Hey Jason,
I was in LA for a bit yesterday, helping Jalopnik cover the LA autoshow with my long lens. (It was a boring show with nothing too interesting other than the Electric Mini and Honda Concept.) But it was coincidentally the same day JJ Abrams was showing off some scenes from the new Trek movie, so I stopped by. This is funny: When they asked me if I had any recording gear in my bag, I had a heart attack. Most people had a mere cellphone, but I had my full journo-blogger-battle messenger and so I ended up checking like 4 pieces of AV gear and a laptop. So embarrassing.
Inside, I don't usually get star struck, but how can a geek not get excited seeing both Harold from Harold and Kumar and Sylar in the same theater sitting in the same row watching themselves on the screen. And it was Trek! Not the old Trek, and Not even Next Generation, but a new kind of Trek with the origins of the old characters and how they met up. Shields up, spoilers ahead.
They first showed the new trailer, previewed in theaters playing Bond, which you can see here.
Then they went through the scene were we see a trouble Kirk getting into a bar fight with cadets until a man stationed on his father's ship realizes who he is, stops the fight and asks him if he wants to do something better with his life. Kirk takes him up and joins. The next scene involves Kirk working with Bones to smuggle him aboard the Enterprise and he saves them from walking into a trap. The next scene involves a fight scene with John Cho (HAROLD and Sulu) and Chris Pine (Kirk) vs some filthy Romulans, skydiving (yes, skydiving) and a saber fight. And the final scene involves Spock and Kirk meeting Scotty.
The Trek Dorks are currently a bit polarized, a few upset over rewriting canon and a few worried about the stylistic updates. But I really like the New Trek, and I think it could break out of the category of Films Only for Nerds. You've got more action, humor, and heat than you did in the old ones. Even if its a bit less intellectual than previous movies at times, if the preview was any indication, it doesn't seem to ever slow down. And most importantly, it's impossible to not resonate with the young cast playing the classic characters as they express the old mannerisms; Kirk runs like Kirk, Bones complains like bones, and Scotty, well Scotty is 100x more funny than the old Scotty. Come to think of it, everyone with an accent is extremely funny, but maybe because I'm a bit racist. (In a loving way.) Someone should have done an origins movie long ago, but within a year, we'll have a modern telling of the heroes many of us grew up with. If you're like me, you'll probably find the story of how they all got together as cadets and juniors as important as the actual adventure they go on. Maybe we can do an io9/Gizmodo reader meetup movie night.
Here are my favoritest Giz stories today:
• BlackBerry Storm Review (Verdict: Not Quite a Perfect Storm)
• Future iPhones May Have Always-On Display
• Giz Explains: Every Video Format You Need to Know
• 10 Takes on the Blackberry Storm
• Dealzmodo Hack: Accessorize Your iPod/iPhone Like MacGyver
• At Gizmodo Gallery: The Red One Camera
• A Look at the Nokia Damage Test Labs
1Techtistic said 4:09PM on 11-20-2008
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2Louie Mantia said 4:51PM on 11-20-2008
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3mark said 5:17PM on 11-20-2008
4ars_workerbee said 5:29PM on 11-20-2008
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Oh man -- finally, we're getting an app that fulfills the promise of the iPhone. Ever since we knew the iPhone would have a camera and an internet connection, we've been waiting for 