A Look Back: Star Trek III – The Search for Spock
Every movie enjoys the same conceit: that the good guys might not win. But it’s a fallacy. In most stories, the good guys do wins. There might be twists and all that, but the bulk of stories end with the unspoken fairy tale climax of, And they lived happily ever after. But for the sake of our enjoyment, we entertain the prospect that they might not. After all, a predictable plot where we know what’s going to happen isn’t going to compel, excite, and tantalise us. We’ll grow disinterested – just as we would seeing the same repeat for the umpteenth time. Now the problem arises that some stories are…
JJ’s Wonky World Builds: Number 4
JJ Abrams is quoted as saying that he never got Star Trek, which makes him an odd choice to reboot The Original Series through a feature in 2009. People credit him for making Star Trek more accessible. I think this is the polite way of saying it was so dumbed down, that everybody was drawn to the pretty explosions and sweet, sweet visuals. The problem with that aesthetic beauty is that it can only last so long. When your story has no real identity of its own, it blurs into all the other generic science-fiction action movies that are also pretty to look at but have so little substance behind…