Posts Tagged ‘Star Trek’

Short Take: Dazzling visuals and a great cast fail to hide the script’s major flaws

Director: J.J. Abrams

Screenwriters: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof

Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, Alice Eve

After a mysterious terrorist (Cumberbatch) attacks Starfleet, Captain James T. Kirk (Pine), First Officer Spock (Quinto), Lt. Uhura (Saldana), and the rest of the crew aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise make it their mission to find him and bring him to justice. They soon find that not only is the terrorist more dangerous than they bargained for, but that there is a larger conspiracy at play.

Read the rest of this entry »

With Robert Rodriguez’s Predators (a remake of 1987′s Predator) opening very soon (July 9th) we here at Movie-Thoughts thought it would be appropriate to bring up the topic of remakes and reboots. A looming remake besides Predators that has had the attention of the movie world is 2012′s reboot of the grossly successful Spider-Man franchise. Why is this?

Many fans on the blogosphere have expressed some downright odious sentiments about the idea of rebooting a movie franchise as successful as Spider-Man, especially so soon after the original trilogy was completed (Spider-Man 3 came out in the summer of 2007). In case you need to play catch-up on the topic, here is the full press release from Sony Pictures about the new Spidey project: Read the rest of this entry »

Providing snack food is one way theaters ampted up their appeal in the 1930s, but how should they improve now?

Much has been talked about in recent months about the growing tensions between Hollywood studios and movie theaters, and no greater tension exists than the one over profits. The advent and popularity of 3-D technology has added to this issue, and nowhere is it being felt more than the pockets of patrons. The high prices of 3-D tickets is easy enough to understand, though many still fail to find them excusable, and it appears the “gimmick” is here to stay for at least the foreseeable future. With some audiences getting what they want with more movies being shown in 3-D and other audiences vexed about the higher ticket prices, what’s to be done? The answer may lie in film history. Read the rest of this entry »

It's that time of year again!

Oscar nominations were released today! See which of your favorite movies/people were nominated, and tell us if you disagree with any of them. Are there any snubs?

We here at Movie-Thoughts are soon going to be starting a continuing piece dissecting these nominations one category at a time, so be sure to check back regularly!

The 82nd Academy Awards will be aired on March 7th, and will be hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

Best picture
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Best actor
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”

Best actress
Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”

Best supporting actor
Matt Damon, “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”

Best supporting actress
Penelope Cruz, “Nine”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal, “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique, “Precious ”

Best director
James Cameron, “Avatar”
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Lee Daniels, “Precious”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”

Best foreign-language film
“Ajami” Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
“Un Prophete” France
“The White Ribbon” Germany

Best adapted screenplay
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, “District 9″
Nick Hornby, “An Education”
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, “In the Loop”
Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious”
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”

Best original screenplay
Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, “The Messenger”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “A Serious Man”
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy, “Up”

Best animated feature film
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”

Best art direction
“Avatar”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine” “Sherlock Holmes”
“The Young Victoria”

Best cinematography
“Avatar”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The White Ribbon”

Best sound mixing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Best sound editing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Up”

Best original score
“Avatar,” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker,” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes,” Hans Zimmer
“Up,” Michael Giacchino

Best original song
“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog,” Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog,” Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36,” Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine,” Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart,” Ryan Bingham and T Bone       Burnett

Best costume design
“Bright Star”
“Coco Before Chanel”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“The Young Victoria”

Best documentary feature
“Burma VJ”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
“Which Way Home”

Best documentary short
“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”
“Music by Prudence”
“Rabbit a la Berlin”

Best film editing
“Avatar”
“District 9″
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious”

Best makeup
“Il Divo”
“Star Trek”
“The Young Victoria”

Best animated short film
“French Roast”
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
“Logorama”
“A Matter of Loaf and Death”

Best live-action short film
“The Door”
“Instead of Abracadabra”
“Kavi”
“Miracle Fish”
“The New Tenants”

Best visual effects
“Avatar”
“District 9″
“Star Trek”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zoe Deschanel in director Marc Webb's "500 Days of Summer," written by Scott Neustadler and Michael H. Weber

The Writer’s Guild of America has announced its nominees for the year’s  Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplays. The nominees for Best Original include the following:

500 Days of Summer (Scott Neustadler and Michael H. Weber), Avatar (James Cameron), The Hangover (Jon Lucas and Scott Moore), The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal), and A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen).

The nominees for Best Adapted include the following:

Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper – based on novel by Thomas Cobb), Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron – based on separate books by Julie Powell and Julia Child), Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher – based on the novel Push by Sapphire), Star Trek (Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman – based on Star Trek as created by Gene Roddenberry), and Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner – based on novel by Walter Kirn).

Notable films that were not eligible for the WGA awards because they were not written under the guild’s jurisdiction were: District 9, Inglourious Basterds, The Road, A Single Man, and Up.

Source: Variety

Writer/Director/Producer J. J. Abrams

HollywoodReporter.com has recently published an interview it conducted with director/writer/producer J. J. Abrams, the director of this year’s Star Trek remake. The film made almost $400 million worldwide, and has made Abrams’ name bigger than ever.

The interview itself is short and unfocused, which probably means that is was held over the phone when Abrams had some free time during his very busy schedule. Being that the movie was released May 8th the interview isn’t very timely, but with fans it is usually the case that good exposure is never too late.

The interviewer, Jay Fernandez, asks a short line of questions that don’t seem to be searching for elaborate answers. Being that there was a probable time-crunch this is somewhat understandable, however the simplicity of the questions (as is almost always the case) leads to answers that aren’t all that illuminating. One example is the very first question, “Was there any part of making Star Trek that felt personal?” The wording of this particular question asks for a very broad response because A) it’s relatively common knowledge that directors typically invest their personal feelings into a project at least somewhat (hopefully more than just a little), and B) because of this the general answer of “yes” is already known before the question was even asked. Abrams, as well as most interviewees, know all this at least subconsciously and respond accordingly by replying “yes,” followed by a short list of summarized examples. Knowing that Abrams was sure to say “yes,” the question should have been phrased in way that asked for particulars, such as “What facet of the film did you have the most personal connection with and why?”

I fault Fernandez only slightly, as a lack of time will always keep an interview and its questions from being as interesting as possible. However, that being the case it would behoove him to ask better questions so as to take better advantage of the short amount of time.

Just a thought.

Chris Pine

Star Trek’s new Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) is currently in talks with Paramount about possibly being the next actor to take on the role of Jack Ryan, the Tom Clancy character that has spanned four films since 1990 (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears).

The next Ryan film is expected to be a reboot of the franchise, the original script for which is currently being written by Hossein Amini.

Pine’s schedule appears rather full at the moment, with Unstoppable currently filming and him reportedly in talks to be in director D. J. Caruso’s project The Art of Making Money, set to begin filming early next year. But Pine is expected to accept the role.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: Pine seems to be a perfectly capable actor, so if he is cast as the next Jack Ryan few people ought to have qualms about the matter. However, I would be more interested to know how many people, especially fans of Tom Clancy’s work, are all that excited about yet another franchise reboot. The first ten years of this millennium is already starting to be referred to as “the decade of remakes”, and for good reason. Perhaps a franchise reboot might not be the way Paramount should want to start the next ten years.

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci

Comingsoon.net has published an interview they recently held with screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the writers of this year’s Star Trek reboot and Transformers: Rise of the Fallen. Kurtzman and Orci are also producers for the television show Fringe, as well as the Sandra Bullock film The Proposal.

The interview goes over what the writers’ thoughts were while writing the script for Star Trek, including what things they took into account like fan preferences, taboos, and what they consider good or bad directions for films that are the first in a series. The two writers seem to have good heads on their shoulders, as they make a lot of sense when they talk about how they go about constructing the stories for Star Trek and Transformers. Feelings about the individual films aside, their logic appears very agreeable.

The writers also touch upon their involvement with the Jon Favreau project Cowboys and Aliens and Masi Oka’s gaming-themed movie The Defenders.

It’s safe to say that the duo of Kurtzman and Orci has become one of the more sought after writing teams in Hollywood, and after reading this interview it becomes a lot clearer why.

"High" culture meets "low" culture

We here at Movie-Thoughts.com try to offer the most unprejudiced movie criticism available, meaning why try to be as descriptive as possible and as evaluative as little as possible. To elaborate on our chosen critical philosophy in order to help you the readers understand better how we think, we are providing a quick glance at and explanation of what is called Cultural Criticism (which is directly connected to the field of Cultural Studies).

Cultural criticism aims to assess elements of culture (in our case films) in a sort of anthropological way, trying to figure out how a work emerges from and competes with other works, sometimes from other facets, within our general culture. The goal is to understand the social contexts and conditions in which a work was produced, disseminated, read, viewed, and used. Read the rest of this entry »

Cowboys and Aliens

Director John Favreau and Oscar-nominated actor Robert Downey Jr., whom are the propulsion behind the enormously popular Iron Man franchise, have just announced their involvement with the film adaptation of the graphic novel “Cowboys and Aliens,” written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley. Favreau will complete his current project, Iron Man 2 due out next summer, and make Cowboys his next directorial outing.

The screenplay is being written by writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek (2009), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen).

Reportedly, Dreamworks studio is behind the project and is expecting its success to help validate the company’s new independence.

Cowboys and Aliens is currently penciled in to release during the summer of 2011.

Source: Hollywood Reporter