The Aesthetics of Abramstrek

[Yukaphile]

I think that was the one, yes.

Well, the thing with Legends I eventually to realize is that it could be opened at any time to be continued, which was an entirely new horrifying thought, so in some ways, it made me happy it ended. I think the general moviegoing audience is generally displeased with the direction their franchise is going, for example, and it has nothing to do with me. The complaint "the new sequel films ruined their happy ending" is kind of an imperfect and flawed way of expressing what the real problem is, and that it's that it doesn't feel tonally consistent to the original trilogy. The characters feel all wrong, and even if they go through dark situations, they'd still remain the same. I know Winter's brought up that very argument, that the Thrawn Trilogy feels more like a legit sequel.

I think art vs. money is an age-old conflict, and money always wins, but it shouldn't. Look at how DS9 masterfully recaptured the feeling of TOS with all the old and primitive cameras and equipment of the 1990s. Yes, it'd cost more to do that these days, but it would mean less criticism, less hate, and more people willing to accept your work. But it's the same reason corporations see paying their workers as a business expense - greed. You don't get anywhere without taking a few risks, and Moore understood that. So rarely does anyone else who works in the business.

Actually, 2 had its fair share of flaws, namely the timey-wimey stuff. I think the first is the most untouchable - except for the DVD release that butchered the sound effects. I loved 3 despite it being a stupid and illogical mess filled with plot holes, but it was a fun thrill ride nevertheless. But then, that has nostalgia in its favor.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I literally see comment after comment with Star Trek and Star Wars fans comparing STD with Last Jedi and how it's all, "Fuck your childhood, this is the new era we're shoving down your throats we're going to MAKE you love!" When a fan feels like that, and they're not a substantial minority, then you know you dun fucked up.

These people are a minority though.

[Yukaphile]

Are they? Are they really? People keep going to see the Transformers movies despite being very disparaging of how awful they are.

[Admiral X]

Can't say I care for any of the visual design on Abrams Trek. That includes the uniforms, which got rid of the sleeves and therefore also the rank on the female version. Everyone seems to always give the uniforms some kind of kudos for remaining mostly faithful to the original, but they seem to be focusing on the male version and ignoring the female version.

[Yukaphile]

To me, the ship design change is what I disliked the worst. Other than that, I tend to think the first film sounds the best, tbh. It just needed more ironing to be truly great. Make Nero's design more consistent with 24th century Romulans. Remove a bit of the bullshit science. And so on and so forth.

[Deledrius]

It's a separate continuity by time travel, not a parallel dimension, so you have to explain why it has the refit look.

Because the film wants to be a complete reboot but also decided to throw a poisoned lifeline back to the originals, creating a situation where neither explanation will ever really make sense.

The time travel excuse only makes sense if you squint really hard and tilt your head.

[Yukaphile]

And that's kind of why I dislike the reboot films. It's popcorn movies, there's no intelligence to it, even in the first film. But at least it feels fun, as others have said, and I do see potential even in the first one. The others? Not so much.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Are they? Are they really? People keep going to see the Transformers movies despite being very disparaging of how awful they are.

Yes really. On one hand you have movies that continually approach a billion dollars. Then on another you asserted that that there's always people that say it ruined their childhood. You didn't establish that at least half of even that former group consists of the latter. Vocal enthusiasts of a franchise don't really constitute a majority or even a representation really.

[Yukaphile]

One thing I wanna say I liked about the first was the potential of the villain, hell-bent on revenge because Spock failed to save Romulus. I feel as if that had potential, but when you're potentially rebooting a timeline, you gotta be careful, though I wanna say the first film seems the safest in retcons and continuity errors, certainly the ones you nitpick over aren't that bad, other than that ship design, which is annoying to nerds, but... well, fine if they'd given it a few seconds of dialogue to explain it. STID? I mean, Khan's magic blood and more necromancy masquerading as science that has no place in the franchise, imo. What's Beyond like? I've barely heard anything about that.

[MixedDrops]

IMO Beyond was easily the best Kelvin film. It was written by Simon Pegg, who has a pretty good track record as a writer.

It was nothing special, it had its problems and it still had the tired "grr i want revenge" villain, but there was just something about it that felt more TOS-ish than the other 2. I'm actually pretty sad the Kelvin films are pretty much dead now after Beyond showed some marked improvement for me.