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Crusher Crushed from Nemesis
Ant sent in a link to Wil Wheaton's weblog where he writes a surprisingly heartfelt piece on being cut from ST:Nemesis. Its a strangely bittersweet little entry that really speaks volumes, especially considering Wil's fairly public disagreements with
Rick Berman. Apparently Wil's bit was cut along with 48 whole minutes of the flick- its just the nature of filmaking. But
I guess if nothing else, they've got tons of stuff for the DVD now!
This was on Fark early yesterday. Why such a lag in communication here?
it would have been better if Mr. Crusher could have made a little appearence somewhere in the background or in another portion of the movie. Last night's "Enterprise" rerun had a lot of people from the Deep Space 9 playing different characters. They want the crossover. What was even funnier is when Trip said "What are you going to do? Program a holographic doctor?" An obvious poke at those who watched voyager. It's stuff like that which makes Star Trek interesting.
But a 3 hour star trek!?! Jeez, talk about long!
That won't stop them from doing a plain-Jane release now and a director's cut (or whatever) later. (The director's cut of TWOK kicks ass, but I'm guessing that the people who forked over $$$ for the DVD set are a bit miffed that they're not getting the extra goodies. The added scenes improve the movie more than you'd guess.)
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
That's pretty bold, given that I have only seen the trailer, but here's why I think it'll be bad.
First, the trailer makes it out to have wanna-be horror elements. It's too dark for StarTrek; even First Contact and other encounters with the Borg (by far, the most powerful enemy the Federation knows) are nowhere near as intense. If it hadn't been for familiar characters, I would have said that the trailer was for a budget-hyped Babylon5 episode from the Shadows series.
Second, it seems too action oriented. Yes, we all love the StarTrek blow-up-the-other-ship action. If done well, battles are good and add a lot to the story (DS9 had a few episodes with epic battle scenes with Cards - incredibly cool). This movie just seems to have lots of fighting action without meaningful substance. There's also this ATV with guns driving around on rough terrain, then later jumping into another vehicle much better suited for transportation. That makes little sense to me (I can see arguments, but why?)
My third reason will get me flamed by all the horny geeks out there. The movie appears to have an explicit sex scene. While sex between two characters had been implied frequently in the past, it was never explicitly shown. This destroys an element of the StarTrek universe that I've always found charming: it's always had a childish innocence. A fun element. This kind of subject matter seems to turn ST into a different animal. (This reason is purely subjective.)
Fourth and last, all this spooky, "don't fear..." nonsense that just seems way to ominous to be believable (and quite cheesy - I laught when that bald guy says that in the trailer). This sort of ties into part of reason one. Again, the movie is trying to be something StarTrek isn't.
Overall, I get the strong impression that Rick Berman is not targeting geeks, but rather, the mainstream gun/sex/action oriented entertainment. "Blow stuff up and fuck the girl!" That seems great in a lot of ways, but I've always turned to ST for entertainment of a more intellectual sort.
Rick Berman is pulling a Lucas and not staying loyal to the fans.
Why bother.
You obviously have not seen the Wrath Of Khan Directors Cut DVD. It has several very good specials on the making of the movie. I assume the Original Motion Picture Special Edition has some good extras as well (since it comes on two discs.)Granted, the original releases leave much to be desired, but Paramount is correcting that problem. So maybe there will be some goodies on the DVD eventually.
I picked up Anti-trust, because I have a habit of buying movies that I want to see when they are $10 or under. Its nice, no trips to Blockbuster and I have a bunch of films lying around.
The storyline didn't make any sense. Watched the deleted scenes, where a MAJOR part of the plot was cut. Makes more sense.
Some of the deleted scenes from Dogma gave a LOT more insight into the characters.
Alex
Most directors don't do it that way, though. They film lots and lots of extra footage, even some scenes that have overlapping dialogue and plot exposition. That way, when they get to post-production, they can chose to the clips that came out the best, and dump scenes where the director doesn't like the final product without losing the narrative.
If you watch the deleted scenes in a lot of DVD's, this process becomes a little more obvious.
The Jabba scene that Lucas put back into Star Wars for the "special edition" is a classic example. The conversation is almost word-for-word the same as the one that Han had with Greedo. When it was originally filmed, Jabba was played by a fat guy in a fir coat, and Lucas didn't care for it, so he chose the Greedo showdown instead to reveal the Han Solo subplot (owes money to gangsters for dumping his contraband on a recent job). Personally, I think Lucas never should have put it back in; but having done so, he should have cut the Greedo scene. Instead, he kept both scenes, which slowed down the movie, and ruined the Greedo scene by adding a first shot by Greedo before Han killed him, convincing Star Wars fans everywhere that George Lucas's mind has finally broken.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Beyond Wil Wheaton being axed from Nemesis, it's really a tragety for anybody looking for a real story when they go to the theaters, not the chopped and boxed two hour edit. So many movies out there could have been great if the man with the axe had only shown a bit more restraint and a bit more faith in his fanbase. They're basically saying we as an audiance can't handle a deep plot and don't have the attention span to sit through three hours of movie. It annoys the crap out of me.
A good example and everybodies favorite here on Slash-- Lord of the Rings. Damn near 3 half hours and I loved every single minute of it . I didn't get bored. I didn't wince at the complex plot. I was thrilled that a director actually broke from the pack and lengthened the movie, ultimately making it a par excellent experience. I can't imagine how a two hour Cambells condensed soup version would have added up. Makes you wonder what how the extended edit will fair if the movie is this good now...
Back to the point, I've been waiting for a decent Trek series/movie for years. TNG? Booorrrring... They were the UN of outer space. DS9? Better. It depicted the edgier side of the Trek universe, but it was still pretty damn sanitized. Personnally, it only got good when large quantities of ships began blowing up... Anyway, Voyager? It had it's moments. Too bad they were far and few between. The movies? Wrath of Kahn. Hands down. Undiscovered Country? It was OK filler until the next great movie... Which was... Umm... Sorry, but I wasn't inspired by any of the TNG movies, though First Contact and Insurrection were OK. It wasn't anything that you hadn't seen in the series before. It comes down to this- I'd be willing to bet an extra hour would do the new movie a world of good. The Trek universe is rich and full of plot and the fans want to see it. It's the reason it's been kept going all these years. For once, I wish they'd take break the mold and create an experience, not just a movie.
On Wil Wheaton, it is kinda too bad. Just a hunch, but I'm betting he'd actually be good in something other than that "annoying naive teen" roll he was cast in for 90% of the series. It's a misjustice all the way around....
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