Even as the folks over at Apple Trailers scramble to figure out why nobody’s been able to watch the trailer that was supposed to appear at 10:00AM EST today, we here at TheCinemaSource would like to extend our own encode of the Avatar trailer along with a couple of brand new production stills that have made their way around the internet today. Sure the trailer is in Spanish, but there doesn’t appear to be any dialogue to speak of anyway. We will update this page as HD links become available.

Avatar Teaser Trailer

480p – 720p – 1080p

While you’re at it, you should also check out our full Star Trek reviews from Dan Deevy — our fearless leader and a diehard Trekkie — and Ryan Hamelin, who wasn’t a fan of the franchise but loved the movie. I won’t burden you with three reviews by adding my own, but I will say that I loved the movie, too. I’d probably give it an A-, in between the B Dan gives it and the A Ryan gives it. There were some amusing logic gaps, a few too many second unit shots of people on spaceships falling over from their ship getting hit, and the good guys win a little too easily, but the good overpowers the bad to an absurd degree. I left the theater wishing the movie was twice as long. I already want to see the sequel.

Bottom line: it’s as good as we all wished the Star Wars prequels were.

With that said, today I ran across this video, which has got to be the funniest news report I’ve ever seen from The Onion:

The first showings start tonight, at 7:00pm. I’m sure there are already people lined up as we speak. To say this day has been hotly anticipated by every single Star Trek fan since the awful Nemisis debuted to $18.5 million back in 2002 is an understatement of epic proportions. This weekend we’ll get to see just how well J.J. Abrams’ new vision of Gene Roddenberry’s classic holds up under the scrutiny of die-hard trekkies and casual film-goers everywhere.

The movie is currently sitting at a glowing 95% on RottenTomatoes and looks like it could be the first big hit of the summer (I discount Wolverine mostly because everyone went to see it for Hugh Jackman and shiny claws). Is it better than Kahn? I’ll leave those comparisons up to you. Dan and I got the chance to see the movie last Thursday (don’t kill us, we’re just doing our jobs) and both had a really great time with it. Having seen it once since then, I can also guarantee that it holds up as well if not even better after a second viewing.

The purpose of this article was originally going to be to compare and contrast our viewpoints on the film. I was going into the screening pretty sure I was going to love the movie, and Dan was hell-bent on hating every big-budget minute of it. In the end we’re only a single letter grade apart, but given the already high amount of praise for the film thus far, that’s pretty much the range of reactions in a nutshell anyway. Without further ado, check out our two reviews below:

Star Trek

Review By: Dan Deevy
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: B

OK before I begin this review let me just say that I still think The Next Generation cast had at least one more movie in them. If it hadn’t been for that hack imitating a director, Stuart Baird, Star Trek: Nemesis would have been an amazing success and would have led to one final adventure for Captain Picard and crew. But since that didn’t happen I was excited to see a brilliant movie blending the crews of Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager; kind of a best of the best all stars movie. But then that didn’t happen either. Pretty much the last thing I wanted to see was a whole new cast coming in pretending to be our beloved original seven. And of course, that’s what did finally end up happening.

Exhale an enormous sigh of relief fellow purists… it wasn’t that bad; in fact, a lot of it recaptured the charm and magic of the original series which I was thrilled about. However, the movie is far from perfect.

I went in to the film praying that the time travel nature of the story would make up for the fact that nothing looked right. The bridge looked like something out of Lost in Space or Galaxy Quest – nothing like the bridge we all know and love. The Enterprise itself had been drastically redesigned along with the crews’ uniforms and the overall look and feel of life in the 23rd century. Well, it turns out that all of that has happened because a bitter angry Romulan called Nero (Eric Bana) has gone back in time and changed history. The entire timeline from moments before Kirk’s birth to what the film presents as present day is totally different from what we all know as the true history of Star Trek. This was a brilliant move on the part of the creative team behind the film because now, they can do anything they want… change anything they want and it’s acceptable.

For me the plot of the film is almost irrelevant beyond the above points so I’m not going to go into any specifics about it. Suffice it to say when you sit down to watch this film, the plot will drag you in and you’ll be totally on board for the ride. The important things to talk about here are how wonderfully well these young actors stepped into the shoes of these legendary parts.

It was impossible for me to envision anyone else being Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy. The four supporting characters Scotty, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov were a little easier to imagine in different hands as their characters were never fully explored and realized. But the top three had such chemistry between them it seemed impossible to replicate. It was that whole lighting in a bottle phenomenon. While that statement is true, newcomers Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban came so much closer to it than I ever imagined they could – I was blown away! Karl Urban in particular embodies McCoy in such an honest and true way that I really believed I was watching DeForest Kelley when he was younger playing Dr. McCoy. Zachary Quinto nails several true Spock moments that solidify the character and Chris Pine plays the sexiest Captain the galaxy has ever seen! He definitely wasn’t channeling Shatner but was still 100% Captain James T. Kirk.

The special effects and action sequences are where I have the most problems with this movie. Star Trek space battle scenes are very different from Star Wars space battles; at least they were until this movie. Starfleet ships use phasers, which are solid beams of light firing from a few main locations typically on the saucer section. Rebel and Imperial ships in Star Wars use blasters which are short bursts of energy from cannon type armaments on the ships. Unfortunately J.J. decided that crazy frenetic cannon style blasters looked cooler and so all of the battle sequences have a very distinct Star Wars episodes I, II & III feel which was really disappointing. You never get that build up and tension leading into a battle or during the fighting of it that you get from all other Star Trek movies. Here you are thrown into these massive battles and it takes a while to figure out what the hell is happening. Normally the dialogue in a Trek movie will be, “Lock weapons on this and fire. Then lock different weapons on this and fire. Bring us around to attack from a different angle… and fire!” But here all we get is, “FIRE EVERYTHING!” and then craziness ensues.

I feel like if they could have stayed a bit more true to the franchise in a technical effects sense this movie could have been a total home run, but as it stands it will always be the least Star Trek of any Star Trek film. Some will say that’s a good thing – but those people are stupid.

Don’t get me wrong it was incredible to be sitting in a movie theater watching new Star Trek again for the first time in years! I had a silly grin of pure joy on my face for a lot of it and had a few spontaneous uncontrollable bursts of mini clapping to myself which only happens when I’m so pleased that I just don’t know what to do with myself. So it was a great experience. I just wanna know when these people are gonna wise up and consult me BEFORE a movie is made because with my alterations they’d have near perfect, flawless Star Trek film. I may not be an expert on much, but when it comes to Star Trek I really can’t be beat. And I guess now that J.J. Abrams is involved that’s a cool thing? Right?

And now for the more open-minded, non-diehard, teenager review…

Star Trek

Review By: Ryan Hamelin
RyanHamelin@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: A

The last film that managed to exceed my abnormally high level of fan-boy expectation was The Dark Knight. That should give you some context when I can say, unequivocally, that J.J. Abrams Star Trek left all of my preconceptions in the dust. The movie is a phenomenally solid sci-fi epic that boasts an incredible cast, beautiful visuals, and one of the best scripts of any film to come out this year. I mean it, this film is the kind of event that Trek fans have been waiting for since Star Trek the Motion Picture, and it’s a movie which manages to be entirely respectful to its source material while simultaneously opening its arms to the entirety of the movie going public (Watchmen screenwriters take note).

What works? Just about everything. From the pitch-perfect opening sequence, easily the most emotionally charged opener of any of the films, to the final bars of the classic theme with Leonard Nimoy delivering the “Space, the final frontier” motto, this film maintains a level of quality in every facet of its production that continues to astound me hours after leaving the theater. The sets are wonderful, even the updated bridge took a grand total of three minutes before it became familiar and homely, and the U.S.S. Enterprise has never felt more real. The space battles have been kicked up through the roof, and though they’ve acquired a more visceral Star Wars aesthetic, I think it’s truly a good thing, because they are spectacular on a big screen.

Enough can’t be said about the cast of this film. Everybody nailed every line, every nuance, while managing to never look like they were imitating anybody. Karl Urban, in particular, is quite literally channeling DeForest Kelley the majority of the film and the interaction between him and Chris Pine’s Kirk along with Zachary Quinto’s Spock really shines through from the original series. I spent the majority of the movie grinning from ear to ear as each classic line flew out of the mouths of characters I knew and had grown to love throughout my childhood. The familiarity was so tangible and real that I’m amazed something didn’t happen to disturb the near endless stream of terrific moments by the halfway mark of this film.

What didn’t work? Well, I know Dan’s going to have quite a few more criticisms than I do, but given he went in prepared to hate the film and came out enjoying it, that shows you just how solid a piece of entertainment this project is. On occasion the action seems to lull a little bit, but that’s really only in comparison to the rapid-fire pace of the rest of the film. The writers also get really close to dangerous territory when it comes to one relationship in particular, but they never go too far, and having read interviews with Gene Roddenberry bemoaning the fact that he never had the time to develop this particular relationship in the series, I’m happy they did their best to explore the possibilities there without falling into cliché or gut-wrenchingly bad melodrama. As long as Chris Pine is in the scene to offer a quip that brings the focus back where it belongs, the tangents never seem forced or too disconnected.

Now it’s time to address what I gather is a really big question for all of the non-Trek fans out there. Will you like it without knowing anything about the series? I think the answer is a definite yes. There’s guns, space battles, drama, intrigue, humor, explosions, and heart… all painted on the canvas of one of the most well loved sci-fi universes ever created. It’s also a time-travel story, so it goes back and introduces all of the original crew as well as the major themes of the show and all the different technological gadgets that they have at their disposal. It really is quite accessible, and the lines that will draw appreciation of a deeper sort from fans will still produce the same laughs and smiles from people looking for a good story and who can appreciate characters that have all the weight and candor of real people.

Is it perfect? No. Do they pull it off? Hell yes. They also manage to create a film that both Trekkies and the uninitiated will love for years to come. This film will make Star Trek cool, it’s true, but not through destroying anything that was great about it before, just by opening it up and telling a story that will emotionally affect a greater number of people. This is the movie that will validate all those years of fans saying, “No really, you should check it out, it’s really cool” and replace that with “Yeah, I’m a real fan, not one of you bandwagoners.” I think that alone is worth the price of admission. Hats off to Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman for doing the seemingly impossible and rebooting the greatest sci-fi franchise of all time in spectacular fashion. I figure they’ve got at least two more fantastic movies left in them, and then we’ll see what happens. Will these be the continuing voyages of a new generation of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy? Who knows? All we can say for sure is that as the U.S.S. Enterprise warps off on its next voyage into the unknown, the future of this franchise looks bright indeed.

So, there you have it. Now you know everything you’d ever really want to know prior to seeing the film, and just for fun, here are the newest TV Spots to help you on your way out the door. Drop us a line when you get back from the film and tell us what you think below. Live Long and… well… you know.

TV Spot #12

TV Spot #13

TV Spot #14

At 30 years old, Saldaña has now secured what will inarguably be her most iconic. It’s as chief communications officer Nyota Uhura in J.J. Abrams’s new film adaptation of the classic science-fiction TV series Star Trek.

To secure the role, the cast had to endure martial arts training and be in top physical condition to perform the many stunts in the film. But, for Zoe, she says she was already prepared for the physical task involved.

“Well, actually, I was coming out of a film that I was shooting for two years called Avatar,” Saldaña recalls, “And so, I had been training for a little over two years throughout the production. And so, by the time I got to Star Trek and they presented me with the outfit I was going to be wearing, I was very relieved that I didn’t have to begin to reshape and rechange everything. I just continued doing everything that I was doing, which was Pilates and eating better.”

One of the boldest changes in J.J. Abrams’s big screen vision of the series was the development of a budding romance between Uhura and half-alien Mr. Spock, which Saldaña was candid to share her thoughts about.

“Well, I have so many reactions and they react in different stages,” she remarks, “And the first one was I really thought J.J. was out of his mind to do something like that. It was so bold. But after reading the script and having all these different characters sink in, Spock and Uhura really make sense to have, whether you call it a misinterpretation of emotions or a deeper friendship or simply love, you know, it made sense to me, given their personality types. She’s very driven, he’s very logical, he’s excellent at what he does, she strives for perfection, she absolutely hates Kirk, therefore anything that resembles the opposite of who he is is something that she can be drawn to.”

“And I was very overwhelmed also with how dear it was for Spock to break in such a way and for her to be allowed to have that presence of that,” Zoe adds, “And for her to be allowed to by this man to call her by her first name, to let you know that there’s a bond there that’s much bigger and deeper there than can be imagined. You know, what better linguistic is there than a talented tongue, right?”

This particular Star Trek< role was as much historic as it was iconic in American pop culture. Nyota Uhura was one of the first prominent black female characters of the emerging feminist age. However, Zoe, who is of Dominican ethnicity, while the significance of playing Uhura is undeniable, does not see playing the role herself in purely racial terms.

“Inheriting that strength and the importance and significance of that hat when she was first born in the series and then, four years later, being someone to get into presence at and be in this beautiful family, is probably one of the most humbling sensations, not just as a woman of color, but as a woman, period,” Saldaña states, “I never get as far as sub-dividing myself in sub-little boxes and categories. It’s completely unnecessary when the biggest and most obvious thing that I am is a woman.”

She is also quick to note though that Uhura’s race only scratching the surface to just how truly ahead of its time Star Trek really was in the world of American television.

“And for Gene Roddenberry, too, and the creators of Star Trek, to have that space, that time,” she notes, “Not only did they envision a Russian man working along with a Japanese American for the common goal of peace and an alien, too, and to go, you know what, there’s still room for one more person, it needs to be a woman.”

“And it needs to be a very strong woman and she’s going to be sexy and she’s not going to apologize for it and she’s going to do her job well,” Zoe continues, “That time, I felt they must have been out of their minds. But what I felt it did, not only for women in America, but women worldwide and for me to be born 15 years later and inherit that strength, and even though I was not very familiar with the series, I knew who Michelle Nichols was. It just goes to show that some things are very significant and I just feel really happy.”

Tired of the Star Trek news articles? Then start making movies I’d be more excited about seeing. This week, it so happens, that the newest edition of Wired Magazine is hitting stands courtesy of special guest editor J.J. Abrams, who, for those living under a rock, is the director of the up and coming Kirk and Spock feature film. Besides letting him drop vague tantalizing hints about the ending of Lost and talk about how great it is to be wealthy and all-powerful, it allowed Wired to publish a pretty sweet article detailing some of the concept work that went into the ice-planet creature from the new movie that is seen ever so briefly in the trailers and TV spots. You can check out some of the pictures below and head over here for the full article.

Think we were out of TV Spots yet? Nope, but it sure is getting kind of old… Paramount’s still like, “Here’s 30 more seconds of our movie and maybe 5 or 6 frames you’ve never seen before.” Just come out already, yeesh.

NEW TV Spot #8

NEW TV Spot #7

Like I actually need an excuse to post new Star Trek stuff. Truthfully, I do have requirements for writing a news article. I’ve got to have at least 2 things worth posting in it. Because of that, I’ve been sitting on the latest clip until today when, low and behold, a brand new TV Spot rolled off the conveyor belt. It also gives me an excuse to post some behind-the-scenes photos that were screengrabbed off of a featurette as headers for my next few articles. I take what I can get. The latest TV Spot and the new clip are below:

New TV Spot #6

New Clip “You Will Answer Me”

Clip “Disease and Danger”

In other news, the Star Trek Facebook page was just updated with some brand new stills from the film. Check them out below:

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and was greeted by a deluge of new Star Trek reviews, not from Sydney Australia, where the film officially premiered at the Sydney Opera House last night, but from Austin Texas where AintItCool’s screening of Wrath of Kahn turned into something far more interesting.

Apparently the night went something like this… After an introduction from Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and David Lindelof for what they described as their all-time favorite Trek film, Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn, fans settled in for the film. AintItCool organized the event as part of their annual FantasticFest screenings and people traveled from hundreds of miles away to see the classic film on the big screen with an all new picturesque transfer courtesy of Paramount. They were also to be privileged to ten exclusive minutes from the new film that had never been seen anywhere previously. After a few minutes of the beautiful opening titles, the Kahn print started to show lines and eventually appeared to break altogether. As the lights came back up a Paramount exec took the mike to tell everyone that he was heading back to the projection room to “kick somebody’s ass” and had the writers cover for him.

As the crowd booed and became more and more frustrated, the writers did their best to try and be entertaining. Fortunately for them, something else was soon to grab everyone’s attention. A figure in a trenchcoat and hat appeared on the stage with a baseball cap covering his face. In his hand he held a film canister, and as he whipped off the hat, Leonard Nimoy was revealed at the front of the room. Following the standing ovation, Nimoy asked Orci and Kurtzman how much of the film they had planned to show. When he heard the response, he turned to the audience and asked with a wry smile “Don’t you want to see the whole thing?” So began the world premiere of Star Trek a full three hours before the folks in Sydney would begin their own screening.

The reviews have been phenomenal, and that’s saying a lot considering the marketing team all but ensured an audience of entirely die-hard Trek fans. The fact that they even had the balls to pull a print of Wrath of Kahn, agreed to being the best of the series among most fans, to show the new movie is a testament to their confidence in what has been called the greatest franchise reboot ever made. If it was good enough to satisfy a guy who drove long distance to watch Kahn for the 11th time on a big screen, it’s good enough for me, and I couldn’t be more excited for the film.

In other news, Yahoo recently premiered a brand new clip from the film which is not only spoiler free, but highlights a performance we’ve now heard great things about but haven’t actually seen in action, that of Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy. He is channeling DeForest Kelly to such a degree in this quick clip that I already have complete confidence in what he’ll do with the rest of the film. You can check out our encode below:

Also, just for kicks, here’s the YouTube link to the footage of Nimoy’s arrival and reveal of the premiere that hit earlier today. If this doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will.

In other news, the world premiere of the movie is either tonight or tomorrow night (conflicting reports) at the Syndney Opera House so look for the first of the early reviews to hit the net in the next few days. The MPAA have given the final cut of the movie the assumed PG-13 rating, for reasons explained best by their official statement:

Star Trek has been rated Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence and brief sexual content by the Motion Picture Association of America.

The past few days have also been good on the TV Spot front with a bunch of new Terminator Salvation spots hitting the airwaves (waiting on some interesting news about the film itself before posting an article on them) as well as two new Star Trek spots which we’ve embedded below.

TV Spot #4

TV Spot #5

The story is still at its most basic stages, but the trio hopes to deliver a draft soon in order to have a film in theaters for summer 2011.

“Obviously we discussed ideas, but we are waiting to see how audiences respond next month,” Kurtzman said. “With a franchise rebirth, the first movie has to be about origin. But with a second, you have the opportunity to explore incredibly exciting things. We’ll be ambitious about what we’ll do.”

In other news, a bunch of new stills from the movie have popped up online, including our first look at the meeting between Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy, and we have them below for your viewing pleasure.

The thing about poster news is that international posters are almost always better than the marketing here in the States… I guess the studios figure Europeans are more creative and need cooler advertising to get them to see a film. Whatever the reason, here are a few cool international trek posters from the UK, Germany, and Australia. Enjoy:

Just in case you weren’t getting enough fun Star Trek content, here’s our embed of the latest and greatest exclusive tv spot: