This morning the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominees for the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Unfortunately JJ Abrams Star Trek feature did not pick up any nods, not that it was expected. However, a couple Star Trek music vets did get nods. See below for more info plus some more award season analysis of Star Trek. [UPDATE: Avatar director James Cameron talks Trek]
No globes for Trek – Giacchino and Horner nominated
Although there has been some Oscar buzz for Star Trek, and the film is expected to pick up some nominations by the Academy, the Golden Globes has a much smaller field of film categories. The only two it really had a chance to get nominated in would have been Best Motion Picture – Drama or Best Original Score. The nominees for Best Motion Picture – Drama are
- Avatar
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglourious Basterds
- Precious
- Up in the Air
Veteran Star Trek Composers nominated
Two composers who have worked on Star Trek features were also nominated for their work on other films. Star Trek 2009 composer Michael Giacchino was nominated for his score for Up. Plus Star Trek II & III composer James Horner was nominated for his Avatar score. Giacchinno and Horner are going up against against Marvin Hamlisch (The Informant!), Abel Korzeniowski (A Single Man) and Karen O & Carter Burwell (Where the Wild Things Are). As previously reported, Giacchino picked up four Grammy nominations for Star Trek and Up, so he is having a good award season so far.
Giacchino scoring "Up" – composer picks up Golden Globe nomination for Pixar film
A full list of nominees is available at goldenglobes.org.
UPDATE: Cameron praises Trek (& Horner)
The Hollywood Reporter Heat Vision Blog talked to Avatar director James Cameron about the Golden Globe nominations and Star Trek came up, here is an excerpt:
Heat Vision: Genre movies did seem to get a short shrift, as usual. “Star Trek,” which is one of the best movies of the year, was totally left out.
Cameron: I loved “Star Trek.” I thought J.J. Abrams reinvented that franchise in a way that we all wanted to see in a long time. But that’s typical. I had quietly resigned myself that “Avatar” would be thought of in that way: celebrated commercially and by fans of science fiction and fantasy but not necessarily by critics and reviewers. And here we are getting these reviews and these nominations. And not only for film but also for the score and the song. The music is such an important part of the emotional reaction people are having to the film. I think it’s James Horner’s best score to date.
Is it a snub?
Access Hollywood is calling the lack of inclusion of Star Trek one of the ‘snubs’ of the Golden Globes. However, as noted above, Star Trek should never have really been expected to pick up anything at the Golden Globes. The Best Picture Oscar buzz for Star Trek has been the result of the expansion to 10 nominations, whereas the Golden Globes still go with 5 (although they split Drama and Comedy/Musical). Plus the Golden Globes are based on votes from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and as reported here in the past, Star Trek did much better with domestic audiences, than it did overseas (especially in non-English speaking countries). Plus, many industry watchers still feel that the award season will stick with familiar territory. Yesterday the LA Times Hero Complex Blog had a post titled "Star Trek and District 9 may find Oscar night still alien territory", which notes that the award season process " appears rooted in familiar terrain."
That being said, Star Trek should still be considered a possible long-shot for nominations outside the technical categories. It was on the NBR Top 10 list and has also received some recognition from critics and the cast ensemble has picked up some critic group nominations and wins. And in the LA Times latest Gold Derby, 2 of the 6 ‘gurus’ polled, predicted Star Trek will end up in the Oscar top 10.
Star Trek Golden Globes Rewind
In January of this year, Star Trek’s new Kirk and Spock, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, made their first public appearance together by presenting at the Golden Globes. Here is video of that.
While the Inglourious Basterds nomination raises both eyebrows, the non-nomination of Giacchino for Trek does not. Not one bit.
No matter how well his music served the film – and it did that rather well – Giacchino’s Up was by far a better musical effort.
Giacchino’s best work may well be for television’s Lost. On the silver screen? Maybe The Incredibles.
For Trek, I was hoping he’d bat it out of the park, but that didn’t happen.
Congratulations to Giacchino on his nominations! I hope he wins, I love his work.
I wish Star Trek could have been at least recognized in the Golden Globes. I don’t understand what is not to like-
It’s a summer popcorn movie, not a piece of art.
So much for the Big Year for Trek Winning any awards…usually if not nominated by Golden Globe not much happens for Academy Awards with an occaisional exception or two….Avatar being on there….wow….that is rare enuf….must mean its really good….
It’s good to see Michael Giacchino nominated, even if it isn’t for Star Trek.
I’ve enjoyed most of his work for a while, dating back to Lost and M:I:III.
Well done Michael, and good luck !!!
My Father and I and my brother in law who has a doctorate in music, and I all agree that the Star Trek score is by the numbers nothing much, but his score for UP is amazing. He composed 3 films this year, maybe Star Trek suffered because he had to much on his plate for one year. Well this is just our opionions.
Nobody cares about the Golden Globes, if they want to Snub Star Trek, it’s their loss. They can shove one of those Globes up their pretension asses. Here’s hoping Star Trek picks up a real award, a oscar, if not, always next time.
Giacchino’s score for Up was great stuff and I hope he wins. Though I’m still looking forward to hearing Horner’s score for Avatar.
Has anyone heard it yet?
Jeez everyone thinks that Star Trek is this great movie. It’s a movie for 12 year olds and the Transformers crowd. If Star Trek gets nominated then Transformers should get nominated as well.
If Star Trek gets a nominated or even a win then it’s a damn shame to the previous Star Trek movies because those were movies that were so much superior than this kid’s action flick.
Well, except maybe Insurrection.
Would be cool if they had a very dark Star Wars, one that is rated R, in the style of Kill Bill/Gladiator, wouldn’t that be awesome. No more Jar Jar, Ewoks or kiddy crap, just lots of awesome sci fi and hack and slash with Samurai honor and cinematography.
4. The Golden Globes are a horrible predictor for the Oscars. Even with 10 nominees for Best Picture, spread across the Drama and Musical/Comedy categories, they’ve only correctly nominated the five movies that were nominated for the Oscar, 50% of the time over the last 10 years.
@9 Thanks for that view on the film. I’ve never heard that one before. On an unrelated note I just discovered sarcasm.
“Star Trek did much better with domestic audiences, than it did overseas (especially in non-English speaking countries).” Yes… I saw the English version a few days ago. The film is actually great. I didn’t really know what to think of the movie after I’ve seen the German dubbed version… And the lens flares weren’t that annoying anymore, when I watched the film on DVD than when I watched it in the cinema.
@8: I just downloaded the score, and it’s pretty good. At the same time however, I found the battle music very reminiscent of the Troy soundtrack(same composer, but still). It’s not bad. I like it.
I’ve listened to Avatar from beginning to end, and it’s a pretty good score.
The main theme is beautiful, and the score has some really nice ethereal material in the first half of the score.
The Finale seems to be borrowing a little for the Media Ventures/Remote Control/Hans Zimmer type generic scoring, but is still pretty good.
It’s a little predictable considering the story, and it does have some of Horner’s self borrowings (including his “Danger” motiv), but it works well on the whole.
The song is not great, and is heavily over produced, and lacks anything memorable in the way of lyrics.
It’s no Titanic or WOK, but overall, I like it.
@9 .. well… here come the fame responses ;)
Forgive me if I disagree on that.
I don’t understand how Avatar can be up there. It’s not even out yet, is it??
#15 – So he ripped off Prokofiev again, huh?
@18. “I don’t understand how Avatar can be up there. It’s not even out yet, is it??”
All the critics have seen it. And the HFPA saw it at some point prior to the deadline they have of Dec 9th as a screening date for motion pictures to be eligible for nomination.
9. The Wild Man
I enjoyed Star Trek immensely, and I’m 52. I have not talked to any of my friends who saw it and enjoyed it, and I can assure you, none of them are 12. To make a blanket statement like “it’s a movie for 12 year olds…” implies that only 12 year olds should like it. This is simply not the case.
Look, my favorite movie EVER is 2001, an intellectual, non-action flick I would hardly expect any 12 year olds to like. In fact, I saw it when I was 12 and I loved it so much that I’ve probably seen it 2001 times since then. The point is that blanket statements don’t work because they do not take into account EVERY POSSIBLE point of view.
some of the crafts in avatar seem like re-used designs from aliens and terminator 1&2. that said, cameron is still a hero of mine (so is JJ ) so its not a huge annoyance, just sayin.
Christopher Plummer (Gen. Chang in Star Trek VI) was nominated for his performance in The Last Station.
Matt Damon — who for a long while was rumored to be the top pick for the role of Jim Kirk and who was ultimately approached for George Kirk — was nominated for both The Informant (which co-starred Enterprise’s Scott Bakula) and Invictus.
James Horner is also up for co-writing the song for Avatar, “I Will See You.”
“House, M.D.”, which up until a few weeks ago starred Jennifer Morrison (Winona Kirk), is up for Best Television Series – Drama. “True Blood” was nominated in the same category, and that features Enterprise’s John Billingsley.
As for whether it was a snub, I don’t see it as such. Star Trek was a great movie, but there were far better movies released this year. Plus, it’s not exactly the type of movies which either the Globes or the Oscars eat up. Of course, I’m curious as to how Nine and It’s Complicated both received Best Picture noms considering neither are getting very good reviews.
#9 – Nope.
21. P Technobabble (and 9. The Wild Man).
Fascinating. I’m 51, my all-time favorite film is 2001, and I also enjoyed Star Trek immensely.
Awards are often a very subjective thing. A movie is rated by evaluating the acting, directing, screenplay, music,costumes etc. But sometimes a strong performance by one or two actors in a movie that may not be as deserving of the best pic award wins it over a technically superior movie.
Every year, there are many great films that are not even nominated. And there are movies that are merely okay like “Crash” that win best pic. Just because “Star Trek” wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe in any category just like it probably won’t be for the Oscars(even the technical nomiations are doubtful), doesn’t mean this film can’t be celebrated. At the end of the day, just the fact the new movie made over $380 million, was a hit with the majority of fans and critics, and has guaranteed a sequel warrants celebration. Plus, I’m certain “Star Trek” will be on many critics top 10 for the year.
Just because Star Trek was fun and was the best popcorn movie of the year doesn’t make it one of the best *movies*, period, of the year. Considering it as a Best Picture nominee is kind of silly – and that’s from someone who considers it her *favorite* film of the last few years.
Keep everything from this movie and add some maturity and more emotional/character depth to XII, and then we’ll talk about it.
One thing I don’t understand is the negative reaction by some star trek fans toward the new movie. I know it’s not everyone and according to many polls the majority do like it but I see negative comment after negative comment. “to many lens flares, it was too dumbed down, it’s not a real trek movie, it will never be as good as the previous movies, jj couldn’t direct his way out of a paper bag, etc… Everyone of course can have an opinion but I just don’t understand why some of yall hate it so much. Here is some food for thought, maybe the new movie is actually pretty good. I would have thought that since there had been no star trek to watch in the theatre since 02 that people would have been a little bit grateful. Can someone help me here!
Yeah this isn’t really a shocker. Trek was great fun but not exactly
Oscar territory
Sorry, but “Inglorious Basterds” just isn’t that great of a film. It’s entertaing, but it’s not one of the five best of the year. I can say with a straight face that Star Trek is better.
I hear you Optimist–I am also in my 50s–loved jjs trek-it shows fresh imaginative sets/effex with great attention to details n loving care to trek n its fans-the cast was wonderful,inspired-characterizations full of humanity n humor-tons of epic action n lively paced–its everything that the last few trek movies havent been–it made me feel proud to be a trek fan…more of the same please–it deserves to win some awards–i think jjs direction was great n the effex better than star wars-sound design was also wonderful-
12 year olds!?!!! Let’s hope so as well as all of us of all ages!!! Great movie and I’m 55. My wife is also 55 and loved it!! We also have friends in their 60s and they thought the movie was great! Only for 12 year olds, not!!
Giacchino’s work is good, and “The Incredibles” had some amazing music, but the “Star Trek” score is not award-worthy, in my opinion.
STI and II had amazing scores that are still enjoyable as listening experiences away from the films. (“Ilia’s Theme” and the TWOK main theme are the best Trek music, to me.)
III and IV were fun, but not as lasting. (Though I still love listening to Stealing the Enterprise, one of the most-TOS feeling sequences and some of the best music. And y’all remember the disco-mix second-disc that came with the LP? Do they have that on the cd? I’ve never checked…)
I’ve never listened to the STV, VI, or TNG movie scores. First Contact had some good music, but other than that…nothing. Yet Trek 2009 is even LESS listenable, less memorable, than those films. It’s not bad, and as you watch the movie it’s really good, but it’s not great.
Congratulations on the nominations that WERE received! Definitely well deserved!
I think it’s funny that popular mainstream films are referred to as “popcorn” movies. What, people weren’t allowed to eat during “Schindler’s List” and “The English Patient”?
@27 — You said it perfectly! Trek 09 was great fun, but not necessarily a great film. When you think of Best Picture winners, you think of something with more depth and soul–not that Trek was soulless, just not deep.
@28 — Are you serious? You don’t understand people NOT liking certain things? Not everybody likes everything. For me, the lens flares were terrible because I don’t like having bright lights flashed in my face, and the flares often covered up the screen or at least certain actors. (See why I complain about lens flares? There’s a reason.)
Same for the complaints about Abrams as a director. I think he was a mixed bag at best, but he pulled it off and I’ve watched the movie 8 times now. I love it! But the directing has bad spots. For example (since you asked people to explain why they are negative), during the last scene of Kirk and Spock deciding Nero’s fate as the singularity grows in his ship, Kirk offers help, Spock doesn’t want to, Nero says no, they blast him. Some fans hate this scene for making Kirk/Spock look a bit bloodthirsty. That’s a DIRECTING problem. The dialogue is fine, but Abrams filmed the scene for humor instead of depth. The OLD Kirk and Spock would’ve been serious, sad about what’s happening, but Abrams directed HIS Kirk/Spock to be flippant and humorous. (Imagine if Quinto had sounded disappointed in his vengeful feelings when he tells Kirk, “No, not this time,” about being logical and peaceful. Same dialogue, but a different emotion, and that could’ve been an Oscar-worthy moment.)
See, there are reasons for the complaints in many cases. Sure, some complaints are just “It sucks, it’s not Trek,” but we’ve always had those reactions since TNG, DS9, etc. came around.
And I can complain about lens flares, poorly directed scenes, etc. without hating the movie. I love it! My top 4 Trek films include ST1, 2, 3, and Trek 09.
Oh, and to the “12-year-old” comment/debate: I’m 39 and I’ve been a Trekkie since the early 1970s, and I LOVED this new movie.
In fact, I think I’m going to watch it right now! :)
34. John in Canada —
Just imagine sitting there, watching Schindler’s List in silence. It’s later in the film, and Schindler is regretting that he could not save “just one more,” and then CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH from the row behind you, followed by “SLUUUUURP!” as they finish they soda.
Yeah, some films shouldn’t allow food. :)
The opening sequence in Star Trek was better written and more powerful than most of what has come up in film in years.
Um, since when is this a snub? James Cameron’s just being polite. Come on.
ST didn’t deserve to be nominated for much more than score, effects and sound. The actors were great for Trek and beautiful in their parts, but that doesn’t in any way rival the nuances of George Clooney’s performance in Up in the Air, let alone Gabourey Sidibe in Precious, and so many others. The writing was really helter skelter and below average in its ability to explain itself or stand up to scrutiny. This isn’t a snub just because everyone’s blowing hot air…..
I hate to say this, but I also agree that the Star Trek score was not award-worthy. It was good, but I think it was a bit predictable. I have been a fan of every single star trek movie score, and this is no exception….. so it pains me to have to give this as my opinion.
But I do agree that the opening sequence was fantastic….. better then many in recent memory?
I definitely agree with those saying the opening sequence was great; it was compelling, hit all the right emotional points, had spectacular FX, and even the music (!) was superb right up until Giacchino trotted out the main theme.
@35: THANK YOU for being so articulate and explaining (part of) why the film isn’t God’s divine, infallible gift to cinema. Sometimes it feels like everyone’s going to turn on you if you aren’t drinking the ST09 Kool-Aid.
My favourite lens-flare moment: near the end of the mind-meld sequence, Spock Prime is shown, in a shot looking down from above, standing on a PLANET SURFACE with nothing but snow and rock surrounding him. A lens flare plays across the screen as the camera pans. LOL WTF. There’s nothing in that shot which could’ve produced it! It’s there solely for the purpose of having a lens flare in the shot. I can just imagine JJ in the editing booth, gesticulating dramatically: “Nooooo! It doesn’t have a flare! What are you people being paid for? IT NEEDS A FLAAAARE!” :D
I hope ILM wins for Transformers or star trek in the effects category at the oscars, but neither film deserves an oscar for best picture or best screenplay, cinematography or set design. Of course this is my opinion Star Trek is reviewed as the best film of 2009 overall yet it won’t even be nominated which i find slightly moronic to offend the new fans of new trek even if i’m not one of them.
They will give some movie the award that nobody went to see remember dark knight did not win best picture or best director and that film was like a hundred times a better made film than star trek was.
Also remember Revenge of the Sith won zero awards and ILM should have gotten something, it was the first time i can remember a star wars film not even being nominated much less winning a technical award.