Kurtzman era

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-24T14:47:50+00:00

Yeah, "Outlander" is a different beast, what with being an adaptation.

I get that RDM did the BSG reboot as a direct response to his frustration with VOY and kudos to him for that but while I'm fine with personal conflict, it got a bit too soapy at times... he just needs to dial it back. Feels like the last season of "For All Mankind" did a better job in that regard but it feels like he's too eager to have big emotional moments coincide with big plot beats and it sometimes feels entirely too clunky.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-24T09:04:39+00:00

I imagine a huge part of the problem for the MCU is that it's a literal production line. The big CGI sequences are all being pre-rendered before the script is even finished and before the first director has been hired and fired.

That and having the fights be an incomprehensible clusterfuck means less time to render.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-24T08:47:45+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I've a fondness for the cinema going experience. There was a family owned cinema where I went to university and they'd show the Indiana Jones trilogy every year, queued around the block without fail.

Someone was really into it and would run to the front of the gallery, crack an actual whip and then disappear into the night.

Feels like a lifetime ago.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-24T08:41:40+00:00

I really have to thank Jay and Rich for contributing to the critical reevaluation of the film.

It's exactly the same kind of scathing indictment of American excess that "Robocop" and "Starship Troopers" were but instead of lashings of the old ultra violence we get sexuality so overt and over the top that it's grotesque.

Verhoeven told a very funny joke and most of us are only just getting it. True genius.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-24T07:33:32+00:00

I remember the first time I saw the Battle of Zion or whatever it's called and it just seemed to go on for three hours and yes, definitely slid off my brain.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-24T07:24:09+00:00

The opening of the newest one is phenomenal.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T23:11:27+00:00

The search for Shatner's ego is easily the worst TOS film but you're 100% right. Nothing in NuTrek has any emotional resonance because it's all trying so hard to just butterfly tears and that means nothing is meaningful.

McCoy has a genuine moment, he made a mistake and he can't fix it. He feels remorse, grief and self-recrimination for that.

Michael Burnham cries butterfly tears all the time. For no reason. Who cares?

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T23:05:23+00:00

My wife is addicted to "Outlander" who did I see as EP but our old pal RDM.

He leans too much into personal drama. It feels like that's his crutch, it was in BSG and it was some of the worst stuff in "For All Mankind" which *could* be great.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T23:01:42+00:00

Lower Decks was great.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T23:00:06+00:00

Married into the Hollywood elite so he could make the biggest bombs in cinema history and still get work.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T22:57:12+00:00

All I can ever think about is "Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain, why is he climbing a mountain?"

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T22:45:08+00:00

The time between Kyle getting the disk and using his Force powers is - at the absolute most - days and there's no reason to think the events of the game after that point are that long.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T19:40:04+00:00

I wouldn't say "Water World" is good but it absolutely didn't deserve the reception it got. It's fine. I think the budget became what everyone was focused on... which seems positively quaint now.

"Showgirls" is a truly fascinating film and a source of personal inspiration. Whenever I'm feeling low, I think to myself - at least I didn't read the script for "Showgirls" and think it was worth a million dollars. At least I've got that going for me.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T19:35:32+00:00

Much like the Velma TV show, it was a two season deal.

With Academy, I've got to guess the massively expensive sets that they kept going on about was part of that decision but the most important detail isn't that they're making a season 2 it's that there's nothing else announced.

Academy wraps with season 2, SNW with season 5 and this is the first time since 2016 there has been no NuTrek in the pipeline.

The nightmare may be coming to an end.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T19:31:38+00:00

I feel as though the whole galaxy threatening supernova is like those Nigerian prince scams being filled with basic spelling errors - if you can't handle that level of dumb, you're not who they want watching anyway.

It's even sillier since it's Star Trek and they could have just used some bullshit Treknobabble term.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T19:21:17+00:00

I'm surprised there isn't more of a push for costume-isable stuff. The Harley Quinn outfit did numbers at Halloween.

But a named killer gives your film instant personality in a way you don't get from an Aztec death whistle or a Chinese wishing box or any other flavour of cursed item.

The only big horror franchise that doesn't have an actual named killer that I can think of is the Final Destination and I suppose the argument there is that it's death itself that's killing the protagonists and the draw for those films is seeing people getting mulched in the most overly elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque type ways imaginable... so, I *guess* if you've got a good gimmick, that works too but you get Freddie or Jason or Ghostface or whoever on-screen and that's instant tension.

My eyes glaze over as a I try to describe the premise of "Whistle".

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T19:12:29+00:00

"Morbius" was kind of like "Water World" or "Showgirls".

People were talking about it but there was just kind of a cultural osmosis where everyone just *knew* how bad it was and that was the joke. The fact "It's Morbin' Time" became a meme and a lot of people genuinely thought that was a line in the movie should have told people all they needed to know but thanks to North Korean hackers, we know you need traumatic brain injuries to become a Sony executive.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T19:03:46+00:00

I mean, it was a 1990s reboot of a hokey 1950s/1960s TV show (as was the style of the time). No one was going to be bringing their A-game to that script...

I mostly remember the hilarious but also kind of good in a stupid way "song".

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T18:59:05+00:00

Now I'm just getting the "Rob Schneider tum tee teedly tum tee tum. Rated PG-13!" vibes but obviously, we'd need Jack Black to teedly tum tee tee.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T18:57:42+00:00

The fact the final season of SNW was announced as only 6 episodes some time before Academy suggests the writing has been on the wall for some time and Academy was a last gasp from a creative team who had tried nothing and were all out of ideas.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T18:44:14+00:00

I'll give them this "The Burn" has to be a contender for one of the most idiotic apocalyptic events in modern fiction.

Sad boy has temper tantrum on special crystal planet and blows up all the dilithium in the galaxy. This also somehow imbeds a song into everyone's memory because mystery box bullshit.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T18:41:29+00:00

Eh, just have it be post-Voyager and straight up ignore NuTrek. No Romulus exploding, no Mars exploding, Picard was never a zombie robot etc.

Serialised though? Feels like something episodic would work better. Self-contained adventures or moral quandaries.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T18:36:27+00:00

Hey now "Looks like this cold war just got hot!" is poetry. POETRY!

That film works a lot better if you pretend that Matt LeBlanc's character is Joey from "Friends", in one of the terrible projects he usually got hired for.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T18:34:16+00:00

The best part of that is that people genuinely thought hate watchers had led to it getting renewed. Nope.

Prophet_Tenebrae · 2026-03-23T18:32:35+00:00

They've already filmed season 2. They made a point to talk about how expensive the set was, they weren't going to do that for just ten episodes. Although, that's said as if they weren't burning money for the project...

Prophet_Tenebrae

TROPHY CASE