[Spoiler Alert - I will talk about the plot of this movie so if you haven't seen it do so!]
Introduction
First off just so you don't think I'm alone in my opinion on how Star Trek 2009
excelled check out that it made
$76.5 million in its first
weekend and see what people who saw it are
saying at Yahoo.
I've put all the best Star Trek User reviews here
and check out the UK Online Buzz.
Even a movie critic,
Ty Burr says: "A fresh frontier: In the best prequel ever, 'Star Trek' reboots the franchise and reminds us why we love it"
Yahoo's Summer
Movie Guide says "The film was designed to appeal to audiences not familiar with Star
Trek, so it's fair game for anyone who likes upbeat adventure, great characters,
and gorgeous special effects." And they aren't kidding!
Let me start by saying I've never watched a full episode of any Star Trek Series
or seen any of the Star Trek Movies. In fact the only reason I went to see Star
Trek 2009 was because my mom wanted to see it on Mother's Day.
Even my Dad who religiously watched Star Trek every night when I was growing up said that the TV trailer "looked stupid." If I may borrow a line from The Matrix "Far from it!"
The first thing I said after the movie was over was "That's the best movie I seen in five years!"
Actually the last time a movie affected me so powerfully was the first Lord of the
Rings Movie which came out way back in 2001.
Which is evidence of how many poorly scripted movies made it to the big screen in the
last 7 years.
But that's good news for you the screenwriter because it means if you
study this Star Trek movie you can learn how to write a blockbuster script!
I was enjoying the movie so much while watching it I instantly thought -
this is how a movie is supposed to be! But rarely is. It was hitting
all the key points giving me exactly what I wanted from a film. It fed my "psychological
hunger" as
Eugene Vale would say.
Strong story and even stronger characters!
So good that I left the theater with a smile on my face that didn't fade for a whole five minutes! I can't even remember the last time a movie did that to me! I was like a kid who just got off a rollercoaster he always wanted to go on! It was so good that even before the end of the movie I knew I'd be clapping.
In his article titled
Secrets of Blockbuster Movies - Part II
John Truby says "Blockbuster writers hit all the beats of their genre, but they twist
each one so that the story seems original. The reader gets the
pleasure of the genre beats, but also the pleasure of surprise and
creativity." That's exactly what Star Trek accomplishes.
This movie nailed (executed) every element that an audience wants!
This is a movie you must watch and study if you want to learn what goes into making
a movie great! Since I'm a screenwriter I paid close attention the to audience's
response while I was watching the movie because I realized this is the audience
that will someday be watching the Sci-Fi Trilogy I'm currently writing.
For the last five months I've been studying screenplay structure like a madman. Because of my background it was extremely easy for me to spot plot points as they came up in the film - it was actually pretty cool to see them! Especially the hero's mythic journey as it was so clearly depicted in this Star Trek movie.
It was straight out of
Campbell's Mythic Hero Structure which George Lucas used when writing
the original Star Wars Trilogy.
I only wished I had a video tape so I could pause and take notes while watching it!
What the writers expertly did was make the plot easy enough
for you to catch the first time around and interesting enough
that you'll want to watch it again. The story has enough complexity
to engage today's movie-going audience.
What J. Michael Straczynski and Bryce Zabel
proposed in
their treatment for a new installation of a Star Trek TV series back in 2004
was: "...not Star Trek: Another Generation, or Star Trek: A New Ship, or even Star Trek: The Search for Plots. In other words, not a copy of a copy, or a distillation of a variation. We want to re-boot STAR TREK. The original. Pure and simple. The characters, universe and situations that have attracted, and continue to attract, a worldwide audience. Re-set…re-imagined… re-invigorated…" And that's what the screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci of this Star Trek Movie 2009 were able to accomplish - so well in fact that it may spawn a new TV series. When you take a look at what Kurtzman and Orci have written together in the past you see they excel in their craft of screenwriting - Mask of Zorro, Transformers, etc.
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Last Updated on: May 27, 2009