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I, for one, think that STAR TREK II: The Wrath of Khan is a colossal SNORE.
The film does not date well at all, and it is far too talky for its own good: "... yak, yak, yak, Spock...yak, yak, yak, Kobiashi Maru... yak, yak, yak Mr. Savik... yak, yak, yak USS Reliant... Regula One... Genesis Device"
Sheesh... I'm getting drowsy just writing that!
You may call me "mental" Hector, but I would GLADLY sit through 10 viewings of STAR WARS Episode I: The Phantom Menace than be subjected to more sleepy STAR TREK movie adventures.
This is why I LOVE the latest TREK film so much. It finally smashed FOREVER the "let's see how talky and dull we can make this latest TREK movie" formula. Interestingly enough, JJ Abrams (by his own admission) was always more of a STAR WARS fan than a TREK fan.
The result is that now TREK actually has a chance of being accessible and appealing to a wider audience. This means more success at the box office.
Yes, yes, I can hear some of you now saying "financial success is not a true measure of how good a movie is."
Whatever. But it IS a measure of how universally popular a film is.
Poo-Poo financial success all you want. The truth is, movies are a business venture with a goal of turning a profit. STAR TREK films (including ST II: TWOK) have consistently failed to do this for Paramount.
Die hard fans have consistently refused to support TREK films to make them hugely successful. Interestingly enough, this is the very same camp that refuses to support even the latest awesome TREK film.
I'm not surprised.
The exact opposite can be seen in STAR WARS fans and their support of the franchise. One needs only look at the Box office totals.
When a STAR WARS film "bombs" with the fans, it takes in an average of about 700 - 900 million (worldwide) at the box office.
When a STAR TREK film "bombs" with fans, it's lucky if it takes in $200 million worldwide (usually considerably less).
Hateful trashing of Episode I now resumes...
The film does not date well at all, and it is far too talky for its own good: "... yak, yak, yak, Spock...yak, yak, yak, Kobiashi Maru... yak, yak, yak Mr. Savik... yak, yak, yak USS Reliant... Regula One... Genesis Device"
Sheesh... I'm getting drowsy just writing that!
You may call me "mental" Hector, but I would GLADLY sit through 10 viewings of STAR WARS Episode I: The Phantom Menace than be subjected to more sleepy STAR TREK movie adventures.
This is why I LOVE the latest TREK film so much. It finally smashed FOREVER the "let's see how talky and dull we can make this latest TREK movie" formula. Interestingly enough, JJ Abrams (by his own admission) was always more of a STAR WARS fan than a TREK fan.
The result is that now TREK actually has a chance of being accessible and appealing to a wider audience. This means more success at the box office.
Yes, yes, I can hear some of you now saying "financial success is not a true measure of how good a movie is."
Whatever. But it IS a measure of how universally popular a film is.
Poo-Poo financial success all you want. The truth is, movies are a business venture with a goal of turning a profit. STAR TREK films (including ST II: TWOK) have consistently failed to do this for Paramount.
Die hard fans have consistently refused to support TREK films to make them hugely successful. Interestingly enough, this is the very same camp that refuses to support even the latest awesome TREK film.
I'm not surprised.
The exact opposite can be seen in STAR WARS fans and their support of the franchise. One needs only look at the Box office totals.
When a STAR WARS film "bombs" with the fans, it takes in an average of about 700 - 900 million (worldwide) at the box office.
When a STAR TREK film "bombs" with fans, it's lucky if it takes in $200 million worldwide (usually considerably less).
Hateful trashing of Episode I now resumes...
The thing about the movies is the ark they started when they killed off Spock. the ark of getting Spock back up and running dominated the next two movies. Still, especially with Trek 4 they had a measure of success.
But as much as I love the original cast, there is only so much believable action/adventure you could have with a cast ready to sign up for AARP.
I think that affected the mainstream viability of the movies to a certain extent. It took a die hard fan (like me) to overlook the age of the cast (and more so, it was just that we really wanted to see our beloved cast, no matter how old they were). It makes sense to us, the future where it's hinted that turning 100 there is much the same as turning 65 would be today but it became a joke to the average moviegoer to have 60 something Shatner in a scrap with a Klingon.
I always thought Star Trek got shortchanged. First by NBC, who tossed it due to ratings a year or so before demographics started to be used (and if Demo's had been used for Star Trek, it would've been considered a huge hit).
Then, Trek was shortchanged by Paramount all throughout the 1970's by their indecision of responding to the growing Trek fandom by making a new movie or a TV show (except, of course for the animated show, which, as much as I loved it, was not an adequate way to respond to the fandom of the show). Then, Paramount get's it's kick in the arse by Star Wars to give Star Trek it's movie and Star Wars' sloppy seconds (when, if Paramount were on the ball and got Star Trek out 2-3 years earlier they would be the leader of the pack).
The Trek movie, despite it not wowing some of the fans and the public makes tons of money anyway and spawns the movie series with the cast that should've been doing movies through the 1970's instead of the 80's.
The other TV Treks came out, some of them better than others, but none were about Kirk, Spock and McCoy and that always counted against them.
That's why I am so glad to have a new Kirk, Spock and McCoy Trek that works (at least in my opinion, and it could very well have crashed and burned). And they are in a position to do a few more adventures, and I want to see them.
And I think they will be mainstream, like Star Trek was always meant to be.
-Tallahassee 
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