Re: Star Trek Into Darkness
Is there a difference between ripping it off and using the elements that made it popular and retooling them for a new fan base?
There is a difference, but it comes down to intention and it's very murky waters, and more importantly, it's rarely important how intentional one intends to copy/rip off/remake someone else's story. I'm using exaggerated language but I don't mean to accuse them of plagiarism. I'm being inelegant in my speech.
What I'm really concerned with is the product. Honestly; I don't care how many times they remake WRATH OF KHAN without ever coming out and directly admitting it,
provided it's awesome. I would rather get
new Trek stories and original ideas I've not seen before, but I don't mind them remaking it, really. MAD MAX 2 is a remake of the former, it's hardly a problem. If STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS turns out to be a better version of WRATH OF KHAN than WRATH OF KHAN itself, I will be so very, very happy.
However, I am upset at their lack of originality. One can keep certain conventions of structure and idea without repetition, but by variance. For example, an Indiana Jones movies is going to be everyone searching for an artifact. But the fun is which part of the world will they go to? Arabia, South America, India? Where the go informs what culture the artifact will come from, the mythology around it, and then, there's the fun of who is Indiana Jones racing against? Nazis, Communists, Thuggees? James Bond is similar; the conventions and similarities between the different movies is all important to them being "James Bond", but the variations are what keeps it fresh. For STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, the problem isn't so much that a villain wants to destroy the Federation and it's high-octane action, rather, that he's after
revenge again. Khan was after revenge, so was Nero. The Borg weren't. They wanted to conquer the Federation. Tolian Soran wanted to get into heaven. Ru'afo wanted immortality (and vengeance, but not against the Federation). Shinzon wanted to kill, not out of revenge, but just because out of a general hatred of life. Sybok wanted to meet God. Kruge wanted Genesis. Now, granted, STAR TREK was better than many of the other Trek movies, but the point is, even if a villain shows up and wants to kill everyone, revenge isn't the only motivator.
However, it's just the teaser. Maybe there's more (but I doubt it, based on the writers' track records). And if it's better than KHAN, excellent. But as of now, I'm rather torn; on the one hand, it looks really exciting and interesting, but on the other, I'm really underwhelmed by not only the lack of originality, but the compounding of what I felt was a mistake in the first that they seem to think was the success.
But yes; "rip off" is a prejudicial term, but I'm only using it to put a name to my feelings towards the movie, not as a serious indictment as to the motivating inspirations of the film itself.
Maybe The Wrath of Khan is the only Star Trek J.J. Abrams and the writers have seen.
I agree with the people that think Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Gary Mitchell.
It probably is. Every reference in STAR TREK to the original show was to WRATH OF KHAN and
nowhere else. (Ok; "Wictor Wictor" was a reference to THE VOYAGE HOME.)
Also; Cumberbatch is clearly Mitchell. We will certainly see flashbacks to Kirk and Mitchell in the academy before Mitchell went off to join some top secret black ops genetic engineering programme designed to make supermen to fight Klingons and he's been 'retired' and cut off like Jason Bourne and he's super pissed off and wants vengeance for what they've done to him.
To be honest, I quite like the idea of Gary Mitchell being some sort of Starfleet experiment. It's a nice 'ultimization'. I'm just annoyed that they missed the opportunity to have him be one of the main cast members in the previous film and really take the time to set up Kirk and Mitchell's friendship.
I also think that originally the villain
was Khan and when they couldn't get Benicio Del Toro, they kept everything the same but used the Mitchell character since Cumberbatch and Pine are of a similar age and Cumberbatch isn't hispanic. It's resourceful.
