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Home > Oracle Database / Applications News > Star Trek XI tops list of geek movies to watch in 2008 |
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The 11th theatrical installment of Gene Roddenberry's hopeful glimpse into the future of technology and interplanetary relations will chronicle the early days of legendary Starfleet officer James T. Kirk and his USS Enterprise shipmates. But don't expect legendary ham William Shatner, who played Kirk in the original television series and subsequent films, to squeeze into a younger man's uniform for this production. Instead, young Kirk will be acted by a relative unknown, Chris Pine, who has appeared in films like Smokin' Aces and Just My Luck. Zachary Quinto, who earned geek street credit playing the evil Sylar on television's Heroes, will portray Kirk's pointy-eared and party-pooping sidekick, Spock, which was originally Leonard Nimoy's role. Production of the new Star Trek film has been hush-hush, and that has led to lots of questions within the geek community: Will Kirk take on the Romulans? Will Nimoy make some kind of cameo? Will the new cast be pigeon-holed into playing these roles for the next 40 years? Is this reporter a little bit too excited? According to technology professionals, the answer to all of those questions is -- quite possibly. "With Star Trek, the allure lies in how future technologies impact society and what possibilities could lay ahead," said Ray Wang, a business applications analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. "They also do a great job balancing the potential evils and drawbacks that bad technology policy can play in society. Take holodecks. They examine holo-addiction as well as the role this [technology] plays in training and entertainment." Star Trek has always been huge with the technologically advanced among us, but it's not the only work of escapist art that IT geeks are looking forward to in 2008. They're also gearing up for some seriously geeky sequels, including new installments of The Incredible Hulk, Batman, Hellboy, Sin City, The Mummy, The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. But perhaps the second-most anticipated geek movie of 2008 after Star Trek focuses on an aging archeologist with a penchant for whips and leather. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, starring Harrison Ford, hits the theaters next Memorial Day.
"Harrison Ford will be 66 years old by the time the movie is released, and very probably the star of the most profitable summer action movie of all time," said Dave Pye, a Toronto SEO consultant and self-proclaimed movie geek. "Think about that for a second. It's simply fantastic." Pye went on to express appreciation of Indiana Jones' director, Steven Spielberg, who shot Crystal Skull on 35mm film as opposed to digital and kept the CGI (computer-generated imagery) to a minimum. Spielberg instead relied on "good old-fashioned stunt men" to give Crystal Skull the same look and feel as previous Jones adventures. While geeks are excited to see the new Jones flick, some can't help but get in some shots about Ford's age. "Old Harrison is getting pretty long in the tooth," said William G. Smith, principal of William G. Smith & Associates, a Jackson, Wyo.-based data management consultancy. "He'll probably be using the cane that Sean Connery used in [Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]." Godzilla meets the Blair Witch Another upcoming movie that's got geeks talking attempts to answer an age-old philosophical question first pondered by the Japanese: What would happen if a giant monster attacked the city? Cloverfield, set for release on January 18, offers viewers a first-person glimpse into just such a Godzilla-like monster attack -- without ever actually showing the monster itself. According to reports, Cloverfield director Matt Reeves instead focused entirely on the fear and confusion experienced by a group of young partygoers during the assault. "Not being able to see the monster is the allure for me because it leaves the individual to use their imagination and make their own conclusions," said Mark Vail, a quality assurance engineer with Constant Contact Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based email marketing company. "The Blair Witch Project was another movie that used this style of filmmaking, and that was a movie I thoroughly enjoyed." While some complain that films like Blair Witch and Cloverfield literally promote shaky cinematography, Vail doesn't mind so much. "The handheld camera view makes the story seem more realistic," he said. "It's interesting to see different directors' perspectives on the chaotic results if something Armageddon-like did occur." A geeky look back With 2007 now coming to an end, many geeks are pondering the nerdy cinematic achievements of the year gone by. The last year saw some big box-office smashes with Spider Man 3, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and 300. One much-ballyhooed geek film of 2007, Transformers, which is based on an old cartoon about alien robots that can change at will into cars and other machines, has caused a bit of a rift in the geek community. "They did a really good job with that movie," said Jason Alojado, a project manager with Best Buy's Geek Squad. "They mirrored the exact story of the cartoons." Constant Contact's Vail had a very different opinion, however. "I could only get through the first half hour of that debacle," Vail said. "And why? Two words: break-dancing robots. Someone needs to sit director Michael Bay down to inform him that cool special effects and explosions do not necessarily make a good film. He is the worst director of the 21st century."
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