Guestpost: Quantum of Trekness

Greetings all - and special thanks to Nate for letting me guestpost on his blog.

Regarding the recent discussion of the new Star Trek movie, I'd like to turn your attention to the fact that Hollywood does a pretty crappy job of handling original material in an insightful and sensitive way, so why should we expect something different with it's regurgitating from TV? Case in point: Get Smart.

I looked forward to this movie with high hopes as I have a lot of respect for the original material (let's face it, I'm a big fan of silly) and I really liked Steve Carrell on the Daily Show and in "The 40 Year Old Virgin." But Steve was not able to overcome a listless script in "Get Smart"; though there were some really fine moments (I especially loved the IVR greeting at Homeland Security: "Press one for threats against the continental United States. Press two for threats against Hawaii"), there weren't enough to make this movie likeable enough for me to want to see (or rent) the sequel.

Now, I will admit to being a total Trek nerd. Call it trekker, trekkie, whatevs. But I've not bought into all the BS that surrounded the movies, though I've seen all of 'em in the theater, usually on opening night. I will criticize the films that I thought were worthless, like Star Trek 3: the Search for Plot, or Star Trek 5: God's A Critic & He's Pissed, or even Star Trek 7: Die, Shatner! Die!

Not to say that Star Trek 4: Save the Whales was any better, but it at least had some funny. And I do loves me some funny.

My biggest problem with all the franchise films is that they didn't deliver on the promise of the series, which was to explore new worlds, seek out new life, and boldly go where no one had gone before - let's face it, they didn't. The closest they got was the Nexus in ST7, and they didn't even launch a scientific probe at the damn thing (though ya gotta admit, crash landing the saucer section was pretty sweet). You're this close to something that causes you to live forever and gives you everything you want and you don't try to figure out how it works? Ye gods you Trek writers, what was wrong with you?

There is hope: I've been reading with interest the reactions of Harry and his band of Merry Movie Madmen to the new Trek movie, and I was also encouraged by the studio's moving the premiere from this Christmas to a tentpole position in the spring. True, tentpoles are usually about as dumb as a... well, a tent pole. But still, I have hopes for this film.

Not huge hopes, though - from what I can see on the trailer, they're building the Enterprise in an abandoned cornfield in Iowa, not in spacedock at Utopia Planetia.

Ye gods.



BTW, feel free to check my own personal whiny-ass blog if you're just bored to tears. My latest post is a rant about the musical choices of ... Barry Manilow.