Movies Talk! Talkin' about movies!

[PretentiousHipster]

Oh yea there's a bit of spice there. Did you ever watch All Monsters Attack? I can see you finding it hilarious. All the fights in it are just from the previous Godzilla films... The main plot is about a little boy who is bullied and enters a world where Godzilla's son is also bullied. When the son stands up to the bully, his scream is a donkey scream for some reason.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Oh yea there's a bit of spice there. Did you ever watch All Monsters Attack? I can see you finding it hilarious. All the fights in it are just from the previous Godzilla films... The main plot is about a little boy who is bullied and enters a world where Godzilla's son is also bullied. When the son stands up to the bully, his scream is a donkey scream for some reason.

Oh, yes. I’ve seen most of the Toho kaiju films, and I’ve seen many of the non-Toho kaiju films (e.g., Gamera, etc.). They have their moments, and some of them are genuinely good (e.g., Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla, Mothra, etc). Many of them, however, are poorly-paced, poorly-scripted, and frequently very boring. (I’d comment on the acting, but that’s part of the appeal!)

In contrast, American kaiju films are much newer, better-paced, better-scripted, and generally more fun. The special effects are better, and they embrace what makes Japanese kaiju films so fun, while jettisoning the rest. There are also far fewer American kaiju films, and while there are some stinkers (e.g., Godzilla (1998)), several are genuinely great (e.g., King Kong (1933), Pacific Rim). Even the middle-of-the-road movies, such as Kong of Skull Island and Rampage, are all solid.

Anyway...that’s my hot take. I’ll leave it there and welcome other opinions, especially from people with knowledge of more modern Japanese kaiju films.

EDIT: This post reminded me that I still haven’t seen Cloverfield. How does it stack up? The concept, a found-footage kaiju film is at least intriguing.

[RCBH928]

I am not much of a star trek fan, I get the idea of the cool concept of a spaceship flying in space with weekly episode encounters could be really cool but that ship has sailed and I have no plans to rewatch a whole series from the 60's with so many reboots and sequels but...

I have heard of Star Trek First Contact which has a high IMDB rating, would you recommend for someone who has no idea about Star Trek? Would you say this is the best movie that represent the Star Trek universe?

[Ziggy]

I am not much of a star trek fan, I get the idea of the cool concept of a spaceship flying in space with weekly episode encounters could be really cool but that ship has sailed and I have no plans to rewatch a whole series from the 60's with so many reboots and sequels but...

Rewatch? You've watched them before?

TOS (The Original Series) is more watchable if you're into cheesy/campy 60's Sci Fi, otherwise I'm sure one would find it horribly dated. It's only 3 season, with the third season being shorter, so it's not hard to blow through. Even then, I'm sure there's "must watch" lists out there. TOS has no real story arc through the series, so it's easy to jump around and cherry pick the best ones.

The series might seem daunting to get into because there's so many series and movies at this point, but that doesn't mean you would have to watch 100% of the series to get into it. Like I said, TOS is easy to blow through (as long as you like campy 60's Sci Fi). TNG (The Next Generation) is probably more tolerable than TOS for most people, but it's a much longer series. And TNG also has a few stories that play out in non-consecutive episodes throughout the series. But again, I'm sure there's some "must watch" lists floating around. TOS and TNG are the must-watch series of the franchise. The rest of the series I would watch ONLY if you've seen all of TOS and TNG episodes and movies and are looking for more, otherwise you can safely ignore them.

I have heard of Star Trek First Contact which has a high IMDB rating, would you recommend for someone who has no idea about Star Trek? Would you say this is the best movie that represent the Star Trek universe?

If you were to only watch ONE Star Trek movie, I don't know which one would best represent the universe. And that might actually be too hard to say because of the different series. Perhaps First Contact best represents TNG series. It might be perfectly watchable for someone that has never seen any of TNG, but there's a lot of established things that you wouldn't get. Like who the Borg and the Vulcans are to the Federation. You can assume Borg = Bad and Vulcan = Good, and I'm sure the movie would be watchable, but it wouldn't have the same impact if you didn't see all of the Borg episodes of TNG. That said, as the movie franchise went on, it seems like they made a point to make them more and more watchable for those that might have never seen any Star Trek before.

But if you're looking for a Star Trek movie as a good jumping in point for the series, I don't think First Contact should be it. My vote would be The Wrath of Khan, which definitely best represents TOS. You can definitely enjoy it without having first seen TOS, but again it might have more impact if you did. Still, I think it's a great stand alone movie. Or, the reboot Star Trek (2009) isn't bad.

[isiolia]

I am not much of a star trek fan, I get the idea of the cool concept of a spaceship flying in space with weekly episode encounters could be really cool but that ship has sailed and I have no plans to rewatch a whole series from the 60's with so many reboots and sequels but...

I have heard of Star Trek First Contact which has a high IMDB rating, would you recommend for someone who has no idea about Star Trek? Would you say this is the best movie that represent the Star Trek universe?

Most of Star Trek stands fairly alone, both between series and episode to episode (the new/current ones are likely the primary exceptions to that). You may have events that carry forward, but it's not like a lot of shows now where each episode is directly building on events of the previous one. You really don't have to start at the beginning and watch all of it, as you can pick up on the characters and universe just watching occasional episodes.
That said, the TOS and TNG movies are essentially big-budget episodes that came out after the original television runs ended. They aren't reboots or compressed versions of the shows, kind of making them a less ideal place to jump in as they've got the entire series (if not other movies) to draw from, and don't need to worry about how things might play in syndication.

First Contact is probably the best of the TNG movies, but as mentioned, does build on a fair bit introduced across the run of the series. So it may not be an ideal place to jump in relative to just pulling up a best episodes list and heading to Netflix (since all the older series are on that).

If you actually want a reboot (such as it is), then the recent JJ Abrams movies are essentially that. They don't necessarily represent the TV shows very well though, since they're big-budget action movies.

You could also try watching The Orville, as - aside from a lot of the humor - it's deliberately a (very) similar show to the classic Treks.

[Sload Soap]

None of the movies really represent the TV shows with the possible exception of Insurrection, not that I would recommend that as a movie. The 2009 reboot and its sequels are a supercharged distilation of Star Trek as viewed through pop culture but don't really relate to the true vision of the show. That said because of this they may appeal to you.

Just watch the Next Gen two parter Unification. Pretty much sums up what Trek is about and is exciting to boot.

[RCBH928]

I never thought of dropping in to watch few episodes of a tv episode and then leave. I always thought of watching a show as in watching the full series. Albeit, its smart from producers to make such a format so any one any time can drop in and follow along and get high ratings for the ads. Personally I don't like this format though.
I guess I will go with Sload Soap advice, and if it appeals to me I can watch a movie or 2.

Now that I think of it, Firefly seems like just Star Trek with a twist. A group of people in a spaceship traveling the universe with random weekly encounters. Or is this its own genre now?

[Ziggy]

Well don't forget, there was no streaming or on demand services when TOS and TNG were airing. You had to catch the episodes when they aired, or possible program your VCR so you could watch it later. After TOS was canceled, reruns have always been shown. When watching reruns, you would catch random episodes out of order. This is how most people watched TOS.

My first exposure to Star Trek was actually the movies. I watched the first 6 movies and liked them enough to want to check out TOS. My local library had the first 18 tapes (the first tape being the first pilot) which I rented and watched in order. It was pretty neat because the old VHS tapes have the "next week on Star Trek" teaser at the end of each episode. After that, I watched whatever random airings on TV. So I saw random episodes out of order. I think the first time I was able to watch every episode in order was when the DVD set came out. After getting to know the characters from the series, their relationships have more meaning in the movies. But the movies were still very enjoyable for me when I watched them for the first time before ever seeing the show. In fact, there was something fun about watching the movies first. Like watching the original Star Wars trilogy and then watching the prequels.

My point being, don't feel like there's only ONE way to start watching Star Trek. Just start watching it. You're either going to like it or not, and what you see first isn't really going to change that.

Just a heads up though, be aware of the movie "curse." Odd numbered entries suck, but even numbered entries are good movies. The first Star Trek movie (the motion picture) is like a long drawn out TOS episode, but not a very good one. If you like TOS, you'll want to watch it, but it's sort of slow and boring. I think they were banking on people losing their shit seeing stuff on the big screen for the first time, so some shots are just drawn out and it messes up the pacing. For example, the first shots you see of the Enterprise are really long and it seems like that sequence goes on forever. The third movie is a little weak, but you have to watch it because movies 2-4 have a story arc. Movies 1 and 3 aren't completely bad, they're just kind of meh. 3 isn't even that bad, it's just not as good as 2 or 3. I don't think Insurrection was that bad either, it just feels more like a long episode rather than a movie. The 5th movie though, now that one sucks.

[isiolia]

Now that I think of it, Firefly seems like just Star Trek with a twist. A group of people in a spaceship traveling the universe with random weekly encounters. Or is this its own genre now?

Wouldn't really put them in the same box. Star Trek follow "a" ship in a fleet of ships, in a larger organization (or a station, in the case of Deep Space Nine), which changes some of the dynamics versus the more typical independent vessels that shows like Firefly tend to follow. Beyond that, many of those shows really are more the Space Westerns that Roddenberry originally billed Star Trek as...where Trek was often used as a vehicle for higher concept stories (which is, in turn, why the Abrams movies don't represent it well).


Otherwise, yeah, most folks that got into Star Trek didn't just watch from the beginning. I either saw some of the movies first, or it was my mom renting The Trouble with Tribbles on VHS to show us, because she liked the episode. Most of what I watched earlier was TNG, but that wasn't until it had been on for years already, so a lot of it was reruns. It's not like having a show written with syndication in mind was that odd at the time.

[RCBH928]

Just watched The Relic, I know it was not great but didn't expect it to be so bad. Maybe in the 90s this was a great watch. One thing that irritated me is how dark the film is. 80% of the screen s usually is black or you can't see whats going on. Is this supposed to be an artist choice or a film genre? Spawn was the same.