A Tale of Two Trailers

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Okay, okay, okay. I get it. Movie studios with their mitts on popular franchises no longer make movies for the fans--The Avengers universe comes the closest to caring. They make films to make the maximum amount of money. They know the geeks and dorks and nerds are going to come out regardless of what they do to our favorite universes and their inhabitants. And, they know that we will buy the merchandise, the Blu-Rays, etc., etc. So, they don't have any reason to court us.

Instead, they spend their efforts adding their own twists to things with a particular eye toward attracting audiences that would not have been caught dead watching a geeky film a decade ago.

At least, this seems to be the explanation behind Star Trek Beyond's first trailer, which was released to run with Star Wars The Force Awakens. TFA was guaranteed to attract every person on the planet within 100 miles of a cineplex. So, the masterminds at Paramount put together the strangest Star Trek trailer ever produced. It was full of rip-roarin' action to the inexplicable Beastie Boys soundtrack. (Yes, it was Kirk's boyhood theme song in the first of the rebooted trilogy and so it probably is Kirk's lifelong anthem but it shouldn't represent the whole film.) The true fans were immediately terrified and then angry. After Star Trek Into Darkness bastardized the greatest Trek villain of all time (Khan) into a character with little resemblance to the one created by our beloved Ricardo Montalban, we had reason to be fearful. Sure, I've enjoyed the films and the treatment of our main characters has been handled remarkably well, but much of the rest has been ham-handed. The first trailer for Beyond seemed to confirm our greatest fears of what would happen when they handed the film over to director Justin Lin, the man behind half of the Fast and Furious films. Had we placed too much faith in producers J.J. Abrams and Robert Orci? Were we counting too much on superfan Simon Pegg's co-writing to deliver a true Trek film?

Then, we were left for months and months and months to our fears and anxiety. Personally, I was about to lose my cool waiting for last week's release of a new trailer. Please, Paramount, please make it right! But does the new trailer fulfill our fanboy and fangirl expectations or should we just get ready to suffer through Fast and Furious: Lost in Space?

Check out my review of the Star Trek Beyond Trailer #2 on this week's episode of the Geek Homeworld podcast, Episode 38: Beyond Bond. (You'll also get to hear what Ed thinks about Daniel Craig's recent Bond decision.)


- First Officer Cheryl, Stardate 1605.22