May 06 2009
The Onion reports: the new Star Trek movie is unfortunately good
Also, I like that they casted Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes) as Spock. Except for James Lee (Ando), he’s the only Heroes actor that strikes me as remotely talented. However, Quinto will probably go farther in Hollywood because he has the crucial advantage of being non-Asian. Nobody’s Asian in the Movies, except for kung fu stars and ninjas.
I can’t wait! Even though it’s the 11th movie, something seems different about it…
The guy that plays Kirk looks a lot like Tom Brady, though. So perhaps it’s a coincidence that they cast Spock as someone that looks just like Kurt Warner.
I feel that superhero stories have a similar problem here. Right now, comic book readers tend to gravitate towards dark, angsty stories with a lot of cheesecake (soft-core female porn). I think that catering to the comic book readers we have scares away the comic book readers we could have. I can’t get women in a comic book store if they are bombarded by 20 covers that show women in varying degrees of striptease.
Nor do I think that the dark angstiness sells well in a mainstream audience. I notice that the comic book movies that have sold tens of millions of tickets tend to be lighter fare (no rape, no drug use, fairly subdued violence, few dead girlfriends, etc). The success of the Spiderman, Ironman and perhaps even the X-Men movies suggest that there is a huge audience for superhero stories that comic books are not reaching.
In 2008, Comic books sold only 327 million dollars worth of copies through Diamond. (That doesn’t account for all sales, but most of them). In 2008, American publishers sold 1.5 billion dollars worth of books in December alone. American publishers sold 115 million dollars worth of young adult novels in December alone.
I’m going to see the new Star Trek movie with my parents tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it was, as a total newcomer to the whole Star Trek thing.
I found the Star Trek series much harder to get into than Star Wars. Then again, I am merely a casual fan of sci-fi.
I was SO not into the whole Star Trek “reboot” thing. I’m at best a casual fan of the original series (more a TNG guy), but I just couldn’t buy recasting those characters and re-telling the whole story from the beginning – AND having it somehow be part of the original continuity – even as the inevitable sequels come. (“But everything looks different!”, etc.)
(huh. Not a huge ST fan, but still a continuity whore. Weird.)
But the more positive buzz I hear – I’m totally freakin’ jazzed! And as a bonus, because I wasn’t too invested initially – I’ll be sitting in the theater with no idea what to expect!
Hey, nice site, BTW. I’m definitely trying to take your advice to heart…