Treks, Gates and Wars

[thejovian]

Treks, Gates and Wars: The Impact of James Cameron's Watchmen

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James Cameron's Watchmen

Directed by: James Cameron
Produced by: Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver
Screenplay by: Sam Hamm and Joss Whedon
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins
Edited by: Stuart Baird
Music By: Phillip Glass
Release Date: July 1st, 1994
Budget: $115 million.
Box Office (worldwide): $601,123,324

Cast:
Kurt Russell as Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II
Bruce Campbell as Edward Blake/The Comedian
Sharon Stone as Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre II
Brent Spiner as Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan
Mark Hamill as Walter Kovacs/Rorschach
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias

Background:
After the surprising election of David Duke as the Governor of the State of Louisiana, there were widespread unrest as a result of Duke's political agenda and ties to the Ku Klux Klan. It is under this darker atmosphere in the aftermath of the optimistic Reagan administration that 20th Century Fox decided to greenlight a movie based on Allan Moore's acclaimed graphic novel.

Under the direction of superstar director James Cameron, the 115 million dollar film ended up not only making more than 5 times its budget in worldwide box office returns but also won high critical praise and several Oscar nominations and wins including a Best Director nomination for Cameron and wins in almost every technical category including Visual Effects, Sound Editing and Cinematography.

The review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes which premiered in 1999 would retroactively give James Cameron's Watchmen a 89% rating.

The success of the film would not only further cement James Cameron's status as one of the most successful filmmakers of his time but also drastically alter the landscape of sci-fi and pop-culture for the next decade and a half.

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An excerpt of the Really that Good episode on James Cameron's Watchmen by Bob "Moviebob" Chipman [1]

James Cameron's Watchmen is one of the most important superhero films of all time, if it wasn't for it chances are the landscape of the superhero film genre would be radically different as without it we probably wouldn't have had other great comic book-based works such as Superman: Universe, The Avengers, Justice League, V for Vendetta, Blade, Hellblazer, Sandman, etcetera, etcetera. But on the flip-side we probably would've also been spared the inevitable Youngblood, Spawn, The Darkness and Witchbalde adaptations that nobody but the most die-hard 90s fanboys wanted or needed.

Still, since its release, this movie has gained a place in the pantheon of 90s sci-fi classics alongside Total Recall, Terminator 2, Starship Troopers, Stargate, The Matrix, Star Wars Episode I: Shroud of the Dark Side and some other films I forgot to mention.

And its hard not to see why, the movie was expertly directed, it had a great up-and-coming screenwriter by the name of Joss Whedon who would eventually give us the script for Firefly and The Avengers, it had amazing for the time production values that still hold up to this day (seriously the squid looks even better that the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park) and all-and-all the movie had a great cast, well great minus Arnie and Sharon, although she at least looked the part if nothing else. It resuscitated the, then on life support, career of Luke Skywalker, it propelled B-Movie legend Bruce Campbell to stardom and it showed us once again why Brent Spiner truly was the best actor of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

But does a great cast and great performances equal a great movie, was the thrill of seeing Allan Moore's allegedly unfilmable magnum opus finally up on the big screen detracted from our critical analysis of the film? Is this movie really deserving of its status as one of the best if not THE best superhero film of all time? Was the outcry the Oscars received when they refused to give it a Best Picture nomination justified, or was it a case of disgruntled fanboys being fanboys? Is Watchmen, really that good?

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[1] It's a web series that focuses on reexamining old classics and seeing if they really are as good as people remember them to be. here's the link to it: www.youtube.com/user/moviebob

[lordroel]

Jan 19, 2016 17:24:35 GMT thejovian said:

James Cameron's Watchmen

So James Cameron directs the movie in 1994, would love to see that, also where any sequels made afterwards. 

[thejovian]

The Casting of Watchmen

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Kurt Russell as Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II - Russell had been a well established action star at this point so he seemed like a natural choice for producer Lawrence Gordon. Due to scheduling conflicts, Russell had to drop out of filming what would've been his second collaboration with filmmaker Roland Emmerich on a project he and screenwriter Dean Devlin were working on, tentatively titled "Stargate". Delays caused by Russell's sudden departure from the project, along with last minute script rewrites and a woeful production would push back Stargate's release date nearly a year to June 9th 1995.

Bruce Campbell as Edward Blake/The Comedian - Bruce Campbell had been a B-movie legend by the time he was cast as the Comedian. His performance in his signature role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 was enough to get him noticed by producer Lawrence Gordon. After one audition, he was very impressed with Campbell's portrayal of such a humorous yet psychotic character and even though Cameron was initially skeptical of Campbell, he eventually admitted that Campbell was the best man for the role, especially after Bruce Willis said no to the role. Campbell's performance would be lauded by critics as the highlight of the film, (alongside Mark Hamill's performance as Rorschach).

Sharon Stone as Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre II - Sharon Stone did not seem like a logical choice for Silk Spectre and indeed Stone initially viewed this movie merely as a way to get a break from playing love interests and femme fatales after Total Recall and Basic Instinct, but as Stone would later recall in an interview "I was told by James Cameron to do my homework, which in my case was to read the comic book, and I did and I was instantly in love with Laurie, I wanted to be her. I remember phoning him after I read the book and told him that I would do anything he asked if it meant getting her character right." Stone would undergo a heavy training regiment in preparation for the role and even took some bodybuilding tips from co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would also state in an interview that "nobody on set worked harder than her to get her character right, not even Mark [Hamill] and Kurt [Russell]." Critic would ultimately call her performance as Silk Spectre the zenith of Stone's career.

Brent Spiner as Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan - Initially producer Lawrence Gordon wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of Doctor Manhattan, however after reading the graphic novel Schwarzenegger became more interested in portraying Ozymandias instead and didn't like Cameron's plan to portray Doctor Manhattan entirely through CGI. As such the role of Doctor Manhattan went to Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Brent Spiner, his performance as the emotionless character Data made him a more than suitable candidate for the emotionless almost inhuman character from the book. James Cameron initially sought Gary Oldman for the role but eventually settled on Spiner after Oldman declined to participate.

Mark Hamill as Walter Kovacs/Rorschach - The search for a suitable Rorschach took longer than any other member of the cast. Initially Cameron had his eyes on former collaborator Michael Biehn and At Close Range leading man, Sean Penn in the role of the ambiguously insane vigilante. However late in the casting stage, just as he was about to phone Biehn to tell him that he got the role, Cameron discovered Mark Hamill's performance as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and as he would later recall in an interview, "that was the point in which I had found my Rorschach and given the Oscar nomination it's safe to say I made the right choice."

After learning of the casting, producer Lawrence Gordon came upon the idea to keep the casting a secret until the release of the film, so that it would come as a shock to the audience to see that the unmasked Rorschach was Luke Skywalker all along. Cameron would veto the idea by suggesting the possibility of the reveal shocking the audience out of the movie on a meta level.

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias - Initially Schwarzenegger was approached to portray Doctor Manhattan, however upon realizing that James Cameron was going to portray the character entirely using CGI and after reading the graphic novel, he became much more interested in portraying Ozymandias instead. Eventually he was able to persuade Gordon to let him play the fellow immigrant and self-made man instead of the CGI character.

Schwarzenegger's casting decision remains a point of contention among fans of the book and the film, with the graphic novel fans insisting that Schwarzenegger was too muscular for the role while film fans stating that Ozymandias was supposed to be in the edge of human physical potential anyway and that without his casting the film likely wouldn't have gone off the ground, a not entirely inaccurate assessment of the situation as Fox wouldn't have invested more than 100 million dollars in the film without the star power to back it up. Still most people agree that he was able to hold his own in the midst of Hamill, Campbell and Spiner's acclaimed performances and to convey the essence of the character on film.

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An excerpt of the Really that Good episode on James Cameron's Watchmen by Bob "Moviebob" Chipman

Before we can delve deep into what makes this movie work first we need to know exactly why it got made. Spending 100 million dollars on a comic book movie had been unheard of up until that point, especially on a comic book as far removed from the mainstream as Watchmen. At the time of being greenlit the most expensive superhero movie of all time was in fact the original Superman movie at 55 million dollars (Batman Returns hadn't been out yet), Watchmen would end up costing more that twice the amount, couple that with a hard R rating and a obscure source material and no one would be willing to back this movie financially. In fact Fox was teetering on the edge of giving up on the project entirely. So what happened to change all that? Walking sack of garbage David Duke happened.

For reasons that are too tragically hilarious to explain, KKK backer David Duke got himself elected governor of Louisiana, and things went downhill after that to say the least. Practically overnight the atmosphere of the nation went from Reagan's optimism back to Carter's cynicism. And since Hollywood sometimes tends to reflect the attitudes of the times, a movie based on a graphic novel that deconstructed the American dream seemed less and less like a studio make-or-break risk and more and more like a surefire hit.

It was in this atmosphere that superstar director James Cameron was given the task of filming what had been deemed an unfilmable graphic novel. And the end result was interesting if nothing else.

[Captain Jordan]

Kurt Russell as Nite Owl, eh? That's very interesting.

[thejovian]

Star Trek: A Future Imperfect

Star Trek: The Next Generation had been going for six season and was still going strong. Showrunner Jeri Taylor was ready to move on to bigger and better things. She and the rest of the writing staff knew that season seven would be the last, they needed the space to work on the upcoming second spin-off to TNG, tentatively called "Voyager".

As filming for the second half of the season six was about to commence Brent Spiner had an announcement to make. He was recently cast in the upcoming James Cameron superhero film called Watchmen as Doctor Manhattan, a major character in the movie.

Even though many of his fellow cast members were happy for Spiner getting his big break as a lead in a summer blockbuster, the producers were less enthused about this situation, as due to the way filming were scheduled between the two projects it would've been impossible for Spiner not to miss a month or so of shooting TNG's seventh season. James Cameron was unwilling to reschedule, as he couldn't afford to cause scheduling conflicts for Kurt Russell and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and as a result Data would have to be written out of several episodes in order to accommodate the actor's schedule.

It was then that TNG longtime staff writer Brannon Braga had an idea. He knew that the season finale would involve Data's evil twin brother Lore and the Borg as the antagonists. He proposed a subplot in the episode in which one of the drones would be captured by the Enterprise under Dr. Crusher's command and she would slowly manage to de-assimilate him. The drone would then become a recurring character in the following season as he struggles to regain its individuality after spending years if not decades as a drone, as well as slowly integrating into the crew and providing the technical knowledge he gained as a drone to aid the Enterprise in place of Data (who would be written off as having been temporarily recalled to Earth on a top secret assignment from Starfleet). He called this new character "Vosima", an anagram of Isaac Asimov's surname (the series had already referenced his work with Data's positronic brain so it seemed appropriate for Data's replacement to likewise reference Asimov). Taylor liked the idea, as did producer Rick Berman, who allowed Ronald D. Moore and Braga to rewrite the script for the upcoming Star Trek: Generations to accommodate the character.

The role of Vosima went to the then unknown actor Edward Norton, who impressed the producers with his New York audition so much that he was instantly cast in the role.

In an interview leading to the release of Star Trek: Generations, Norton would be quoted as saying "Vosima might just be the best character I will ever play, I had way too much fun in the role and I would do it so long as they need me to do it."

Audience reaction to the character was likewise very positive, with Vosima becoming a fan favorite, two episodes of season seven that focused on his character (both written by Braga) would likewise become fan favorites and top numerous retrospective "top ten best episodes" lists.

The first of which, "Awakenings" dealt with Vosima experiencing nightmares for the first time and his difficulty at telling them apart from reality especially when one of his leftover cerebral implants malfunction as a result of him reaching REM sleep, the result is him hallucinating his nightmares while awake, causing him to put several crew members at risk. The episode was acclaimed for providing insight into Vosima's psyche and how he isn't as stoic and fearless as he presents himself to be.

The second of which, titled "Needs of the Many", also dealt with the aftermath of Data's secret mission and his return to the Enterprise. The episode was again acclaimed for it's character interactions between Data and Vosima.

Season seven was overall remembered very fondly by fans, in no small part thanks to Edward Norton's performance. Norton himself was being noticed by many producers as potentially the next movie star. However Norton was not finished with the franchise just yet. Not when he was just presented with the script for the new Star Trek movie and had seen the role he would play in it.

[thejovian]

Jan 19, 2016 17:35:05 GMT lordroel said:

So James Cameron directs the movie in 1994, would love to see that, also where any sequels made afterwards. 

Patience I'll get there.

[lordroel]

Jan 20, 2016 13:55:41 GMT thejovian said:

Jan 19, 2016 17:35:05 GMT lordroel said:

So James Cameron directs the movie in 1994, would love to see that, also where any sequels made afterwards. 

Patience I'll get there.

Nice, your timeline is very good, i am proud and honored that you have posted it here on this humble forum.

[thejovian]

Stargate: The Production Woes

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin had their hands full with their next project, a combination of two different ideas which on paper could've worked to make a truly epic movie, the first about a spaceship under the great pyramid, and the second could be considered Lawrence of Arabia in space.

However Stargate appeared to be that one movie that the universe didn't want to get made. Not only did Watchmen took away the film's lead but it also took away it's chances of getting it done in time for its release date of October 28, 1994 with what would've been the film's visual effects company, Kleiser-Walczak Construction Co., being swiped at the last second by James Cameron to assist in bringing Doctor Manhattan to life entirely though CGI, which meant that delays until a new visual effects team could be found, would be unavoidable.

In addition to their lack of casting and effects, the entire production of the film had faced many delays. After Russell decided to be Nite Owl in place of Colonel O'Neil, Emmerich and Devlin scrambled to find a replacement and initially had settled on Michael Biehn, fresh from being passed over for the role of Rorschach in Watchmen in favor of Mark Hamill and the irony was not lost on Emmerich. However after reading the script, Biehn decided to stop answering Emmerich and Devlin's calls about being in the movie, save for that one time in which he flat out told them that their script sucked.

Their attempts to cast the lead scientist character, Dr. Daniel Jackson, would likewise stall completely with their first choice of James Spader being nixed by MGM who felt he wasn't leading man material, with Emmerich being left with no choice but to cast Jeff Goldblum instead in the role, who likewise remained apprehensive about the script. The duo was eventually able to find their Jack O'Neil, a former TV actor who had gained considerable fame thanks to his starring role in MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson.

Anderson's more lighthearted and comical performance, pleasantly surprised Emmerich although Devlin remained skeptical of Anderson being the right choice for the role. Emmerich ultimately decided to cast Anderson and re-write the film as less of a slow build-up low-key action film and more as a pulp adventure film complete with one-liners, more comedy, action and adventure set pieces, bringing in screenwriter Jonathan Glassner to assist in the writing at the behest of MGM who felt the writing process was taking too long. Glassner's involvement with the project would result in improvements to the film's mythos and pacing with both Goldblum and Anderson responding much more positively to the script revisions by Glassner. The rewrites ended up delaying the principal photography by three months as now new locations had to be scouted and and new sets had to be built, with a new tentative release date for April 1995.

Things however did not improve when production on the movie had finally begun. Jeff Goldblum had to spend three weeks in a hospital after an accident while filming a stunt caused him to get hit squarely in the chest by one of the antagonists staff weapon props so hard he got several fractured ribs, although no potentially fatal injuries, much to the crew's relief. Frequent sandstorms in the Arizona desert made on-location filming sporadic and frustrating and to make matters even worse, actor River Phoenix, cast as one of the alien planet natives, Skaara, had to be sent to drug rehab halfway through filming his scenes after an overdose nearly killed him, causing his character to be played by several stunt doubles for the rest of the shoot, with Phoenix returning for re-shoots after he recovered from his drug abuse.

All-in-all Emmerich had a miserable experience directing the film and considered the possibility of never doing a sequel even if the film was a huge financial hit, the rising costs of production making that prospect all the more unlikely. The problems the crew had faced during production would further delay the release date by another two months, all the way to June 9th 1995. The revised script also necessitated an increase in the film's budget to allow the up-scaled action to be filmed, resulting in the film's budget going from 65 million, to 80 million dollars and then to 86 million as a result of the production delays.

Overall the studio remained ambivalent about the film's chances at the box office and were certain that the film would make its money back but not a lot more than that, however after a very positive reaction at an early test screening despite the incomplete effects it seemed to the studio that despite all the trials and tribulations the film had to go through, it apparently had emerged all the better for it. June of 1995 was going to be an interesting month for the studio.

[lordroel]

Richard Dean Anderson as the movie version of Jack O'Neil, next you are going to tell me that Kurt Russell will play the TV version of Jack O'Neil, or is Kurt Russell by then a to big of a name to star in a TV series.

[thejovian]

Jan 21, 2016 14:28:59 GMT lordroel said:

Richard Dean Anderson as the movie version of Jack O'Neil, next you are going to tell me that Kurt Russell will play the TV version of Jack O'Neil, or is Kurt Russell by then a to big of a name to star in a TV series.

Who says there's gonna be a Stargate series in this TL?

[lordroel]

Jan 21, 2016 19:02:04 GMT thejovian said:

Jan 21, 2016 14:28:59 GMT lordroel said:

Richard Dean Anderson as the movie version of Jack O'Neil, next you are going to tell me that Kurt Russell will play the TV version of Jack O'Neil, or is Kurt Russell by then a to big of a name to star in a TV series.

Who says there's gonna be a Stargate series in this TL?

If the movie is a success than most likely a TV series with that kind of theme would happen, unless the movie with Richard Dean Anderson becomes a flop like Waterworld than no TV series based on a flop is ever going to be made.

[thejovian]

Star Trek: A Future Impterfect (Part 2)

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - S7E24 - Preemptive Strike

Story:
Ro Laren and Vosima are assigned to infiltrate the Maquis terrorist organization that is battling Cardassian forces in the Demilitarized Zone that is the border worlds between the Cardassian Union and the Federation. Many Federation colonies have been attacked by the Cardassians while the Federation does nothing in order to preserve the treaty and prevent another war.

The duo eventually grow to see the Maquis' point of view and end up supplying the Enterprise with misinformation about Maquis operations in order to allow them to proceed unimpeded. Ro is eventually discovered to be a triple agent but thanks to Vosima's intervention, is able to escape and rejoin the Maquis while Vosima remains behind on the Enterprise to continue hampering Federation efforts to stop the Maquis from within.

Background:
The episode was one of two that TNG would do to set up the events of its upcoming spin-off/replacement Star Trek: Voyager (the other being "Journey's End", it featured retuning character Ro Laren, once again portrayed by Michelle Forbes (who likewise agreed to return for a substantial role in Star Trek: Generations).

The episode would end up setting the stage for both Voyager and Generations with both Edward Norton and Forbes calling it the best episode in which their characters appeared.

A moment in the episode which gathered considerable praise from critics was the argument between Vosima and Captain Picard, with Vosima insisting that the Federation is no better than the Borg if its willing to allow the atrocities in the DMZ to continue, comparing their disregard for the lives in those colonies for the disregard the Borg have for individual drones. Ending with the now infamous exchange between the two:

Vosima: Is that it Captain? Is that what the Federation truly thinks? That the individual matters only so long as collective remains happy? That those lives are irrelevant?
Picard: We cannot save those people without risking the lives of millions more! You have no idea how much I wish I could help them! But I can't. Their lives are not irrelevant, not a single life in that demilitarized zone is irrelevant.
Vosima: To quote Lt. Ro "You could've fooled me."
Picard: I will not be lectured by a Borg as to what is right and what is wrong, NOW GET OUT!!!

The exchange's audience reception however was much more divided. The fanbase had been polarized to an extent not seen ever before in the franchise's history, with some calling it a betrayal of Gene Roddenberry's original vision of the future, while others defending it as a harsh dose of reality, that even though human kind has largely moved past its flaws, prejudice would still exist in one form or another.

Picard's final words in turn were criticized by some as out of character, that he was too enlightened to be so prejudiced while others saying that it fits naturally with the way he acted towards Hugh in "I, Borg".

In any even the episode was shortlisted for a nomination in the Best Dramatic Presentation category of the Hugo Awards but the nomination and win ended up going to the show's series finale "All Good Things".

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Star Trek: Generations

Directed by: Leonard Nimoy
Produced by: Rick Berman
Screenplay by: Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga
Story by: Rick Berman, Leonard Nimoy, Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga
Director of Photography: John A. Alonzo
Editing by: Peter E. Berger
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
Release Date: November 18th, 1994
Budget: $62 million.
Box Office (worldwide): $140,406,937

Cast:
Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock
DeForest Kelley as Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy
James Doohan as Captain Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
Jonathan Frakes as Commander William Riker
Edward Norton as Vosima
Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn as Lt. Commander Worf
Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
Malcolm McDowell as Zachary Hale
Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren
Robert Beltran as Chakotay
Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat

Story:
The story of the film involves the crew of the enterprise attempting to stop a radical Maquis crew led by Zachary Hale and consisting of Vosima, Ro Laren and Chakotay from using Trilithium weapons to destroy Cardassian colonies in order to provoke a war between the Federation and the Cardassians, in part to get the Federation to actively defend their colonies instead of placating their enemies in the name of peace, and in part to get his revenge for his ancestor's defeat at the hands of James T. Kirk and the USS Enterprise-A. Highlights include Vosima being able to use his leftover cybernetic implants to trick Troi's empathic abilities as well as his subsequent escape from the Enterprise, a captured Picard's conversation with Hale towards the end of the second act, Data's long-distance conversation with Vosima, the three-way fight between the Enterprise, Hale's ship and a Cardassian vessel captained by Gul Dukat, and the final battle between Ro and Vosima (having switched sides upon realizing how fanatical Hale has become) versus Hale and Chakotay.

The movie is interspersed with flashbacks showing the crew of Enterprise-A, capturing Hale's ancestor as he attempted to overthrow a Federation colony, and exiling him to a penal colony which would end up in the Cardassian DMZ, the flashbacks are linked to the main plot via a framing device of Captain Picard listening to Kirk's Captain Logs as several points in the film.

The film ends with the death of Hale and Ro Laren (sacrificing herself to stop Hale's mad scheme), with Chakotay escaping and Vosima being captured by the Enterprise (to set up their appearances in Voyager).

Background:
During the early-90s political turmoil, producer Rick Berman was handed the reins of the Star Trek film series. The somewhat declining ratings of Star Trek: The Next Generation, despite mostly positive fan and critical reception had convinced him that the utopian vision of the future held by the late Gene Roddenberry bight have had its appeal in the more optimistic 60s and 80s but not so much in the post-Reagan 90s, the recently elected President Mario Cuomo having nearly shot his campaign in the foot with his rather outlandish promises of preventing Louisiana and other southern states from becoming hotbeds of racism by any means necessary. He was all but certain that the franchise needed a dose of realism and flaws, the Maquis storyline that was to be a part of the upcoming Star Trek: Voyager would prove to be the ideal way to do so.

As such he brought in longtime franchise staple Leonard Nimoy to once again direct a Star Trek film as well as to tweak and fine tune the story, with Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga being brought in to write the script. The film was conceived to serve as bridge not only between the TOS and TNG crews but also between TNG and Voyager. Director Leonard Nimoy insisted on large parts for the TOS crew, necessitating long flashback scenes to give them all enough screen time.

The film would receive mixed to positive reviews, with some people saying that it ended the pattern of odd Star Trek films being bad or subpar, while others saying that it was the most mediocre film of the series. The film would retroactively receive a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus reading "expertly done action and several dramatic moments, do just enough to redeem a derivative plot and an underdeveloped villain."

The story was indeed criticized for being substandard and very action-heavy for a Star Trek film, and even though McDowell's performance was warmly received, the character of Zachary Hale was criticized as a retread of Khan from Star Trek II. Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun Times would have this to say about the film: "I felt like I was watching two different Star Trek films made by two very different filmmakers, one about flawed human characters and their struggles and another about well done but overdone and been-done action set pieces. Both are good in their own ways but I do not think that they work well together." He would go on to give the film 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.

However the dramatic moments, in particular the moments of dramatic reincorporation and parallels between the events in the flashbacks and the main plot were praised by critics and audiences as the highlight of the film while the Vosima/Ro romance was polarizing to audiences with some seeing it as adding much weight to Ro's death scene, while others calling it a cheep ploy to get the audience to feel more emotion at her death. Still both sides agreed that Forbes and Norton had chemistry in their roles and their romance was believable if not all that unnecessary, with Norton's performance during her death scene being considered the best part in the film.

Still the film did ultimately earn 50 million dollars more than its immediate predecessor and proved that the TNG cast could carry a film on its own, with the next film in the series promising to be the biggest and boldest entry in the franchise yet.

Both Norton and Beltran had already agreed to be in Star Trek: Voyager, reprising their roles as Vosima and Chakotay respectively as part of the main cast, when the movie was in pre-production and as such they were able to begin filming the series almost immediately after being done filming Generations. The production of Voyager however would be a peculiar situation to say the least, especially when the lead actress was on the verge of quitting on her first day of filming.

[thejovian]

Watchmen: The Immediate Impact

There was no denying that Watchmen had been a huge financial hit, 600 million dollars worldwide was quite the return for an investment as big and as uncertain as this. Overnight the superhero genre underwent a Renaissance with every single major studio under the sun scrambling to adapt as many superhero properties as they could find. Warner Bros. immediately put forward plans to reboot their dormant Superman franchise, and possibly, finally make a Justice League movie, Joss Whedon had gone from a relative nobody to one of the most sought-after screenwriters due to his masterful adaptation of the Watchmen graphic novel and Jerry Bruckheimer began to negotiate with Disney and Marvel to begin adapting Marvel properties for the big screen, his endgame being to create something far more ambitious than Watchmen ever was.

At the same time Mark Hamill and Bruce Campbell were the people to come out of this project with the largest boost to their careers, with Hamill being offered, among other roles, a role in the upcoming sci-fi action-comedy Men In Black as Agent K, a major supporting role, which he accepted, seeing it as a welcome change of pace from the serious Watchmen, while Bruce Campbell had so many action film scripts to choose from he had to say no to most of them just because he couldn't conceivably do even half of them.

While all of this was going on a quaint little studio named Pixar was deep into production of their own ambitious project a fully computer-animated movie called Toy Story. Seeing Watchmen's groundbreaking use of CGI to render Dr. Manhattan and the movie's box office success was seen as a good omen by Director John Lasseter, that the world would react positively to his movie.

The success of Watchmen along with last year's Jurassic Park would revolutionize filmmaking and result in a boom of CGI in film, the most egregious example being Superman: Universe and it's portrayal of an all-CGI Brainiac as well as its extensive outer space CGI sets and Greenscreen usage came under criticism for this reason, but on the flip-side 1999's The Matrix would go on to be seen as one of the greatest sci-fi action films of the decade precisely for its likewise amazing but sparing usage of CGI effects.

Watchmen had ultimately accomplished something truly spectacular. It had proven that not only are comic book properties very valuable commodities in the IP market but that R-rated blockbusters were feasible despite the high-budgets. It had captivated the minds of a generation, it had paved the way for more superhero movies and more serious R-rated blockbusters, and in a private screening somewhere in California, it had given a legendary filmmaker one of the greatest moviegoing experiences in his life. In an instant he knew that he had seen a filmmaker who's skill had fully surpassed his own, someone worthy to take on the reins of a long running sci-fi franchise that he was certain could return to the big screen. If only he could convince him to take on the task of helping create a trilogy of films instead of the Titanic bio-pic he was currently trying to get greenlit.

[Captain Jordan]

Nice! Keep up the good work!

[thejovian]

Jan 25, 2016 19:32:16 GMT Captain Jordan said:

Nice! Keep up the good work!

Brace yourself mate, the next post is gonna be a big one.