Abrams Star Trek Into Darkness Regrets
1 min read
If Abrams could change something about Star Trek into Darkness, fans would have been a little less in the dark.
Speaking with MTV, Abrams claimed that keeping information back from the audience wasn’t his idea, but the studio’s.
“The truth is, I think it probably would have been smarter just to say upfront ‘This is who it is,'” said Abrams, referring to keeping Harrison’s true identity secret. “It was only trying to preserve the fun of it, and it might have given more time to acclimate and accept that’s what the thing was.”
The studio didn’t want word to get out, because they wanted more people to come see the film, not just Trekkies. “The truth is because it was so important to the studio that we not angle this thing for existing fans,” said Abrams. “If we said it was Khan, it would feel like you’ve really got to know what Star Trek is about to see this movie. That would have been limiting. so I can understand their argument to try to keep that quiet, but I do wonder if it would have seemed a little bit less like an attempt at deception if we had just come out with it.”
Abrams is currently working on the new Star Wars movie.
Get More:
Movie Trailers, Movies Blog
About The Author
My response to “but I do wonder if it would have seemed a little bit less like an attempt at deception if we had just come out with it” is…”yes”.
Enough rumors were out there that the actual revelation in the film was a “yeah, no kidding” moment, and the sum became less than the parts. I’ll give Mr. Abrams credit that he is being honest–but in my opinion if someone (Paramount, whomever) was planning or thinking a “Psycho” type series of shocks were in the offering for the audience, then a “Psycho”-like moment was needed, and was absent. The Carol Wallace to Marcus moment was more unexpected.
There also needed to be a bit more linkage to the Montalban characterization, if one was truly going to make this KHAN instead of some villain who happens to be named “khan” (because for good or ill, Montalban is Khan in audience minds, so Cumberbatch didn’t have a blank slate to begin with, even if he worked on one). There had to be at least a little more homage early on, to nail down Cumberbatch *is* Khan, but a different Khan. The way Karl Urban does a wonderful variation of DeForest Kelley (and in my opinion, a better Bones).
I think all that would have been necessary was a riff on the “once I was a prince” and/or “we offered the world order” lines early on (say, the brig sequence) to bring home it is still an capable superman, but one with an ego. Then Cumberbatch could have continued with his “cooler cucumber Khan” portrayal. The Uberman ego did come out towards the end, as Cumberbatch ordered full speed ahead for Starfleet HQ, but by then it was hard to link his Khan with the Space Seed Khan, and I am not going to say he became a generic Trek movie villain, but neither is it something I care to take up a defense on.
My two cents, for what they are worth.
The *marketing* of the film – really? That’s his one regret? Not the logical issues that require massive effort on the part of the audience to overcome, or the xeroxing of dialogue from a richer film, or the decision to submerge the Enterprise, or any of a dozen other legitimate artistic complaints people had? The *marketing*.
Regarding Star Wars it sounds like Abrams has the “it wasn’t my fault” line down pretty well already.
If keeping Khan’s identity a secret remains, to this day, his primary regret with this movie, then clearly he still doesn’t get Star Trek.
He go can fuck up Star Wars all he can now. I’ve stopped caring about anything he does. I’ve yet to see a single movie of his that wasn’t a let-down by the time the final credits roll. I haven’t seen a single TV series of his either, but there’s nothing I’ve heard that makes me want to start. Having a great premise but writing yourself in to a corner seems to be a trademark of his.
Is he trying to say that the current lack of any real details surrounding the new SWars movie is also not his choice? What about his magic box?!?!
Concerning STID, all of the writer’s, producers, and even JJ said point blank – HE IS NOT KHAN. Then he was. That denial by all of those guys is what pisses me off. Just don’t talk about it!!
And stop talking about Star Trek. We are trying to move on, so JJ should do the same.
Amen!
I appreciated that you’ve delivered a reasoned, detailed critique of Abrams without any of the snarking negativity that characterizes so much of the discourse on this place.
Oh I don’t know about the submerging Enterprise bit…I could see Starfleet having a sentimental softspot for bubbleheads of the past…
(though if not using shields to hold out water, the hull plating strength/thickness needed for watertight integrity would seem to be out-of-line with that of an aerospace vehicle (as in Earth gravity water pressure increases one atmosphere every 33 ft, though the plating may have a certain dynamic pressure requirement for atmospheric operations). If shields were used, then I could see a 1 atm bubble surrounding the ship (at the skin?)–but if the water was salt-water, my guess is that in a “real-world” Starfleet would condemn the entire ship upon return, because basically you would have no idea about corrosion in various places water got into, esp. any free-flood zones (warp-drive nacelles?).) SpaceX lost a rocket once because of salt corrosion on a critical piece due to the rocket being in tropical air on an island for an extended period of time. You actually have to do a lot of design work to account for these environmental things–it’s just like the doubt that surrounds a used car that has been in a flood. You just don’t know the potential problems lurking.)
Yes, I might be an engineer.
The above discussion also points out the immaturity of this particular Kirk who did such a thing, a hot-headed 23-year old headed for a Darwin Award if he does not watch it. Since that was something the script wanted to explore, the submergence is of a piece, and thus not entirely out-of-line, and is akin to an aviator flying underneath a bridge for kicks. Just bad headwork–and something that gets wings pulled.
Wow.
Now Abrams blames the studio for his own lack of judgment regarding Khan. It’s not Paramount’s fault. It is his own policy of hypersecrecy about every aspect of every film he has ever made.
He has yet to actually make a Star Trek movie.
I suspect we will get the same impression about the Star Wars franchise after his first movie comes out.
That is something that offended me worse than KhumberKhan– that Kirk was right back to where he was at the beginning of the prior film. Honest Trailers was all too correct about that. Just about all of the character growth in 2009 Trek went out the window for Into Douchiness, and with it went any semblance of the crew actually giving a rat’s ptaQ about each other… making all of the emotional beats utterly hollow.
Stupidity like the underwater Enterprise or the yiffing could be ignored more easily if this Kirk actually were a wunderkind hotshot captain. 2009 Trek established that he had the capacity to be… but Into Depression just blew this off entirely. It’s as if the screenwriters just cannot grasp any other phase of growth, and so just keep rewriting the same arc over and over again. They certainly can’t seem to distinguish between a greatly overmatched green starship captain confronted by his own inexperience and a bratty high school senior with the keys to daddy’s Porsche. You wonder why Starfleet ever gave him a command at all, or if they just hand out starships to random passersby.
I should stop now.
That’s because he just loves his little dollar-shitting pet monkey writers and takes them everywhere he goes.
Have I said “Fuck Lindehof” yet today? No? Well then. Fuck Lindehof. Without his inestimable genius this film might possibly been as good as the last one.
Bullshit. Utter, absolute bullshit. JJ Abrams has the same secrecy fetish with every film he’s made.
I’m starting to really dislike him. He has some poor habits. Blatantly lying. Cultivating a crew of yes-folks and taking them with him to every project. Using absolute stonewalling to manufacture a mystery about his current project. Pissiness when anything is leaked. And when he fails, blaming anyone and everyone else for it.
A significant piece of news is also revealed here: At 2:30, J.J. Abrams says “Bob Orci is working on the script right now with these two great writers, Payne and McKay.” This seems to refer to JD Payne and Patrick McKay, screenwriters for Bad Robot’s in-development film Boilerplate. http://www.deadline.com/2011/11/paramount-bad-robot-set-scribes-for-boilerplate/
I think this is the first we’ve heard that they are working on the Star Trek 3 script, isn’t it?
But hey, it looked really, REALLY cooool. And with JJ and the audience he targets, that’s the number one priority. Or do we want to get into beaming across the galaxy as well?
Nothing about lens flares or retailer exclusives. So sad…
The lesson for Abrams: Deception doesn’t pay. Especially Khan jobs.
It could have been worse. Vic mignogna and Farragut Films could have had ahand in STID’s developmental process. That would have been the ultimate nightmare, there.
Hopefully, the third and final film(the cast is contracted for three)will be to fans’ likings. Even the purists.
Oh fuck. Bad Robot’s working on Boilerplate? A guaranteed cock-up of a brilliant premise.
And yes, those knuckleheads will surely rewrite it, and then Lindehof will cut up their draft William Burroughs-style, shit on it, and paste it randomly back together.
I feel the same way. Considering the lies surrounding some of his other “Bad” Robot projects, I wonder if he’s not a pathological liar. Then he forces other people like the actors to do it too. Sorry, but he’s not getting off the hook with me. The only reason why Star Wars has a chance is because they brought in the ESB writer and Disney flat out said they would have JJ on a leash. Still not sure if I’ll watch though.
So the final studio market share numbers for 2013 are out, and out of all the major studios, guess which one is dead last?
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/warner-bros-leads-global-2013-market-share-sony-223713396.html
I cannot believe the powers that be on the Star Wars side looked at the rebooted Star Trek movies and decided Abrams is the guy for them. Abrams seems to be Spielberg’s protégé and we know Spielberg Is best buds with Lucas so…….. Anyway goodbye to the 2 most prolific sci-fi franchises and hello lens flares.
The Star Wars movie will do well at the box office just because its Star Wars and Abrams will get the credit even with an already built in fan base. Hopefully the 3rd Star Trek movie will be good now.