Do Not Buy Star Trek: The Compendium

The reason that Paramount released a crappy blu-ray edition of Star Trek Into Darkness last year is official out now. The Star Trek: The Compendium is a four disc total set with 2009's Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. The '09 Star Trek is the identical Blu-ray set that has been available for years while while Into Darkness is what the initial release last year should have been before Paramount stripped-mined its extra features as retailer exclusives. They did that because they knew this addition was waiting in the pipeline. So basically this "new" set is an attempt to force fans to buy the exact same movies set twice rather then a way of trying to get new fans on board (or go Lord of the Rings/Hobbit with genuine new content that cost a pretty penny to put together like the Extended Editions).

If you followed my advise last year and avoided buying Into Darkness then this could be your reward with its 20 extra features including what I understand to be an excellent commentary (which last year was an iTunes exclusive). However, Paramount WILL do this again with more of their movies and then the rest of the studios will copy them. As a result it is in your best interest as a movie fan (as this really isn't a Star Trek issue) is make it clear to Paramount that this is unacceptable. The only way you can do that is to speak with your wallet by keeping it closed. As a result I once again recommend - Do Not Buy. However, if you insist on doing it and plan on buying from Amazon, click here so this site gets credit.

Star Trek: The Compendium Announced But Do Not Buy

And the other shoe drops. The reasons behind Paramount releasing a crappy home video version of Star Trek Into Darkness (whose tactics forced me to recommend no one buy the movie) has become clear with the announcement of Star Trek: The Compendium Blu-ray set. The 4-disc set covers both JJ Abrams Trek movies and add new content for the first Star Trek movie while combining all the retailer exclusive content for Star Trek Into Darkness. The box set will retail for $39.99 but likely be cheaper when released on September 9, 2014.

I actually love the ideas and extra's included in this set but sadly I have to again recommend that you do not buy it. The reason is simple - do not reward bad behavior. This set should have been released last year with Star Trek Into Darkness but Paramount waited a year to maximize sales at the expense of fans. If this is a commercial success the only lesson Paramount will learn is they should force as many double-dip situations as possible and it could lead to other studios following their example. Its one thing to sorta be forced into it because of format changes and major anniversaries where a genuine effort was made to create new content for a special release but this is none of that. It is clear the Paramount Home Video department made the decision to hold back and segregate content as "retailer exclusives" knowing this was coming later and not telling anyone. After all why risk hurting sales for those willing to wait for the better set? It should not be rewarded and that means you should not buy this or anything move copy related to Star Trek Into Darkness. Still if you can't help it, the full details on set's content can be found here.

Star Trek Into Darkness Nominated for An Oscar

Today the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences officially announced the nominations for the the 86th Annual Academy Awards. Star Trek Into Darkness received one nomination for Visual Effects. Congrats to the crew on the recognition of their fantastic work. Sadly odds are very long with them winning as suspect a Gravity sweep. The winners will be announced during the Oscar telecast on March 2nd. The full list of nominations is here.

Visual Effects
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
The Lone Ranger
Star Trek Into Darkness

More Behind the Scenes Video, Concept Art for Star Trek Into Darkness

ILM has posted two more videos to go with their previous "Behind the Magic" vid that shows how they did some of the special effects for Star Trek Into Darkness. The first video below looks into building the future city of San Francisco with some of the details that were considered in building the massive skyline and destruction sequence. The second video looks at creating the red planet and how they incorporated set footage into the film. In addition, io9.com has posted some sweet concept art for the film that has a particular focus on the Vengeance and the architecture for the movie. That gallery is here.

Behind the Magic: Visual Effects of Star Trek Into Darkness

ILM has posted a short video that shows a little bit of how they did their usual outstanding job on the visual effects for Star Trek Into Darkness.

Khan Comments on Abrams Reversal on Khan

Benedict Cumberbatch is starting to make the rounds to promote The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug so IGN asked about JJ Abrams comments that maybe the efforts to keep the identity of Khan secret was wrong. His answer was probably a bit more truthful then he intended.

"What a dickhead! (laughs) I mean, the amount of times we had to lie for him and keep secrets, the amount of times I had to not talk about it being my character. God damn him. No, I love him. Maybe, I don’t know, it’s logistics, isn’t it? I don’t know if it’s a bad or good thing, it was his call. I was fine with it. I liked the idea of…the intention was to have a reveal in the audience that was going to be thrilling, where people go, “Oh, really?” and that worked to an extent, cause not everybody knew what they were in for when they went into the theater, and some people wanted to join in that thrill of seeing it, and experiencing it in the theater rather than having it spoiled for them in reviews, or got internet gossip or traders that gave everything away. So, who knows? For those people, I would say it was a good thing. And for anyone else who wants to find out, you know, there are always ways of finding out, and people have their hunches. But, I sat in a couple of theaters, and both times it was like, “Yeah! Oh, what!?” there was just a verbal and physical reaction to it, so I was like, “It kind of works."

JJ Abrams Admits Khan Mistake for Star Trek Into Darkness

In an interview with MTV (vid below), J.J. Abrams expressed a little bit of regret about how they handled the Khan twist in Star Trek Into Darkness. Abrams once explained his "mystery box" approach to television and movie projects with a goal of trying to contain spoilers to surprise the audience. In the case of Khan, it seems he thinks that may have backfired a bit.

The truth is I think it probably would have been smarter just to say upfront ‘This is who it is.’ It was only trying to preserve the fun of it, and it might have given more time to acclimate and accept that’s what the thing was. The truth is because it was so important to the studio that we not angle this thing for existing fans. If we said it was Khan, it would feel like you’ve really got to know what 'Star Trek' is about to see this movie. That would have been limiting. I can understand their argument to try to keep that quiet, but I do wonder if it would have seemed a little bit less like an attempt at deception if we had just come out with it.

A few thoughts on this:

1) Nice job throwing the Paramount marketing department under the bus. Abrams has always held his cards close the vest, no matter how crappy some of those cards are (back to the mystery box approach). The decision to lie about Khan was clearly an Abrams and company decision and Paramount just went with it because their job was easy - don't mention Khan. But this is a production were something as simple as the name of characters where kept secret and not officially confirmed for a ridiculously long time.

How Star Trek Into Darkness Should Have Ended

An amusing take on some of the rather significant story wholes created in Star Trek Into Darkness thanks to the significant examples of lazy writing that was in the movie like the super blood and galaxy wide transporters.

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

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.

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).

Do Not Buy Star Trek Into Darkness

As a life long Star Trek fan, I want to support the franchise. However, sometimes that can't hold. With the upcoming release of Star Trek Into Darkness on Blu-ray, I cannot recommend buying it. Not because of the quality of the movie (lacking but a different subject) but because of Paramount choosing to provides its best extra features as exclusives. Over half of them in fact. Now the concept of exclusives is not new but until now the exclusives where either about the packaging, an extra item or a second rate extra feature. Now that has changed to special covers (6 at last count), special collectibles (a phaser or Hot Wheels USS Vengeance), and breaking up their best extra features as exclusives. By purchasing the movie, you are encouraging bad behavior and guaranteeing they continue this horrible practice. Even worse, you will encourage the other studios to engage in the same behavior.

Star Trek Alternate Klingon Designs

Star Trek Into Darkness concept designer Neville Page has posted on his website a series of images that show off rejected concepts for the new Star Trek Klingons. Page committed on his designs saying:

This first round of images are some of the development of the Klingons. This was a very important assignment for me because I knew how important it was to the fans of the franchise. It was a delicate balance of respecting the established looks from previous incarnations yet delivering something appropriate for JJ's film... Part of my self induced criteria was to do a cleaner version (especially regarding the forehead) and to make them sexy (or sexier if you already find them sexy!)

You can view the large gallery of designs here. (via io9)

Honest Trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness

Screen Junkies has posted their latest piece of movie snark. This time they turned their eye to Star Trek Into Darkness. It is an amusing (and accurate) take down of the movie with a ton of spoilers so warning. Not that it matters at this point as the movie has as much in common with old style Star Trek as Star Wars does.

Star Trek Into Darkness Passes 2009's Box Office Total

After this weekend, Star Trek Into Darkness passed a minor milestone by making more than its predecessor. 2009's Star Trek made a worldwide total of $385.7 million with $257.7M from US and $128M from overseas. STID's current total is $412.8M total with $211M from US and $201.7M from overseas. The end result is Paramount successfully campaigned the movie to international audiences (where Trek films usually do poorly) but the cost was the film doing poorly (relative to the first film) in the states. A lot of that probably has to do with the very stiff summer competition that started with Iron Man 3 and has not really let up. Considering things are not going to slow down anytime soon I will be surprised if the movie crosses the $450M mark or surpasses the previous film's $257.7M US total. I have no idea what Paramount's internal goals were but I suspect they were expecting to at least cross the half billion mark. I don't know what this means for the sequel but if Trek history is a guide, usually failing to meet expectations means a reduction in budget. Depending on who takes over for JJ Abrams at the helm, it is too soon to know if this matters or not.

Star Trek Into Darkness Concept Art

The Film Sketcher blog has posted some pretty concept art that was created for Star Trek Into Darkness. The art includes designs for Klingons, the volcano suit and jump suit along with comments from the artists. You can find that here or here.

Star Trek Into Darkness Drops to 3rd

In its second weekend of release, Star Trek Into Darkness fell out of the top spot to number three behind new releases Fast & Furious 6 and The Hangover Part 3. The drop isn't surprising and actually pretty small relatively speaking with only a 32.7% drop vs the more average drop of 50% or more. The result was a weekend US gross of $47.2 million for a US total of $156M. On the international side, the movie crossed the $100M putting it within striking distance of the first film's $127M international total. Its still to early to see where the final numbers will land but with a worldwide total of $258.1M after around 3 weeks of release, it looks like it might successfully pass the $385M total of the first film and possibly become the first Trek film to cross the $500 million threshold. That climb will be tough as the competition only gets harders with upcoming releases of Man of Steel, After Earth and Monsters University.

Everything Wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness FAQ Style

Recently I posted an amusing video title "Everything Wrong with Star Trek in 5 Minutes or Less" that kind of nitpicks at the film (and others in the Everything Wrong series. io9.com has posted their unintentional take, only they did it FAQ style that is just as entertaining to read. However, as the post title states, if chock full of spoilers. It pretty much goes through every single plot point of the film revealing all the details. It also pretty much explains my review of the movie where I believe the film is very entertaining action film but a bad Star Trek story. Now some may call it nitpicking but I don't see anything wrong with wanting an action film to have a great, coherent story. Click here for the spoiler filled FAQ.