Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Art of the Film

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Length:: 0:25 Mins

It's weird this book came out months after the movie. The wait is over and I'm glad to say that this book is great.

There's plenty of cool concept art in this 160-page hardcover art book published by Titan Books. There are technical sketches and paintings for spaceships, the set, character, costumes, gadgetry, weapons and creatures. Included also are discarded ideas and concepts.

The amount of detail in the art is astonishing and texture is everywhere, 3D renderings, paintings, film stills. The bridge looks like casinos straight out of Las Vegas, with all the lights, panels, buttons and seats. The wickedly awesome looking mining vessel Narada is shown in different views and comes with close ups which will make you marvel at the engineering.

Those who love spaceships will not only find them, but also space stations and their interiors. They are all meticulously designed showing all the seams, cutting, and texture. The designs for the spaceships look really sleek.

For the non-human looking characters, there are lots of photos on the sculptures. For the creatures, there are sketches and 3D models.

This book is highly recommended to fans of sci-fi, not just Star Trek fans.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

It was glossy and very well-made, with absolutely beautiful production values (a lot like the movie). As Trek art books go, though, it concentrated rather heavily on either what did or was going to appear on screen with very little in pre-production sketches and preliminary, experimental designs. Anyone who owned "The Art of Star Trek" will recall things like Matt Jefferies' initial sketched ideas for the overall shape of the Enterprise and the Klingon D7, among other things; this sort of first-cut experimentalism is sadly lacking in this book. Instead, we see what we saw in the film along with some glimpse into how those designs evolved. That's well and good, and this book does do what it intends to quite well. I would have wanted just a little more.

I bought this book to be used as a prize in a figure drawing session that I run. We were going to have a Star Trek themed evening, but our model canceled, and I got to keep the book. It's a pretty cool book. Lots of very geeky and creative artwork. If you are a fan of the film, you'll enjoy flipping through it!

If you like the movie, you'll love the book. It has great pictures and information about the concept art of the film.

I purchased the Star Trek: Art of the Film when I had spotted the $19.77 price tag. I had been interested in the book, but preferred not to pay the original price tag.

This retrospective book is quite possibly the prettiest Art of Trek book I've ever checked out.

Concept art, renderings, digital photos/set photos, creatures, the characters, the ships are all explored and shown in the book. I particularly liked the glimpse at the USS Kelvin with the bridge photos, crew uniforms, and renderings of the vessel.

I'd recommend the book to either a Trek fan or a science fiction art fan.

This book shows the chosen as well as the rejected designs for the 2009 Trek film (11th in the series).
Had the film utilized some of the discarded designs the film would have looked more like it belonged in the Trek universe.
Excellent book.

Having been fortunate enough to have been part of the production, I am happy to say that this is as close to the behind the scenes experience as actually being there. The production quality of this tie-in book is top notch with many comments from the director, actors and designers. It is great to be able to share all the love and hard work of the cast and crew in this wonderful book. I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

Like others have already mentioned, this book is a great concept and executed well, except that it is very thin on included material.

Each different category of artwork that is explored (sketches of the Enterprise, uniforms, aliens, sets, etc.) are only given one or two pages of space at the most. I for one would have greatly enjoyed seeing the evolution process of getting from the original Enterprise to the new Enterprise explored in much more detail rather than the few random sketches we are given. Why were some of the decisions that were made made? All the different sketches/paintings of different aliens were fine, but most of those were not actually seen in the movie. It's good to see the concepts but again, why were some in the movie, but others weren't?

Don't get me wrong, I liked the book and do not regret purchasing it, but I would have loved to have seen a lot more meat to it, even if it meant at a higher price.

Enjoyed the book, but it comes up awfully short on the subject matter. The design for the Enterprise, for example, could have been far more in-depth considering how iconic it is. Just would have liked to have seen more, higher price would have been worth it.

There have been plenty of disappointing "Art of" books lately, but this is not one of them. This is right up there with the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy (three "Art of..." books), THE PHAMTOM MENACE, ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH art books.

Here is a brief list of the attributes that distinguish this volume from less exceptional volumes:

1. Very high quality paper and reproduction of images, including a separate paper cover and hardcover binding.

2. Text that is relevant to the imagery itself and describes the inception, transformation and final construction of those conceptual images.

3. Explication for the rationale as to why decisions were made with respect to costume, and even color.

4. Most exciting of all (to me personally) is the inclusion of concepts that had to be omitted from the the final film. This aspect of the work process is fascinating, and the inclusion of alternate concepts is one characteristic that makes this volume intricate and fulfilling.

This is a tremendous glimpse into the creative process that led to some of the most vivid and visionary imagery in the STAR TREK movie, and it is hugely appreciated.

Bottom line: Worthwhile, visually splended andhigh quality book.