Star Trek Titan? Any takers?

Over at Scifisquad.com, there is an article that talks about a comment Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker) made the other day when a fan asked about a new Star Trek series. The comment was about an idea Frakes had awhile back for a series following his characters exploits after the final Next Generation movie, where he takes command of the USS Titan. He would be joined by Counselor Troi (Miranda Sirtis) and a new crew in a timeline just ahead of TNG universe.

The problem with this idea is it seems kind of pointless as the timeline as we know it has disappeared with the latest reboot, but little things like that can't stop Star Trek. But, would anyone watch a new Trek series? Enterprise tanked because no one watched it, and both Voyager and DS-9 both had extremely poor ratings at the end of the show, so, have those things changed?

Would you watch a new Trek? And, if so, what would you like to see, a move into the future, a similar timeline, or the alternate timeline setup by 2009's reboot?

For me, I would love to see a new Trek series, but it would have to be done with care. I would like to see the alternate timeline back for TNG times. So, there could be an Enterprise (or not) and there may or may not be a Jean Luc Picard in the timeline at all. Give it a complete reboot, and find some good writers!

How it should have ended: Star Trek (2009)

I love the people over at HISHE, and this video is a great reason why. I have to admit, I loved the latest J.J. Abrams Star Trek, it was possibly my favorite movie of oh 9, and one of my favorite Sci-Fi films ever. But, I have to admit, this would've been awesome! Check it out.

Star Trek has a DVD release date!

November 17, 2009 is the magical day you can own a legal copy of one of the greatest movies of the year, and by far, the greatest Star Trek movie of all time.

Are you excited? Of course you are!

Star Trek...well, 2, Part Deux

There has been a ton of talk since the critical praise of J.J. Abrams Star Trek about a sequel. The question has always been, do you go for a new story, or do you rehash something from the original series. And, I swear, if someone mentions "V-Ger," I will smack them in the face.

It would be interesting to see what the writers come up with, as far as an original story goes, but if you are going to rehash an old story, I would have to go with one of two stories, or, better yet, a combination of the two.

The first, The Doomsday Machine.
This episode deals with Kirk, Spock and the rest coming upon what is a pretty much unstoppable solar system killer. Every effort the Enterprise makes to stop it is denied. On top of that, the Enterprise rescues a captain from another ship, the Constellation, and a power battle ensues with Kirk and a crazy captain. This episode has all the right mix of drama, a big scope, and some character battles, allowing for a great symmetry between whats going on in the ship, as well as outside the ship.
Here is the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKRKg0FA5YA

The second, Balance of Terror.
This episode truly shows Kirk as a shreud Captain in an almost Hunt for Red October sense, as he battles a Romulan commander testing a new ship with a cloaking device, who is just as shreud as Kirk. In the original series, the Romulan is played by the same guy who later plays Spocks father, Sarek.
Here's a preview, for some reason, I can't find the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-9WqidMjuk&feature=related

The reason I pick these two is simple. At this point, there is no Klingons, and the Vulcan's have their own issues, so both Kirk and Spock truly hate the Romulans for what Nero did to them. I think this would be a great way to show some biggetry, which must be overcome, and a great personal conflict for each. On top of that, you are still not really sure Kirk should be the Captain of the flagship of the federation, and this will show the metal he is made of.

So, what do you think, should there be a completely new story, or maybe a rematch with Kahn? Let me know what you think!

Year One bombs, The Proposel Wins!

Happy Monday, movie geeks!
To start things off this week, we're going to look at how last week went for some new movies and some old ones.

The Proposal got first place with a decent $34.1 million, which isn't too shabby, considering the film only had a budget of $40 million. Once again, both Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds show they can bring in the crowd.
The Hangover, one of the funniest movies of the year took second place on its third week with an impressive $26.8 million, which is amazing considering the total is over $150 million for a movie with a $35 million budget. Clearly there will be atleast 10 more of these made in the coming years.
Disney/Pixar's Up got a handsome third place, showing the movie has some real staying power with a total of $21.3 million.
Year One comes in a dismal fourth place with $20.2 million, which could struggle to get its $60 million budget back.

Star Trek is still in the seventh spot, refusing to drop out of the top 10 with a $4.7 million dollar showing. Clearly the new trekkies are just as passionate as the old ones.

So, now, that we know how last week did, its time to put on the Great Kevini hat of predicting stuff. (I'm still working on the name) Transfomers 2 is set to be released on Friday, which will pretty much desimate the movies I listed above, but how high will it go? The first movie got a $70 million opening weekend, and considering sequels generally do better, I'm going with a $86 million opening weekend.

So, given all the hype, are you going to brave the predicted crowds, or are you waiting?
I don't know if I can wait, but if the crowds are bad, I may have to pull a week-day viewing next week.

Top time travel movies of all time:

Time travel has been a staple to Sci-fi for a long time now; everyone seems to love the idea of going through time, putting right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap....sorry, I digress. Anyway, some call time travel a cheap way out of writing a good script, but I think it is hard to do it correctly, and if done correctly, is all that much harder, and shows a much better writer.

So, without any further delay, I present the top 10:
Honorable Mention: The Final Countdown (1980) - This piece of Sci-fi gold star a young Martin Sheen and involves a modern U.S. Aircraft carrier that somehow gets dropped into the middle of a battle between U.S. and Japanese forces in World War II. A truly great movie, with an exciting premise.

10) Deja Vu - Starring Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer, an exciting, action packed time travel movie about a government agency investigating a horrible riverboat tragedy. A pretty decent modern day time travel story.
9) Time Cop - Jean Claude Van Damn at his finest. This movie gets bonus points for special effects, trying to establish rules of time travel, and the fact Mia Sara, Ferris Bueller's girlfriend is nakey.
8) Butterfly Effect - The fact there is an Ashton Kutcher movie on here speaks wonders for the writing, and Amy Smart. The movie established an interesting premise, and established the classic rule of time travel movies: anything you do will have serious repercussions on future events. This movie lost points for the theatrical release, but gained some back for the directors version of the ending.
7) Army of Darkness - Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi...'nough said. This movie was all kinds of awesome and funny. The trilogy was great, but the third incarnation had some great special effects, some fantastic writing and Bruce being Bruce. This movie got some serious bonus points for the ending.
6) Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Yeah, yeah, the whale one; shut up, I liked it! Anyway, the movie was fun and campy, and a great ride, which was something different for Trek at the time. This movie established the idea that anyone with a starship just needs to get close enough to the son, and voila! Extra points for Leonard Nemoy's spock saying "one damn minute, admiral."
5) Star Trek: First Contact - Are you noticing a pattern yet? There seems to be a theme of time travel and Star Trek. This one pits the next generation crew against one of the best bad guys the series has ever known; the Borg. The crew goes back in time to stop the borg from ending a flight that brings the vulcans to earth for the first time.
4) Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - The break through role for Keanu Reeves. This movie gets bonus points for having the late, great George Carlin as the guy who helps Bill & Ted save the world, and ace their history test. Believe it or not, quantum theorists have said this, despite all others seems to follow the rules of time travel the closest, phone booth or not.
3) Terminator - This series is kinda the reason for the poll. The series had lots of time traveling heros coming back to save the famed John Connor, including the best, Robert Patrick as the T-1000. Arguably the Governators best role, the second, especially, is one of the best movies of all time. This movie gets some special points for innovation, but it loses points because the governator starts out naked.
2) Star Trek (2009) - The movie just came out, so I won't ruin anything for you. I was hesitant to put this movie so high up, for fear people will say it is just because it's new, but this movie does a great job of using time travel as a way of rebooting a franchise without telling you to forget about the last 40 years. Besides the best movie of the summer, this movie handles time travel with ease, and hardly feels the the puzzling McGuffin of other movies.
1) Back to the Future - The name gives it away. This is a trilogy that is among my favorites, whenever it is on, I will watch it. Besides being a great memory from my childhood, this movie has some real staying power with excellent performances from Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox. This movie, through a digital console on the dash of the famed Delorean (which I want so bad due to this movie) keeps the audience well aware of the time of when and where they are, and also deals with alternate time threads (when the timeline skewed into a tangent) and did so with comedy, charm, and a lot of heart.

So, agree, disagree, or did you think of something I missed? Let me know!
Until then, stay cool, movie geeks!

Twilight fans Vs. Trekkies: The Showdown!

VS.

Trekkies are known throughout the world as the most over the top of the movie fans. There doesn’t seem to be anyone who can top the ravenous nature of the Klingon loving fans, with their conventions, toys, even there own language. Lately, however, there seems to be a franchise with a fan base crazy enough to go after the thrown; Twilight fans.

It is no secret Twilight fans have a killer instinct that drives the stars of the movie into hiding and makes them afraid for their own life. Also, there seems to be countless Twilight clubs online, along with little conventions of their own, which are pretty impressive, considering there is only one movie out.

So, which group is the more…passionate? (I say that, because I don’t wanna call them crazy and have them coming after me.)

Trekkies have been around a lot longer, with the TV show starting in 1966, and 11 movies, spanning 30 years, and spawning 4 more TV shows, Trekkies seem to have the advantage when it comes to material. Where they lack, however, seems to be the amount of money made. Up until this years reboot/sequel/whatever of the franchise, the franchise seemed to have a warp nacelle in the grave, the highest grossing movie for the original series was Star Trek IV: The Voyage home with a $67 million gross, and the highest ever, was Star Trek: First Contact with $97 million. The final numbers aren’t in with the newest movie blowing away expectations, but until now, the franchise definitely had a week spot.

Twilight has a total of 4 movies planned, with one in the books…get it…books? Never mind. Anyway, there is one movie out on DVD, with one being filmed, and two more in some stage of pre-production. The books that the movies are based on seem to be everywhere, a clear advantage to Star Trek. The first movie alone grossed a total of $191 million, with a staggering $69 million in its first week (more than the Voyage Home ever got). The final advantage, it seems, for Twilight, is the youth, who will be obsessing about the adventures of emo-vampires for decades to come.

So, pretty evenly matched, don’t you think? Who is the more rabid, vicious, obsessed group? My money is still on the Trekkies, who, with the newest movie, seemed to have grown their numbers, but with Twilight coming out next summer, expect that to possibly change, with what I predict to be a possible box office record breaking weekend.
So, we made it through another showdown, if you disagree, leave me a comment, but don’t hunt me down. Also, for your entertainment, check out this funnyordie.com video about the craziness of the Twilight fans. Until then, stay cool, movie geeks!

Cam Gigandet vs. Twilight Fans from Cam Gigandet

Goldmine or bust?

Late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's son, Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry is reported by Variety news as getting ready to release over 500 hours of behind the scenes footage and cast interviews from Star Trek the Next Generation and the additional spinoff series. Roddenberry said it's a gold mine with the huge success the new Trek film had, he wants to share some of the magic with new and old Trekkies.

Now, here is where I have a problem. First off, I love behind the scenes, I think how the movies and shows are done are often more entertaining than the shows themselves, but a goldmine? The way I see it, the new film brought many fans, not necessarily because it was Star Trek, but because it was a great Sci-Fi movie. Now, do you really think all of the fans of the latest blockbuster are going to rush out and get their hands on the behind the scenes of a show that had very little relation to the movie, and was probably one that was seen by very few of the people who just saw the movie? My answer: Not so much. I think the die hard trekkies (and if you ask me to call you a "trekker" I will smack you in the Klingon dome piece of yours) will buy the DVD, and why not, if you enjoyed the show, you would probably enjoy this, but saying fans of the movie will rush right out and get this is comparing apples to oranges and oranges always win (I don't know what that means, but whatever).