A Batch of Star Trek Posters Better Than the Originals
Star Trek Into the Darkness “only” made about $86 million during its five-day opening, a figure many are deeming something of a disappointment for a movie that I guess was supposed to be an uber blockbuster. Seems alright to me, though.
Anyway, perhaps if the marketing was a little better, it might have drawn in a few more people. Posters don’t usually sell a movie like trailers do, but still, this poster art contest from Blurppy is simply fantastic.
They collected a huge host of talented artists to give their own take on Into the Darkness, and you can see the results above and below. Really incredible stuff.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if studios went for striking art over focus-tested photoshops?
Anyway, I read an interesting thing earlier today about how one of the biggest contributing factors for Into Darkness’s “underperformance” may well be the fact that the Abrams conversation shifted so heavily into Star Wars territory in the months leading up to its release.
Plus I heard the movie wasn’t all that, which never helps.
It’s a bit of a mystery why it didn’t do better. The first reviews and word-of-mouth after its premiere (a week before the US release) were outstanding. The studio knew they had a top-quality product and pushed it adequately. Hell, reviews are still great, even with many of the latest reviewers jumping in the bandwagon of dismissing the film now that it has a “flop” aura surrounding it. It’s only the second film in a series that seemed to have legs for another three or four. So what happened?
I guess they just waited too long to release this sequel, so it felt like a tired reboot for US audiences, although the franchise is still very fresh, on screen at least. Think about it, 7 years passed from the last “old” film to the 2009 reboot. And they inexplicably waited 4 years to continue on the rebooted universe, losing all momentum. Die-hard fans hate the same stuff about Into Darkness than they hated about the 2009 film and are unjustly comparing it to Star Trek II, and newcomers are somewhat exhausted of sci-fi action and didn’t want to re-engage with this franchise. (This could also mean bad news for After Earth, Elysium, etc.).
Audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 4.4/5, or 89%. I think it’s a marvelous summer blockbuster, one of the best I’ve seen in the last 3 years. It’s shallower than the original series, but also more pacey, and that’s the point of the reboot. It’s almost as much a spectacle as The Avengers with far more emotional resonance, although it falls behind in comedy and originality. It has a great villain performance, although not the greatest backstory for the bad guy. Perhaps it’ll be the new thing that’s cool to hate on the internet for a while; but it’s a great film and I recommend to watch it simply expecting to enjoy the ride. I mean, Fast & Furious keeps getting high reviews and massive revenue for a lot less.