Just seen the rather depressing news that Roberto Orci, who, along with Alex Kurtzman, has been responsible for some of the most iconically dreadful Hollywood hack-work in recent living memory (Transformers, the recent Spider-Man rubbish, the Star Trek reboot), is now going to be directing the next Star Trek film. As if he hadn’t done enough damage to the franchise already.
I dunno, I mean, I get it that films composed as jumbles of “cool” action points with barely any story or character development to glue them together can sell. But really, isn’t there anything people who love movies can do about this sort of stuff? Seriously, enough is enough. Can Star Trek fans not boycott this next film, or something?
The news comes after Orci and longtime writing partner Alex Kurtzman decided to go their separate ways on future filmmaking endeavors (although their TV production company is staying intact). Sources had told Variety that both were looking to direct more pics and that going solo would be in the best interest of both parties.
According to this, it doesn’t sound like Kurtzman will be involved.
I’m in that same boat – I know folks love hating on the new movies, but I quite enjoy them so the news that the team responsible for the last movies is continuing is… pretty decent, I feel.
Yeah, I don’t get what you’re asking for gurugeorge. You, as a Star Trek fan, are certainly free to boycott the movies. I as a Star Trek fan will definitely be in a seat when the new movie is released. Sounds like win/win to me.
Oh come on guys, sure, Abrams side of the deal was fine - the films look great, and the acting’s fine, and there’s no lack of excitement. But - whatever happened to films that make sense?
If you just totally loved everything about the previous Star Trek movies, this news means the people you liked will be less involved than before (Abrams just producing, Kurtzman maybe not involved at all). I’m not saying you have to get worried, but this isn’t reassuring news.
Meanwhile the most common criticism, among people who loved and hated the films, was that yeah, the plots weren’t that great and/or ruined everything. And this news says one of the guys responsible for that now has more control.
So I get it if you’re okay with this, or not in full panic mode yet, but I can’t find any way to spin this as actual good news.
Seriously, only rarely has making sense been a priority for Star Trek. I’m just glad that so far we haven’t been subjected to Greek gods or gangster planets in the new films.
If you want to put a positive spin on things, supposedly the reason every Orci and Kurzman script is such utter fucking nonsense is that they’re just stenographers for the director and producers, putting every note in there without caring whether scenes have any connection at all. Maybe now that he’s in control, he’ll actually care.
On the other hand, in addition to being an enormous hack, Orci’s also an insane truther, so this’ll be…interesting.
Knowing that Orci is a Truther puts a lot of stupid things in context in Into Darkness. It’s tough to say how much was Orci, Kurtzman, or Abrams in Darkness, but the Truther stuff is pretty obvious in hindsight.
Agreed. Kind of disturbingly obvious in hindsight; that’s basically the most common Truther plot thrown into a sci-fi setting. Don’t get me wrong - I like the entertainment factor with conspiracy plots just as much as the next guy, but being a Truther requires divorcing oneself from rationality … and I usually just save that for the R&P forums. ;)
The scuttlebutt is that Orci was against the inclusion of Khan in the movie, which sort of makes sense because without the Khan stuff, the rest of the movie is Admiral Robocop planning and executing a classic Truther False Flag scheme against the Klingons. (For example, why would Khan hightail it to the Klingon homeworld if he knew that a war against Klingon was the ultimate goal of the admiral? Why give him what he wants?) It’s kind of obvious Khan and his 72 compatriots are shoehorned into the plot. The fact that Orci was against Khan’s inclusion is sort of a positive, but then you’d be left with a Truther propaganda movie which is kind of worse in a way.
I guess what I’m saying is fuck Orci and his Truther bullshit, but I guess I’ll wait to see how this turns out before making a judgment on his directing skills. Hell, maybe he’ll blow us all away and this will be the best Trek ever?
I hate it when politics gets into my favorite books/movies/entertainment…sometimes I feel like I have to call NSA and get their portfolio on whomever has made the next piece of entertainment I want to see, before actually being entertained.
I still don’t know why they bother with fucking starships when they can beam instantaneously from Earth to the Klingon homeworld with a little backpack thingy.
