Awesome band by the way.
Confessions of an Avatar / 3d Sceptic
I went into Avatar with low expectations. I expected the story to be unoriginal and 3D to be annoying. The funny thing I wasn’t wrong. However it turns out if you take off the shelf ideas and mix them together, like a good DJ set, it doesn’t matter. 3D is annoying or rather would be annoying for most films, but for blockbuster Sci-Fi or animated tales it has it’s place. I can happily see myself going to see maybe a film a year in 3D (Tron Legacy in 2010).
Avatar is essentially a gaia anime story combined with Dances with Wolves. It’s what you would get if you got the Macross team (Macross Zero) or Bones (Eureka 7) to develop a Ghibli film (Laputa) for the western market. This is no bad thing as I loved all of the above and frankly if it opens peoples minds enough, maybe a western friendly anime series might *just* get their interest.
3D is not the saviour of Cinema. It is as it was every other time, a gimmick. The 2009/10 version is a more polished gimmick, but it is still what it was before; interesting for a few key niches, but at best unnecessary at worst distracting for anything else. My only worry is that Hollywood will strip mine the 3D Sci-Fi/animated tale blockbusters until even the hint of space or a pixar-like film will have people running for the hills. This could do major damage to genres I enjoy.
As for 3D at home, anyone who invests in that is an idiot of emperors’ new clothes level.
The Star and The Trekious
I went to see Star Trek yesterday evening with my friends; John, James and Susan. I’d like to put some reference in here for you. John is a fan of Batman and Star Wars, so tends towards preferring Science Fantasy or Comic Fantasy. James is a huge Star Trek fan, it is pretty much the base of his Science Fiction fandom and I would like me grew up with TNG. Susan I guess to a lesser degree, but I guess prefers Science Fiction. I prefer good Science Fiction, but Fantasy of any type can go down well.
Now I’d like to state what I hope Star Trek is at its best, which is good science fiction that makes you think, but that is palatable enough for the general public, Inclusive Science Fiction if you will. A lot of this inclusion comes from believability based on continuity and science that works by stretching, but never breaking the rules.
In many ways this is what recent remakes like BSG and the Batman movies have succeeded in. Taking out the unreal-ism and treating your audience with respect. If you think how old BSG was, it felt a lot more like Star Wars than Star Trek.
Out of the four of us I believe John enjoyed the new Star Trek the most and James the least. Now taken as vacuous entertainment ST is pretty good, the effects are shiny and the explosions loud. However once my brain came out of sleep, I really didn’t need it to watch ST, stink set in. It is bad science fiction, with plot holes larger than the black holes in the film. Most notable is the extreme variability of speed in the film. I don’t want to spoil it for those that haven’t seen it, so please look away now. So an experimental 24th Century Vulcan high-speed ship can not get to Romulus in time and a Federation ship is too far away to call for help whilst under attack. However a 23rd century ship can get to Vulcan in about 10 minutes flat and get soo far away from Earth a huge black hole can cause no harm to the planet or system. That’s just the blindingly obvious. I won’t go in to the rest of the insane plot holes as, unlike this film, I won’t insult your intelligence.
Star Trek before this was suffering from many problems:
- A complete lack of strange new worlds and civilisations.
- Time Travel fixes/breaks everything, please bare in mind Time Travel was initially invented for a semi-comedic Star Trek film. It was not designed to be used all the time.
- Space Invaders level film plots. Nemesis and this film share so much in common it is scary.
- Being embarrassed to be Star Trek.
- Feeling like they are on the Final Frontier and not just 10 minutes from the safety of earth.
- Screwing up the canon for no good reason. Canon changes are welcome for the good of the series, not just because we can.
What we are left with if analogized as Batman; is a Batman with super powers, no interest detective work and half his family are still alive, but oh he still wears the right suit. It is the skin of a Star Trek on Star Wars as directed by Michael Bay. Frankly it is sad that Hollywood won’t fund new franchises as JJ Abrams obviously wanted to make The Fast and The Furious in space, which is what this is, what it isn’t is Star Trek.
