We have a pair of quotes that were made by J.J. regarding the upcoming Star Trek film. The quotes were taken from an interview JJ had with the Associated Press via our friends at firstshowing:
“I feel like this is so unlike what you expect, so unlike the ‘Star Trek’ you’ve seen. At the same time, it’s being true to what’s come before, honoring it,” Abrams said. “I can say the effects for ‘Star Trek’ have never, ever been done like this. … I can only tell you the idea of the universe of ‘Star Trek’ has never been given this kind of treatment.”
“It was an opportunity to take what I think has been a maligned world — to sound crass, a franchise — and treat it in a way that made it something that I wanted to see. To take the characters, the thoughtfulness, the personalities, the sense of adventure, the idea of humanity working together, the sense of social commentary and innovation, all that stuff. To take it and apply it in a way that felt genuinely thrilling.”
I want to be careful that I don’t read too much into these quotations. I am already very, very skeptical about his upcoming Star Trek film and don’t want to fan the flames of worry and paranoia with my own bias. The talk of honoring the original series is certainly is comforting to me, but I am still concerned about Abrams admitted apathy towards previous Star Trek incarnations.
I just don’t understand how anyone could not like The Wrath Of Khan. When people tell me they don’t like Star Trek in my day to day life – I get confused, and have a look on my face of bewildered disgust. I have always been a fan of science fiction, loved Star Trek as a young child, enjoyed the films in the theaters growing up, and was pumped when The Next Generation turned out to be an enjoyable show! Roddenberry’s vision on a future where humanity is at peace, and now works together exploring new worlds, is a utopian vision that I want to fight towards. It’s a fantastic story within the realm of a glorious futuristic ideal.
I can see what J.J. is saying, and it’s comforting on some levels. I do agree that the franchise needs a shake up and needs to try new things, but I would much prefer if a fan were at the helm. Not necessarily a die hard fan with all the facts memorized, but someone who has a strong love for the universe. Am I biased, yea…. but I believe that people impassioned about a project always do the best work – Star Trek included.
Abrams is creating a film that he would want to see, and that is fine; I just hope the rest of us will follow suit.
First of all, I would like to say this is my first comment on this site. I’m really surprised to see so many other people who share almost my exact feelings about movies. This is so cool. I’ve bookmarked this site. (Gushing Over.)
The original Trek series is part of my childhood, too. I watched all the re-runs and my mother used to sing the operatic “ahhh-ahhhhhhh ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh” theme song to shut my younger brother up when he’d start crying.
I loved Star Trek TNG and I loved DS9, but I had to abandon ship on Voyager and Enterprise. As far as I was concerned, Voyager missed a great opportunity to reinstill the “wonderment” of space exploration when they had aliens (they supposedly had never encountered) speaking English. For me, it threw the whole “universal translator” thing into question.
Enterprise missed another opportunity to be the first sci-fi art-house series. How, you ask? Enterprise was supposed to be a prequel, right? Then why the hell did it look better than the original Star Trek? Enterprise could have done a retro-sixties sci-fi thing (a la Gattica), and been a really cool show. But, no. They were focused on making a prequel and not making a quality addition to the franchise.
What does this have to do with J.J. Abrams? The Star Trek franchise needs somebody exactly like him to revive it. He says that he’s making a film that he wants to see, and I’m totally cool with that. Star Trek needs someone who will “honor” it, but make it relevant at the same time, and J.J. is our man. Heck, did you even see Cloverfield? Do you watch Lost? (No comment on Alias–let’s just call that show his career’s warm up).
I think all Star Trek fans should be more upset over how the franchise was squandered, than over J.J. Abram’s re-make. And let’s face it, that’s what he’s doing here–a remake. As one commenter said earlier, if he blows it, we can ride him for the rest of his life.
I don’t understand why William Shatner is not included in this movie and only Leonard Nimoy is in the cast.
Except for this oversight, I’m looking forward to this movie.
I agree WillTheSecond I would have preferred a Voyager Ds9 film.
But the good news, If JJ blows this one we can rag on him endlessly.
Well, as a director I don’t like Abrams (Mission Impossible III was utter drivel) but maybe he has some good ideas. Still would have liked a post-DS9/Voyager show, though.
i am very heartened by JJs comments. This should be ST to the next level with a grounded approach that truly seems like an extension of our future and characters that are real. No strawmen Captains like the ones in STIII – Excelsior Captain or Generations – Enterprise B Captain!
I like TOS so if this movie is going back to the roots of Roddenberrys ideas I’m all for it. They later Berman stuff just never thrilled me.
I agree Phil Gee!
I find few things in life as enjoyable or stimulating as a good Star Trek film so i really want this film to succeed. It’s a shame there’s only been four of them so far.
I just can’t afford to think about this film right now. It’s still inconceivable to me that the movie is another whole year away still.
On the commentaries on the Star Trek II DVD, Nicholas Meyer lays out that essentially didn’t like Star Trek when he came to Wrath of Khan, and wanted to make something he liked, or closer to it. J.J. Abrams is kinda talking like Nicholas Meyer here, he’s just saying it before the movie instead of 20 years later.
JJ Abrams sucks! Overrated DB! And Lost is such a stupid non-sensical where nothing ever actually happens! Carrot on a stick type shows like his and oh, Heroes are just annoying as hell!
His movies are trash and this one will be too. I’d rather watch back-to-back episodes of Scott Bakula on his little gay tight blue gotch!
I wonder if they’re going to use Jerry Goldsmith’s Star Trek theme in this movie, or just let Michael Giacchino create a new theme. It’ll probably have that famous opening fanfare by Alexander Courage though, just about every Star Trek film has that fanfare in the movie.
I still don’t like what he’s doing =/
I hope it turns out alright, but I wish he would have gone into the future with the Star Trek Franchise. We’ll just have to wait, and see how this movie turns out.
There was a lot of stuff I had seen in Mission Impossible 3, and most of it came from Alias.