My Review of Star Trek Into Darkness

Poems and Essays of GJ Gillespie ^ | May 30, 2013 | GJ Gillespie

[garjog]

My Review of Star Trek Into Darkness -- short version: wait to rent it.

Long version: Disappointingly annoying.

What follows could be considered a spoiler, but there is nothing original in this film, so there is nothing that can be spoiled. Sorry.

We went to see Star Trek into Darkness on Saturday. Very crowded and had to sit close. I was an original fan, captivated by the television series in the late 1960s, with Star Trek scrap books and posters, models of space ships and everything.

There are serious problems with the Into Darkness script that are not merely anathema to Trekkies. First we discover that the villain is a famous one from the original series. He has a British rather than Latin accent and doesn't look at all like the other character. So the casting was wrong. But, we are baffled how this villain will re-appear in the future of the life of the crew who begins the Five Year Mission at the end of the film. Won't they all know who he is?

Also, a tribble appears. But, we don't see tribbles until the crew is well into their mission in the future. It is a life form that they discover in their voyage, which this crew hasn't begun.

THEN Spock has a romantic relationship with Uhura. Wrong. Officers in the military, or any professional, are not going to be kissing each other on duty. And we all know that Vulcans have a mating ritual that occurs every seven years. Vulcans don't date. This is out of character for Spock. (You know that a focus group of writers said that they had to add romance).

In the same way this dog's breakfast of a script adds a new female character, an admiral's daughter, as a "second science officer", apparently to add romance to planned sequels and perhaps for gender equity. So, in addition to Kirk, Spock and Bones, we now have a hot blond babe. This is like adding a fourth female Musketeer to please feminist reviewers .

Then Kirk is killed by radiation and resurrected exactly like Spock in one of the first Star Trek films -- that is taking allusion to other films a bit too far. It is more like cutting and pasting.

MORE.

Star Trek shows often made commentary on social or international controversies. Into Darkness apparently is a tip to the Truthers because the Admiral uses deception to purposefully start a war. Every story needs conflict, but to moralize that the war on terror was started by Bush is just plain stupid (and insulting on memorial day).

ALSO, Into Darkness begins with a suicide bombing in which we are led to sympathize with the suicide bomber. He HAD to do it, see? (No, committing suicide and killing 40 innocent people to get what you want is immoral.)

And Chris Pine doesn't look or act like a military trained captain. He looks like an actor rather than a commanding leader.

Finally the show is two hours long, too loud and has long close cuts of faces better suited for television. I could tell that my wife Teresa wanted to walk out about an hour into the show.

Positives: wonderful special effects and endearing imagery that reminds us of what we love about the Star Trek universe.

Let's hope that each and everyone of the writers of this twisted, just-plain-wrong insult of a film are replaced before the next sequel.

[Caipirabob]

Yeap, I enjoyed it. So did the family. I simply dismissed the rehashed and immersed myself in the action. The storyline? We either accept this as an alternate reality or stick with reruns.

Personally, I like the fast pace action and minor switches on old storylines.

It's also more enjoyable than watching the original Kirk and Spock launching an assault on a space nursing home to save the residents who are about to be served an alien ambassador who has been mistaken for a bowl of jello.

Well, that's where they were going...I mean, I considered support for euthanasia for the series after the "Kirk and Spock fight GOD and win" movie. So very flushable.

The "reboot" is fun.

[AnAmericanAbroad]

Another good choice would've been Bollywood actor Salman Khan. He's got a physically imposing physique - very muscular - and he certainly looks like the "genetically engineered superman" type. He's starred in quite a few Bollywood films, often as a romantic leading man type; however, don't forget that Javier Bardem was in the same mold, and his portrayal of Anton Chigurh in "No Country For Old Men" was one of the best incarnations of screen villainy I've ever seen. From romantic leading man to ruthless, sociopathic badass. So Salman Khan (or Naveen Andrews) would've been great choices for playing Khan Noonien Singh. I've already seen STID, thanks to a former student of mine who had preview tix but her boyfriend hates sci-fi films, and I can honestly say, I was underwhelmed. Two out of four stars for me - it was a reheated rehash of TWOK.

[Resolute Conservative]

I thought it stunk. My son tried to assuage me with this alternate timeline crap with the parallel of Kirk’s death with Spock in wrath of Khan. He say it is part of taking ownership of the series and making it fresh. This from a guy who hates the new Conan the barbarian movie because he is an Arnold purist.

As tough as the Khan character is I believe he is not that much more than a Klingon is strength.

Chris Pike’s character is not even close to the original Kirk. The affair between Spock and Uhura is BS.

[tanknetter]

Most of this guy’s issues with the film are due to him not realizing that these films talk place in a new and altered timeline. One where Starfleet has been much more aggressive in it’s explorations (explaining both the early discoveries of Khan and tribbles as well as other Continuity changes.

I saw the movie, thought it better than I expected. The parallels to Wrath of Khan (which the alleged Trek fan writer of this article refers to just as one of the early Trek films) did annoy me and they definitely could have made it a better movie by having it not be Khan.

[garjog]

“Just how much of a ST TOS fan are you?

Khan was suspected to be Sikh, from the northern region of India. As a person from a former British colony it makes a bit of sense for him to have a British accent”

OK, I really need to re-write my review now that more informed fans are correcting details like this.

I thought that Khan was had a Latin accent because Ricardo Montalbán was Mexican and had a thick accent unlike anything British.

Cumberbatch the new Khan didn’t evoke this character.

Ricardo Montalbán
November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican radio, television, theatre, and film actor. He had a career spanning seven decades, ... From 1977 to 1984 he played Mr. Roarke, the host character in the television series Fantasy Island. He played Khan Noonien Singh in both the 1967 episode “Space Seed” of the original Star Trek series, and the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

[discostu]

I thought using Khan for the second movie was a mistake. I understand the desire to use Khan, one of the best characters from TOS, but putting him in the second movie, same as the first run, broke the “new timeline, new ground” model they’d established with the reboot. That being said it was still well executed. Cumberbatch was a great Khan, yeah he’s not the peck rippling manly-man of Montalban, but he does genius well, and he menaced well. The characters are evolving well. Overall the movie was fun, they did play with “larger themes” in a good Star Trek way (where it’s next to the story, not the point of the story, message first story telling tends to be boring story telling). And they setup for a 5 year mission.

[garjog]

After being corrected on errors in my analysis, I re-wrote my review. You can read a better version at my blog. http://gillespiepoems.blogspot.com/2013/05/movie-review-star-trek-out-of-darkness.html

This shows how valuable internet forums are for correcting mistakes. It is great to tap the pool of intelligence here at Free Republic.

[garjog]

After being corrected on errors in my analysis, I re-wrote my review. You can read a better version at my blog. http://gillespiepoems.blogspot.com/2013/05/movie-review-star-trek-out-of-darkness.html

[BenLurkin]

The guy acting as Bones is awesome.

Agreed!

[mountn man]

Did you notice that they place a transgender character at the helm on the bridge? How progressive

They had George Takei in the 60's

[mountn man]

[Hawk1976]

“The affair between Spock and Uhura is BS.”

I thought so, as well. Then I watched some of ST:TOS season 1 and could see I was mistaken. Uhura seemed to be attracted to Spock in several scenes.

[mountn man]

With as many mexicans as are in todays America, and more coming in, I think it very likely that in the future Khan would sound like Ricardo.

[mountn man]

The problem is the new Spock doesn't pull off the sexual chemistry with Uhura well.

IMHO the new Spock doesn't pull much of anything off well. Either his acting is horrible, or the writing is bad, or its a combination.

[Resolute Conservative]

Yes but there was no reciprocal affection.

[Fledermaus]

I enjoyed it...remember, it’s set in an alternate dimension/universe.

[Sloth]

That is correct. Khan incorrectly says “two hundred years ago” a couple of times (in ‘Space Seed’ and ‘The Wrath of Khan’) but the year of the Botany Bay’s launch was 1996, during/after the Eugenics Wars.

[Hawk1976]

Part of it is because Zachary Quinto seems to have a narrow range of acting ability. The other part is probably that Zoe isn’t a guy and Zachary just isn’t into it.

[garjog]

“he does genius well, and he menaced well.”

I agree. He was a good villain. I just found the allusion to the other khan problematic as stated above.

You know as much as I didn’t like Into Darkness I do think that the acting was pretty good for all of the cast. It was enjoyable to watch this quality of acting.

Chris Pine didn’t seem to evoke a captain’s ethos. But, maybe he will develop in the part.

I really liked the first new remake. So it is possible.

I dashed off this review quickly, forgetting that others are much more into this series.

[Nifster]

yup....any number of interesting sights interwoven and done very well