I can watch this bit of thievery all day!

Star Trek III – Stealing the Enterprise

I’m wondering if I should fire the blog up with another Bash-A-Rama-Thon celebrating (heh) the tenth anniversary of TPM coming in May. Maybe pop the DVD in the player and see how badly the movie has aged. Also, the new Trek reboot is coming next month, though more news I hear about it, the less inclined I am to see it. PT-type red flags still are waving high. To sort of protect myself against PT-Shock™, I’ve been wrapping myself in (old) Trekkie goodness and seeking others who have trepidations about the new movie. There’s already a rift forming between fans, and it’s quite a familiar place for me.

Hmm…maybe a Trek-A-Rama-Thon?

Not only was it a weak effort (at best), but it added a new phrase to the lexicon: nuke the fridge. Kind of like “jump the shark” but dumber. Dang, George.

Who watches the watchmen? Better question: who owns the Watchmen?

I don’t know how I’m going to reconcile J.J. Abrams’ reboot (?) of Star Trek with established canon, but I’ll have no qualms about consigning it to “alternate timeline” territory if comes down to that. Something about this enterprise (pun intended) doesn’t feel right, and the shift to a 2009 release date is also bothersome.

The less said about it, the better.

I’ll take Posthumous Academy Award Nominees for $200, Alex.

Is she beautiful or what?

Harold Ramis of Ghostbusters fame is talking about maybe getting the gang back together for another sequel. Eddie Murphy is going to take Axel Foley for another spin around Beverly Hills. The obvious question is “Why?” The other obvious question is “Why now?” Sequels being made these days are for franchises whose ages can be measured in decades. Great gulfs of time between now and the last movie made. “Why now?” Because Hollywood is deathly afraid of original ideas, plus movie budgets are skyrocketing into the eight digits, so they go for the sure thing. Gotta get that money back somehow. Sequels, prequels, reimaginings, updates, melding franchises. If it was made at least twenty years ago, chances are good somebody somewhere is pitching it to a studio.

Will somebody do something different? Please? Something without a number attached?

I’ve seen more of the Clone Wars toon lately, and I still don’t like it. (Go to Sandtroopers.com to catch a sneaky-peek if you’re so inclined.) The animation still looks clunky, and my inner writer is still dancing around in angry circles about the total disregard of continuity. Plus, one particularly idiotic PT Lucasian touch resurfaces (stupid battle droid antics). Now all that’s left is the AniWhine™ and that supposed friendship between Anakin and Obi-Wan we never saw in the movies.

A couple of weeks ago I bought Raiders of the Lost Ark, inexplicably rebranded as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. I would have been upset if they had changed that in the movie itself. The special effects are somewhat dated (done about the same time as the OT) but at least it didn’t contract CGI-tis as did the SE OT. There’s something reassuring about sets and location shooting. Raiders is gritty, grungy, dirty, dusty, and I still love it. From what I hear, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull goes overboard on the CGI, which Spielberg said wouldn’t happen. Well, that movie I might rent later.

Update: Clip’s been pulled. The LFL Nazgûl strike again!

Priceless gems once again drop from Lucas’ lips:

We all knew this was coming, right? This is Lucas we’re talking about. The guy who never saw a franchise he didn’t want to squeeze the last red cent out of.

Staking out the competition? :pfft:

*hysterical screaming* *and not in a good way*

Indy without Harrison? That’s like Gone With The Wind without Vivien Leigh, Dirty Harry without Eastwood, The Blues Brothers without Belushi! What is this boy drinking?!

I don’t know. In the trailers he looks a bit out of it to me. I guess it is the years and not the mileage.
….

That’s not what I would call “thriving”.

There’s that “it’s just a movie” write-off again. The networks get it, all right. They get that they can’t make a long-term commitment to a series that might not deliver ratings and, more importantly, advertising dollars. The PT was a joke, and anything following in its footsteps will be looked upon with jaundiced eyes.

You know, for all the stuff he throws out for me to shoot down, he should be selling it. Add it to his list of things to milk to death.

That’s basically what Uncle George is saying about the fate of Indy 4. It’s not as much an attempt to head off high expectations as it is another finger pointed in the face of fans who have the audacity to expect him to actually deliver a quality product. Does this sound familiar?

Just a movie. If it was “just a movie”, he wouldn’t be in such a hurry to sweep the decks of all possible criticism to absolve himself of any responsibility if things should not turn out well. If it sucks. Hey, all I’m doing is sitting out in the audience wanting to get submerged in the world of Indy again. If it stinks, that your fault, George, not mine. (And I’d hate to have brush Steven with the blame as well, but he’s part of the package, so…)

The PT stunk, and he could have learned the lessons from that and moved on. But he turned the fire hose on us who were “blinded by nostalgia” or “had their own vision of the movies in their head for X years”. Are we gonna hear that whine again when the new Clone Wars cartoon and the live-action series come out, and those not enamored with them will yell loud and long about it?

I guarantee it.

The website Movieweb snagged a pic of the so-called “MacGuffin” in Indy 4 and had posted it. The LFL Nazgûl swooped in and wagged their collective finger, so the pic disappeared as quickly as it was posted. Somebody downloaded a copy and posted it on the web; I have seen it, but I’m not going to say where.

*waves at LFL Nazgûl*

What I will say is that the crystal skull has pretty much been spoiled already by a couple of manufacturers. Remember all of Messrs. Lucas and Spielberg’s talk about setting the movie in the 50’s? What was going on then? Roswell, the Red Menace, bomb shelters, Attack of Inconceivable Giant Insect That Ticked-Off the World movies. Focus on Roswell and the cliched Bug-Eyed Aliens.

Heck, that’s been spoiled in the freakling teaser poster itself!

It wasn’t much of an anniversary year this year. No special DVD box sets, but lots and lots of talk about the still-in-production Clone Wars cartoons and the live-action series. But Luke’s ROTJ lightsaber did go into space. Yee-hah.

Another movie that got the royal treatment the OT should have gotten. Thanks, George. :frustrate:

I couldn’t make up a sillier name if I tried. We kept getting snippets of info on this flick, trying to allay our fears about GL’s involvement. I’ll continue to hold my breath.

Well, Windows users…downgraded to XP yet?

(Us Mac users can’t laugh. Leopard was six months late.)

SW fans and Halo fans have something in common: we think guys in armor rock.

Smile, Bilbo! We’ll get to go “There And Back Again” with you in 2010!