Simon Pegg is an ignorant cunt

Fuck Simon Pegg. Fuck his elitist attitude. Fuck his condescension. Fuck his self-hating angst.

Fuck nu-Trek with it's gay Spock, trans-dimensional beaming, magic Khan blood, resurrected Kirk, and Quinto's cringe-inducing "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

There, that Red Room enough for you?

Ah, Wombat, you own TNZ.

Meanwhile, The Flashlight apparently champions the "dumbing down" of cinema? Sounds about par for the course.

Are you agreeing that genre fare, including Trek, Wars, and the Marvel movies, represent the "dumbing down" of cinema? Can I assume that you watch The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer and The English Patient at least once weekly? I'm sure American Sniper will have a permanent daily spot on your viewing schedule for the next few months at least?

Ironically, he's too dumb to understand what Pegg actually said.

Yup.

Misuse of irony. The word you're looking for is 'unsurprisingly'.

"Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys or moral questions that might make you walk away and re-evaluate how you felt about … whatever."

Isn't this what TOS, TNG & much of DS9 managed to accomplish within the sci-fi framework? So the failure isn't of the genre itself, but of the individuals currently in charge of creative content. Roddenberry was never so moon-eyed about things, he understood that Hollywood is a business, the goal is to make money. Along with the social commentary, he mixed in enough action, phasers, photon torpedoes, swarthy aliens and gratuitous sex appeal to keep audiences interested for two seasons. Go back and watch TOS and marvel at the number of scantily-clad hotties. That was some scandalous stuff for 60's TV.

As an actor, if he's tired of working in "genre" entertainment, if he wants to expand his horizons to the "gritty, amoral art movies" that tackle adult "real-world issues," then by all means he should start auditioning for those roles and see if he can land some. Pegg's problem is that he looks goofy, and he doesn't have the acting chops to handle serious drama. Instead of whining and alienating the fans of the franchise that's paying him a boatload of money, why doesn't he write a dramatic script for himself to star in, a la Billy Bob Thornton's Slingblade?

And like you, Pegg is complaining that they want to take the Trek out of Trek. Unlike you, he has a job to do that involves pleasing the producers.

If you'd bothered to read the article, you'd understand that's not all Pegg is saying. Perhaps part of what he is complaining about is the studio wanting to make the next Trek into yet another action spectacle. That complaint has been around for years, nothing new being said.

And if publicly trashing "genre" cinema as infantile, childish and dumb, thereby alienating the fan base by insinuating they're emotionally stunted people who aren't interested in "adult" drama, is his way of pleasing his producers, I guess we should be grateful he isn't out to piss them off.

He's saying the fan base doesn't need it dumbed down, but I guess he hasn't met you.

Once again, read the article and get a clue as to what he actually said before wasting my time trying to insult me.

He isn't saying the fan base doesn't require dumbed down entertainment. He's copping an elitist attitude and lamenting that people are paying millions to watch was he considers juvenile, vacuous movies that, in his opinion, don't speak to Important Issues Of The Day. He's insulting all the folks who have paid to see Avengers, essentially saying their taste in movies is shit.

Well, you know, my 5 y/o loved Avengers and was excited to see Hulk battle Iron Man. He didn't need political subtext or lecturing on some liberal social talking point to enjoy the show. And you know what? That's perfectly ok. There's a place in the world for silly comic book movies that 10 year olds can get excited about. So fuck Simon Pegg, and fuck his apologists. He's a shitty Scotty, his goofy, jokey take on the character is as much an insult to Doohan's legacy as TNG's treatment of the character, turning Scotty into bumbling old man who talked too much and had to endure Geordi's disrespect.

Yeah, he's saying that and also saying that Trek is better. He's not wrong.

I'm sorry, what's he not wrong about? Please clarify.

That Avengers is dumbed down, that Star Trek need not be dumbed down, and that the flashlight is an idiot.

The Avengers is "dumbed-down," as measured by what criteria? Please be specific.

And what deep social commentary was embedded within the plot of King Kong vs. Godzilla? Cause I think a lot of kids enjoyed that one back in the day.

Meanwhile, realizing he just stepped in a big pile of shit and angered the producers Gul thinks he's trying so hard to please, here's Pegg's (unconvincing) attempt to alternately walk back and then restate & justify his arguments.

http://simonpegg.net/2015/05/19/big-mouth-strikes-again/

Was this supposed to be an apology? Only emotionally stunted, overgrown adolescents will come and see his next Trek flick, and it's a byproduct of a dysfunctional society that doesn't force it's children to "grow up" early enough? He pines for the days of world wars (and I was assume the Vietnam War) when kids had to become adults fast because you were drafted at age 18 to go get blown apart in the jungle, and if you were lucky enough to make it back to the States alive you were a more worthwhile person because you had put side childish things and....what exactly? You read the Wall Street Journal and paid attention to the Dow and went to work every day and eventually died of a heart attack at age 55 because you were a proper, serious "adult" who had put aside childish things?

This guy is a massive tool, Trek 3 is already doomed, Idris Elba will permanently damage his career by agreeing to appear in this impending shitfest, and after the failure of this film, scripted by Pegg the Asshorn (to use his words), Trek will be absent for at least another 10 years, until somebody decides to bring it back to TV (where it really belongs).

I'm mostly with Fleshlight here, as stated in Media Central.

Pegg seems to be aware of the dumbing down trend, to be unhappy with it, and still be co-operating fully. I for one do not wish to see Star Trek dumbed down still further into Avengers territory.

Frankly, this seems like one hell of a bad interview. It sets up a conflict and then stops, not telling us what Pegg plans to do about it. That makes it sound as if he will go along with the dumbing down he despises, but then the same page links to another recent interview on which he says the new movie will be more like the original series than the first two.

You know, if the dumbing down of trek means upsetting Fleshlight and Rick Dickedhard I'm okay with that.

The only thing worse than famous people making stupid and insulting statements...

...is their lame ass fake apologies / excuses / attempts to back away from them after they realize they pissed everyone off.


I guess that's another thing our culture of actively looking for ways to be offended has brought us though. An actor can't just be a good actor, we have to believe he agrees with us politically or socially or we will set out to destroy him.

EDIT: Actually it's not just famous people. Anyone who makes a political statement we don't agree with tends to be targeted for destruction.

Bill Cosby agrees!

Hand Trek 3 over to George Miller, if you don't know why. Go watch Fury Road and you'll know why. Just apply that cinematography and directing to a Trek movie, and you would be completely blown away.

"Destruct sequence 1, code 1-1 A."

If you don't care for someone's work, then don't indulge in it.

Please. The only A-list directors to ever waste their time with Trek were Robert Wise and JJ (if you consider JJ to be A-list). Trek has traditionally been more interested in saving money by hiring directors from within the family (Nimoy, Shatner, Frakes).

You know, I figured out why Gul got so horny over Pegg's diatribe. It's because they're kindred spirits.

Pegg: "Today's movies are too juvenile, too vacuous."
Gul: "Today's Wordforge is too juvenile, too vacuous."

Pegg: "Today's movies are dumbed down, they not serious enough, they don't tackle important issues of the day."
Gul: "Today's Wordforge is dumbed down, overrun with derp, there isn't enough serious discussion about important issues of the day."

Pegg: "I'm a pretentious twat, bitter over the knowledge that I don't have the talent to be taken seriously as a dramatic thespian, and angry because fans hated the way I played the Scotty character. Why couldn't I play Lincoln instead of that hack Daniel Day Lewis? Doesn't Spielberg believe in me?"
Paladin/Gul/Ancalagon: "I'm a pretentious twat, bitter over the knowledge that people were more interested in reading a slap fight between Castle & Garamet rather than my latest pontification concerning important issues of the day."

Interesting theory, but dumbforge generally amuses me, so keep dancing.