Joe.

 

I'll wait for a bit more information before coming to a final opinion on this one. Let's just say that things aren't looking good. I saw the first Movie of this new, alternate Star Trek Universe at theater almost immediately upon release. I saw the second one when it came out on Bluray.

I think there's a trend developing in there somewhere....

 

I don't think that's entirely true. The second movie was a big hit and I'd daresay has become somewhat iconic. I'll go out on a limb and say that I think that almost all of the original cast movies were pretty successful even if they aren't all well-remembered. And I think their appeal was wider than the Trek TV audience.

Personally, I don't think that Star Trek can really live up to its potential by just being another action movie franchise. This will never happen, but I wish that they would make at least one movie where it's treated as a dramatic movie with action, not an action movie with occasional drama. I'm not impressed with Trek trailers that just show it to be another contender for Flashiest Roller Coaster of All Time, rather I look for Star Trek to be more intriguing. Often the teasers for the series episodes left you wondering, "What the hell is going on here?" In a good way. There was a sense of intrigue and mystery. I don't know if Paramount can make a Star Trek movie like that, it's much easier to just blow stuff up. But Star Trek will never be the best blow-stuff-up franchise, it's a misuse and a misunderstanding of the trope.