Viewed in
2013
Formats
IMAX 3D
Premise
Cumberbaaaaaaaaatch!
Loved
Cumberbaaaaaaaaatch!
Liked
Human cannonballs in space scene, Simon Pegg.
Disliked
Too much lens flare.
Hated
Rehashing established Trek moments instead of creating new ones.
Thoughts
While it was better than your average popcorn flick, it was underwhelming in terms of furthering the Star Trek legacy.
My favorite part of the movie was Benedict Cumberbatch. As expected, he was a badass bad guy, charming and absolutely untrustworthy. He's turning into this generation's Alan Rickman: not exactly the best-looking dude, but when you factor his unique British nasally-baritone voice, disarming personality, and mastery of confident villainy, you can't keep your eyes off of him.
The rest of the cast was strong, and their comedic chemistry was very enjoyable. Simon Pegg got all the big laughs, the best one being a Monty Python-esque running back-and-forth in a vast hangar. Karl Urban had some funny one-liners, including some Bones McCoy catchphrases. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto bounced off each other effortlessly.
Like the 2009 precursor, it felt like J.J. Abrams transported these characters from the bridge and into a slick (personality-lacking) action flick. I appreciated the hip pace and sensibilities, and the scene of Kirk and Cumberbatch cannonballing themselves through a debris field in space was exhilarating, but there wasn't much sci-fi to make it feel like Star Trek. The tribble shoutout and the like felt like window dressing instead of being integral to the story.
There was one really cool argument scene between Kirk, Bones and Spock that was reminiscent of my favorite aspect of Tiberius and company, but I wished there was more to Karl Urban's McCoy other than spouting zingers and catchphrases. Anton Yelchin's Chekov got the short end of the stick, forced to play the annoying headless chicken routine. Not that it's a great metric of greatness, it was amusing that it failed the Bechdel test and generated some criticism for its blatant fanservice of Alice Eve in a bra.
Obviously, lens flare was a given, but when Alice Eve is giving an impassioned plea, must Abrams bleach out her face with light? That was easily the most annoying storytelling moment of the movie, usurping the actress' performance.
But let's get to the bigger issues. Much like how Prometheus was announced to be something obvious, then the studios backtracked to deny it, then it turns out it was what we thought it was, Star Trek Into Darkness also had this flaw with Cumberbatch's character. It was obvious even before the movie had started, so when the reveal came, it was just laughable.
This leads to a much more disturbing issue. The first Abrams flick had a brilliant, elegant way to create a new timeline that leaves the Shatner legacy intact. I wanted the film makers to carve out their own mythology with this blank slate, but instead it was like a hokey greatest hits album of iconic moments and characters. Some of the twists were interesting, but killed the rewatchability factor.
What was the point of the new parallel multiverse if this crew was doomed to rehash famous scenes? I guess we could speculate that it was intentional, as if saying that regardless of which timeline you're in, some points in time are fated to occur in all branches, thus all future sequels will continue that theme. Which is kind of interesting, but incongruous to the slick, action-packed popcorn vibe I get from these two entries.
Star Trek into Darkness technically didn't suck. It was well-done tentpole summer adventure with fun dialog. I can live with the fact that it's more action and science fiction. However, the lost chance to boldly go where the road not taken was disappointing.
Random
Random speculation: was Spock's Vulcan mind meld on Cumberbatch a clue to the next movie?
