First Reactions to Star Trek Beyond Overwhelmingly Positive

The first reactions to Star Trek Beyond are here! And, everyone seems to be in agreement: it’s fantastic.

UPDATE: Simon Pegg opens the LA press screening, pays tribute to Anton Yelchin.

Star Trek Beyond still hasn’t hit theaters, and the IMAX world premiere isn’t until next week. But, after press screenings today, those lucky enough to go were allowed to tweet out their (spoiler free) thoughts. And, initial reactions are positive across the board. Plus, a whopping three new trailers hit the web last night.

TrekMovie was at the Los Angeles press screening, which was introduced by co-star and co-writer Simon Pegg. Simon talked about the emotional rollercoaster ride of writing and starring in the film, plus he made some very touching comments about his recently passed co-star Anton Yelchin.

It was an incredible thing to be given the opportunity to write a Star Trek movie not least on the 50th anniversary. This is an extraordinary story that’s lasted through generations, and it’s still here, which is wonderful and beautiful thing.

This is been an incredible ride. I tell you it’s been an extraordinary journey from inception to preparation through execution and sometimes all of those things simultaneously.

It’s been a roller coaster of emotions from from utter fear at the prospect of doing it, joy and exhilaration at making it, and unimaginable sadness at the loss of both Leonard Nimoy and our dear Anton Yelchin who we lost not that long ago and it doesn’t seem real even now. One thing when you see him on screen tonight be happy because it struck me when I watched the film last Saturday with my family that Anton will live forever because he’s always going to be up there on the screen and that’s a wonderful thing.

And, our twitter review couldn’t agree more…

Three new spots for Beyond

To get you just a little extra pumped for seeing Star Trek Beyond next week, Paramount dropped three new adverts for the film on their YouTube channel last night.

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Well. So far so good. I hope this is like a classic TOS EP with todays budget.

sorry but it’s not

I’m getting more excited to see this film with every passing day! One more week!

I was already excited enough to snag tickets for the IMAX marathon premiere on the 20th. Now I’m assured I’m definitely going to be getting my money’s worth!

Now if Paramount and IMAX would just let the public know how whatever seats for the premiere in San Diego that aren’t for the VIPs are going to be allocated.

Not buy. Paramount and Comic Con announced back in June that some tickets would be distributed to the public and that the how, when and where would be revealed closer to the premiere. Which is next week. The inference at the time was you would need a Comic Con pass good for Wednesday, but it wasn’t spelled out.

From Comic Con International’s Toucan Blog, posted sometime today:

Home Toucan Blog Star Trek Beyond Ticket Drawing
BOLDLY GOING WHERE NO WORLD PREMIERE HAS GONE BEFORE!
Star Trek Beyond Ticket Drawing
Star Trek Beyond, the next installment in the Star Trek franchise, will have its exclusive red carpet World Premiere at Comic-Con on Wednesday, July 20 at the Embarcadero Marina Park. Plus it will be shown in the immersive IMAX® format! As a special event for this year’s Comic-Con attendees, a limited number of fans, who have a valid Comic-Con badge or bar code for any day of the show, will have the chance to attend this special screening.

For a chance to win access to the screening, please go to Embarcadero Marina Park South (see the map below for exact location) starting at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, July 20, where a drawing will start at 12:00 noon. Once there, get in line to pick a ticket out of a container. The winning tickets will have a distinct stamp on the back. Once a winning ticket has been drawn, the ticket will be exchanged for two wristbands that will admit the wearers into the World Premiere of Star Trek Beyond! If you do not draw a winning ticket, you may return to the end of the line to try again until all winning tickets have been drawn. Only one winning ticket is allowed per person. Tickets will be drawn between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM or until all winning tickets are drawn. Both people wishing to attend the screening must be in attendance at the time of the drawing to be wrist-banded.

All winners need to arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the screening start time in the line at the designated area at Embarcadero Marina Park South or their seats may be forfeit.

He/she is talking about the comic con IMAX premiere in San Diego which is specifically for the public.

Am I starting to get that old feeling of giddiness again?…nahhhhh.

Seeing next Thursday evening I had some very positive feedback from someone who went to the London premiere 2 days ago he says its very much like a big budget TOS episode with just the right amount of humour, action, adventure. He also said the music was terrific so were the VFX so I cannot wait for the next week to pass fast!

Shame we cannot get on a Bird Of Prey fly around the sun & timewarp to 1 week today then fly back again to now after seeing the movie of course!

Some of the initial reviews for STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS were much better than the above reactions to STB To wit:

Ultimately, “Into Darkness” is prophetic and profound, vying for a place in the sci-fi Hall of Fame that houses “Blade Runner” and, well, the original “Star Trek.” – Kaori Shoji, Japan Times [Wow, this movie sounds AMAZING!!]

Into Darkness is a sleek, thrilling epic that’s also a triumphantly witty popcorn morality play. It’s everything you could want in a Star Trek movie. – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly [Everything I could want! Holy cow!]

An immensely engaging sci-fi thriller about friendship, leadership, and loss in a tense and war-mongering intergalactic world. – Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice [Sounds very well-developed thematically! Right up my alley!]

It is with grand scale, good storytelling & a real spirit of adventure that J.J. Abrams’ second film torpedoes onto the screen in 3D, bringing the kind of special effects fantasies are made of. – Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile [Good storytelling!! This about a story that the director has since criticized as “fundamentally flawed”!!!]

Even old-school Trekkers will enjoy this voyage. – Linda Cook, Quad City Times [Old-school Trekkers! Wow, this movie was made for the likes of me!]

Maintaining its reverence for the source material while employing an exuberant and clever script with one heck of a plot twist, Star Trek: Into Darkness is great fun and a more than worthy successor to the excellent first film. – Diva Velez,
TheDivaReview.com
[Reverence for TOS! Exactly what I’ve been clamoring for!]

Very well-made and exciting. Kirk’s/Pine’s bromance with Spock/out actor Zachary Quinto is further and nicely developed here, and the film’s 3D effects are truly special. – Fr. Chris Carpenter, Movie Deares [Sounds like it has great character development!]

The new Star Trek film by wunderkind director JJ Abrams is much, much better than his much-lauded 2009 Trek reboot. It had to be…Abrams has packed together a ripping, morally complex, highly intelligent story with some truly awe-striking visuals. – Jim Schembri, 3AW [Morally complex and highly intelligent! This is going to be the best Trek movie of all time!!!]

Wow! I GOTTA see the movie that these critics were raving about!!!

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_into_darkness/reviews/?page=14&sort=

Yup into darkness was a great movie, well reviewed. What’s your point?? That we’ve had 3 great trek movies?

All you’ve got to do is look at the public and critical reception for 09 to realize the truest Kirk line ever is what he said about tribbles and Nilz Barris – there’s no accounting for taste. The only seriously decent Trek-or Trek-style movies this century – or in the last quarter-century – for me are SERENITY and GALAXY QUEST … however I am still of the opinion that BEYOND will be a pretty good movie, because of Lin’s respect for the original recipe.

@RAMA,

STID was crap, pure and simple. The story rehashed, the plot was dumb. Even the cast admitted it has serious problems & Abrams himself came later and said the same thing.

=========================

J.J. Abrams Revisits ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ and Why It Didn’t Work

“I take full responsibility for this,” he told BuzzFeed in a recent interview, saying how he encouraged “the writers in certain directions” and there “were certain things” about which he was unsure. In taking a deep dive into his sequel with the site, he reflected on what went wrong and what didn’t work — one of which he reiterated was the whole Khan situation.

Abrams started things off by explaining how stories have “a fundamental conversation” or argument and a central question coming about, and Into Darkness did not have any of them.

“It was a little bit lightweight, ultimately, that Kirk was disappointed that Spock didn’t feel that their friendship was as meaningful to him as it did to Kirk, which is sort of what we’re saying. And that Spock’s arc is coming to unabashedly love his friend Kirk.”

….

Finishing the discussion with BuzzFeed, Abrams completely fell on his sword in saying how he “somehow misled” his team of writers to try things that ultimately didn’t work.

I felt like, in a weird way, it was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends — brilliantly talented writers — who I somehow misled in trying to do certain things. And yet, I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible.

Thank god I had the cast that we have, who are so unbelievably fun to watch. And an incredible new villain in Benedict Cumberbatch…I would never say that I don’t think that the movie ended up working. But I feel like it didn’t work as well as it could have had I made some better decisions before we started shooting.”

http://collider.com/star-trek-into-darkness-problems-jj-abrams/

You’re just plain wrong, Ahmed, as far as Into Darkness is concerned. It’s both a great Star Trek movie and, the true test, actually a great movie in the general sense.

Yeah is seems that 2 different arguments get tied up together in regards to STID. Judging the quality on it’s own merits and judging the quality against what star trek fans were hoping for.
What Star Trek Fans were hoping for : Deep Space, Uncharted territory, Mystery of the Unknown, Hope in Humanity
What we got: Militaristic, Darkness, Khan, No exploration
I was initially confused about the direction that this movie took but i own it on DVD and have enjoyed it many times.

Or could JJ Abrams just be placating the dumb and dumber?…:)…:/

yes

RAMA – Yep. So true.

Some reviewers had an opinion different to yours? I am shocked! SHOCKED!!!!

And yet after all your bitching and moaning and whining like a spoiled little girl you’ll still see Beyond but even if you like it you won’t admit it and you’ll continue whining and bitching like a little girl. Go hug your tribble doll and watch your original series vhs tapes and stay the **** away from these new movies Debbie Downer. Your cranky old man BS about these new movies has more than worn thin.

When have you ever seen CYGNUS not own up when he changed his view on something? Honestly, Harry, you and a lot of the sycophantic lemming folk seem to think there is only one throughline – gushing adoration – and anything else is basically something you shoot at, especially if it has content to support its minority viewpoint.

@ kmart

Except that in this case he’s inferring this movie, which has a completely different writing and directing team, will likely suck, because some reviewers like STID before-hand as well…and his comparison even leaves out that Trekmovie likes this one, and they did not STID.

His post is shit-logic, and therefore Harry was right to flush it down the toilet. He get’s to have a true minority opinion when he sees the movie himself — then his opinion can move from wild a-ss guess to informed.

Prodigal Son Today 10:23 am

I don’t know how you do it, but you always manage to draw the wrong inferences from my comments.

My reference to STID reviews has nothing to do with the writing/directing team of STB. If I wanted to get into that issue, I’d make reference to Fast & Furious movies. The point is that STID had some absolutely fantastic initial reviews for a movie that later came to be regarded with disappointment by fans, critics and industry insiders, including fellow Trek writers. I mean, those reviews for STID are AMAZING!! I SOOO wanna see that movie! I sounds freaking awesome!! And today I won’t even watch it for free. That’s the point.

You’re also wrong about Trek Movie’s initial review of STID, which was positive overall: https://trekmovie.com/2013/05/03/trekmovie-com-review-of-star-trek-into-darkness/

@ Cygnus

So you completely deny that you are pretty much putting forth a negative, “this movie is probably going to suck,” viewpoint here — and in most of your posts for the past 1.5 years leading up to now?

Prodigal Son Today 12:49 pm

Well, when you’re walking along on the sidewalk and you see a pile of dogshit up ahead, do you delude yourself into thinking that it’ll be great to step in it? mmm…That dogshit is gonna feel and smell great! Can’t wait to step in it!

Why is it that blind optimism and swallowing the hype put out by the studio’s marketing department about this movie is somehow the right reaction, while finding all of the trailers and so forth under-whelming is somehow the wrong reaction? Why is that, exactly?

“Well, when you’re walking along on the sidewalk and you see a pile of dogshit up ahead, do you delude yourself into thinking that it’ll be great to step in it? mmm…That dogshit is gonna feel and smell great! Can’t wait to step in it!”

I give you credit for admitting this is your nuTrek worldview. I respect that, even though I disagree with it.

Cygnus, You see a pile of dogshit, but as a neutral person gets closer, they discover that you crossed the street for the wrong reason. It could be a scoop of ice cream that fell out of an ice cream cone.

As long as we’re using stupid examples.

Marja,

Re: IC or DS

IC or DS, I’m not risking numerous insect bites or foot infections stepping in either, thank you.

One – not sure why you’re even on a site called “TrekMovie” when you don’t like the Trek movies of late and Two – If you want to make Fast and Furious references, please remember that Lin revitalized that franchise oh and Three – there will most likely be a fourth movie so suck it.

Harry Plinkett,

Re: a Site Called TrekMovie

Please note: The name of the site is NOT “NewTrekMovies”

“gushing adoration” is an extreme twist on liking, and enjoying, the new movies.

Wow, someone needs their diaper changed. You sure mommy allows you on the computer?

When will Cygnus learn – the blathering idiots dont want relevant discussion here and his opinion doesnt matter unless its shared by the negative nancies. Shame.

Ofrcourse, he’s correct. The early reviews dont dictate the end result. It IS better than bad review but even in some of these chosen good reviews there are a few negatives. Cygnus correctly showed that a film generally regarded as awful but all but the rose-lensed crowd had even better initial reviews. One must temper excitement in seeing a film with the actual quality of said film.

Even when watching STID, I enjoyed it far more upon first viewing and less on subsequent viewings because my “excitement” was muted.

If the reviews were all bad these same people would be telling you they dont matter.

How about you cool it with the “blathering idiots” talk Mr. TUP? Relevant discussion is fine but when one posts hatred just to post hatred then it gets really old, really fast. And its not even a discussion anymore. You don’t want to admit more people like ID than you think should have since you limit those who liked it to the “rose-lensed” crowd. Your opinion is your opinion, but it doesn’t make it fact. So, like I said you need to relax the idiots talk.

@Great – Cygnus’ post was relevant and on-point. He took the time to post examples to support his position. You cant argue that he’s wrong that STID received positive reviews but in time was generally considered a poor film over-all. Sure, some people like it. Some people like The Human Centipede 2, but it doesnt make it great cinema.

@ Great Trek

The best way to respond to a bully is to smack him right back in the mouth…”NO, I’M NOT PUTTING UP WITH YOUR BULL-SHIT, CLOWN”

@ TUP

When you have a apriori option on a movie you haven’t seen yourself yet, and you also ignore differing new data (e.g. Trekmovie staff are reviewing this as very positive — that was not the case last time) that’s a “blathering idiot. So you have it backwards, sycophant.

@Prodigal – HAHAHAHAHA you are so immature. Often times you try but you cant hide for long. I’ve said MANY positive things about my thoughts on this film. So shove it. If the reviews were negative you’d be saying how they dont matter. You’re blinded by your own biases. Thats fine. But also HILARIOUS!

Also, did my remark tough a nerve? Why so defensive? Was I talking about you? Or did you just assume I was? lol

“HAHAHAHAHA you are so immature”

Says the moron-clown who just name-called most of the posters here, “BLATHERING IDIOTS”

LMFAO

TUP Today 6:16 am

Even when watching STID, I enjoyed it far more upon first viewing and less on subsequent viewings because my “excitement” was muted.

This is an important point, and one of my main problems with these Bad Robot movies: they don’t hold up well on subsequent viewings. In the theater it’s all action and explosions and 3D on the big screen, plenty of titillation for the senses, and you walk out thinking it was a good movie. But, after you’ve watched it a few more times and thought about the story and the plot, it all quickly goes downhill. I strongly suspect that some of the reviewers that I quoted above would have written their review differently a year after the movie’s release. And I think that’s an important thing to keep in mind when reading reviews and evaluating the movie.

Discussion is fine and great but we rarely get discussion from the “get off my lawn” crowd. We get bashing with no substance and comparing reviews of the last movie with this one and trying to draw some connection is “beyond” (pun intended) stupid. Different writing team and different director with a different viewpoint. This is like assuming Undiscovered Country will be horrible because Final Frontier was a steaming pile by simply comparing initial reviews for both.

Got an opinion of substance? Lets hear it, otherwise try to keep your tears off the keyboard.

TUP, There is a huge difference between tempering one’s excitement than denouncing a product before you even engage with it.

I really want to advise certain Trek fans to just skip the new movie. Honestly.

@Harry Plinkett,

Get some help, dude.

Thanks Ahmed, send me your shrinks number and in the meantime try to come up with an original thought that is a few levels above 10 year old youtube troll.

@ Harry Plinkett

LOL^2 Well said!

@TUP, Prodigal Son, Et. Al.,
Guys, I’m starting to see this discussion swirlin’ down the ol’ toilet.
Can we ease up on the mutual finger-poking and the other participants chanting “Fight! Fight!” …? Please?

@Harry Plinkett,

Alas, you’re still in need of help with your anger issues. Get on it before it’s too late!

“And yet after all your bitching and moaning and whining like a spoiled little girl you’ll still see Beyond but even if you like it you won’t admit it and you’ll continue whining and bitching like a little girl. Go hug your tribble doll and watch your original series vhs tapes and stay the **** away from these new movies Debbie Downer. Your cranky old man BS about these new movies has more than worn thin.”

I AGREE 100% GREAT POST !!!

@Prodigal Son

Sheesh. What’s gotten into you? You’ve been annoying in the past (in a smug kind of way), but now you’re on a rant that would make Trump envious :)

Regards.

@ lostrod

Have a cup of coffee and the pay more attention – that was Harry Plinket’s post I was pasting – please take your issue up with him.

Sorry about that.

BTW – why is it necessary to copy and paste post into your post when you can simply reply to the post? I realize it was necessary in the old comment section, but now the comments are threaded. Mashing posts together can be confusing.

Regards.

@ Lostrod

Thanks! And, well, I wish these thread has multiple levels of indentation so that it was more clear who we are responding to…that would be easier to track.

lostrod – I have found that even when one can reply to a particular poster in this new format, others can also. The post that you commented on can sometimes end up coming under (at times) several other posts, which makes your initial post appear to be replying to the post above. Certainly, one can (and should) look at the date and time of the posts above but I wonder how many do that in a consistent fashion?

I have learned now to address the person I am replying to and even sometimes actually copy and paste the relevant content.

Into Darkness was a bit of a mess, it wasn’t focussed, it went all over the place, a collection of good scenes with only the first scene delivering any of the promise from the first film.

Thanks for your input. I’ll be sure to ignore it when I still go and watch BEYOND.

Yes those reviews for STID were accurate! What’s your point?

Some will never get over the fact that these throwbacks to TOS have taken Trek in a hugely successful and entirely new direction from what they had been accustomed to…which clearly wasnt the fun, action/adventure model of the original series. They have 20 years of talky, pretentous, Bermanized Trek to fall back on, yet they can’t leave the new Trek (which is really just shades of old original Trek) alone. It is NEVER going to be what they want because the original series was not what they want. They know this miraculous evolution is never going to take place with the JJverse, yet they keep coming back for more…usually to enlighten us how fandom is wrong in embracing JJ’s folly and hoping that the franchise will stumble so they can kick it while it is down. But that hasn’t happened, windows of opportunity to berate the movies for the umpteenth time are narrowing and it frustrates them to no end.
I, however, am delighted, :) Looks like another winner from Bad Robot! I have tickets for the tripple screen Barco presentation next Thursday, can’t wait!!

@Cygnus-X1,

When ‘The Force Awakens’ came out and received starring reviews, I thought I’m in for a EST, alas it was a rehash of ANH! I think it’s better to wait for fan reactions rather than professional reviewers and then make up your mind about watching the movie or not.

The Force Awakens was actually a really good movie though. People who complain it was a rehash of ANH just dont get it.

TFA is great and I love it more with repeat viewings. I also love JJ Trek a lot with repeat viewings and the family and I will be watching 09 and STID before seeing Beyond

“The Force Awakens was actually a really good movie though. People who complain it was a rehash of ANH just dont get it.”

OR more accurately – this
STID was actually a really good movie though. People who complain it was a rehash of TWOK just don’t get it.

TUP, there were similar elements in TFA to ANH. Especially to the people looking for them! But even I, a fairly average viewer [I like Wars but don’t adore it like I do Trek], easily noted the “callbacks”. Disappointing, considering Kasdan [ESB] was the co-writer.

Except that for most people, TFA was a great movie-going experience. A vocal minority can bitch all they want, but TFA is generally beloved.

Prodigal Son Today 11:08 am

Except that for most people, TFA was a great movie-going experience. A vocal minority can bitch all they want, but TFA is generally beloved.

Not true. From day 1 it was commonly expressed, by both fans and critics, that TFA was overly derivative of the original trilogy. The audience was split, some people saw the similarities as poetic symmetry or homage, and others saw it as a deficit in creativity and a rip-off.

@ Cygnus

Nope. Simply not true in terms of the general public’s response. Far from it.

My prediction is that people who love these Bad Robot movies will likewise love STB. They’ll say it’s great no matter what. And people who find them mediocre and disappointing will likewise find STB mediocre and disappointing. Someone who saw STB in Australia actually posted a mini-review in one of the other threads that basically said the same thing—STB isn’t going to change any minds.

It doesn’t need to change minds and I actually agree with you – you’ll hate it. That’s what happens to closed minded individuals.

Speaking of which, do you have any pizza rolls left over?

@Cygnus, people who find them mediocre and disappointing will likewise find STB mediocre and disappointing.

I think I can be pretty sure where you’re going to land on the issue … Even before you’ve seen the film.

I think the 86% Fresh rating says it all: STID was mostly well received.

It’s not a bad point to mention the positive reviews for STID, the “best reviewed blockbuster” as it says on the BluRay cover. It is a movie that definitely gets worse the more you think about it. In my own review, I was straining to love it, while trying to point out things that irked me. http://www.straight.com/movies/382816/rollicking-star-trek-darkness-hits-much-it-misses

And the Rotten Tomatoes score was quite high. Yet, it is still more reviled amongst Trekkers than STV or any TNG film not called First Contact.

AJ, However, Trekkers do not equal the entire viewing audience, who also contribute to Rotten Tomatoes.

Marja,

Re:entire viewing audience

Your gushing support of Rotten Tomatoes, notwithstanding, the ENTIRE viewing audience is neither represented by those who contribute to it.

I see people still hate into darkness

Why, simply because STID is one of the worst major motion pictures ever released? Just because the script is a convoluted piece of dogsh*t, what, we should like it?

STID is an abomination and is literally unwatchable. There’s bad and then there’s really bad. STID was the worst!

Except almost everyone liked it and it great reviews.. you’re a voice in the wilderness.

“Except almost everyone liked it…” Um, no. Not even close. Yes, it was pretty popular, a fairly solid film, but it hasn’t held up over time, and it is NOT liked by “almost everyone.”

Overstating your own position doesn’t make you look good.

Almost everyone liked it? Have you been hiding under a rock?

NO, he has been whizzing all over trekbbs threads for forever and ever (probably one of the reasons i quit it for good the last time.)

Silvereyes “Almost everyone liked it?”

…out in the real world, yes. Hardcore fanboys, not so much. Oh well.

jonboc, “Hardcore fanboys” kinda says it all. Small percentage of the viewing audience.

jonboc, … even the Trek fan audience, I’d say.

86% Fresh Rating = almost everyone liked it. The link to Rotten Tomatoes is right there in the post.

Better a voice of truth in the wilderness than just another yes-man in the crowd. At least flack-men get paid to shill.

The only people who really hated it are Star Trek fans but who cares what they think, and I’ll say it again – I love Star Trek but I hate (some) Star Trek fans. Easily the most self entitled bunch of whiny brats in fandom. Stick to your original series and crappy fan films and STFU.

Yah, hate those people with opinions.

Silvereyes – “Yah, hate those people with opinions.”

EVERYONE has opinions. If you want to hate yourself, go for it, but don’t expect others to follow.

Hear, hear. I must admit that with each release of any new live action TREK property over many years, the whining on ( several Trek site ) comments sections about every little minutae, has gotten tedious and really off-putting.
Even on youtube ( from some people who should know better ), I’ve heard whining about how the next Enterprise ship shouldn’t be labelled “1701-A’ and ought to be numbered completely differently – in all honestly these same people would b*tch until the cows come home if they altered the classic numbering scheme to a totally different number.

They’d always find SOMETHING to complain about in order to make themselves feel like they are the flag carriers and know-it-alls of Trek fandom.

Spock J, agreed. There are folks who like to find the negative in everything. Cygnus at least has some valid criticisms about writing arcs and so on, so I read his comments, but others, not so much.

No, Nemesis is the worst. I won’t even own Nemesis in my home video collection. I have major problems with Into Darkness, but at least I own it and will re-watch it. I don’t think I’ve bothered with Nemesis again since when I saw it in theaters.

I would argue INSURRECTION is worse than Nemesis. I think Tom Hardy’s Shinzon is quite enjoyable in NEMESIS. It’s quite a TNG crew meets Dracula movie, which in essence is a very good idea.

FFS watch it again instead of relying on a 14 year old memory

STID would have been fine without the Khan references/scene replays. Keep Cumberbatch as genetically enhanced Section 31 soldier “Commander John Harrison”, it would have been fine.

They could have even gone the route of saying that Harrison’s genetic enhancement was due to the same technology that created Khan – that way they could have slowly built Khan’s reputation by mention alone over the course of a couple of films, before introducing him in a kick-ass way to the Kelvin Timeline.

Good point, it was the Khan references that hindered what could have been a great movie. That being said I think STID is still a solid movie, plot holes and all and I’ll watch it over Nemesis or Insurrection any day.

No, not just Khan. The convoluted War on Terror plot which was a transparent political statement about how bad America is and how the terrorists are sympathetic and if we’d just leave them alone, then they’d leave us alone. It was poorly written. It was an attempt at a political thriller written by people without the talent to successfully pull it off.

None of that changes the relevancy of those who liked it. Just as those liking it doesnt change the relevancy of those that didnt.

You do know that ‘Trek has always had allegorical plots, right? But, to be fair, I think the problem with using the 9/11 allegory as a plot was that a number of films around the release of STiD was using 9/11 allegories. it sees like.

@DS – I’m on record saying I liked the idea of a War on Terror plot in theory. It was the execution that was bad. Bob is very clear about his political beliefs and that impacted the tone and direction of the plot in a negative way unfortunately. STID had the bones of a great film.

“The convoluted War on Terror plot which was a transparent political statement about how bad America is and how the terrorists are sympathetic and if we’d just leave them alone, then they’d leave us alone.”

This is the crux of why you did not like STID. You did not like the politics you erroneously thought it represented. If the story had been spun another way, I wonder how bitchy you would be about the movie.

The movie said NOTHING of the kind and I have had a gutsful of your propaganda in this respect, TUP. Yes, propaganda!

If you really think that it was all about America, then what does that actually say about what America has behaved in recent years?

In my mind, it could be about America but not necessarily (despite Bob Orci’s personal view – he wasn’t the only writer), because no country has a squeaky clean record when it comes having corruption in high places etc or do you think differently?

Whew…I think it was the script that hindered what could have been a great movie. Nonsensical from beginning to end. There were some elements, some performances, some ideas that could have made a good film, but the results were a pretty, well-scored mess, in my opinion.

“STID is still a solid movie, plot holes and all and I’ll watch it over Nemesis or Insurrection any day.”

Ding ding ding, we have a winner. I’d add Star Trek V to that list as well. To say that it’s one of the “worst movies ever” is ridiculous. The vast majority of critic reviews for ID were positive, so clearly there’s a disconnect between the hardcore fan “bubble” and the rest of society.

I remember reading message boards in late 90’s and early 2000’s back when Voyager and DS9 were still on. There was endless bitching back then too with the release of every new episode. I mean holy cow, the more things change…the more they stay the same.

@Spock J, agreed, and many of us said the same thing after the movie came out. “Khan” was just a baffling choice of name [see How It Should Have Ended for a hilarious reason]!

Sorry, but STiD is CITIZEN KANE compared to TFF. I understand the dislike for STiD, but, come on.

I understand the criticisms of TFF but it was in high rotation on HBO when I was a kid and it brings a lot nostalgia. Despite it’s flaws it gives me the sense of wonder that star trek can often bring.

The biggest problem in that movie for me is how they say that no ship has ever been able to cross the great barrier and set it up as a great challenge. Then towards the end of the movie they just glide right through with no problem or much surprise that they were able to do so.

If I remember right, that was an edit problem. In the book it explains that part better. Also in the Star Trek Movie Memories book he explains about the movie problems.

Yes, where was the wonder in ITD?

Agreed. Like a fool I bought it on dvd so my Trek collection would be complete. However I am unable to watch it again. I may make it into a beer coaster. “Literally unwatchable” is a good description. It’s crap. So no, yours is not a voice in the wilderness.

Unwatchable. lol what Drama Queens. Truely. OMG. It has great music, great performances, great FX sequences & familiar characters but is “Unwatchable”

It may not have delivered on the promise of the first film, with only the first scene being on a mission of exploration but the film still good. It may not have been the Star Trek 5 year mission story film promised but it was a good ride as far as action films go. I love it when I see it except Spock’s “Khannnnnn” which was cringe worthy.

Convoluted? Really? Oh dear…Clearly the thinking capacities of many people are not as good as even the writers believed they were, hence Bob Orci”s question to me as to whether I thought he should have “dumbed it down” even more.

It appears that STID needed to be dumbed down in order not to be deemed “convoluted” and more easily understood.

Grief.

Aw c’mon HarryB, “One of worst motion pictures ever released”? I think there are plenty more competitors for that percentage than STiD.

For those saying Star Trek Into Darkness was the worst movie ever, I present the following

Score on Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
IMDB score: 7.8/10
Amazon score: 4.4/5
Google Play score: 4.5/5
iTunes score: 4.5/5

So while many hard core trek fans certainly didn’t like it (and they spare no opportunity to remind us of that), if you’re going to go out and say that it is an objectively and and universally reviled movie, you are just plain wrong.

@Josh C.,

From the director himself

————————————————-

J.J. Abrams Revisits ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ and Why It Didn’t Work

“I take full responsibility for this,” he told BuzzFeed in a recent interview, saying how he encouraged “the writers in certain directions” and there “were certain things” about which he was unsure. In taking a deep dive into his sequel with the site, he reflected on what went wrong and what didn’t work — one of which he reiterated was the whole Khan situation.

Abrams started things off by explaining how stories have “a fundamental conversation” or argument and a central question coming about, and Into Darkness did not have any of them.

It was a little bit lightweight, ultimately, that Kirk was disappointed that Spock didn’t feel that their friendship was as meaningful to him as it did to Kirk, which is sort of what we’re saying. And that Spock’s arc is coming to unabashedly love his friend Kirk.”

….

Finishing the discussion with BuzzFeed, Abrams completely fell on his sword in saying how he “somehow misled” his team of writers to try things that ultimately didn’t work.

I felt like, in a weird way, it was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends — brilliantly talented writers — who I somehow misled in trying to do certain things. And yet, I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible.

Thank god I had the cast that we have, who are so unbelievably fun to watch. And an incredible new villain in Benedict Cumberbatch…I would never say that I don’t think that the movie ended up working. But I feel like it didn’t work as well as it could have had I made some better decisions before we started shooting.”

http://collider.com/star-trek-into-darkness-problems-jj-abrams/

And he ends saying he thought it worked, just not as well as he would have liked. So that’s the same as saying JJ hated ID. Even if JJ DID say he hated ID, why should that convince me and the others that liked it that it as a bad movie?

JJ: I would never say that I don’t think that the movie ended up working. But I feel like it didn’t work as well as it could have had I made some better decisions before we started shooting.”

Simple, compelling logic there Josh, argued with facts. The majority of people really liked the film, whilst some vocal fans didn’t.

Exactly! Plus, if there are that many fans out there that despise it, how come they can’t bring that score down?

CaptainSheridan,

Re:how come they can’t bring that score down?

Because these studios have always employed shills to manipulate those unscientific and non-mathematically rigorous party games since before I was born. And I’m old.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/07/ftc-says-warner-bros-paid-youtubers-to-promote-shadow-of-mordor/

Then why are there so many movies the studios spent loads of $$$ on and they still have low ratings?

Everyone needs to stop arguing about this. It’s obvious what is the case here:

— Hardcore Trek fans generally don’t like STID

— The general movie-going public, which fare outnumbers hardcore Trek fans generally liked STID

This explains the poll numbers as well as the hat on Trek fan sites.

This ain’t rocket science — and in a weird way, both sides are right here.

Case closed.

@ PS – you forget the OCD Trek fans will hate STB with a passion, even if it goes on to become the best Trek movie ever.

Prodigal Son,

Re:It’s obvious

Look I give STID a marginal thumbs up, but your contention that there’s absolutely no indication in the data that general movie going audiences liked it less, is bunk.

For the studios in general and Paramount in particular, the domestic market as always been where data is collected and crunched for their trends in test screenings before they release a picture. And despite all that, plus some good hard marketing effort to goose the gross with inflated IMAX tickets, STID did less well than its predecessor there. It didn’t even meet Paramount’s projections based on those tests.

For you to keep a$$erting that Paramount doesn’t have ANY indication in the dip in the lucrative potential pool of 2009 US trendsetting moviegoers for STID as indicating to them that it was less appealing is ludicrous.

Love that the early reaction has been mostly positive. And I really like that Scott Mantz really enjoyed it. He’s a hard core Trekkie and speaks his mind and wasn’t afraid to say there were things about STITD he thought weren’t up to snuff. And I always take Trekmovie at its word:] Cant wait for this movie!!!

Hugh Hoyland Today 1:21 am

Love that the early reaction has been mostly positive. And I really like that Scott Mantz really enjoyed it.

Nothing against that guy, but he basically gets paid to promote the movie. I mean, look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHZZAIh77SE

Does that strike you as an objective film critic/ana|yst?

@ Cygnus

Unlike, Jeff Cannata, who is a real expert film analyst. ;-)

Talk about The Best of Both Worlds.
Fand non fans alike seem to love this film.
BRING ON THE MOVIE!

Non-fans who like Star Trek = New Fans = more Star Trek!

Oh! with all the positive reports, I’m getting really stoked for this!!

I never had a doubt! I can’t wait for that marathon in NYC, on the biggest screen on the East Coast. ONE. MORE. WEEK. =D

Question, who at the Trekmovie.com staff got to watch it btw? ;]

I would guess Kayla and Anthony Pascale.

More like overwhelmingly propaganda…

ST09 and Into Darkness all had “wonderful” initial reviews… And they turned out to be nonsensical drivel.

*yawn*

I’ll see it because it’s Star Trek, and because there is always hope… But with the ridiculous uniforms and dirt bikes, I’m not optimistic.

Can’t help but notice that, as Cygnus-X1 pointed out, we have seen people praising STD and the movie turned out to be crap. So I’ll wait to see the movie before making up my mind.

Here are other reactions from the Sydney & UK premieres which give different view, one from a journalist & the other from a fan.

Patrick Avenell: “Star Trek: Beyond is a very silly film interspersed with some admittedly awesome action sequences. Plot is incomprehensible.

https://twitter.com/Patrickavenell/status/751028705351262208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

On IMDB page:

Thoughts from UK premiere, spoilers

As a life long trek fan I paid a bloody fortune to go to the UK premiere. Hmmm. A two hour battle fest with little respite, let’s crash another Enterprise saucer section on a planet (hasn’t been done since Generations), yet another pantomime bad guy with a grudge and Montgomery Scottie wrote himself a rather large part and gave himself some of the best lines quelle surprise. A few touching moments, and a few laughs. Maybe will be better on second viewing. Still pleased I went, sad about Anton, they tried hard to make it a celebration, but clearly not really possible.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/board/thread/259296340

Ahmed Today 7:05 am

Interesting.

Funny what he says about Pegg writing himself the best lines. I remember making some sort of joke about the new movie being The Scotty Show when news broke that Pegg would be writing the script. Scotty, the witty, sexy action hero, battles impossible odds to save his crew from certain doom! or something….

Didnt Pegg say, when he was named writer, that he found it hard to write for himself and so, if anything, Scotty’s role would be under-served? or did I imagine that?

Well it’s nice to see some of the biggots willing to sing the praises of a film they haven’t yet seen based on a few positive tweets, despite it pandering to the PC crowd by frivolously turing a beloved character gay who was never straight to begin with. It’s heart warming really …

Yes, Sulu was never straight to begin with (except in the mirror universe!). That was a good clue.

Funny. Good point. There are a few episodes where he is attracted to the opposite sex but maybe it was a hidden message that he was a chauvinist pig in the mirror universe.

People keep saying this, but I have yet to see evidence of it. The examples that keep coming up are Mudd’s Women, Balance of Terror, The Naked Time, The Changeling, and of course Mirror Mirror. Having recently reviewed those episodes on Netflix, there’s absolutely nothing that confirms his behavior is in any way due to his sexual attraction.

I’m hoping some industrious fan will take on this little project and compile all possible examples throughout canon so that this particular argument can be put to bed.

There’s also TFF where he’s clearly liking the female Klingon officer and TMP where he drools like an idiot over Ilia.

But that aside, I don’t really care one way or the other. I do care that they apparently misled George Takei about it and now trot him out as the justification. That’s a bit unsavory.

Ah yes, I forgot about those, because Netflix pulled them and I couldn’t review them. But in general, I don’t think appreciating a Klingon’s muscular body makes him straight or gay, and certainly considering how masculine all Klingon’s are, perhaps it doesn’t make any difference from a sexual/pheromone perspective. Then there’s the fact that Roddenberry wanted to pull STV from canon. Similarly, the scenes with Ilia in TMP was not in the original release, and as far as I know only in the Network TV version, and not the director’s cut, so arguably not truly canon. Regardless, this is a similar explanation to the STV Klingon, and Mudd’s Women scenes (to the extent it can be viewed that way) — in that in all three instances there is unusual pheromone exposure going on. And who knows what’s happening in the Naked Time, but it goes without saying the brain chemistry is being altered.

Yes, one could argue that if everyone in the Mirror Universe had opposite leanings, that Sulu might well be the opposite sexually of what he was in the Prime Universe. It’s interesting that he was the only character that acted on his sexuality at all, aside from the Captain’s “woman”. And the Captain’s woman was using sexuality as a bargaining chip, regardless of her actual interest in the person. Likewise, Sulu could have been gay in the Mirror Universe, and merely over compensating for the intolerance for such behavior he was raised in there. His desire for Uhura may also be a power play more than anything else. It’s clear Mirror Uhura has already been holding out from Sulu, perhaps because she thinks he’s gay, or possibly because he doesn’t offer her anything from a power perspective — whereas Uhura seems to occupy an important position in the hierarchy (judging from her free run of the ship), from which Sulu would most benefit.

Jeff Cannata:

Star Trek Beyond is a well made scifi adventure. It just isn’t Star Trek. It’s a pretty good Mass Effect movie, though, if you want that.

https://twitter.com/jeffcannata/status/753442146045140992

These kind of comments are tiresome. If you’re a movie critic, critique the movie. Everyone interprets Star Trek differently. It’s not your place to critique that.

Ah, the long awaited Jeff Cannata review is in…we’ve been waiting for weeks for this…LOL

Ryan Today 9:12 am

He is critiquing the movie. He’s comparing and contrasting its elements to the fundamental elements of Star Trek. This is exactly the sort of critique that the likes of me are very interested in, as it’s been one of our biggest complaints about the Bad Robot Trek movies.

@ Cygnus

So earlier you claimed that you don’t trust these early tweets….whoops, I guess it’s fine you to cherry-pick the 5% of the tweets that were critical — THOSE TWEETS ARE THE CORRECT ONES, right?

LOL

Prodigal Son Today 2:39 pm

The tweets posted in this article are cherry-picked. We have no idea what the ratio is of satisfied-to-dissatisfied reactions by people who’ve seen the premier. Ahmed came across a couple that were dissatisfied.

Are these the same critics who said ‘Ghostbusters’ was a great film?

Not to be overly negative, but I put zero faith in what critics say. I prefer to make up my own mind on things. But when critics say something is total crap (when it isn’t) and says something is super awesome (when it’s definitely not), there is literally no trust remaining.

I’m glad you bring up Ghostbusters. A lot of people seem determined to not like this movie. They will see it and no matter what the movie is like, they will come out of it not liking it, because they went going in deciding that they were not going to like it.

It’s nice to hear but I don’t put too much stock in these early reviews. The initial reactions for the first two films of the JJverse and heck the overall critical reaction was great but I didn’t care for either one of them. Everyone can have their own opinion.

But no one said the first two films reminded them of TOS; a number of these ‘reviews’ of Beyond do!

That’s not possible!!! How dare people who have actually seen the movie contradict the insightful predictions of super intelligent fans who predicted it could only be garbage years before the first frames were shot??!! They even went to all the trouble to explain in agonizing detail why it was garbage. The nerve of some people to actually like it.

This is why it is always best to ignore the die hard fans who hat everything. I mean, if Paramount listened to them we’d have to awkwardly watch William Shatner shoehorn his way into this universe.

Do you mean they did not shoehorn anything into this universe?

Films have to be judged on the basis of the time they were made in some cases, especially 80’s and 90’s where the culture of the time often weighs heavily on the films. I like First Contact. Liked it then, still like it. Best of the TNG films. Although, if Generations was just the William Shatner book-end scenes, it might win for best TNG film.

Lol. I watched First Contact TWICE over the past couple days. Have to say, it did not hold up well. It’s just a corny, dull movie. It’s attitude towards action is like a Victorian’s attitude toward public nudity. Even Jerry Goldsmith’s score was a lullaby.

@ DMD

First Contact has not aged well. It’s pretty overated.

dmduncan Today 8:49 am

I watched First Contact TWICE over the past couple days. Have to say, it did not hold up well.

I agree. And don’t forget about the myriad plot holes and logic problems in the story. I do remember liking it when I saw it in the theater, but it has not held up well. And it remains something of a mystery to me why it’s still so highly regarded among Trek fans. I think that people like the whole Zefram Cochran part of the story. I think that’s the best part of the movie, though, like the rest of it, it’s riddled with plot holes. The whole Picard story makes no sense if you regard him as the same character from the TNG TV show. But, those TNG movies rewrote Picard into Movie Picard from the outset in GENERATIONS. Movie Picard is much more emotional and action-oriented, as opposed to the buttoned-up, contemplative, intellectual, dispassionate moral-authority Picard of the TV show.

@DMD @ Cygnus

The deflector dish sequence at the end if painful to watch. So cheesy FX, and the space suits reacting less dynamically than modern space suits do today — it’s a silly scene now.

It served it’s purpose, washing the very, very bad taste of Generations out of the mouths of the viewers. As numerous people have pointed out previously, most Trek movies haven’t aged well.

Wow, First Contact hasn’t aged well huh? I bet you guys are fun at parties.

Positive buzz… That’s promising. Still VERY curious to read or hear about the rejected K/O script.

CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC!!!

I am just worried that I am getting an Insurrection vibe from this. Remember that a lot of people said that Insurrection was like a big-budget TNG episode with questions about the Federation, action, character moments, and humor. And what we got was only a so-so TNG movie.

People are saying similar things about Beyond, but swapping out TNG with TOS. I just hope beyond hope that we don’t get another Insurrection. That one looked so cool leading up to it but I came away severely disappointed.

I’m very excited about seeing “Beyond”, as much as any die-hard Trek fan and hope it’s as good as the early reactions suggest. I’m just a little concerned with the sense of it being like a great and real bullseye on TOS. Considering this is the 50th anniversary, I’ll likely give my misgivings a pass and just enjoy the sense of a heartfelt throwback but one of the reasons I consider Star Trek Into Darkness a genuinely great film is that it caught the true spirit of TOS but it do so while opening up the concept of what Star Trek can be and, in the process, re-energized it, pushed forward into contemporary big audience style and filmmaking rhythm, and both reflected modern day concerns and issues, as TOS did, but did so with more sophistication that reflects the thinking of the smart set of young movie-goers (Chris Pine pointed out in that misunderstood interview in which he was honest about how modern corporate Hollywood, and a wide swath of Friday night ticket buyers, don’t have a lot of patience with cerebral cinema but that Into Darkness packed a lot of wild, challenging ideas into an action-driven story ) As I indicated, I got a big smile from just a few fondly familiar beats in Beyond’s 2nd trailer (notably, Kirk and McCoy waxing somewhat moodily, sharing thoughts over some hard liquor) and, if those feelings are the driving force of this 50 years’ celebration, color me quite happy. I just hope that a possible Kelvin-timeline #4 continues to push the outside of its envelope.

Well it is true that sometimes bad movies get good first reactions. I mean look at Star Wars The Force Awakens. Perhaps the most well reviewed bad movie ever made that many people are still in denial about.

But it is also true that GOOD movies also get good first reactions. So…ya gotta go see it.

@dmduncan,

First twitter reactions are usually way more positive and certainly not an indicative of the quality of the movie, just look at early reactions from Batman v Superman premiere.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/batman_vs_superman/the-first-reactions-from-the-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-a132330

Reading various spoilers on Reddit, Trekcore and IMDB, there are stuff in the movie that sounds problematic! Guess we will find out next week.

I just want it to be on balance much better than it is bad.

Prodigal will reach for any obscure excuse to try and prove his point. Just admit you were wrong.

I think early reviews are often skewed positive because of the nature of the people seeing them. The majority of fans are “general fans” who overwhelmingly feel positive towards Star Trek and want it to succeed.

I remember as a kid seeing the original Batman with Michael Keaton and the hype was crazy. I nearly fell asleep but still told everyone it was the “Movie of the Decade” because I WANTED it to be.

I liked STID far more than friends did after the first viewing because I WANTED it to be great and I had wanted to see Khan so I defended that decision and said “no, they will do it right”. So I was looking through rose coloured glasses.

The people here who are so determined to love it and re-write the past to prove their point will never admit STB is no good, if in fact they dislike it. Because its not about saying “hey I didnt like a movie”, it’s too much about admitting they were wrong.

Personally, I hope its GREAT. And Ill tell you if I think it is. But if it sucks, Ill say that too.

The difference between BvS early reaction and Star Trek Beyond is that it was mostly DC fans that went so their reactions are more skewed. Beyond early reaction was a wide range of people such as the critics that are die-hard trekkers (that probably hated Into Darkness) or critics that just evaluate a movie if it’s a good “movie” in general. There have also been more screenings since for the press so we’ll be seeing reviews soon with Paramount lifting the embargo really early.

Also all the BvS reviewers are not legitimate reviewers that work for a respected online publication and do this for a living. They were just random people.

Yea, BvS wan’t great, but of the four people we saw it with, we all liked it. Don’t get the hate.

And while it had it’s issues, I liked it a lot more than CA-Civil War. With the exception of that Black Panther dude, the entire movie was forgettable, the plot incoherent, Iron Man was mis-used, and the Spiderman force-fit didn’t work at all for met. BvS had more heart to it, warts and all.

The BIG DIFFERENCE this time is that Trekmovie staff have rated this as a great movie…no true with STID.

BIG DIFFERENCE !!!

Prodigal Son Today 11:01 am

The BIG DIFFERENCE this time is that Trekmovie staff have rated this as a great movie…no true with STID.

FALSE!

“Any fan who embraced JJ Abrams 2009 Star Trek reboot is almost sure to be thrilled with Star Trek Into Darkness. Everything that first movie offered is back, but now bigger and bolder. Into Darkness is a well-crafted action-packed thrill ride set in the alternate Trek universe which began in the first movie.”

https://trekmovie.com/2013/05/03/trekmovie-com-review-of-star-trek-into-darkness/

@ Cygnus

LOL — you are picking Anthony Pascale’s review…Anthony showed up again for like two months for STID when it came out and then disappeared from the face of the eargh again. To a person, all of the rest of the Trekmovie.com staff have gradually let it be know that they could not stand STID, including Joe D in the famous Star Trek is broken editorial:

Star Trek is broken – Here are ideas on how to fix it
https://trekmovie.com/2013/09/01/star-trek-is-broken-here-are-ideas-on-how-to-fix-it/

Prodigal Son Today 3:04 pm

Are you not able to read the dates on these reviews? STID came out in May 2013, and you’re posting articles from September. And AP’s review was the review for this site. It was Trek Movie’s review on STID. Seriously, this is not controversial or difficult to understand.

@ Cygnus

Please see my posts to Ahmed here. Again, of the Trekmovie.com writers serving on the staff today, 3 of them are on record as not liking STID very much, and NONE of them are on record as liking STID all that much. FACT!

@ Cygnus

LOL — you are picking A. Pas-cale’s review…Anthony showed up again for like two months for STID when it came out and then disappeared from the face of the earth again. To a person, all of the rest of the Trekmovie.com staff have gradually let it be know that they could not stand STID, including Joe D in the famous Star Trek is broken editorial:

Star Trek is broken – Here are ideas on how to fix it
https://trekmovie.com/2013/09/01/star-trek-is-broken-here-are-ideas-on-how-to-fix-it/

@Prodigal Son,

Yeah, because AP was in charge of Trekmovie at the time of STID release, the very site that you claimed “Trekmovie staff have rated this as a great movie…no true with STID.” Your statement is WRONG.

And you don’t get to point to an article that came out five months later and say it is a proof of your false statement.

Here’s Kayla’s article/review as well — which came out the week of STID release…WHOOPS! ;-)

Sexy or Sexist? How Star Trek Into Darkness turned Heroines into Damsels in Distress
https://trekmovie.com/2013/05/23/sexy-or-sexist-how-star-trek-into-darkness-turned-heroines-into-damsels-in-distress/

Oh, and here’s Jared Whitley’s review too…whoops!…and it’s also dated the week of the STID release….whoops!

http://whitleypedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-wrath-of-star-trek-into-darkness.html

So, including the Joe D piece, we have 3 out of 4 of the Trekmovie writers pretty much not liking STID very much…and those 3 staff are still with Trekmovie today, while A P is not.

And I am presuming here that Kayla provided the Trekmovie tweet last night…if that is the case, then this completely proves my point, since she did not like STID.

@Prodigal Son,

Kayla’s article was not a review but rather a comment on that infamous underwear scene.

And you actually linking to Jared Whitley’s review that was published on ANOTHER site to prove that Trekmovie team was against STID??

Kayla makes her opinions on STID pretty obvious in the piece, and Whitley is one of the Trekmovie.com writers, and the link to his review was posted in a Trekmovie.com article:

https://trekmovie.com/2013/09/19/editorial-you-just-cant-bring-star-trek-back-to-the-small-screen-but-how-you-would-if-you-could/

So of the Trekmovie.com writers serving on the staff today, 3 of them are on record as not liking STID very much, and NONE of them are on record as liking STID all that much. FACT!

Prodigal Son Today 3:06 pm

To a person, all of the rest of the Trekmovie.com staff have gradually let it be know that they could not stand STID

I think you’re overstating this. But, in any case, it’s one of the big problems with Bad Robot Trek that it doesn’t hold up well over time. Initial reactions to STID were much better than they were a few months later, after people had been able to see the movie again, think and talk about it. To me, this style of film making—where the movie seems good at first, but when you begin to think about, it unravels—is kind of a rip off. On the one hand, yeah, you’re just paying to be entertained and titillated in the theater. But, on the other hand, this is Star Trek, which was meant to be more than mere titillation from the very beginning. By contrast, some of the TOS movies have held up great over time. Certainly the vast majority would agree that TWOK has.

So, no, Trek Movie did not receive STID with disapproval initially, as the review shows. But, yes, opinions of STID grew less favorable over ensuing months. And that’s a pertinent point with regard to BR’s style of movie-making: there’s a whole lot of sizzle in the BR movies, but not as much steak as you’re led to believe.

S O R R Y

C Y G N U S

NO WORRIES

Wow! That sounds amazing. I would love, love, love to see a TOS episode with the modern cast.

The only critic that matters is ones own experience in viewing the actual movie.
While hopeful signs abound that this installment is thumbs up for the most part we still only have our own individual judgement to relay on.
What tickles your fancy may not tickle mine and vise versa.

I liked ST2009
Soured by STID
So I wait and see what STB is going to be for me.

I have never heard of any of these “so called” reviewers. I think I smell a rat!

They’ve never heard of you either. I envy them.

This is going to be incredible! I hope everyone who badmouthed this film, Simon Pegg, Justin Lin and the future of Star Trek, in general, for the past year, goes blind.

Maybe. Time will tell.

Headline of the article should be “Trekkies Mourn Yet Another Well-Made, Critically Acclaimed Star Trek Film”

Now that’s funny!

Nah, the usual suspects here that slobber over everything JJ and Bob have done are “Onion” material themselves.

Ha, great quote. We really need another Onion article on Star Trek “fans” :D

“Headline of the article should be “Trekkies Mourn Yet Another Well-Made, Critically Acclaimed Star Trek Film”

AWESOME, dude….just freaking awesome…LOL

Are we really that predictable?

It’s not just Trekkies. All fans of all things are that predictable. Sports fans lament their team’s win because they allowed that one point that any intelligent team wouldn’t have… Star Wars fans have been mourning the best movie since Empire Strikes Back all year… it goes on and on. I think there is just a subset of people whose true motivation is to be miserable and, as the saying goes, misery loves company. Spread your misery in real life and you get punched in the face. Do it on the internet, and get “liked” or upvoted.

Shrug.

I am encouraged by Alex Welch’s tweet about Chris Pine’s Kirk. Kirk is and has always been the guy who sits in the command chair for a reason, and I’ve been waiting to see why he deserves that seat more than any other character for two movies now. I want to see the Kirk of Balance of Terror, The Corbomite Maneuver, Arena, The Cloud Minders, The Changeling, City On The Edge of Forever, Where No Man Has Gone Before, and The Naked Time. He’s a pillar of strength and ingenuity. I want to SEE that.

The first movie delivered the roots of all that but the second took a step backward, I thought.

Yes. Using Khan as a punching bag and only succeeding in bloodying his own knuckles and undermining his moral authority.

“Yes. Using Khan as a punching bag and only succeeding in bloodying his own knuckles and undermining his moral authority.”

Hardly. Kirk maintained his moral authority and resolve despite his bloodied knuckles. Watch the rest of the film.

@Rose – come now, lets not debate STID. The judgement is in on that mess and you’re in the minority.

Brilliant last-minute teaser/trailer/clip campaign! Everything in this recent flood of promos exudes action, excitement, and fun! We’ll be there for the first or second show…it’ll be on 3 screens at the Glendale AZ AMC Westgate! ;D

This seems to be an incredibly good movie! As we are in the reverse universe, the odd-numbered movies are now the better ones. I loved ST09 but really couldn’t stand STID for its plotholes and lack of substance, but this seems to be the best Trek movie since 1996, or even 1986. And maybe, just maybe, the forst Trek movie ever that does its premise some justice. Because, despite being great movies, even the best Trek movies out there so far have forgotten to explore those “strange new worlds” somehow.

Plus: the “We change” spot really shows that Pine finally gets Kirk right this time! Now THAT is James T Kirk as we love him, not this adolescent tongue-in-cheek clown from the previous two movies…

So far, I love everything about this movie! The trailers (minus the first teaser), the posters, the alien make-ups, the visuals, the references to other Trek series (Franklyn NX-01, Deep Space Yorktown, Head of Starfleet Janeway) and ESPECIALLY the NAME… Actually, I came up with the same name shortly after STID had premiered in 2013… but anyway, I’m glad they took it…

Call the next one “Star Trek Forever” and I’ll be more than happy :-)

Enterprise extra posted a lot of quotes from the cast and production press conferences today:

https://twitter.com/EnterpriseExtra

Bkramer, thanks for the regular links to things like this, it is much appreciated! LLAP

Welcome JB, – LLAP.

Man, I’m sorry, but honestly, these new teasers for the movie are very cheesy and uninspiring.

…SACRIFICE… with that schmalzy music playing over it? This is the best they could do?!?

I don’t understand how, if this movie is so great, they couldn’t put together a single trailer, teaser or advert that is at all compelling. All of these adverts for STB make it seem like the cheesiest, most paint-by-numbers of the Bad Robot movies yet. This movie looks like it was made for a 10-year-old target demographic. I know people are trying to hype the movie and get excited about it, but come on…. It’s like who should I believe: the bloggers promoting the movie or my lying eyes?

NO, YOU ARE NOT SORRY AT ALL. LOL

You are loving this — another chance for you to mouth off negatively under the guise of “I’m carefully analyzing these teasers.”

You are not fooling anyone.

If the teasers weren’t lame, then I wouldn’t be able to “mouth off negatively” about them.

I don’t think that anybody thinks that I’d say they’re lame if I actually thought they were good. In any case, people can see for themselves that there’s precious little substance in the teasers. One of the early reviews for the movie says that the plot is nonsensical. Maybe that’s why Paramount doesn’t want to show any of it in the trailers.

These trailer look 1000 times better than trailers for any of the older Trek movies. Those were dreadful! Sure, they were a reflection of the times just like these are, but gesh! Same goes for the original Star Wars trailer— imagine if that trailer run today— no one would go see that.

CaptainSheridan Today 4:43 pm

I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you just haven’t seen the WOK trailer in a while, and you forgot how awesomely intriguing it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOIYaRb6XpQ

sorry….. narrator put me to sleep…. “commit!”

Im not as negative on them as Cygnus but I see his point. The marketing is basically very simple emotional tropes. Which, to be honest, is always a risk with a property like Star Trek if the film makers dont really “get” it or respect it. Because we think back on the best of Trek and even romanticize it to a degree and modern film makers or marketing people will pick the strongest emotional chords to play.

The clips show more sizzle than steak but I wont judge until I see the context and film.

If I read another “chessiest” or “paint-by-numbers” clichees, I’ll hurl…too much

Forgetting the usual suspects negativity here, it does seem like in terms of general audiences, that this could be the first genre movie this summer to get good reviews, buzz and make decent money.

Grand Return, it’s been projected to open at 45 – 60 mil., which is well below the previous two entries (though I hope the estimates are proven incorrect).

@ AT

Is that your prediction? Would you care to make one?

No, not mine. I think i read it in ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ about a week ago. As for my prediction, I don’t have one (not in the least bit qualified to even hazard a guess). I hope the film does well but in my opinion the teaser trailer have have formed a bad early impression of the film which was not countered until recently by Paramount. Will ‘Sabotage’ sabotage Beyond?

Well, I think we movie will do about the same box office in the U.S. as STID, but I am looking for continued growth in the international box office — I think this one could get to half a billion in worldwide box office.

Optimistic but I dont know. I actually seeing this one doing worse than STID. Maybe actually better overseas but I’m thinking a big down turn domestically. I think this will probably make around $150-170 million in that range and if so I see if doing less than STID overall. We’ll see though.

@Prodigal Son,

Deadline made the projections two weeks ago.

===============================

Paramount’s Star Trek Beyond began charting on the tracking boards yesterday with various sources putting the threequel’s opening range between $48M-$60M when it debuts on July 22.

It’s just another indicator of the uphill battle that many franchise properties are facing in a summer B.O. atmosphere where family ‘five-quad’ movies remain king, and sequelitis is a bane.

Should Star Trek Beyond open within its current range, it will be the third-best in the Star Trek feature canon.

http://deadline.com/2016/07/star-trek-beyond-box-office-projection-ghostbusters-secret-life-of-pets-1201782223/

I am predicting a $70M U.S opening, total U.S. Box office $230 Mil, total international box office $270 mil = 500 mil worldwide box office.

Sounds plausible.
Especially when you consider that The rollout for Beyond really begins on Wednesday with 16 screenings across the country, Granted, it’s not a lot but there will be more screenings on Thursday and everywhere on Friday.
I think all of that could add to next weekend being a surprisingly good one for Beyond.
Also, I think that they will be a strong second against Jason Bourne the following week as they will be the only other movie out there with any kind of action component, until Suicide Squad arrives one week later.

@PS…not sure I’d guess 70MM, 60MM is the high side, and given the commentary that came with that number, I suspect Paramount will be happy to take it. If there isn’t a huge drop off on weekend two (good word of mouth), I’ll guess 250MM domestic, and 600MM WW, I suspect the foreign market will see growth. If Paramount kept the budget where they wanted it (160MM, give or take), that probably justifies the chatter that Trek 14 is already good to go.

@Prodigal – well, you’re an optimist, thats for sure.

Honestly I think the lack of marketing has certainly hurt its opening weekend numbers. The first trailer did NOT help. And while the second one was better, it still took 6 months to get and frankly WHILE better the film still felt pretty generic end of the day. I still dont get why it took so long just to get another trailer? I mean Rogue One will be showing its second trailer today and that film is still 5 months away. I think it speaks to how late this film was to get started and was editing it to the last minute. Doesnt mean its bad but the BO prediction doesnt surprise me.

And I think whats ironic about it is Pegg said Paramount wanted this film to have more wide appeal to capture a biggest audience and it could be the lowest performing one yet, at least in the U.S.

I would think part of what the box office opening weekend will do has at least something to do with what competition is out there. Ghostbusters opens this weekend and I’m not sure if there’s any other big movies coming out with Beyond. There are no other Sci-fi movies that I know of so it might have that audience to itself for the first week or so.

Am I the only who feels like you can already piece together the ENTIRE plot from the trailers and clips?
Seems like one of the central aspect of the movie is the crew being marooned on some planet (in at least two separate groups) with lots of other aliens around. The Big E seems to have been destroyed for good, but luckily they find an old Starfleet ship and start to fight their way back home.
It’s all speculation but I still can’t imagine how this is supposed to feel “trekkier” than the last movies.
Well… Guess I’ll just have to watch the movie…

Well its probably ‘trekkier’ in the sense its actually the first film in this series that is actually about exploration and encountering a new alien species. The last two films were weren’t about exploration at all just trying to stop an ruthless foe. That said this ALSO looks to be trying to stop a ruthless foe lol but probably the themes of the film are closer to Trek and maybe TOS in particular. Sounds like one of the positives about the film is that the reviews are saying its like a big budget TOS episode. Take that as you may. I always said STID for instance felt more like a DS9 story line just with the TOS crew. So the film itself may not be all that special but it could be the first that really tap the Star Trek elements that people said the first two lacked. Being less on Earth this time and actually in deep space is at least a positive for me.

I really hope it comes off better than Insurrection. I can’t help but think it will due to budget. Insurrection still felt like a TV episode, but being shot like one, really put it over the edge.

Yeah many are saying they are getting the Insurrection vibe. I do think the difference though is Insurrection was pretty toothless which was the main problem where as this it looks like stuff really does happen. We know no one dies but things look like they do get real so it may have the same vibe but be a bit more edgier at least. I do notice there is hardly anything said about the villain though. I wonder is that to hide his intentions or is it because he’s kind of weak in this? The problem with these films is all the villains come off dangerous and ruthless but they all feel so one note for some reason. Khan wasnt too bad but he just came off as a nut job who would kill everyone in the room if he had too. They tried to give him a different side but it just felt a little too weak IMO.

I have only seen STID in 3D at the theater and my Blu ray. I think that’s the only way to enjoy it. Since STB will be in 3D that will be the only way I’ll watch it. If you have a big screen home LED and a kick ass system, enjoy it and forget about the haters of the Star Trek you enjoy.

How many people attended the press screening? Must be more than the 10 people that Trekmovie is sharing their reactions here.

@ Ahmed

What’s with you trying to stir up trouble here on this?

@Prodigal Son,

In an major event attended by large number of people, I’d expect to see more reactions, not just from 10 people.

And the fact is that early twitter reactions are not a good indication of how a movie will turns out, and the reason for that is very simple, “responses to junket screenings tend to lean positive (you’re not going to publicly badmouth something and then go interview the people responsible for it)” as Collider put it in their STB article today.

Just look at early reactions from Batman v Superman premiere this year, or at the very positive reactions to Fantastic Four early screening last year.

You know what it a good indication of how the movie will turn out? Paramount lifted the embargo from July 22 to July 15 because they are that confident.

@ C_ishere

Poor Ahmed and Cygnus….let the spin doctoring begin. LOL

@Prodigal Son,

I won’t have to, someone else did it already :)

————————-
Brian Collins ‏@BrianWCollins

@jhoffman Could also mean they realize their marketing has been a bust & that even negative reviews will at least remind people it’s coming.

https://twitter.com/jhoffman/status/753744136952487936

If the reviews were bad, the usual suspects would be providing many excuses as to why they dont matter. Lets watch the film ourselves. Although those of us who disliked STID a lot seem more open minded than those that loved it in the sense I hope STB is good and will review it fairly. Those that loved STID already think STB is awsome and they havent seen it yet. Weird.

@ PS. Not in Cyg’s case, STB may end up being the best Trek ever, and he’ll go to his grave declaring it’s garbage. He’s fairly OC on that….
Now in all fairness, while it’s good that the early press junkets have been very positive, it needs to be pointed out that those individuals aren’t always the most objective, either.

Phil Today 9:50 pm

Can you cite a single example of my doing that?

Or are you just talking complete sh*t as usual?

BTW, you must be very pleased that the fan productions finally got killed. You were clamoring for years that they should be shut down. And you finally got your wish. It must be very satisfying for you.

@ Cyg. Come on Cyg, you’ve left numerous examples around to choose from. Interesting that’s you’d presume that no one actually reads what you say….or you actually do believe that the average TM reader just doesn’t comprehend your brilliance…

On the other hand, your last comment suggests you give little consideration to what others say. I’ve been consistent with my position of fan productions from day one – if you’d bother to pay attention, you’d know that fan productions haven’t been killed, and the smart ones will actually get to produce some decent sci-fi without having to rely on recreating pale imitations of someone elses work. Yeah, the current production houses got their cheese moved – if they adapt, what they’ll produce will expand the Trek universe in ways previously unimagined. That is something that might actually be worth watching, instead of trips down memory lane.

Phil and Cygnus-X1,

I don’t know, Phil. One would think Cygnus taking his STID review to his grave and still posting about it would give some import to his views on on the quality of Kirk’s resurrection?

Phil Today 8:30 am

Come on Cyg, you’ve left numerous examples around to choose from.

And yet you’re not able to cite any.

@C_ishere,

Don’t know about that, the original embargo was too strict, giving only two days before the wide release. Most studios allow reviews at least a week, sometime even more before the movie comes out. There are exceptions like what Disney did with TFA.

We will see tomorrow what the reviewers are saying as well as the RT score.

In the vernacular of this political season….IT’S RIGGED!!!!

@Phil,

“IT’S RIGGED!!!!”

LOL

I’m reviewing this for The Georgia Straight next week. Sadly, no pre-screening yet. Did get a ticket to the marathon though. The Paramount rep said it would be ok if I just showed up for Beyond but come on. Kelvinverse Marathon! Who could resist? I mean, who else except Cygnus could resist? Resistance is futile!

;-)

comment image
And in the end…..

When I first saw your post, The image wasn’t there, Now I get it!

Looks like Star Trek 14 is already a given. Abrams says it will come with 100% certainty!

http://www.torontosun.com/2016/07/14/jj-abrams-star-trek-wont-replace-anton-yelchin

Well I’m relieved they won’t recast Checkov. I think it would also be a mistake not to have the character die as well, since keeping him alive somewhere else in the universe doesn’t serve anyone (except perhaps ancillary markets, and that’s probably what Abrams is thinking about — but then why kill off Prime Spock, either?). It would be wonderful if they had surplus footage of Yelchin they could cut together for one final appearance. I always thought the M*A*S*H departure of Henry Blake was an effective emotional reminder that life is fleeting. It would be nice if Yelchin’s meaningless death could serve a poignant purpose in the film.

Well, it is possible that the next movie could be good. The studio could decide to hire a totally different writing/directing team. If there really is a movie after this one, that is. It’s commonly known that JJ Abrams is not above lying to the fans if he thinks it’ll be good for his movie. Khan was 100% not in STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, during the marketing blitz for that movie.

Still wearing your moral outrage on your sleeve, I see….

Phil Today 7:22 pm

I’m wearing it on my crotch. Go ahead and have a look.

@Cygnus

LOL — dude, I almost choked on this one! (and no, don’t go there…lol)

@ Cyg Ah, it’s the short list.

And what about JJ Abrams and Justin Lin swooping in to the rescue of fan films, huh?

What the hell happened there? They announce that they’re saving fan films, and then CBS/Paramount release guidelines that effectively kill them? Those fan films were the only real Star Trek being made, and now they’ve been snuffed out by the company that’s bringing you “Star Trek Beyond.” No explanation from Abrams and Lin? We’re all just supposed to forget about it while they hype their movie? Was it a con from the beginning?

Since when did Lin or JJ “saved” fan films? The ONLY thing that they said was that the lawsuit was “going away soon”. That’s it. Also, there is that thing where the Axanar crew tried to come up with guidelines of their own, which may or may not have influenced CBS/Paramount’s development of the guidelines. Also, we still don’t know if certain productions, like Continues and NV, will end as they are now. And, finally, it may have a foregone conclusion that the fan films would be curtailed anyway, since CBS is going to produce a new series. But to blame Lin or JJ for CBS/Paramount’s actions is silly.

“A few months back there was a fan movie, Axanar that was being fan made, and there was this lawsuit between the studio and these fans. And Justin was sort of outraged by this as a longtime fan. And, we started talking about it and realized this was not an appropriate way to deal with the fans. The fans should be celebrating this thing, we all [as] fans are part of this world. So he went to the studio and pushed them to stop this lawsuit and now within the last few weeks it will be announced that this is going away and the fans will be able to [continue] their productions.”

https://trekmovie.com/2016/05/20/jj-abrams-announces-paramountcbs-has-agreed-to-drop-axanar-lawsuit/

Interesting. I stand corrected in this sense: JJ and Lin DID save fan films, and that the Axanar case is “going away”. So, my question is: why are you complaining? CBS/Paramount could have banned ALL fan films. Now, ‘Trek fan films have guidelines like Disney/Lucas Films has. If you want to blame anyone on these turn of events, why not blame the Axanar production for not doing what New Voyages and Continues have done to stay in the good graces of CBS/Paramount. And, also, the new guidelines are in early development. We don’t know if the established fan film crew could get a pass or not. Besides, just because there are new guidelines, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a decent segment or two.

dswynne Today 10:24 pm

Have you not read the guidelines? Are you not familiar with Star Trek Continues and New Voyages? The guidelines effectively prohibit them, in multiple ways, from doing their shows.

I expect that Paramount released those ultra-stern guidelines in response to Peters, and that after they destroy that jerkweed, they will ease up on them.

Presumably Lin and JJ just dont “get” fan films so when they said the lawsuit was going away, they didnt realise the more detailed issues.

Cant say Im too disappointed because I see the studio’s side completely. And Peters ruined it for everyone. But I do feel bad for those fans that invested a lot of time and money into their work.

TUP,

Re:getting fan films

Lin, possibly not, but his style of independent filmmaking that got him noticed might give him some insights if he did.

JJ Abrams? How do you think he got the job caring for Spielberg’s Super 8 Archive?

Honestly, I don’t think Lin understood the situation at all. I have to assume somebody briefed him at some point and he realized then that he was backing the bad guy. Not an antagonist of ethical stature, but The Bad Guy.

kmart Today 10:36 pm

But, CBS/Paramount didn’t have to kill all fan films in order to put Alec Peters in his place. And if Justin Lin really does care about fan films, like he said that he does, then he should care that the likes of Star Trek Continues and New Voyages have been effectively snuffed out by the company he’s doing work for. And those fan productions were playing nice and staying in their place.

@ kmart

Exactly. It’s Peter’s who blew this up.

kmart,

Pelicana using Paramount’s Grey, InterOffice hitman CBS’ Moonves and Axanar’s Peters are all bad men.

Alex Peters would not play ball…like, Duh

Prodigal Son Today 8:48 pm

Alex Peters would not play ball…like, Duh

And CBS/Paramount used it as an excuse to effectively snuff out all of the other fan productions that were playing by the rules.

Bottom line for me : if I like the movie, it won’t matter what JJ and Justin said before, my only interest is the film itself.

The Star Trek Beyond review embargo date got pushed up to be lifted tomorrow. Paramount is that confidente it seems.

Cool News.
Thanks!

When I see the movie I will come to my own conclusions about it, utterly deaf to whatever words or noises are coming from others. Someone above pointed out “there’s no accounting for taste,” and I agree. And I also think “taste” is a completely subjective thing. If you like something and I don’t, I won’t go around making comments that attempt to “prove” what a nitwit you are — which is precisely what some people do around here. If I like it and you don’t, well, don’t bother trying to convince me that you are right and I’m brain dead because the noise coming out of your face is no more authoritative or significant than the sound coming out of mine, or anyone else’s. We all have preferences about what we like and what we don’t like and they’re not all the same. That’s the condition of human existence. And the “human adventure” doesn’t begin until we learn to stop beating each other up and make the journey together. Isn’t that what Star Trek fundamentally represents?
End of speech.
PS: I’m writing this while wearing smiley-faced silk pj shorts, so don’t think I take myself too seriously, hm? :)

I think the smiley-faced silk ph short just proves you have taste. ;)

…and New Sulu wants to me him :)

“meet”

Prodigal Son,

Re: “meet”

Is that your way of indicating that P Technobabble might be wearing silk shorts, but you’re wearing a Freudian slip?