The Making of the STID Space Jump

I do believe the below video is an example of one of those cool behind the scenes vids that was doled out as exclusives so many didn't get to watch it when they bought the Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray. Thanks Paramount greed and stupidity. Any case below is a cool, short video that shows how the action sequence was filmed with a cool mix of plain nothing (literally posing before a green screen) to classic practical effects that looks like pure CGI but isn't. (via io9)


Making of Star Trek Into Darkness by itsartmag

Everything Wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness

CinemaSins has turned their "Everything Wrong" series to Star Trek Into Darkness. The result is an amusing but systematic take on just how lazy and poorly thought out the writing was on Star Trek Into Darkness. Its really is the perfect brain dead action film. Make sure to watch all the way to the end for the "My Name is" sequence (or can watch it looped here).

Abrams Confirms Not Directing Star Trek 3

In interviews promoting last week's release of Star Trek Into Darkness on home video, director JJ Abrams confirmed that his Star Wars commitments will prevent him from directing Star Trek 3. This really isn't news per se as it was expected almost the moment it was announced Abrams was directing Star Wars Episode VII, but this is the first time he acknowledged it in any interview I have read. In the interview with Collider he also confirms that Alex Kurzman and Bob Orci are already breaking the story but no other details.

Abrams, Stars Promote Star Trek Into Darkness

For the last week or so JJ Abrams and some of the stars of Star Trek Into Darkness have been promoting its home video release. Most of the time they covered the same "you should see this movie" ground they covered when promoting the movie theater release but a few nuggets of interest were said. Eve talks about the underwear thing, Abrams answers questions on Khan & the video game, Peter Weller defends his character, and Kurtzman and Orci focus on story choices. Below are the links to the stories and segments I found interesting. My comments will be in italics.

Spinoff Online - JJ Abrams

I think the thing was that Khan really is the most iconic villain of the series, and it felt like an opportunity to see another side of Khan and to something that, like the first film did, use elements that people were familiar with but in a new. It’s a valid argument that it’s about time for them to go off and discover and see things that have nothing to do with what we’ve seen before, and I think we’ll always have some overlap. But I’m excited about the next chapter.

IDW December 2013 Star Trek Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for December 2013. The month has three comics and one trade. The Khan 2.0 story continues while a new Annual is being released that is psuedo sequel to the TOS episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Only its being described as a "fotonovel" so I guess instead of art it will be pictures from the series and other things put together to tell the story. Or something. Nowadays John Byrne is a lazy storyteller and artist whose style stopped developing in the 80s so when it comes out I recommend flipping through it in the store before dropping money on it. For the full details of IDW's other books including GI Joe, TMNT, Transformers, and more click here.

Star Trek Teleportation Prank

A prank to promote the home video release of Star Trek Into Darkness and its availability on Blinkbox resulted in a clever illusion that seemingly transports several "volunteers" a short distance in a UK mall to the astonishment of onlookers. The prank of create by Illusionist Scott Penrose.

Star Trek Into Darkness Easter Eggs

While I still do not recommend buying Star Trek Into Darkness, I do understand if you gave into temptations. As a result you might find the list of Easter Eggs found in STID useful. They include a R2-D2 being snuck into a scene, slusho reference, sound cues, call back to the comics, and name drops that reference past Star Trek history. Likely one of Roberto Orci's influences and further proof that he does have geek cred when it comes to Star Trek despite some ideas that the franchise might be broken. If you are interested in hunting them down, the full list of easter eggs are at TrekMovie.com.

Star Trek Into Darkness Out, Remains A Do Not Buy

Just a reminder that Star Trek Into Darkness is out today for Blu-ray and DVD. Normally I would list places to get it at the best prices, with gentle encourage to buy from Amazon so I score some store credit. But not this time as I do not want to encourage anyone to buy the movie even to my own detriment. It remains a do not buy because of the marketing games that Paramount is playing with it.

Games that include making key extra features as store exclusives like director's commentary. The kind of throwaway stuff that normally are exclusives is what comes with the movie (literally, as most of it was released online to promote the movie in early summer. The best extra features are now the exclusives. In other words they reversed the process to try and boost marketing dollars from the various retailers. As io9 put it, "it’s mercenary and shits on the fans, the people who are most interested in the extras. If STiD sells, there’s nothing stopping other companies from pulling the same shit with other major releases." Wait until its used, borrow a friends copy, or just watch other Star Trek films (say Wrath of Khan). Just do not buy Star Trek Into Darkness.

Star Trek Is Not Broken...Yet

It seems that Roberto Orci, one of the writers on Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, didn't appreciate it when TrekMovie.com posted an editorial declaring "Star Trek is broken". For the last five or so years Orci would occasionally would pop up on the TrekMovie.com's comment section on various articles to leave answers (or create more questions) as he worked on the two movies. Do to the negative post, it seems that support has come to an end as he went off on various posters for legit (a nonsense Indiana Jones post) and not so legit (dismissive of everything else). Here are my thoughts on the idea of Star Trek being "broken" and Orci's comments. This isn't based on what Star Trek: The Original Series is in my memory (not some great uber series but as mostly well meaning but boring and/or silly episodes with few exceptions) but what I think Star Trek could be (see most Star Trek top 10 lists).

As I said in my review, "Star Trek Into Darkness is a very entertaining action movie. That does not mean it’s a great Star Trek story." I think for most Star Trek fans, that is the main complaint of the film and TrekMovie.com is no different. After declaring Star Trek broken, writer Joseph Dickerson suggests a return to the "mission statement" as stated by Kirk at the beginning of every The Original Series and end of both movies "to explore strange new worlds..." etc. You know the one. While doing that, the idea should be less fan service and a greater focus on characters rather then action sequences, not using previous episodes to create new movies with new writers (not Orci or Kurtzman), and maybe look back to doing a TV series again. Now as a Trek fan, we all probably nod our head. As one that worked on the movie, I could see why Orci wasn't pleased. Below is a summation of Bob Orci's comments. Ignore the typos, they mean nothing (its from a comment section after all).