It has been a few years since the last installment of cinematic Star Trek. That edition in the tale of the Enterprise, “Star Trek Into Darkness” fell flat with most fans I know. But I have to say, we all love Star Trek Beyond. Ably helmed by Fast & the Furious director Justin Lin, produced by JJ Abrams and co-written by Simon Pegg, Star Trek Beyond hits all the notes a Star Trek fan expects, while at the same time delivering the action and thrills studios demand in their desire to reach a wider audience.
What hit me the most about STB was that the team delivers exactly the type of character interaction we have all come to expect from Star Trek. From the first scene between Kirk and McCoy celebrarting Kirk’s birthday, Lin and Pegg let us know they are Star Trek fans and they know what us fans want. The entire movie has wonderful interactions between our main characters in keeping with what we came to expect from Shatner/Nimoy/Kelley in the Prime Universe.
Oh yeah, I have a couple nit-picks. But the movie was a lot of fun. The cast has settled comfortably into the characters we know and love, the action is non-stop (a complaint of some), the effects are spectacular, the aliens (50 in all in celebration of Star Trek’s 50th) are fantastic and you get all the cool moments you have come to expect from Star Trek. Their are wonderful homages to Leonard Nimoy and the original Enterprise crew as well.
There are many reviews of Star Trek Beyond online, and I would say don’t read any of them. Just go and see the movie. While many fans are boycotting STB because of Paramount and CBS’s actions against Axanar, we all support Star Trek Beyond because Justin Lin and JJ Abrams came out in support of Axanar. And while JJ’s statement that the lawsuit would be “going away” turned out not to be true, that was not JJ’s fault, as it is clear that Paramount didn’t tell JJ the truth of the matter. So go out, support Star Trek Beyond, have a fun time at the theater and you will not be disappointed.
Paramount even commissioned a movie poster that is an homage to Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
I enjoyed it but also remain solidly behind Axanar.
Anton’s part and time on screen in the movie nearly had me in tears and I truly will miss his role as he portrayed it.
Would have like the dedication at the beginning not the end as most people were clearing the theatre and simply missed it.
Make a deal…. They have to be willing to let Axanar come about…
We have tried to make a deal and they will have no part of it.
Try and find out what level that decision is being made at through JJ or other contacts and move it upstream. I think the quality of your production deserves it. It’s easy to say no. I am thinking there has to be a nucleus of the negative someplace and if you can identify who, most likely they have a boss… All this with legal counsel advice. Have you discussed it with them? I just can’t see this all going down the tubes..
All over it Edward.
YIghoSDo’ !!!
I have been a long term Trek Fan .. watched the original series when I was 6, 7 years old .. I have read the new guidelines handed down for fan productions .. yes, ridicules and a move towards stifling creativity of the fans and shutting them down.
This lawsuit gets down to economics. Money. Lost opportunity for CBS. I see them sitting back and going “wow”, why did we not think of all these great ideas coming from the fans. Yes, CBS has a trademark to protect, copy-write. However, CBS has positioned themselves as a dictator, monopoly, having become a newly discovered sentient race hell bent on destroying the federation of fans initiatives, creativity, love of all Trek stands for.
I do not see Axanar becoming a reality without a partnership with CBS. The quality of special effects, acting, production has sent shock waves through CBS. The story line is outstanding. The technology tools available today will only improve. Axanar will be a testimonial to what fan sponsored initiatives can produce.
The intent of Axanar was to be free to the fans developed from fan donations. I am not aware of the deals, negotiations, behind the scenes, so can only share thoughts on this. I view quality fan movies such as Axanar as stand alone Star Wars movies that Disney is now pursuing. I feel that any chance for Axanar to get done must take a same course of action.
Consider a deal with CBS to co-partner the production of Axanar and release it to the theaters. I would pay to go see it. I will leave my thoughts at this point .. tons more I could say.
Live long and prosper all.
Tim: We offered CBS Axanar for free 7 months ago, and they refused. They do not care about Axanar or what the fans want, and are not open to logical, money making solutions. They are not working in their share holders best interest, nor in a way that makes any sense. This whole lawsuit was ill-advised and a bad business decision.
We are just trying to give our 10,000+ donors what they want and donated for.
Alec,
I am not too surprised by this response from CBS. Thank-you for the insight. Just think of the possibilities.
We make a quality movie for 1 to 2 million, release it to theaters, make 20 million+ which would easily be doable, give CBS their cut and move on to the next movie in the series. Hell, CBS could even be granted some over-sight rights. CBS should provide licensing to allow this approach. The great actors you use could take a small percentage of profits. There are so many creative ways to make this a win, win for all including CBS.
As a fan, when I look at this from the outside, is not free Enterprise the ability to make money? Think of CBS as a very difficult new race that is resisting joining the federation. LOL.
I do not know what the solution is. I do know that it will take collaboration, team-work to do the right thing. Road blocks come up and the challenge is to remove them.
We have to consider what CBS is trying to protect. Financially, this could only add money to their coffers. One has to consider how much the new Discovery Series is impacting this and revenues from pay-by-month streaming.
What this has proven to me is the following. Amazing things can be done on a shoe-string budget. Why fear it? It is my hope Azanar will get done some day.
Hang in there Alec. I look forward to the continuing saga on this.
Is the reason the suits are not interested because the first season of STD is going to be about the Klingon War?
I wonder if the pressure is building at Paramount, a Star Trek executive just committed suicide within the last week! I don’t know if it if related to work pressured or some personal issue. I am however hoping that tree will be a great deal of investors that want to know why CBS and Paramount would want to pick a fight with the sources of their revenue, the fans of all things Star Trekband piss them off to the point of boycotting the franchise, like I am doing. Perhaps this fight will lose irs steam at the next shareholders meeting!
To the persons who saw that so called Star Trek film, it is not the way of the person did Star Trek at all. You should go back to school and do some more reading about the people of the world of plant earth it or you can see by man
They just love to fight a lot?. Maybe next time you should start looking at cbs and paramount in the way they are trying to take over someone work and count it as there own?.
Then come back and tell us about what you have found out?. But I will bet you will not do a thing about it. As I will get.
I liked the movie. It was fun like the original cast had it. The only thing I thought was that it was too early for the Enterprise A
I concur. I was very reluctant to see STB: thought Into Darkness was an insulting rip-off, tone-deaf and made no sense, found Kirk infantile, etc. My wife even refused to finish watching the movie! With all the talk about Justin Lin as F&F director, I wasn’t willing to think anything positive about this new edition. But, I read a local newspaper review saying the reviewer took a Trekkie friend who thought it was good Trek and so I took my wife along and, lo and behold, we thought it was fun, had good characterisations, fun dialogue, even some Trek techno-babble delivered at great speed and a sense of fun, great action and some very cool sci-fi concepts (the space station is exquisite), with lots of Trek acknowledgements and homages that would make sense whether one was a Trek fan or not.
I saw it in 2D, but think it would be great to see again in 3D, as there were many great space-scapes and visuals with depth.
Excellent Trek film. I’m now wishing more people had seen it! Catch it while you can.
Overall I liked it but found the motorcycle and Beastie Boys bits to be contrived and cheesy. These movies have had the right blend of humor, action,etc, but this crossed the line of not taking a Trek movie seriously. Imagine those scenes in Axanar?
@Alec – Have you seen the new Star Trek Discovery series is set 10 years before TOS and is going to touch on a war prior to that. Am wondering if it is the same Four Year Klingon War you were going to explore and why they want to shut you down.
Bob: Yeah, STD is set the same year as Prelude, 2255. Coincidence? Bryan Fuller is a huge Axanar fan. 🙂
I read an article in which the author surmised it might be a conflict with the Sheliak Corporate from the TNG episode Ensigns of Command.
Also it’s an unfortunate acronym (STD), although it might be ST:DIS.
STD!! I love it!!! Fitting. 🙂
Mr. Peters: What did you think of the Enterprise-A at the end of the film? I really liked what they did with the nacelles.
P.S. Good luck with your endeavours Mr. Peters.
Thanks Matt! And I will reserve judgement on the “A till the next movie!
Alec
I really like how the nacelles are set out wider on the A like the original Enterprise. That was my only complaint about that J.J. one. Hopefully this new one is better engineered that it doesn’t get blown up every movie :).
Agree, the narrow nacelles never worked. This is an improvement.
Alec
Wow. That makes framing them wanting to shut you down differently. Fascinating actually. On one hand, they could have been planning the series for awhile with the war as the backstory and then you come along planning to do the war and they say, “This guy is planning to do a story which is our backstory. We don’t want him to muddy the waters or have to compete with a Hollywood version of it. We have to shut this down.” On the other hand, your Prelude movie could’ve given someone at CBS the idea and said, “This is a great idea. We could explore this as a backstory in a new series. Sucks we are swiping it from this other guy but the reality is it is our property, he had no creative license and we can do with it as we want. We can’t back ourselves into a corner where we can’t do a story because a fan film came up with an idea before us. We have to shut it down.” Either way it sucks.
Sorry, I still cannot get into this JJ-verse, crap-tastic movie franchise and will not waste my money watching it. That’s just me.
I urge you to give Star Trek Beyond a chance. So much Star Trek goodness in it. It may be a modern action movie as well, but there is Star Trek gold in it too.
You’re not alone.
What Axanar needs is someone that will pay to sponsor it on CBS Streaming on air?
At that point the Shareholders might start asking questions if they don’t put it on?
Know anybody at Enterprise Rent a car????
Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that the Jar Jar verse um… Kelvin timeline is not for me. I tried to enjoy STB but there is no gravitas! Axanar set the bar, in a few short minutes, so high that hours of cinema cannot reach. My best to all of you at Axenar productions. Let’s see what the Discovery can add to the Star Trek universe.
For me I found Beyond enjoyable and recommended my friends go and see it. I will say the one major issue that bugs be about the movie is some of the issues with design. Like having giant tanks intermixed with comms consoles in the first reboot, to what I refer to as the snowglobe in in space. It just seems to me as impracticable.
I too tried to enjoy STB, but quite frankly I was extremely disappointed: for me it felt like a “remake” of S.T. II. Not only did it start with the type of beginning with Kirk’s Birthday, among other similarities fro the 1982 film. The part I did like was the new female friend the trio makes later in the film. Right now I have serious thoughts of not bothering with this new film series. I’m truly am sorry Alec Peters, but this new film series on the part of Paramount / CBS. is obviously not for me. Though, I do hope the studio will one day realize the folly of continuing their rant and rage with this lawsuit of theirs. I do hope that they will one day understand they are just driving away most of the fans. On a brighter note, I really still enjoy Prelude… At the very least don’t lose heart, that’s all I ask, and I’m still right behind you.
Star Trek: Beyond was indeed a blast… a blast of festering, putrid intestinal gasses expelled through the darkest and tightest of sphinctoral orafices.
The fact that you believe this piece of carrion flotsam to be an entertaining and grand adventure in the spirt of Star Trek speaks volumes as to your tastes and interpretation of what a good Star Trek film is. As such, I am greatful CBS and Paramount shut your production down so we won’t have to be subjected to further cinematic flattulance.
Axanar would be far better as part of the Star Trek universe, but as a donor (albeit a lower level donor) I’d rather see Axanar come to light in some way, shape, or form, than lost in litigation. Renegades has reworked their story to shed all references to Trek, Axanar could do the same.
CBS/Paramount is clearly afraid of what you’ve come up with here and were blown away by the production values of Prelude. They know that the quality of Axanar will rival their new television series and they are not interested in backing down. They have very deep pockets, the power of copyright law, and the entire industry behind them. If you offered them the whole ball of wax and they flat out rejected it, it’s not a good sign. Their new guidelines for fan films have already shut down New Voyages and a number of other productions.
At this point, it might make sense to poll your donors.
I have to believe that we all completely appreciate that you have gone beyond that extra mile to make Axanar come to light as a Star Trek movie. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d rather the proceeds of the crowdfunding campaign go to making a movie rather than get sucked down the litigation wormhole.
There is little you can do about CBS/Paramount’s intransigence. They have inherited a great product but they really, really don’t understand the culture that has grown up around Star Trek or their fan base at all. Suing Axanar only serves to shut the program down. You have basically crowdfunded the equivalent of 1/4 of a 1 hour TV episode (Netflix reported that House of Cards cost $3.8 million per episode). This is chump change to a network. They are using the lawsuit to threaten other fan films to cease and desist.
I don’t think that this is giving up–most people would not have pursued things as far as you have and you would still make a compelling film that your fans will enjoy. I can’t speak for everyone, but you are the captain of this ship: I’m with you whatever direction you decide to go. A poll might be helpful, though, in figuring out how your fans feel.
Thanks, but we arent spending a dime on litigation. All the donors money has been spent on actually making Axanar, not legal fees.
I know it’s painful to think about, but what if they win? Beyond the cease and desist nonsense, they may ask for damages.
They are clearly going to great lengths to make Axanar an ‘example’ to other fan films. As fans, we understand that CBS and Paramount have a point to make. I think we get it: ST is intellectual property and should be protected. But the way they are going about it–and the sheer inflexibility of it all–means they really don’t understand the Star Trek fan base.
The fan film guidelines were clearly written to shut down any meaningful attempts of fans to share a story arc. If they even took a second to think about it, they’d realize that the fan films actually energize us all and make us that much more excited for official releases of the show. For as much as Axanar raised in crowdfunding, this is really small potatoes for a Hollywood studio but means infinitely more to us fans.
i agree with J….you’r odds of coming out of this with a movie about anything trek is near zero now….
it would not take much to change this to something that might even spur you and the fans to make a online stream of a tv show…heck fans could submit stories and you might just suddenly find your self in a place making quality sci fi that NONE OF THE STUDIOS ARE NOW DOING….
@Chronoss
I agree that the odds are probably against Axanar, but I have to respect Alec Peters and company for not rolling over dying just because the big kid on the block refused to talk and started a fist fight. I’m behind Alec and Axanar 100%, it just looks like the cards are stacked against Axanar.
A lot of fans seem to point fingers at Axanar for ‘ruining it’ for all fan films, but the crazy, crowdfunding started long before Axanar with New Voyages/Phase II, Star Trek Continues, Of Gods and Men, and any number of other smaller players. Two things made Axanar stand out, I think: 1) the sheer quality of Prelude, which could easily have been a pilot for an ‘official’ CBS/Paramount series; and 2) the fact that Axanar crowdfunded more $$ than anyone else. All productions offered some kind of ST merchandise as part of their perks, all productions were using $$ for set manufacturing and studio rent, and all productions were doing some kind remuneration for professional actors/set hands/special effects. CBS/Paramount needed some kind of test case/example to make sure that all fan productions would comply and they took Axanar to court without warning or even some kind of mediation beforehand.
As above, I wish Alec and Axanar all the luck in the world and support them in their case. I do hope that it comes out in favor of Axanar. I just think that CBS/Paramount for whatever reason seems to be determined to scuttle Axanar and they have the means to do this. Then again, Captain Kirk would surely have taken those odds (“2,228.7 to 1? Those are pretty good odds, Mister Spock.”), so I have to admire Alec, the pro-bono law team, and the entire crew of Axanar for going for it.
Besides, I know they can’t comment on the case, but maybe there’s some light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t all that apparent from this side.
Thanks so much!!! Alec
@aAlec peters i am really sorry that cbs is attacking you guys, :/ and i really appreciate that you have the integrity not to use the crowdfunding funds to pay for litigation. 🙂 I am crossing my fingers about you guys getting to do axanar. i am really sorry that it hasnt worked out, especially since you have put a lot of work into it. I would love to see another star trek that feels like star trek. honestly, abrams 2009 and 2013 star treks didnt feel like the star trek comfort food i had watched while in high school (enterprise, voyager, tng, ds9, heck, even tos!) , although ive got to give the 2009 star trek relaunch credit for getting me into star trek in the first place. why not make a star trek novel into a movie? team up with pocketbooks and find one of the coolest plotlines or trilogies. i am not sure if that would work, but maybe pick something post voyager? that way the age of the actors matches the age of the characters. (besides Tuvok and Tim Russ, who looks like a 150-year old Vulcan in renegades) just some ideas, but there are fans everywhere including myself who have some awesome ideas. Maybe poll them to find out what the majority wants, and then get in touch with cbs to make sure you arent stepping on any toes? I know you shouldn’t have to, but it never hurts to ask. idk. anyway, i would like to see some of the events . david a goodman’s startrek history book come to life. i love that book! in I really wish that the enterprise hadn’t been cancelled, i would have loved to see the romulan war on screen. I got all of the subsequent books, but it isn’t the same. i understand that they made a few mistakes, but i still liked it. get scott bakula on board! Maybe bridge the gap between soval and sarek? Just some ideas. good luck! I know you will try your very best! just keep your chin up and try not to get down.