December 3, 2013

Let's Talk About Star Trek:Into Darkness




Rating:To Boldly Go...Where we Went Thirty Years Ago!!!!

I was against the reboot of the Star Trek franchise. I admit it, I was appalled at the very notion. Well, aspects of it anyway. I mean I can live with different actors playing the characters, but to wipe out 40 years of history? I was not happy with that! What was worst? Getting this guy to direct:


I goddamn hate JJ Abrams. I mean yeah he has a good reputation, but I am not a fan. I just don't like the stuff he does. His style tends to be confusing not to mention loud and noisy, and Star Trek is not Star Wars. There is more going on than a cosmic odyssey with space battles.  However, I went to see the 2009 Star Trek anyway. And it was...loud and confusing. It wasn't all bad, but there were things I didn't like, such as that awful time travel plot. But that is what the 2009 Star Trek felt like. They had turned Star Trek into Star Wars. I had so many problems with this film I did a whole article on it.


So when the sequel came out this past spring I had zero interest in it. Then the word started coming out about the villain (big shock!) and the questionable ending. The hype made me curious. So curious that I went to check it out. I am happy to say that many of the problems I did have with the 2009 Star Trek were not found in Into Darkness. This really did feel like a Star Trek movie, much to my surprise.

(What? This isn't THAT Kind of movie?)


Scotty went from being an overbearing jerk to a character I really liked. I don't know why, maybe because he had something important to do in the story. The Spock/Uhura romance bullcrap didn't bother me as much. Even the Enterprise felt like, well, The Enterprise. I loved Khan (yeah no Ricardo Montalban but whatever) and what Spock does with the torpedos to save the say was an awesome moment!




But maybe I am getting ahead of myself. One of the big things about the Abrams version of Trek is that they can do whatever they want. They demonstrate that in the first part of the movie when there is an attack on Starfleet! Want something more shocking? They kill off Chris Pike in the first twenty minutes! The good news is that this was the last shock moment of the film, it was almost as if they wanted to get it out of the way. The good thing is that the scene works. It doesn't feel forced. The dumbass plot thread of having Kirk lose is command did and was totally pointless. What the hell was the point of that? Another first in this movie was out introduction to the Klingons, and I have to admit the scene didn't bother me to much. They changed the Klingons a bit but they were basically the same.

(Mine is Bigger than Yours!)

Khan was played really well. Sure I miss Montalban but whet the hell, if someone else can play Kirk and Spock why can't someone else play Khan? The space battle between the Enterprise and the Vegeance was not as big as it looked in the trailers...THANK GOD! I was so pissed at the idea of the Eneterprise being destroyed, it's been done! But they didn't actually go that way, thank goodness. Can you imagine how stupid it would have been to just copy something already done in a prior film? Anyway, the stuff with Carol Marcus was ok but I would have liked some more screen time with her and Kirk. Maybe we will get that in the next movie. The scene where Kirk and Khan team up and jump over to the other vessel was the only point where it started to get little to much. But even that I was ok with it. Of course Khan betrays Kirk and demands Spock beam over his people. The twist where Spock arms the torpedoes was a great moment, that is what Star Trek is!

(ISorry, this movie ends HOW????)

So all was good, and then we got to that ending. THAT GODDAMN FUCKED UP ENDING!! Ok, I had the ending spoiled so I swear when I watched this I tried to be objective. Let's forget it's a rip off of Star Trek II. Does the final twenty minutes hold up anyway?  NO! Why not? Let's go through this in steps. In order to save the Enterprise, Kirk races down to Engineering and, in an admuttedly impressive sequence, saves the ship. Just like in TWOK (sorry but there is no way to avoid a comparison!) Kirk is laying dying when Spock runs down to find him. The two then exchange heartfelt words of friendship which just cannot compare to the scene in TWOK. Ok ok, I said I would judge this on its own merit. I think it would have worked better if we had a better sense of how close friends these two were. It feels like the writers were running on the assumption we knew they were close friends so screw establishing anything. Then Kirk dies and Spock....sigh!...yells Khans name!

WTF???????????? The rage he had in the first film made sense, he just saw his whole planet explode! And sorry the scene in this film is just a lame ripoff. The thing that makes this so idiotic is that ten minutes later, Kirk is alive! WHAT WAS THE DAMN POINT THEN? We don't even get a scene with Kirk and Spock, Kirk just gets up and that's it. The fight scene with Spock and Khan was a good fight scene it just involved the wrong two people. It should have been Kirk, and no one is going to make me think otherwise.

(LAME!!!!!!)


Final Thoughts:Is this a bad movie? NO! It was much better than the 2009 Star Trek-until that last twenty minutes. The ending is so contrived even without comparing it to the classic film. Why make such a goddamn deal about Kirk dying just to have him come back ten minutes later??? Cop out much? Before that though, it was a good story with good characters and as I noted it really felt like a Star Trek film this time. I will be interested to see what the third film will offer, I just hope it offers something, I don't know, ORIGINAL!

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