As someone whose only firsthand experience with the Star Trek franchise comes by virtue of J.J. Abrams‘ two Trek films, I know I’m in over my head when the topic presents itself. When you mention Trek, you’re referencing (either directly or indirectly) a rich legacy filled with peaks and valleys, genre-defining characters and moments, and an international fanbase that rivals any of pop-culture’s most enduring titles. And yet here I am, with two films under my belt (both of which I enjoyed), talking about it. Obviously, I have nothing at stake with regards to Star Trek Into Darkness. Whether you like it or dislike it is of no consequence to me. My only aim today is to extend a humble word of caution to the Trek fans who have years of equity built-up in their beloved franchise: be careful not to dismiss or begrudge it solely because it’s trying to appeal to the largest possible audience. Abrams’ Trek films aren’t above reproach, but they also aren’t void of redeeming qualities. Try to at least acknowledge some of those qualities when tearing into them or risk coming off as someone whose real issue is that a bunch of people now enjoy this thing that you once considered yourself unique for liking.

All preachiness aside, this week’s Top 5 includes several interviews from Star Trek Into Darkness, rumors surrounding Christopher Nolan being approached to direct James Bond 24, the first trailers for Marvel’s new ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a new trailer for Guillermo Del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, and new photos and a video from the set of director Jose Padilha‘s RoboCop remake. If I haven’t lost you yet, a brief recap and link to each of the above can be found after the jump.

With J.J. Abrams Star Trek Into Darkness now playing around the world, we recently landed an exclusive phone interview with Karl Urban.  During the interview, he talked about making the sequel, his reaction to reading the script, how things changed on set, who was the one who broke the most while filming, filming with IMAX cameras, the 3D, and more.  He also talked about the possibility of a Dredd sequel, his upcoming Fox TV show Almost Human, and The Loft.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

Fans of the comic series Judge Dredd have been clamoring for a worthy big screen adaptation for years.  The 1995 Sylvester Stallone-fronted iteration missed the mark entirely, but director Peter Travis and screenwriter Alex Garland brought a harneded, R-rated take on the character to the big screen last year with Dredd.  The film received generally positive reviews and a fantastic reception from longtime fans of the comics, but it didn’t exactly strike a chord with general audiences.  Against a budget of $45 million, the pic only grossed $35.6 million worldwide, making the prospect of a sequel rather slim.

Steve recently caught up with Dredd star Karl Urban for a phone interview in anticipation of the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, and Urban revealed that there’s hope yet for a Dredd 2 given the first film’s recent cult status.  The actor noted that he has been in touch with Garland and the prospect of a Dredd sequel is “not off the agenda,” suggesting the fate of the film ultimately lies with the fans.  Hit the jump for more.

Universal Pictures has released a new trailer, images, and a debut poster for writer/director David Twohy’s Riddick.  The Chronicles of Riddick follow-up finds the titular character, played by Vin Diesel, left for dead on a deserted planet filled with predators both alien and human, as bounty hunters once again are out for Riddick’s head.  Clocking in at two and a half minutes long, this trailer shows off much more footage than the first teaser, but there’s not much revealed by way of plot.  In fact, it really looks as though one could comfortably watch Riddick without having seen the first two films in the series and be completely onboard.  With Karl Urban returning, though, one imagines there’s at least a small throughline that connects Riddick with Chronicles.  Though some of the effects are a bit spotty, if you’re a fan of the character and/or the first two films, this trailer promises that Riddick is likely right up your alley.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer, poster, and images.  The film also stars Katee Sackhoff, David Bautista, Jordi Mollà, Matt Nable, Bokeem Woodbine, Raoul Trujillo, and Nolan Gerard Funk.  Riddick opens in traditional theaters and IMAX on September 6th.

We’re just days away from the US release of J.J. Abrams’ sequel Star Trek Into Darkness, and to mark the occasion Paramount has released a batch of high-resolution images from the film.  By now, you probably already know whether you’ll be seeking this one out or not, but if you’re a fan of Trek and just can’t wait another 24 hours before seeing the film, this image gallery should appease you for now.  We’ve seen some of these images before, but a few of them are new and all of them are in glorious high-resolution.  If you missed Steve’s spoiler-free video blog review of the film, click here.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Alice Eve, John Cho, and Bruce Greenwood.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens in IMAX 3D tomorrow, and in both 2D and 3D in traditional theaters on May 16th.

Paramount Pictures has released six clips from director J.J. Abrams’ upcoming sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.  We’ve seen these clips individually before, but now they’re all together in one convenient place.  If you missed any of our recent coverage, be sure to watch Steve’s spoiler-free video blog review of the film, the 3D trailer, three new TV spots that unveil an unmasked Klingon, and the final poster for the film.

Hit the jump to watch all the clips.  The film stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Alice Eve, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Star Trek Into Darkness opens in IMAX 3D on May 15th and in 2D and 3D in traditional theaters on May 17th.

Paramount Pictures has released a new 3D trailer for director J.J. Abrams’ sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.  If you happen to have a pair of red/blue 3D glasses handy, then you’re in luck.  If not, well I hope you like slightly blurry images.  This trailer is simply the latest theatrical trailer only refashioned in kinda-3D.  I say kinda-3D because this is far from the quality 3D you’d see in a theater.  Nevertheless, if you happen to have a pair of 3D glasses nearby, go nuts.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Alice Eve, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Star Trek Into Darkness opens in IMAX 3D on May 15th and in 2D and 3D in traditional theaters on May 17th.

The Star Trek Into Darkness marketing blitz rolls on with three more TV spots for the upcoming sequel.  A couple of the TV spots hammer home the same plot points we’ve seen before: Kirk (Chris Pine) needs to be responsible, the villain “John Harrison” (Benedict Cumberbatch) is really sinister, etc.  But the third spot is an interesting evaluation of Uhura (Zoe Saldana) by Harrison.  We saw this kind of evaluation before with Spock (Zachary Quinto), but the evaluation of Uhura sneaks in a couple frames of an unmasked Klingon.  I’m not exactly sure why they needed masks in the first place, but as far as the design goes, it’s fairly subdued.  However, in the TV series, the Klingons (from TNG onwards, which is when they got their distinctive foreheads) have different craniums.  They have ridges, but the ridges vary from Klingon to Klingon, so we don’t know if that will be the case with Abrams’ film or if he’s gone for a uniform design.

Hit the jump to check out the TV spots and first image of an unmasked Klingon.  The film also stars Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, and Alice Eve.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens in IMAX 3D on May 15th and in 3D and 2D on May 17th.

Some new U.K. character posters for J.J. Abrams’ upcoming sequel Star Trek Into Darkness have made their way online.  We previously saw a few domestic character posters for Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and Benedict Cumberbatch, but in this grouping we see Alice Eve, John Cho, and Karl Urban get their own one-sheets alongside new posters for the aforementioned actors.  The lack of Anton Yelchin’s Chekov in most of the marketing, though, is starting to become glaring, and I’m beginning to wonder about his character’s fate.  Also, where’s Scotty’s poster?  Surely Simon Pegg deserves a one-sheet of his own, especially as part of the U.K.’s marketing materials.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens in the U.K. on May 9th, in IMAX 3D in the U.S. on May 15th, and in traditional U.S. theaters on May 17th.

Paramount Pictures has released the first clip from director J.J. Abrams’ sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.  This clip, I believe, comes from a scene towards the very beginning of the movie, so fans needn’t worry about any major spoilers.  We see Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew (in some fairly skin-tight outfits, natch) discussing how to proceed when faced with a rather precarious situation that involves Zachary Quinto’s Spock.  It’s an interesting choice for a premiere clip, as it’s not an action-heavy scene and doesn’t feature much humor (save for a great reaction from Simon Pegg’s Scotty).  Instead, the clip focuses on the heart of Star Trek, which is its characters.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film also stars Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve, and Peter Weller.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens on in IMAX 3D on May 15th and in 2D and 3D on May 17th.

Since the film is only a month away, Paramount has released what will presumably be the final major trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness.  If you want your Trek movie epic and deadly serious, then it looks like J.J. Abrams has you covered.  I’m glad this new trailer finally turns the attention to Kirk (Chris Pine) rather than Cumberbatch’s villain.  The trailer also hits home that the Enterprise is going to get destroyed, and when you factor in the destruction it already suffered in Search for Spock and again in Generations, the impact for Into Darkness feels somewhat diminished.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer along with the character poster for Kirk, and click on the respective links for the posters for Spock, Uhura, and “John Harrison”.  The film also stars Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Alice Eve, and Peter Weller.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens in IMAX 3D on May 15th, and in 2D and 3D on May 17th.

You could always use some more Star Trek Into Darkness marketing in your life, so Paramount has released a new sneak peek as well as a character poster for Spock (Zachary Quinto).  Yesterday, we got a poster for Uhura (Zoe Saldana), and I’m curious to see if the upcoming character posters will be for anyone other than Kirk (Chris Pine) and “John Harrison” (Benedict Cumberbatch).  In the meantime, we can watch Spock bathe in sweet, hot lava.  As for the sneak peek, it’s basically a TV spot, although I don’t know if it will play like any other commercial.  It’s debuted on MTV’s website, so perhaps there might be something longer on the MTV Movie Awards later tonight.

Hit the jump to check out the sneak peek and poster.  The film also stars Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, and Peter Weller.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens on May 17th.

Paramount has released 24 hi-res images from Star Trek Into Darkness.  These images come from Paramount’s press site, and going through them one-by-one, I noticed something strange: there’s no Chekov (Anton Yelchin).  Perhaps it’s just an oversight on the studio’s part, but every other member of the Enterprise crew is in at least one photo.  This could be nothing, but if Abrams were to kill off a character, he could possibly get away with Chekov (as opposed to a more popular character like Bones or Scotty).

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, and Alice Eve.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens in IMAX 3D on May 15th, and 3D and 2D on May 17th.

Seven new images from J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek Into Darkness have gone online.  There’s nothing too mind-blowing in this batch, but the marketing for the upcoming sequel isn’t going to slow down with only six weeks to go until opening day.  Of course, the demand for that marketing isn’t going to subside either, so this works out for every one.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, Alice Eve, and Benedict Cumberbatch.  Star Trek Into Darkness opens in IMAX 3D on May 15th and in 2D and 3D on May 17th.

A couple weeks ago, we reported that Karl Urban and Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) were set to star in Human, a pilot from J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman (Fringe).  The series is described as “an action-packed buddy cop show set in a future where all LAPD officers are being partnered up with highly evolved human-like androids.”  Urban plays John Kennex, a respected police officer who has shut down emotionally after a tragic mission left him critically injured.  Even though this looks like an average police procedural with a couple of twists (the future, androids), it will be worth a look because of Urban.  Filming is now underway in Vancouver, and the first set photos show Kennex investigating a crime scene surrounded by slightly-futuristic vehicles.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The show also stars Michael Ealy, Lily Taylor, Michael Irby, and Mackenzie Crook.  Brad Anderson (The Call) is directing the pilot.