My Review of Star Trek Into Darkness

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.

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.

JJ Abrams is an admitted Star Wars fan who was never a fan of Star Trek.

I don't get that. Most folks I know who are fans of either one, are fans of both. I am, or was. I was crazy about Star Wars when the first three movies came out. I loved the whole "feel the force" thing.

Life experiences over the 30-odd years since have changed my view, though it was brought into sharp focus when in the later Star Wars movies, Yoda warned:

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

I'm sitting there in the theater a little shocked, thinking, NO, you condescending little toad, fear is a necessary survival response mechanism present in every sentient being. Envy, deceit, cruelty, sloth, avarice, covetousness, lust, slavery -- those are the paths that lead to hate and suffering and all the rest of that "Dark Side" stuff.

In Star Wars, the grail is obtaining supernatural powers via "the force" to deceive and manipulate people. In Star Trek, the grail is to go forth and explore, and to treat the Universe and your crewmates as you would have them treat you.

I'll take Star Trek over Star Wars any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

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