Beam us up

Star Trek one of the greatest SF franchises ever conceived. Epic and visionary, it shows mankind at its fullest potential. If only we could live up to the standards set by Roddenberry, Harlan Ellison, and DC Fontana, we could rightfully claim a place among the peoples of the universe. My only critique is the overabundance of humanoid aliens populating outer space in ST. Once we stop crawling and learn to trek among the stars, I expect we will find aliens are not so sexy and even more bizarre than we could ever have imagined.

Fascinating.

So the movie is coming out in theaters here the same day it is being released on Blue Ray DVD and digitally in the USA?

Matthew: Sadly, unless it presents a positive image of Japan or is part of the Harry Potter series, that's how it works. Unfortunately, you cannot get the DVDs in Japan for a few more months (unless you have an American account with Amazon that you can order from and have sent to Japan). They delay the release of most movies so that they can have the stars appear in pictures like above. If they released it at the same time, no one could come to Japan for the premiere (unless it was filmed and/or is based on Japan).

Lowly -

My problem is the fact that distribution rights, translations, subtitling, etc are matters which affect every non-English speaking country. Yet Japan, which is one of the biggest movie markets in the world, cannot pull its finger out and is almost always one of the last places on earth films ever get released. That applies whether they are guaranteed money-spinners such as Star Trek or Bond films, or art house pictures, or anything in between. Usually this is the last place on earth to see a film.

For such a developed country, with so many people willing to fork out hand over fist for entertainment, this is indefensible. If Ulan Bator can sort out subtitles in May, then there is no reason the moviegoers of Tokyo should have to wait until late August.

Just double checked for the DVD release/price.

Amazon.com (US) - Release date: September 10, 2013. Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy with a price tag of $19.99 and if you want to order DVD alone then you have to pay $16.99.

I always buy films delayed in this ludicrous way like this from Amazon UK or US. I'm not waiting 3 months after the film gets released in Mongolia and Lithuania to pay 1800 yen x 3, plus popcorn and petrol to go and see it in the cinema once.

I wouldn't mind so much, but there's a poster for this film up on a drinks machine in my local train station, and it's been up there so long it's fading and peeling. Why promote something you're sitting on for a financial quarter?

Promote something if people can see it, or don't promote it and hope people won't notice there is a world elsewhere.

This nonsensical, archaic and insular policy really does no-one any favours.

ian-

don't know what your problem is,

it takes time to get licensing, distributor rights bought, not to mention subtitling etc. Different movies by different cos get faster or slower release dates depending on how the co works, and also, especially, if the J partners think it will sell or not to a J audience. There's reasons behind all that, it's not just to bother you.

ST was great and imaginitive when I was a kid. Probably still is, but the new generation episode I just saw on J cable was really wishful thinking pc human future stuff.

I did notice that the last release was in Japan, in most countries the movie was released in may. what must be "insulting" is that in Venezuela was also a late release (july 26) still, earlier that Japan...

I like the first one made by JJ Abrams, Not being a trekkie myself, I did like that the first one was enjoyable for all people at not only the trek world, I have high hope for this one, because i didn't go to the theater to watch it, I pre-ordered the movie in blu-ray

Where's the tarento?

It's a very good action film. True enough to TOS and TNG to pass muster for this trekie.

And Benjamine Cabbagepatch is great.

Star Trek was always a thinly veiled way to perform social commentary under the guise of 'wagon train to the stars', sometimes less subtlety than others times. That and it gone on a 'Moby Dick' riffing tangent for the last few films, (please guys, it needs something else).

as far as Xeno's are concerned...I don't think holly wood has the imagination for truley Aliens on screen anymore

My problem is the fact that distribution rights, translations, subtitling, etc are matters which affect every non-English speaking country. Yet Japan, which is one of the biggest movie markets in the world, cannot pull its finger out and is almost always one of the last places on earth films ever get released. That applies whether they are guaranteed money-spinners such as Star Trek or Bond films, or art house pictures, or anything in between. Usually this is the last place on earth to see a film.

The previous 2009 "Star Trek" generated about $10 million in Japan despite being released in the same month as the U.S.

Like Lowly alluded to, there are lot of marketing decisions to be made by distributors in Japan which has to factor in the cost of marketing, subtitles, and competition. The distributors most often give up on the idea on the theatre release simply because of the lack of positive feedback from the theatre owners which then goes straight to DVD. For Harry Potter, Pirates of the Carribean, and MI series, they are released on the same date as the U.S. Hence, it depends on the film and it's marketability.