User blog:Dorkpool/Star Trek Beyond

It's been a while since I've bitched about a trailer and/or nerdy stuff, and for good reason: I didn't have much to say outside of "hype." That's changed.

The preview for the third installment in the rebooted Star Trek movie franchise (and the thirteenth Star Trek movie in all), Star Trek Beyond, came out yesterday. And I have some stuff to say about it.

First, how is it that the Star Wars trailer is more subtle than this one? Star Wars had some new characters, old ones, a previewized version of the Star Wars theme, it felt grand and epic. Star Trek Beyond has explosions and motorcycles and...Beastie Boys. Yeah, I should address that last one. The song playing for the preview was the Beastie Boys song "Sabotage." I do like the song a lot (and the Beastie Boys in general), though I find it odd that this song is the one they use for the preview for a Star Trek movie (and yes, I'm well aware Kirk was listening to the song in the first reboot. Actually, I have a mini-rant on this kind of stuff: how come he listens to stuff from the '80s. Keep in mind, the Original Series era of Star Trek took place around the 2200s. Why is Kirk listening to a song from around 200 years ago? Like, fine, let's assume it survived the Third World War, which was a thing in Star Trek. Why does the guy who's supposed to be a badass/awesome listening to a really, really old song? I know it's badass for us, but wouldn't other people think it was kinda dorky? Just saying).

You may be asking, "Why does this bother you? The movie could be an explosion-filled action fest of fun. Is that really bad?" Well, let me explain the biggest difference between Star Wars and Star Trek. Star Trek is somewhat intellectual, usually tackling social issues and making commentary on the world of the present. It's somewhat brainier when it comes to sci-fi. Compare this to Star Wars, which is more of an action/adventure/fantasy kind of thing that focuses more of fun and action that social commentary. It's more fun than intellectual. Not to say Star Trek isn't fun, because it is, but Star Wars is more well known for fun (note that I'm talking about the Original Trilogy. We all try to pretend the Prequels never happened).

Anyway, taking all this into mind, consider the trailer, which has a lot of action, a lot of explosions, motorcycle stunts, and the song "Sabotage." It seems like the movie is trying to be just a standard action/explosion movie. Which would be fine if it weren't Star Trek, and the movie before this one was Star Trek Into Darkness.

Into Darkness pissed off A LOT of fans, due to reasons that I will spoil for you. You see, the villain, despite being denied many times before the film was released, turned out to be Khan. As is Wrath of Khan. As in arguably the best Star Trek movie. And Into Darkness tried to redo it.

To be honest, having Khan didn't bother me. Having scenes lifted straight from Wrath of Khan with some character switches kind of did. I mean, the movie did start out doing something different with Khan, having him be more sympathetic and such. He was going in a different direction than what the original continuity did, which I don't mind. A reboot is the place where one can do this sort of thing, and arguably should be. You can tell different sorts of stories, do new things, etc. However, trying to replicate scenes from a much better movie isn't what one should do, and many fans were pissed. Hell, many were pissed by the first reboot, partly because of what's being demonstrated in the trailer for the new movie: too much action, too little thinking.

Now, if you're making a movie that has a built-in fanbase, one of things you want to do is please the fans. You want to tell a story that pleases them, and the general audience. Wrath of Khan did that. Search for Spock did that. Voyage Home did that. Final Frontier...ok, forget that. The point is, the better Star Trek films did that.

However, many could argue the new movies are more focused on pleasing the general audience than the fanbase, which is kind of true. However, that pisses off the fanbase. The very, very large fanbase (let put it to you this way: during the 90s, around half of all Americans were Trekkies. Like I said, large fanbase). And with many more action movies coming out around the same time this does, this sort of makes Star Trek blend into the crowd. Oh, it's just another sci-fi/action movie with pretty good effects. Nothing special here.

Hell, the most memorable part might end up being the lens flares.

My point is, the trailer doesn't really leave a good feeling in my stomach or other parts of my anatomy. The Star Wars trailer did. The Captain America: Civil War trailer did (though I would've liked to see Spider-Man in it). The Batman v. Superman trailer did. This...didn't. Does it mean it's awful? No. Does it mean the movie will suck? No. But it'll probably turn off some people to the movie.

Or not. What do I know? I'm just a guy who should really get back to making Riffs.