Vaderisnothayden said:
Octorox said:
skyjedi2005 said:
I have not seen the film yet though the films message will be judged by me if its applicability or pure allegory. I dislike pure allegory usually in fantasy fiction.
As for a sci fi film actually having some plot, meaning and feeling and a message that should have been what Star Trek should have been instead of a remake of starship troopers/star wars. This to me has the chance of being the second good sci film of the year the other was District 9. Star Trek was nothing but sights and sounds lacking any subtance, lens flares and shaky cam, pure eye candy aka junk. Good action film it may have been Star Trek it was not.
Star Trek has really always more about the characters than the science fiction, and while there has definitely been much more cerebral Star Trek, I think Abrams captured the series' essence perfectly. Like the original Star Wars it's NOT all flash and effects, It also has great characters and a solid story. By your logic Star Wars was also junk. I'm sure the next Star Trek film will have a message but for the first one it would have been too much to have a message, reset the continuity, introduce the characters, do the origin story, liven up the action and "sexiness" of the series all at the same time. Now that all that stuff is out of the way, the next one can have more of a message.
I can do without the message.
Then you don't understand that Roddenberry Trek on the original series was allegory disguised as science fiction to get by the censors. Because it was goofy sci fi that the suits did not watch they could talk about the vietnam war, or racism.
Roddenberry like George Lucas before the prequels could be subversive with their ideas without being heavy handed and preachy. The prequels on the other hand were pretty much heavy and without subtext about Lucas political beliefs and bias and so were very boring and poorly executed.
The problem is when the messages and personal politics of the writer or artist don't further the story but hijack it, or the story itself is just a forum for spewing their dumb politics bullshit like getting up on some soapbox. At least people should be entertained and if you want to enlighten someone get them immersed in the world and characters of your secondary universe that if done properly will be applicable to any viewers own experiences.
I can't remember if it was george lucas who said it, but i think he said " all film is propaganda. All film is teaching something whether the filmaker is conscious of it, good or bad" I think he said hollywood had a negative effect on the world.
But the same guy 20 or more years said "film as art is bullshit", and he also said "a special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing". But how can one reconsile that with the lucas who made the prequels and had greedo shoot first. The guy who said the success of episode 1 was all centered on a cgi character, named Jar Jar binks.