Can JJ Abrams Successfully Reboot Star Trek
Over at Aint It Cool News, Harry Knowles has posted the results of his exclusive access to some footage from the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie. I try not to pre-judge things, particularly when I haven’t even seen so much as a trailer. However this is a project that has worried me since it’s conception.
First some background. While a huge sci-fi fan, I really don’t qualify as a Trekkie/Trekker. As a child I enjoyed the original Star Trek series. As a teenager I appreciated the quality of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Unfortunately Star Trek: Deep Space 9 just paled next to my love of Babylon 5. And Star Trek: Voyager deeply underwhelmed me by failing to do anything new with the franchise at all.
Then came Star Trek: Enterprise and what seemed to be an effort to move in new directions and address some of the story limitations that had developed over the years as the series had progressed. But somehow it just never worked.
Meanwhile the Star Trek movies have consistently underwhelmed me since Star Trek IV. And yet I continue to care about Star Trek for two reasons. One is that I have fond memories of it from when I was younger, and the other is that I recognize it’s importance in creating mass appeal for science fiction.
Image via Wikipedia
JJ Abrams Star Trek movie is a reboot and that in itself I don’t have a problem with. However, they’re going back to the beginning using the original characters and setting it before the first Star Trek series. That immediately sets the bar for success very high indeed, inviting direct comparisons between the new actors and the old.
I’m also not a huge fan of setting stories before other well known stories. It tends to limit the directions that the story can go in substantially and it also introduces the temptation for fan wankery in the form of endless nods to things that are still to come. But these are problems that can be overcome with the right script and the right cast.
A bigger problem in my mind is that by going back to the original series again, they run the risk of bringing a TV sensibility to something that really needs to feel like a movie. Think back over the recent movies. How many of the feel like films and how many feel like a two parter from the tv series?
In theory Abrams has what he needs to avoid that trap. He has a budget in the region of $150,000,000 which is unprecedented for Star Trek movies and he has a cast that on paper looks good. That mean’s he’s really only limited by the script.
If we’re lucky we could finally see a Star Trek movie that not only exudes the “sense of wonder” that Star Trek: The Motion Picture attempted but gives us action and excitement. If we’re unlucky we might not see another Star Trek movie at all.
Why? Because of that budget. Up to now the Star Trek films have been able to limp along giving modest returns and needing only the hardcore fanbase because they were budget movies. Star Trek: Nemesis for example had a budget about half that of the new film.
For Abrams Star Trek to be seen as anything more than a failure, it needs to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars world wide. And it can’t do that relying on the hardcore fanbase.
Can it do it? Maybe. The studio seems to think so, they’ve pushed the release date from Christmas 09 to May 2009 which means it has Summer blockbuster potential. I hope they’re right.
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Johnd
Kirk & Spock are so identified with the actors that play them that I think it will be hard for diehard “Trekies” to accept anyone else in those Iconic roles, especially that overrated guy from Heroes.
Jun 28th, 2008
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