Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.
I’m a Trekkie and I have to be honest: I didn’t like 2009’s Star Trek. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it was pretty enjoyable, had a solid cast, I love seeing Leonard Nimoy as Spock, and I’m a big J.J. Abrams fan (Super 8 is a masterpiece). But it did not feel at all like Star Trek to me. I thought the time travel/parallel universe story was a cheap way for the writers to be able to sidestep history, I thought the movie was far too dumbed-down so as to appeal to modern audiences, and they completely screwed up the Kobayashi Maru sequence.
So I feel a bit of trepidation when I see the trailers for the new film, Star Trek Into Darkness. Take a look and then read on for my thoughts:
Iron Man 3 opens with a flashback to 1999, narrated by Tony Stark. It’s the eve of the new millennium, and Tony is partying with an attractive scientist who is interested in DNA modification as it relates to regeneration. They have an elevator encounter with an enthusiastic scientist interested in recruiting Tony (and the woman) to his new company. We’re told via Tony’s voice over that this is where it all started.
The Croods live in a cave. That should be too surprising, considering that they are cave people. But beyond just living in the cave, they define their entire lives by it. The last surviving family of Neanderthals in the valley, the Croods spend almost all of their time in the cave, emerging only to hunt for food. The cave has kept them safe, as have the rules implemented by Grug (Nicolas Cage), the father of the family. Inside the cave live Grug and his wife, Grug’s mother-in-law and the three kids. Eep (Emma Stone), the oldest child, hates the rules, the cave, and her family, and longs to explore new things, in contradiction to her father’s mantra, “New is always bad. Never not be afraid.” 
