Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

Based on the plot details I've heard thus far from around the net, I have no faith in the film, but I will give it a fair chance.

I know it'll turn out better than if they had given the controls back to brannon braga and rick berman.

I personally was in favor of the romulan war trilogy that was green lighted for production only to be killed by a regime change at the studio.

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

hopefully they don't add space monkeys just for the merchandise op.

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

Fanon. Fanon Star Trek can be awesome.

Of course, it can also stink horribly, but at least you've got a choice of which to look at.

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

Atrocities, my friend, you have a way with words that just makes me laugh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif Love it!

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

I actually enjoyed Cloverfield quite a bit. I went in with an expectation that I was going to be watching a monster movie, and with a set expectation as to what a monster movie was: Big nasty beast for some reason shows up, smashes the crap out of stuff, kills a whole bunch of people and then gets killed, maybe. And that, to a T, is Cloverfield.

There's no real plot because everyone just runs away and/or is killed. There's no character development, because no one lives long enough (and frankly, the destruction of a city by a giant lizard allowing a character to come to terms with a childhood trauma would be approaching a Uwe Boll level of pretension).

Lots of stuff getting broken/blown up, lots of yelling and screaming and a big nasty is all a monster movie needs. And I suppose it's a matter of aesthetics, really, but I liked the handycam approach to the whole thing. I'm rather bored with the current fixation on showing absolutely every single detail from every possible angle in resolutions so crisp you can see the goosebumps on the hero's arm for 50 yards away.

It's just so... Clinical. Flat. Boring. Souless.

If Cloverfield had been done in the current style of films, when the characters that were being followed around were running down the street yelling, "What the hell is that?" Instead of being right there with them thinking, "I don't know! What the hell IS it?!", we'd be thinking, "It's an alien life form brought here inside a meteor 5000 years ago. It was stirred from it's cocoon by underwater nuclear tests and it has come to the surface looking for food. It is confused and frightened by it's surroundings, and that is why it is lashing out violently."

And when they wondered, "How can you kill that thing?" Instead of wondering the same thing, we'd be thinking, "Well, one of the fighter pilots did find a weakness in it's armor and exploit it, but no one knows about that right now because the monster managed to destroy the plane. There's also a wound it sustained while freeing itself from it's cocoon, and thanks to CSI-style zoom in effects and an apparently unrelated scene at the start of the movie, we know that there's a scientist nearby who has invented a chemical that causes the kind of bacteria infecting the monster to grow at an incredibly high rate, so that would be an option too, if our heroes manage to rescue the scientist and bring her (statistical probability be damned, it'd inevitably be a woman) to the military command post, where she'd have to convince the General that her crazy plan really will work."

The omniscient viewpoint works well for some types of film, but monster movies aren't one of them. Long winded expositions where all is revealed in painstaking detail belong in legal thrillers or spy movies. In a good monster movie, I don't have a clue what's going on, and frankly I don't care if you don't tell me, because something big just blew up.


Edit: Just realized the irony of bashing long winded expositions in this post. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

monster films is a genre that has been beaten to death more times than a zombie. I recall JJ abrams said cloverfield was born out of seeing a godzilla film and watching the little people run from it wondering what would be going through their head.

The only character driven plot in the whole film is the bits and pieces of footage from before the monster attack we see when the camera is dropped/dunked/eaten/molested/etc which serves to explain the actions of the main character.

The sequel to the film is supposed to follow another moron running around with a camera during the attack. (smart people run from monsters, not around them)

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

Correction, smart people with video camera's find safe vantage points for which to record steadily from. What pisses me off the most about people with video camera's is that every yahoo with one thinks he is a zen master making videographer. I have been in the industry since 1985, and I cannot tell you how many times I have been told "no my best friends brother's uncle has a new video camera, he's going to tape our wedding for free. We would like our money back." Two weeks later they come back, crying and all that, and ask me if there is anything I can do with the bouncy nasty video they got from their free wedding video. It is truly a sad sad thing. All because you have a guitar or a piano doesn't make you a music master. So why in Gods name would any one want to pay $8.50 to ticket to sit through two hours of intentionally badly made video of stupid people running through New York while a giant octopus is attacking the city? Next it will be a video about people running from zombies. If I want to watch badly made videos, I will watch NBC news or youtube.

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

I'll have you know I shot my sister's wedding : http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

actually It scared the hell out of me. It might be that everyone said I did well not only because they were trying to cheer me up, something I always suspect, but also because I was so afraid of messing it up I concentrated on filming and didn't pay much attention otherwise. The tripod we got helped too.

I also sculpted the roses on the cake.

A saying in our family is you get what you paid for. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

trying to find a safe vantage point to tape the monster! what! No, run from the damn monster!

As for cloverfield, I suspect videotaping while fleeing doesn't work out too well. I suspect you also said the same of Blair Witch http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

As for the rest of your post, I sympathize. My brother in-law stylizes himself as a professional musician / voice actor / singer. No one can convince him otherwise. Even when his customers slug him in the face for whatever that sound he makes is supposed to be.

Re: Star Trek XI Plot
 

[GI-Joe]Kids, this is why you don't base your self-respect on something you do. Especially something you don't do well.[/GI-Joe]