Just saw the new Star Trek teaser trailer. It looks amazing. While many continued speculating on who exactly the villian is, I began speculating on who that blonde babe was. I loved the last movie and this one looks just as good. There's one problem: Like a lot of movies coming soon, it seems to be suffering from Dark Knight Syndrome.
There is nothing Star Trekky about the trailer. No thrill of exploring the final frontier. Not a single shot of outer space- just destruction and terror with an evil british voice over. (why do bad guys always have British accents?) If I didn't know better I'd say they're trying to make it look like another movie:
Classic Hollywood logic: The Dark Knight was a movie that did well. The only way our movie can do well is if we copy it. Let's try to shoehorn the word "dark" into the title if we can too. "Into the Darkness" does not sound like the bright optimistic Star Trek future we all know and love. I'm sure the actual movie will be great, but its being promoted as if the only way we can understand it is if its in the pallatable form of another movie that we're familiar with. This seems to have infected all of next year's blockbusters: The next Thor movie is called "The Dark World". The trailer for Iron Man 3 shows the wise cracking billionaire playboy from Avengers being defeated and everything he cares about being destroyed while an evil british voice monologues. Well at least the Superman movie should be optimistic and bright. They won't make Mr Truth Justice and the American Way look dark and dreary would they? Oh wait:
Again, I'm sure this movie will be great, but you get the feeling that all they think we can accept right now is "gritty realism".
Here's an article throwing Skyfall into the mix: http://screenrant.com/dark-knight-rises-skyfall-star-trek-2-similarities-discussion-nolan/
Could this be more than just mimicing The Dark Knight's marketing? Maybe this is also a reflection of the mood of the country right now. We've been through almost 5 years of a recession and we don't have the feeling good times are just around the corner. We've been told that if we survive the end of the Mayan calendar we will still face higher taxes and budget cuts next year while the national debt will still grow regardless and the economy will just lay there like a beached manatee. Meanwhile Superman will be in chains, and Iron Man, Thor and Captain Kirk will all be getting their butts kicked by guys with evil British voices. I think its interesting both the Star Trek and Iron Man 3 trailers have similar situations. Both a starship and Tony Stark's mansion go tumbling underwater, much like the housing market. In both cases the hero has to pick up the pieces after some calamity they were powerless to stop. Maybe that's how we see ourselves now.
Back in the late 70's the country was down spirited and Hollywood seemed to be cranking out dark and gritty movies with grim futures (planet of the apes) and horror movies were the rage (jaws) That is until a young filmaker, George Lucas produced a science fiction fairy tale about good vs evil and changed how we saw everything.
Help us Star Wars episode 7, you're our only hope! (yes everything does come back to star wars)
