Variety reports that the next installment of the
Star Trek film franchise will hit the big-screen in 2008. It's reported to be the long in development Starfleet Acadamy story that features a young Kirk and Spock. The film will be written and directed by J.J. Abrams who created
Felicity, Alias, and a little show you might have heard about called
Lost. Oh yeah, he's got a
big budget action movie (also part of a franchise that he's trying to rescue) coming out in a few weeks starring that guy who jumps on couches.
As a
Star Trek fan, I suppose I should be excited about this and looking around for a free couch to jump up and down on, declaring my excitement.
But while I'm excited about the possibility of a new
Star Trek movie and I will be there opening night to see it, I have to admit I'm not all that jazzed by the guy they're putting in charge of the films. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I'm not really sure J.J. Abrams is as great as everyone makes him out to be. Yes,
Alias was brilliant its first year and a half, but it really jumped the shark with that after-the-Super-Bowl episode where Syd and Vaughn took out SD-6 so they could sleep together. Ever since then, it's been a series that has dropped the ball time and again without the internal continuity it so desparately needs or wants (I bet no one on the show recalls that it should be two years in the future now....it was a cool cliffhanger but it was dropped quickly). And I'll give you that
Lost is a good show, but I chalk that up more to J.J. having a great staff of writers and producers around him who make him look good. I often wonder if J.J. wasn't the name to get Lost on the air, but the real geniuses are the guys in the trenches with the day to day running of the show such as David Fury (last year) and Carleton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (this year).
But I'm not sure J.J. Abrams is the genius that everyone makes him out to be. I'd love to be proven wrong not only by
MI:III but by this
Trek film.
I think what the
Trek franchise needs is a film that is both epic in scope and scale but captures the essense of what made the TV show so great. In short, they need to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was
Star Trek II. That's not saying they need to try and remake
Star Trek II, which I think is where
Nemesis went so wrong...it wasn't a bad movie, per se, but it borrowed so many elements from
Star Trek II (a nebula to hide in, an enemy with a personal connection to the captain, the death of a beloved character) that it felt tired and "been there, done that."
I am hopeful that Abrams and his team can bring some new life and ideas to the
Trek franchise. But let's face it--there is one name that could revive the Trek franchise and over which my fan-boy heart would gush and for which I'd be Fandangoing a ticket right now. Two words: Joss Whedon.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 4/21/2006 01:08:00 PM |
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