Tempering my excitement... it could suck, you know

I've already started planning on it sucking. That way, when it's just OK, I'll haved tricked myself into thinking its great. If it sucks, I'll have prepared my heart for it. And if it is absolutely amazing...I'll probably just die right there. Perfect solution: Expect it to SUCK.

 

Right on with this...."Star Trek is now a rebooted franchise; Star Wars is a continuation."

When trying to foresee what TFA will be like because of what Star Trek was like you have to remember that and it basically makes the comparison impossible.
They geared TFA toward feeling like part of the saga. Star Trek was a reboot that was designed to have nods to the old stuff but also to refresh the franchise.

 

JJ could have Luke fight the turd of a Sith for the finale and lens flare it to death and I STILL would not be as dissapointed as I was 10 minutes into Phantom Menace.

 

PREACH!

It's like I mentioned before, go in expecting SW and only SW. Don't think about anything else including how good one SW film was and how much you didn't like another. Not ANH. Not TPM. DEFINETELY not Star Trek (2009). Just a SW film. I'd bet money TFA slides in MOST fans # 3 spot.

 

In my original post I did say that I enjoyed the 2009 Star Trek.

Into Darkness - there are some aspects I did like. The performances by all the actors was top notch. Sorry, but the ending totally ruined it for me. Ok I will admit yes it is better than majority of movies out there today. But I think the mere fact that people allow stuff like ripping off the ending off a movie, gives hollywood the ok to keep producing garbage.

The "make the movie more accessible" is line used by every director who attempts to film a remake/reboot/sequel/prequel. And yes the 2009 Star Trek was really good.

I have my doubts about Simon Pegg writing the next Star Trek also. I loved Simon Pegg's Hot Fuzz and Sean of the Dead was good, but World's End was extremely bad.

Everyone has there hopes and expectations. But sometimes there is just one thing that will totally ruin a movie for me.

 

Tempering my excitement as well, personally I disliked the filming/visual style in the teaser trailer. It's a far cry from A New Hope or Empire. However it feels very much like Return Of The Jedi to me.

I really enjoyed both Star Trek movies, honestly don't know how he could have made them better. Maybe Into Darkness could have focused a little more on the Star Trek lore, but aside from that I think it's arguably the best science fiction/action movie we've had since Return Of The Jedi. Yes i'm serious, he's the perfect choice for TFA.. but as I said I wasn't feeling the overall style from the teaser. I hope we get some slow moments to counter all the action stuff it appears to be hyping up.

 

It was 88 seconds of random clips. I can see how some people might not like the style of the Falcon shot but it's really hard to pick up on what the style is of the actual film is from that little of a glimpse. If you never saw ESB and you were shown 88 seconds of clips from it I don't know if you could get a feel for the visual style of it either. I'd wait for a full on trailer before really assuming we know what the visual style is or more importantly the actual film.

 

The CGI is not impressive as it could have been

 

The CGI Falcon looks ok to me. Not perfect but passable. Much better than anything in the PT, which I didn't like.

 

First of all, the focus of the film is purported to be more practical effects instead of CGI. Second, one of the best uses of CGI tech in this day and age is not to add to a scene but to subtract: think of how well this could have worked if Lucas had used CG to delete the obvious puppet strings on C-3PO in TPM. Lastly, the glimpse that we were shown should in no way be viewed as the "final product"; with post-production still underway, my guess is they hurried to get these clips done "well enough" to make them into the teaser. Judge not by what has been revealed, but by the film we finally see in December.

PS: Yes, what we have seen is already far better than the PT digital effects (other than the Clone Troopers; I will give them a passing grade).

EDIT: Ninja'd by @Max Rebo

 

Agreed. The final product will most likely look even better. Shooting had ended just a few months before we got the teaser. This year leading up to December will be spent on CGI,sound and editing. They made it good enough to look good in an 88 second teaser. I'll bet even the first trailer looks better than the teaser.

 

The thing is, just as you said, Star Trek was a - reboot. So Abrams had to take already established characters in an already established timeline and try to come up with something enjoyable that isn't the same thing. Also - JJ didn't write Star Trek, they were written by:
Roberto Orci
Alex Kurtzman
Damon Lindelof (Into Darkness only)

Here, JJ is writing it with Kasdan, and he has freedom to continue a story, not try and re-tell it. I'm not saying it is 100% certain to be amazing, but there are some differences between the ST and SW modern movies that need to be mentioned.

EDIT: I just saw a few other people saying similar things. Don't want to beat a dead horse, but thought it was still worth saying

 

I prefer to floss a dead horse.

 

We have seen JJ personally mentioning using CGI to subtract things. This is probably due to all of the practical effects. I bet those guys working on the BB-8 scenes are loving life right now.

 

The one common argument for why TFA will be better than the prequels that I don't buy, is that it will have more practical effects.

The special effects were not the problem with the prequels - they just get blamed by association. The poor dialogue, wooden acting, uneven pacing, massive plot holes and flat humor were not a result of too much CGI. Pixar has proven that CGI effects do not prevent a movie from being emotionally engaging. The heavy (or completely) CGI sequences in the LotR trilogy showed that even heavy use of computer effects don't get in the way of an audience ability to be immersed in a story.

I'm sure that having more tangible sets will be of some help to the actors, but the majority of movie goers can't tell the difference between practical and computer sets. And it's not as though practical effects are without weaknesses. Even as a kid I though the stop-motion Tauntauns looked fake. The movie was just involving enough that I didn't care.

As long as the effects in TFA look as believable as possible, it doesn't matter if they're CGI or practical effects.

 

I honestly think without a shadow of a doubt TFA blows away all 3 prequels. When you can see what mistakes were made and you have even more resources it would be hard to not make it better

 

When I read opinions like these I am really left scratching my head. After Berman ran the franchise into the ground, I was burnt out on Trek and was skeptical of Abrams Star Trek film when I heard the film was being made. When I finally did see the film three years ago I had very low expectations for it. That all changed afterwards, it was a great addition to the franchise and I feel that it infused a breath of fresh air into Star Trek. We'll see how long that wave lasts, but for myself Abrams Trek films are among the best of the 12.

I think you are absolutely correct when you say that the audience has changed, and perhaps not for the better. There is too much back seat driving/arm chair criticism of elements meant to be an escape from reality and no to be nit-picked ad infinitum and ad nauseam. As a soon to be 34 year-old I still feel like a kid when I watch all 6 of the previous Star Wars films. I won't pretend they are the perfect, but they are still one long and brilliant epic which help my mind escape from the everyday grind.

There aren't many films out there that don't get financed for dreams of financial windfall and I don't believe Star Wars is any different for Disney. For JJ Abrams and those involved in the actual production, they are pouring their hearts into this project to make it the best addition to the existing saga it can possibly be -- I have the utmost faith in them to succeed in their mission. IMM Star Wars is in a different stratosphere than Marvel as it pertains to franchises, it's a given that TFA and the rest of the ST will be better than anything from the Marvel universe.