[dc]A[/dc]rguably one of the summer’s biggest films, Star Trek Into Darkness, beamed into theaters last weekend (sorry). As I mentioned in last week’s Friday Six, there is pretty clear divide among viewers: they either loved it or didn’t.
More like Star Trek Into Crying. Image via The Commons on Flickr.
After seeing Star Trek Into Darkness for myself, I can see why. Here are my thoughts on the film, with spoilers, so skip this until seeing Star Trek Into Darkness.
In short, I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness. But.
Remember, spoilers follow.
Here we go:
Star Trek Into Darkness was the film I expected: sci-fi action, with a dash of humor, and gorgeous visuals. However, I give the edge to J. J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek for one reason: originality.
Now, originality is a tricky word when discussing a reboot of a beloved franchise dating back to the 1960s. Especially when said franchise inspired countless science fiction TV shows, novels, films, and cartoons over the decades (a chicken or egg scenario for sure).
2009’s Star Trek borrowed from the canon, to some extent, but still had its own story—thanks to the timeline shift in the first film (which I feel is the best handling of a reboot to date¹). Star Trek Into Darkness does some of the same, but doesn’t go all the way with this method. Where it stumbles is, sadly, with the Khan character.
Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent as Khan, aka John Harrison. This character isn’t that far removed from his Sherlock. But, the echos of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan sprinkled throughout the film, really weakened the product.
Again, I enjoyed the film. It succeeded where I expected: as a big, action filled, summer blockbuster.
My preference would have been for a story not handcuffed to a 30-year-old film. Sure, part of me enjoyed the references, but at other times, specifically Spock’s yelling of “KHAAAANNN!” I thought, “Really?” Then there is the Carol Marcus character, who really fells shoehorned into the story as a cherry on top of the Wrath of Khan sundae.
Star Trek films are tricky, however.
The drama/philosophical aspects of Star Trek works better in a TV show than a film—at least with this incarnation. The advantage the films with the original cast has over the new series is hours upon hours of character development and relationships. Spock’s death in Wrath of Khan is more powerful because of it, while Kirk’s ‘death’ in Star Trek Into Darkness does not carry nearly the same weight–and it is referring to another film on top of that.
There was plenty I loved in this new Star Trek though. Simon Pegg pretty much stole every scene. Cumberbatch did not disappoint. Pine continues to shine as Kirk.
I loved the opening scenes with the crew on another planet. Like Abrams’ first outing, it successfully drops the viewer right in the action. It reminded me of the opening to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The flip side of bemoaning Abrams’ standing on the shoulders of Wrath of Khan is, his Star Wars VII should be an excellent addition to that series. With Star Wars VII, we are expecting Abrams to draw on the original trilogy—because it is a direct sequel. Everything I felt was a minus about Star Trek Into Darkness would be a huge plus for Star Wars VII. Echos of A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi would be most welcome, if not required, for this next Star Wars installment.
While Star Trek Into Darkness was fun, action packed, and beautiful, I wish the story had, to dust off a terrible, overused joke², gone where no one had gone before.
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¹. I don’t include Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy here, as those weren’t tying to the earlier films/timeline.
². A terrible joke which I’m sure will be used over and over and over when writing about this film, but by folks who don’t mean it as a joke.
I saw it last night with my dad and my son. We enjoyed it. Though my son was bored a bit by the early build up to who Kahn was. He’s 13 and hates waiting through dialog before the explosions. 🙂 That first half hour or so did feel a tad bit disjointed but once the Klingons showed up the pacing really went into full gear. Appreciated the call back to old star Trek episodes and I think Abraham took the plot elements of Kahn and made it his own. But I agree it was a bit distracting in someways to recognize similar plot devices from Star Trek 2 also I was expecting a bit bigger space battle sequence if I were to nit pick. Similar issues occurred when Kirk got marooned on the ice planet in the first film the pacing just became off a bit at that stage. Overall solid B+
I wanted to see more space battles too!