The Wrath of Khan is one of my top 10 fav guilty pleasure movies

John The Baptist on November 18, 2008 at 2:30 AM

To me, I always thought that it was interesting that the best 2 movies (Wrath of Khan and Undiscovered Country) were helmed by “an outsider”; Nicolas Meyer. Again, I’m hoping Abrams can “un-castrate” the Federation and bring back some balance (good team skills / negotiating combined with a little “whup-ass” if needed).

They’re a true reinvention (or, rather, a return to form of the darker Batman comics that predated the West version)

Not to show my uber-geekiness, but the new series with Christian Bale is actually diving into Frank Miller’s work with Batman: Year One. Frank Miller’s acclaimed work on The Dark Knight Returns led to DC begging him to come back and do another series, and Miller agreed. Miller decided to address some things that hadn’t been brought up in detail previously, which were what happened between the murder of his parents and becoming Batman, how the relationship with Jim Gordon developed, how Batman got his fighting skills, etc. Of course, Miller’s work is a much darker and more violent than that of his predecessors, and it is less about Batman being “good” than about his being flawed and scarred by his experiences, not just with his parents being shot, but his general disdain for criminals and his love for the city his father loved and gave so much to. Chris Nolan (director of Batman Begins derived his movie directly from Year One, and Christian Bale apparently wasn’t even interested in taking on the Batman part until Nolan gave him Year One to read;

Christian Bale: “My inspiration was clearly Chris Nolan’s ideas but also Frank Miller’s graphic novel ‘Batman Year One’ and what he started with that – it was a far darker, more serious take, a more conflicted character that he had. That was the first time I had viewed it as something being worth portraying.”

DC published TDKR in 86, and Year One came out in 87, I think. I would venture to say that the darkest Batman comics (non-graphic novel) period was probably the mid-70s, while the Batman of the 50s seems more in line with the Adam West series, which is more campy. Since West’s series ran from 66-68, I don’t see where the “darker Batman comics that predated the West series” could be an accurate statement.

BTW, for anyone interested; The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One and The Watchmen are generally acknowledged as the best comics of all time, although Miller has also gained some amount of fame for 300 and Sin City. I’m pretty excited about The Watchmen coming out, although really, knowing the ending already will pretty much ruin it for me…

No, this doesn’t look good. A ‘Dawson’s Creek’ take on Star Trek? No thanks…

changer1701 on November 17, 2008 at 1:23 PM

Space: Above and Beyond?

Granted I only saw the pilot, but lordy that was enough.

I’ll let you know after I see it. :-)

(And I stopped ont he TV shows after the 2nd season of TNG and caught very few of any of the others, because I am a conservative)

sigh

But it needs to be done right, and it needs to be done with respect to the original concepts. In the original series, Kirk was extremely young for a starship captain. He was bold, and brilliant, if occasionally too incautious. But he was never just reckless.

There’s tons of room in a new Trek movie to take bold new directions without destroying what went before. Just because you don’t care about continuity doesn’t mean they don’t care, and will breathlessly watch anything you stick out there. Respect your fans, because they are the ones who will make your efforts a success, or stay home.

Why do I suddenly feel like I’m talking about the last election?

I’ve never been a Trek fan….

Allahpundit on November 17, 2008 at 1:19

If you have to ask, you cain’t afford it.

You can’t put that kind of distraction on the bridge of a zillion dollar starship. UNLESS, you give surgery to the men (and Klingons) to make them Eunuchs.

Sapwolf on November 17, 2008 at 9:53 PM

a-HA…THAT’S why no males turn their heads when Seven of Nine or T’Pal walk down the corridor!

I want to believe the Abrams will bring some grit, I’m just so beat down with TNG onward. Each new series/movie was…well…you know what I mean.

Side question; who wins the battle between the Enterprise and a Star Wars Star Destroyer?

Nerds on parade…

You can’t put that kind of distraction on the bridge of a zillion dollar starship. UNLESS, you give surgery to the men (and Klingons) to make them Eunuchs.

As you can tell, I’m a football fan, not a ballet fan.

Sapwolf on November 17, 2008 at 9:53 PM

Dude, you SO have to watch “Starship Troopers”.
Coed Showers!

spec_ops_mateo on November 17, 2008 at 8:32 PM

That’s not a bad idea. Completely change the character of something so that more people will like it. Kinda like what the moderates are trying to do to the Republican party. We don’t know what we stand for anymore, but hey, at least the media will refer to us as human beings now. Cool!

I grew up on Star Trek and Star Wars..and it’s amazing how easy it is to destroy a childhood love of something through really bad casting. I once thought Darth Vader was one of the greatest movie villains ever; now thanks to George Lucas casting that douchetool to play Anakin in the latest round of movies, all I can do now is heckle my way through it. This movie shows the same worrying signs; what made the old Star Trek fun to watch was the cast; everything else was pure cheese. Fast forward 40 years, we have some awesome effects, but a bunch of too good looking to be true P*rn Valley refugees staggering their way through their dad’s bootleg VHS tapes trying to play characters that are almost icons. It’s not just going to be awful. It’s going to be sacrilege. Imagine Owen Wilson doing a remake of The Enforcer, playing Harry Calahan. Or what about Ben Affleck as Rooster Cogburn. This movie should not have been allowed to be made. Waily waily waily.

But a military starship that had a “counselor” ON THE BRIDGE can’t deny being overly politically correct.

And I enjoyed the story arcs on Enterprise, but I was a big enough Star Trek fan to be willing to watch every episode so I could keep up. When it was possible. But they really should have gone to more effort to make each episode stand alone better. The less committed fans could very easily have decided it was just too much work.

tom on November 17, 2008 at 5:47 PM

I stopped watching TNG after just one episode. The psychiatrist babe was on the freekin bridge of the starship looking all hot. WTF? I would have crashed my Enterprise into Starbase Albuquerque with distractions like that.

You can’t put that kind of distraction on the bridge of a zillion dollar starship. UNLESS, you give surgery to the men (and Klingons) to make them Eunuchs.

As you can tell, I’m a football fan, not a ballet fan.

redshirt on November 17, 2008 at 3:12 PM

DON’T go on any away missions…

About time they spiced things up. People might not feel like such huge nerds watching Trek.