Despite the writers strike, STAT TREK XI begins filming today! J.J. Abrams begins directing and so little is still known about the movie. This is the dude that's bringing us the "Cloverfield" movie about Godzilla/Voltron/Cthullu/???; we still don't know, but it's two (2) months away. All we know are the actors. Leonard Nemoy is apparently the only returning TOS actor, the rest of the cast are all new, though George Takei has shown interest. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it probably isn't an "Academy Movie," since the characters are of all varying ages. The Academy, like college, is a four-year institution and generally you apply around age 17 to be accepted by 18. Both Picard and Wesley Crusher failed their first entrance exams and had to wait another year, so it isn't without precedent to enter at a later date. (I'm not even going to mention Data). On a side note, the last writers strike took place during The Next Generation Season 2, cutting the season early. Luckily Season 3 picked up the fumble and ran with it five (5) more successful years (and four movies).
Since Pike is in the movie this gives me a couple ideas to work with. The most obvious story setting to me is the newly promoted Captain Kirk (youngest Capt. in the fleet) will be handed the keys to Enterprise by Pike, and the ship comes with Spock as an newly appointed XO. That might explain why Kirk's parents will be in the movie, as a ship's launch ceremony. I'm discounting a Pike-era Enterpise story because we haven't heard any talk of any of the other crew being cast. I'm referring to Number One (XO), Dr. Philip Boyce, Lt. Jose Tyler, and Yeoman Colt. No word on these characters so I'm guessing this is Kirk's First Adventure. The problem I see here is Dr. McCoy. The first Kirk episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" had a Dr. Piper as CMO.
Then again this could be a return trip of Enterprise from the Galactic Rim, as seen in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." We might see Dr. Piper and Dr. McCoy trading places. Not as exciting as Kirk's promotion though. Even though Chekov has been recast, we never "saw" him before Season 2. This has be ret-conned with Star Trek II when Kahn "never forgets" Chekov's face even though Kahn encountered the Enterprise in Season 1. This has always been explained (by Ricardo Montalban at conventions) that as Kahn ran around the ship he encountered Chekov on a lower deck and said, "You, I'll never forget your face." So, in fact, Chekov could be in this, at, like, age 16 or 17. That means Chekov, who looks like one of The Monkeys, went through the Academy at an earlier age than Wesley. It must have been the "party Academy" years. Wesley, who helmed Enterprise-D at age 15, failed an entrance exam for lack of experience, or something like that. Who the hell does the Academy accept? In summation, this movie will probably be Kirk's first day in the seat and somehow introduce "Bones" as well. I can't help but think of Enterprise-B's first day and the "Death" of Kirk. Maybe the story will come full circle and we'll find out Harriman's first day was much like Kirk's. That might explain Kirk's reaction in Generations even more than a freshly retired Admiral uncomfortable with the future. I hope Abrams doesn't F this up.
I was going to try my luck again at GameStop to pre-order Crysis because you get this cool tank toy, at least that's what the picture showed. Reading the fineprint for once, the truth was revealed. The tank is an in-game bonus? WTF?? If I pre-order I get an in-game bonus vehicle. That's f-ing lame, dude. I want a toy, not free digital information. Damn them for getting my hopes up. That game still looks cool, though. I watched previews for the Xbox 360 version of Kane & Lynch, due out next week. Every time I read previews it sounds so good, but these previews are for a game less than 160 hours away, and it looks like crap. From framerate to polygons, the only part I like is the music. Oh, well, there's still Blacksite: Area 51, NFS ProStreet, Soldier Of Fortune: Payback, and, most importantly, ASSASSIN'S CREED. The Assassin's Creed website even has a nice interactive movie thing to play. Go check it out, now...
Okay you're back. Nice, hunh? Anyway, I found this other nifty site which predicts the death of your iPod. You plug in your serial number and answer a few simple questions and, blammo, the number of hours left until you need to buy another one is displayed. Accuracy is probably ZERO but, then, so was the amount of money spent on the prediction. See you next broadcast.
2 comments:
I cant imagine J.J. messing up Star Trek. Though I never watch Alias, I only heard good things. Otherwise his writing credits stretch far and wide. The fact he could make me like M:I3 despite Tom Cruise being in it speaks volumes. When I see his stuff, I see a man who puts a lot of personal care into the things he sculpts, and several people were overjoyed to see him take up Star Trek. Finally there was someone in charge of the franchise who saw it as more than a way to pack fanboys into theatres.
This indirectly segues into a thought I had last night. I visited Wal-Mart to buy a maglight for one of my students and was enticed by the five-dollar DVD bin. I walked away with the aforementioned flashlight, American Psycho, and Virtuosity. To the casual observer, at least two of those purchases make sense. Virtuosity is where I loose most people.
It’s not a movie that made a big dent in people’s memories, even though it had Denzel and a pre-everything Russell Crowe in it. Lumping it in with Lawnmower Man, it was yet one more film that visited the future as we saw it in the 90’s – Virtual Reality. Crowe is an AI built from several mass murders that is brought to life via nanobot technology. And Denzel is the only cop that can stop him!
So it’s a cheesy favorite of mine. It’s equal parts horrible and good, like so many scifi films. But it left me thinking; Where have the throw-away scifi films gone? It seems that scifi’s has ceased to pock the cinematic landscape. Yet Tony Scott is allowed to continue making films. There’s no justice anymore.
But cinema follows trends, we all know this. The late 90’s was a pretty good time for crappy sci-fi movies. The movies that weren’t good, but I was just happy to see people in space, even if they were acting like retards. Lost in Space, Red Plant, Mission to Mars, Supernova, Event Horizon. Then we have the non-space movies like 13th Floor. It was like living through the era of Flash Gordon serials. Now what? People murder a Phillip K Dick short story once a year and everyone else is busy ‘redefining the zombie/vampire genre’. I was left wondering what it would take to put the taste for sci-fi back in the minds of the populous. Firefly/Serenity had it chance, but faced too much obscurity to make a widespread impact.
Abrams on Star Trek gives me hope. We know JJ Abrams is capable of enjoyable, contemporary, work. Can he apply that to Trek? Could we bear witness to a Star Trek film that heralds a return to witty space adventures?
I haven't watched MI:3 yet, but I intend to one day. I just tend to forget it's there. Virtuosity is another title I have every intention of seeing, but haven't got a round to it yet. Having barely stomached Payback I owe to my self to see better realized Sci-Fi. I miss John Carpenter's throw away pulp Sci-Fi like Escape from NY/LA, They Live and Ghosts Of Mars. The field has now moved to video games and comicbooks/graphic novels for inspiration. We either end up with Monster movies or dystopian future movies of no hope. Pixar gives us their kid-ified versions of the future, which never sat well with me.
I want to return to the days of Outland, Logan's Run, Black Hole (a rare Disney gem), Titan AE, Westworld, Road Warrior, Dune, The Last Starfighter, and Total Recall. Whew. I did hear that Stallone wants to redo Death Race 2000. Yeah... I think. Even the worst sci-fi, like Wing Commander, has a mild redeeming quality in carrying a torch to continue the genre (even though WC treated the torch like a dildo, cleaned its ass with it then passed it on). Christ, never mind. I hate Wing Commander. The only good SF movie I'm waiting for now is AvP2, sigh.
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