Showing posts with label Star Trek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Star Trek. Show all posts

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Dec 6th: Star Trek - Into Darkness trailer

Published on YouTube today by Paramount, the trailer for the upcoming Star Trek sequel Into Darkness hints at more of the same from J.J. Abrams - including an intelligent recognition of the science of Star Trek and a nod to the franchise's best-loved storylines.

This time out, it's Wrath of Khan that gets a reinterpretation, the storyline that turned Star Trek's fortunes around following a fairly muted reception for The Motion Picture.

Now Star Trek's place in history is already assured, does that mean expectations are higher? Possibly. But then, so are the budgets and the visual effects capabilities.


The team seem to be pushing the 'darkness' angle on this one - the music's about as ominous as it gets, the Benedict Cumberbatch voiceover puts Khan very much in control, and the title seems to be styled as the somewhat shouty STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS by Paramount.

But this is a different cinema-going public than it was a generation or two ago, and a trundle through space on a mission of scientific exploration perhaps wouldn't cut it (and definitely wouldn't suit Abrams' style of film-making).

I've always been more of a Trekker than a Star Wars fan, and while Star Trek earned a certain amount of criticism for compromising on certain aspects of science, I thought it did a decent job (and yes, I have studied thermodynamics and astrophysics, so I like to think I have the necessary awareness...).

The criticism so far here is that the last shots from the trailer might give a little too much away - but again, I'm not worried. If I had to guess, I'd expect that shot comes from early in the film - the set-up rather than the finale - but even if that is the broken remains of the Enterprise splashing down, well, they'll probably build another one - there are plenty of letters left in the alphabet.

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Monday, 28 February 2011

80s Movies: Week 4

Our month-long special look back at some of the greatest movies of the 80s comes to a close, but there's still time for a carousel of the past seven days' cinematic heroes, if you've got a spare fiver burning a hole in your Amazon account...

80s Movies: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

It's the end of the road for this month's 80s movies series... and we're rounding things off with a sequel, which is a little out of character. It's a good one though, as we're ending with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

There are inevitable comparisons between Star Trek and Star Wars. I've always been more of a Trekker - I really don't like Star Wars at all. Sorry about that. But it's worth noting the importance of Wrath of Khan in the history of Star Trek.

Where the first Star Wars trilogy stands as a single entity now - albeit with the benefit of hindsight - the Star Trek movies were never so cohesive. The show and its big-screen spin-offs have always been primarily a series of separate stories, rather than being split into chapters or volumes.

In Star Trek II, however, we have the first in a three-film story arc that remains probably the biggest tale the Star Trek world has ever told without distraction or interruption.