Reinvention
From Wil Wheaton’s blog:
“I’m going to commit heresy right now and say what few people are willing to say out loud: most of the Star Trek movies are absolute garbage. There have been ten Trek movies, and I’d say that two of them are accessible to mainstream audiences, another two are great, and the remaining six are nearly unwatchable. If JJ Abrams wants to make his new Trek movie unlike the 80% of Trek movies that aren’t that good, that’s just fine with me. Not that my opinion means anything, you understand, but rambling on and on about things like this is the price of being a geek, and I regret nothing. NOTHING!”
I say without much fear of contradiction that the “accessible” movies were “The Voyage Home” and “First Contact”. (Man, I remember movie critics squirming as they reluctantly admitted that FC was pretty darn good.) “Wrath of Khan” has to be in the “great” category – there is no point in arguing with me there, so don’t bother.
So, I wonder which movie is Wil’s other “great”? Notice that he cannily forgot to mention the names involved…
I’m still looking forward to #11, whatever fandom decides to call it. You have to give people the chance to try something a little different, otherwise we all end up bored to tears.
Tags: fandom, movies, philosophy, star trek
If his other “great” isn’t Undiscovered Country I’ll eat my hat. (A claim I feel relatively safe making owing to my predilection for going about with my head uncovered.)
*I* liked Search For Spock, but I freely admit that that’s mostly nostalgia speaking.
No, he did list only even numbered ones as being good, so it’s most likely The Undiscovered Country…
What was #4 called? I’d say that 2 and 4 are the “great ones”.
“The Voyage Home” was #4, and #2 was of course “Wrath of Khan”.
I’d have to put more thought into it to defend or criticize his numbers… but look at it this way. That’s 40% that are worthwhile – a number so far above the filmmaking average that it’s a significant achievement, especially given that it’s taken over a large number of writers, directors, and years.
IMO – Khan (and you know how I hate to say that) and First Contact for great and Voyage home and Undiscovered Country for ‘accessible’.