Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray Problem
2 min read
For fans eagerly awaiting the Star Trek into Darkness Blu-ray release, a lack of bonus content might make them unhappy.
It’s not that there is a lack of extras, but that getting all of the extras would require many different purchases of the same product from different retailers.
The Digital Bits’ Bill Hunt laid out the problem, after getting his review copy from Paramount and speaking to fans. “As regular readers will probably know, I actually liked the film,” he said. “But when it was finally announced for Blu-ray release, I was surprised at the list of bonus content in the press release, specifically the lack thereof – just seven featurettes. I quickly sent an e-mail to the studio PR people, asking if this was indeed the complete list of bonus content, and was told that it was. But somehow, I guess I just didn’t believe it.”
And he was right – more extras had been created for the Blu-ray release but they were not all where they should be. ”
“It turns out that more extras were created for this release – more featurettes and even an audio commentary with director J.J. Abrams and members of his crew,” explained Hunt. “None of it is available on the wide release Blu-ray or Blu-ray 3D SKUs. The commentary can only be found as an iTunes ‘extra’ download. And those extra featurettes? Some are on a Target bonus disc. Some are on a Best Buy bonus disc. And some are only available via CinemaNow and VUDU downloads.
“That’s right: More than half of the special features created for Star Trek Into Darkness were used by Paramount’s marketing team as retailer exclusives.”
The unique content adds up to one hundred minutes of contents, and that’s not counting the two-hour commentary.
It’s rather difficult to believe that the only audio commentary is not on the Blu-ray. It’s one thing to offer the occasional extra bit as a bonus, but to offer most bonus content created for the release in such a manner? It seems that this strategy is not a very good way to treat fans and may well alienate them.
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This is egregious.
The corporation milking the golden cow for all it’s worth.
Well, here, as a public service, let me recreate the commentary track for everyone… and for free:
Sparkly things. Khan. Klingons with a lifetime membership to the piercing pagoda. Covered boobies. More sparkly things. Old Spock. Bad guys being bad. ‘Splosions… The end. Tune in next time when we unfreeze Khan…. again!!!!
By that, I presume you mean Star Trek Into Darkness…
I have no interest in them doing anything else. My objection comes, not from a corporation doing exactly what it thinks it should to produce for its own bottom line, but with them misreading Star Trek fandom so fundamentally to think that they have us no matter what. As a group, we’ve been loyal through thick and thin for decades. But, we are not a group that should be taken for granted. 15 years from now, when JJ Abrams and these jokers portraying these characters are all done with this franchise, who will be left? Ideally, they would have the traditional Star Trek fans along with a new crop of people interested in the franchise overall. However, if they continue to mismanage the franchise, they will see that they don’t have us automatically. We’ll take a lot of shitty Star Trek, but only up to a certain point… and that point isn’t far off. And, at the end of the day, while Paramount might be thrilled with the box office these movies do, the truth is, Star Trek has always been FAR more lucrative as a merchandising property than a film property… And, let’s be honest, the mass crowds that have gone to these last 2 movies aren’t going to be there for Star Trek 40 years from now. Played right, plenty of us, should we still be around, would be… So, they have a choice to make: Attract millions of fly-by-night fans who will give them $30 in movie ticket revenue over the next 5 years, or retain the bedrock fans that have spent hundreds or thousands in the past and will again in the future… However, the two aren’t actually mutually exclusive. I firmly believe that in the right hands, the hands of someone that actually likes Star Trek and appreciates its history, but also with a vision for it, they could not only draw these numbers and much more, but also keep traditional fans happy and put hooks into new fans that aren’t surface deep… you know… the way Star Trek functioned well for decades.
I agree.
“I’ll buy all three Blu-Ray releases to make sure I see all the retailer-exclusive special features!”
—no one, ever
Having an Audio Commentary and a “Captains Log” Video are plenty of extras for me!
What a stab in the back Paramount!
Your not going to sell more than one copy of a combo pack to a consumer. Treat us like this and you may not even do that.
The biggest reported problem with the Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray is that the movie plays.
This is exactly correct. Paramount is doing severe long-term damage to the franchise via the Abramsverse. The comments about merchandising are spot-on, and the Abramsverse doesn’t even HAVE any significant ancillary market. The first film had a line of toys, but those didn’t sell.
For me it’s pretty simple: This is an alternate universe, so it doesn’t really matter what happens in it. Our investment as fans was in the “Prime” Star Trek universe, the one that was depicted in five TV series and ten feature films over 39 years. When the Borg attacked Earth in the Prime universe, it was a big effin’ deal. When the Dominion War raged on for two whole seasons with no outcome in sight, it was serious stuff. Because all of these things were happening in the very same universe Kirk and Spock explored and fought for, all those years ago. Even the BAD Trek, like Voyager and Enterprise, was still fun to hash over because it was still Trek, still the “real” universe that was being screwed up.
Why should I care about the fate of a short-term “bubble” universe that even the writers and producers have taken pains to explain to us isn’t the real thing?
Anyone think Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are still going to be hanging around playing these characters in 20 years? That Paramount won’t have rebooted them another time or two by then? Bwahahahaha.
Splendid! For the bargain price of two copies of the same movie and an iTunes download, they can be yours.
Remember in Voyager when they had like 5 or so episodes throughout its run with various alternate versions of our people? Like the Harry Kim and Chakotay from that timeline where Voyager crashed on the ice planet……. It was hard enough for me to care about Harry Kim and Chakotay themselves, let alone alternate versions of them. And, yeah, this whole thing feels very much in that vein… the only difference is that they’re bastardizing characters I actually do care about… but the fact that we will one day return to the Prime universe is without question for me… The only question is how long it will take Paramount, CBS, and a quality property driver to take the mantle in that direction. Hopefully it will just be 3 and done and then someone who respects the property will take it over.
That’s the really odd thing… this has zero chance of enticing multiple purchases. We’re Star Trek fans, rabid as we are, we’re certainly not morons… sometimes crazed, but not for something we’ll watch on YouTube in 2 weeks, were we even that interested. With that said, had they actually done something interesting, like put a different modelled figurine in each box from each retailer, while I wouldn’t collect them like that, we all know other Trek fans that would, don’t we? That would’ve been a ploy worth doing, and then the people not interested in collecting all of them would simply choose the character they wanted and thus purchase from the retailer of their choice, but there would be collectors getting them all… not for digital documentary content……….. Whoever is in charge of Star Trek at Paramount as the liaison overall at this point should be fired. Now.
Just buy the movie on iTunes before its Blu-Ray release…..and boycott the Blu-Ray over its extras issue.
The iTunes release is part of the same problem…
15 years?
Let’s hope it doesn’t take that long to rid ourselves, but it might.
If their third entry comes out in 2016 as they plan for the 50th, that’s 3 years from now. If it bombs, it’ll easily be another 5 before Paramount even considers another attempt. Then another 2 years for that production to actually wrap, and another beyond that for fx and post production work… that’s 11 years from now… and if, for some godforsaken reason they do an additional entry with these actors, it pushes it even farther away…
TV is the only place within the next decade where we have a chance to get real Star Trek onscreen. A shame, but a sadly truthful one.
The audio commentary is the only extra I have an interest in. If its not there Im not buying. And im not buying a movie off itunes either.
These guys can’t even release a video without ****ing it up. Do they not realize that it’s easily over half of fandom that didn’t even like the movie and are embarassed that they paid to see it? And the ones that are interested in the video, for whatever reason, aren’t going to buy it if they have to get three copies. These guys have no clue about the fans. No wonder they have ruined Star Trek
Short term bubble universe. I love that!
I agree 100% with what you said.
Easily over half? I highly doubt that. And who constitutes “fandom,” anyway?