So says the N.Y. Post’s Kyle Smith. A major problem? Lack of correct inspiration or lack of enough inspiration?
One of the coolest sequences in the latest Star Trek movie — the silent plummeting of several members of the Enterprise’s crew through space as lights play across the clear visors of their helmets — looks a lot like 2001, A Space Odyssey. A subsequent fight on the small platform of a giant drill seems inspired by the (much more exciting) fight on the floating ship at the start of Return of the Jedi. A ship that tries to make the jump to light speed finds its engine fizzling instead, as in Star Wars. And when one giant beast nabs another as it’s about to eat Captain Kirk on an ice planet, the moment is practically spliced in from Jurassic Park.
One reason for the re-boot/remake phase we are currently stuck – current Hollywood takes little inspiration from outside the Lucas/Spielberg, director-of-the-last-minute canon. It’s a problem that has crippled music for years.
An example – Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Pete Townsend – those guys loved Chuck Berry, but were studious enough and loved the craft enough to go and find Robert Johnson, or Muddy Waters or even Django Reinhardt. Skip ahead to today’s Nu Metal, Emo Rock, you deal with kids who scarcely look past 80s punk albums or The Ramones. That lack of depth is killing Hollywood just as it has killed music.
J.J. Abrams worships at the altar of Lucas and Spielberg, much like the rest of his contemporaries, outside maybe Quinton Tarintino. Abrams would serve himself well by broadening his horizons. Even if he did, Smith feels he isn’t up to it.
Pine is symptomatic of the essence of J.J. Abrams: He has a TV soul. He casts TV-ish actors. The staging of his thrill sequences is fine for the small screen but light years shy of real masters like Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, or Paul Greengrass. And he loves TV writers, workaday scribes like this script’s authors — Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Lost). They are not, to put it politely, overly-burdened with talent. They got started on stuff like Xena: Warrior Princess and to a degree they’re still there. So when they attempt wit, all that comes out is camp. Meeting Uhura, a linguist, Kirk says, “You’ve got a talented tongue.” The writers’ idea of a snappy comeback is “Tell me something I don’t know.” Their notion of characterization is to throw the word “logical” into every line Spock delivers and they actually include the lines “I’d like to kick some Romulan ass!” and “Are you out of your Vulcan mind?”
Trekkies emerging from the theater were heard murmuring things like, “It’s great that it was kinda campy, just like the show.” That’s making a virtue out of necessity. If Abrams and his writers knew how to create something as fiercely non-campy as The Dark Knight, don’t you think they would?
I’m off to see “Star Trek” this weekend, with any luck. The success of the film will be judged by this question – why was it brought back? “Batman Begins” answered it within the opening moments of the film. “Superman Returns” never did.
Excellent observation re. Batman Begins and Superman Returns, John. Ditto the music nod. Must be why I prefer Johnny Lang to Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Former knows his roots’ roots, while the latter rarely if ever did much beyond aping Stevie Ray. Didn’t hurt or help with Double Trouble backing him, though, huh?
I’ve played guitar for 14 years, most of which I studied Stevie Ray Vaughan and Kenny Wayne Shephered heavily. I spent mucho dinero on lessons, tab books, CDs, videos – you name it. I’ve seen Shepherd live with KWS Group, Double Trouble, 10 Days Out, etc. I know both players probably as well as anyone possibly could. Stevie heavily influenced Kenny Wayne Shephered, and that’s definitely the school he is from, but definitively, Kenny is his own player. Outside looking in, it’s hard to see past the tone, the phrasing and the heavy strings on the old-school Strat. But Kenny has a certain touch of Albert Collins and Freddie King that Stevie didn’t have as much of. Kenny is also much more melodic in his soloing, where Stevie is more akin to Hendrix and his own personal fortitude with digital dexterity.
That said, Shepherd’s musical approach is based heavily off of Stevie’s blues-based rock stylings. It’s kind of the next step in the evolution, something that many artists had a part in, like Walter Trout, Chris Duarte and to a little extent, Joe Bonamassa. If anyone invented the Post-Stevie sound, it was Chris Duarte, but Shepherd made it stick. He created a whole style of blues based pop radio rock that can’t be fully separated from Stevie, but it remains its own constant thing during his first three albums. Go get “The Place You’re In” or “Ten Days Out,” that influence is there but not as pertinent. It’s also by design – part of Shepherd’s musical purpose was to maintain Stevie’s legacy.
That all said, working inside the blues school is difficult for those looking to out-stretch their influences. I’m currently spinning Albert King’s Greatest Hits on my iPod and three-quarters of the album are covers of everything from Howlin’ Wolf and Hubert Sumlin, Elmore James, to the Rolling Stones.
Just because of the nature of the Strat and the Fender tone, many artists are eschewing both all together. Bonamassa was called a SRV clone, despite the fact he has almost no technical inclinations to him and is more Clapton-esque and country influences. He got sick of it to the point he dumped his Strat and grabbed a Les Paul, which is what nearly all youthful blues guitarists from Scotty Bratcher to Derek Trucks have done.
I’m at the age where I am firmly rooted in old-school guitars for the blues: Either the Strat or the Les Paul. Oh, yes, I cannot forget my old SG Standard. If I were me 30-35 years younger, I don’t even know what guitar I’d be chasing after, there is such a plethora of guitars out there today. I don’t even know if the Les Pauls out there today sound as good as a good 60s-70s vintage one. When I was a teener and 20-er, my guitar was my life and I was up on everything. Today, my parishes are my life, and I pick up one guitar or another now and again.
I’ve loved SRV and Clapton (and Phil Keaggy) for years, have recently jumped on the Jonny Lang bandwagon, and will have to check out Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
One industry that has got it right is the guitar industry. I got a $500 Epiphone SG, a cheap baseline model, for Christmas two or three years ago and it plays better than most of the 70s and 80s actual Gibsons. My cheap $300 new (was on sale 50-percent off) Fender Mexican Fat Strat plays better than almost any Strat made after 1970. My 1998 Swamp Ash Ultra Strat is incredible.
Most of the Squirer guitars are better made and better quality than many of the 70s topline models. The industry is really at a peak the last few years, at least in my opinion.
Thanks for the tips on KWS. His first album wowed me, but the second did squat, bored me in its carbon copycat style. I’ll dip the toes back in the waters, though, more news at 11ish.
Not that I would ever consider myself a guitar player (I wouldn’t even say I play guitar beyond semi-competently), but do agree about preferring the Les Paul to Star sound. Imitation both bases. Like I said, not a guitar player.
I saw this last night. I recommend this if for no other reason than to see Karl Urban get possessed by the soul of Deforest Kelley. I’m not kidding.
*Spoiler Alert*
To paraphrase Darth Vader, the power to destroy a planet is nothing compared to the pen of J.J. Abrams. Now witness the destructive power of this fully operational Hollywood writer! J.J. manages, in one plot, to destroy two of the key planets in the Trek universe. In the old Trek, this catastrophe would be reversed by our heroes by the end and billions saved. Nope, not this time.
Behold the new Enterprise, apparently designed by a schizophrenic. The bridge is a bright, slick room looking not unlike a hair salon in Beverly Hills. Engineering, on the other hand, is clogged with pipes that reminds one of a brewery. In fact, I half-expected the camera to pan back to reveal Laverne and Shirley inspecting the bottles as they go by.
In this Trek, Spock gets his freak on quite publicly with someone that’s a direct subordinate and student. A 17-year-old is a senior officer on the Federation flagship. The action scenes were apparently only filmed during earthquakes.
We really are going where no one has gone before.
I was able to plug into a Meetup group and saw the movie for free yesterday morning in Gig Harbor, WA.
I think I’m in the “Nope, didn’t do it for me” camp. It had its thrills, the SFX were nice. The story? … I am getting really tired of time travel crap.
[I guess I should through out the spoilers alert thingy now - read on at your own risk]
The movie effectively wipes out (or leaves “untouched” for purists as one critic put it) the original Trek universe. I flashed back to the moment, as a season of Dallas was closing (I guess I’m dating myself by knowing this, oh well) when a character woke up and everything that had happened for the entire season was wiped away as “a dream”. Give. Me. An. F…ing. Break. “Hello, is this the writer’s clinic? Great. I need a crutch, big time, because my brains were sucked out in film school and I can’t come up with any good ideas.”
And can anyone explain to me what gave Uhura the hots for Spock? That stupidity came absolutely out of nowhere, and goes nowhere. And it made her character, which, until that point, was a smart, strong, take-charge, no bullshit kind of person, look pathetic. “oh, poor dear, your momma died. … You know that makes me so hot …” Give. Me. An. F…ing. Break.
And then there was the fight in the cavernous Romulan ship. Maybe I’ve seen too many movies, but when I see stuff like that and I wonder, “Dude, you got him by throat (not just once, but twice), just drop him over the side and be done with it.” During this bit I my mind wandered off to Austin Powers:
Dr. Evil: Scott, I want you to meet daddy’s nemesis, Austin Powers
Scott Evil: What? Are you feeding him? Why don’t you just kill him?
Dr. Evil: I have an even better idea. I’m going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.
Dr. Evil: All right guard, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism.
[guard starts dipping mechanism]
Dr. Evil: Close the tank!
Scott Evil: Wait, aren’t you even going to watch them? They could get away!
Dr. Evil: No no no, I’m going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying, I’m just gonna assume it all went to plan. What?
Scott Evil: I have a gun, in my room, you give me five seconds, I’ll get it, I’ll come back down here, BOOM, I’ll blow their brains out!
Dr. Evil: Scott, you just don’t get it, do ya? You don’t.
Oh, well, it was kind of fun, in a stupid, mindless sort of way. Wrath of Kahn is still the best.
Some good music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmoE8_U-JTw
Thought you said “good.”
JohnFNWayne,
It is “FN” good to me!
To each their own, Kit (and I know John Ondrasik’s one of us), but did Rich mail you his vagina before he flew back to Chicago-land? Rock and roll need’em oomph.
I was with Smith up until he referred to Paul Greengrass as a “master”.