CliqueClackStar Trek Into Darkness is all flash, no substance
It’s been four years since we last saw the crew of the USS Enterprise, but ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ never boldly goes into strange new territory.
I am going to be completely up front with you right from the start. There will be no pussy-footing around. There will be a spoiler here because it’s completely unavoidable … even if it is one of the worst kept secrets in cinema history. But we’ll get to that.
Star Trek Into Darkness is a slam bang summer popcorn movie, no doubt about it. Once we get caught up on all of the established characters, the film goes into warp speed with one huge action-packed, special effects sequence after another. There is enough serious eye candy here to put you into filmic sugar shock. And for the die hard Trekkers, there are plenty of little things here and there to make you happy. Oh, look … a tribble! Bones mentions a Gorn. Christine Chapel’s name is brought up. Carol Marcus joins the crew. Klingons! More than a few Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan references, including …
Yes, here is the spoiler. Benedict Cumberbatch is indeed playing Khan. But this time, he ends up helping Kirk and company … or is he merely helping himself? That’s where things start to break down. You find yourself mesmerized by all the flash and things flying at your face in 3D, but after it’s all over you think to yourself, “Self, what exactly was the story?” And Khan isn’t the only bad guy in the movie (maybe he’s not bad, just misunderstood … and why does he look like Data?).
The plot, as I can remember, starts after a bombing at a Starfleet facility in London. Thought to be an archive, it’s really something much more dangerous. The culprit is former Starfleet officer John Harrison, who knows that all of the captains and first officers will be gathered in one place for a meeting which he crashes, literally, and kills enough people to really piss Kirk off.
Tracked to the Klingon world Chronos, Kirk is tasked with sneaking into Klingon territory and eliminating Harrison without starting an intergalactic war. Things don’t go as planned – is JJ Abrams setting up a Klingon confrontation for the next movie? – but Harrison is captured and he reveals himself to be the genetically superior Khan … who then reveals that Admiral Marcus, Carol’s father, has been preparing to initiate a war with the Klingons and that he will help Kirk stop the madness. But Khan also wants his 72 cryogenic pals in return. What could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, the plot really is convoluted and after a four year gestation, you’d think they could have really refined the script. But someone somewhere must have insisted on putting Khan into the film and aping many of the original second film’s most iconic moments. In trying to play too hard to the fans, the film seems to ultimately be pissing off a lot of them. Having been around since Star Trek‘s TV infancy through all the various shows and movies, I’m much too familiar with all of these little nods to Star Trek II and I actually found myself rolling my eyes at times. I’m not sure that having a history with the originals is helpful when seeing Into Darkness. You might need a little background on the Khan character, but not feeling like this is an almost remake of Wrath of Khan might make it more tolerable. I just hope that now that we’ve had Spock in the first film and Khan in the second – with both films setting a trajectory away from the original series timeline – Abrams and company will be able to truly boldly go where no one has gone before with an original Trek story that doesn’t rely on what came before.
But, even with all that criticism, I still enjoyed the ride that Abrams and the cast took us on. There are some great moments, a pretty funny red shirt joke, and a really terrific performance from Zachary Quinto. He certainly takes center stage in this film, and at times he really seems to be channeling Leonard Nimoy. The rest of the crew get their moments, and Chris Pine does have some Kirk swagger, but can we please allow Bones to speak in more than snappy one-liners? It does get a little tiresome, but at least Karl Urban does a great job with the delivery.
If you’re going into Star Trek Into Darkness hoping for a real hardcore Trek movie, you will most likely find yourself disappointed by the final results. The film really sacrifices what made Star Trek what it was by replacing any thoughtful moments of dialog with a loud explosion. However, if you’re just going in to see things blow up real good, then this is the movie for you. Star Trek Into Darkness is the perfect definition of a popcorn movie – very tasty in the moment, but nothing but empty calories when it’s done.
7 Comments on “Star Trek Into Darkness is all flash, no substance”
CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!
More spoilers:
Yeah… and think of all the plotholes. I mean really? Distilling a rise-from-the-dead-serum from the blood of Khan? Within a few hours? Should the Federation be able to – you know – copy that for the future.
Bah. I. have. to. stop. thinking. about. this. movie.
Or else I will start hating it. Which I don’t want to.
Looks like I enjoyed the flick much more than you or my local critic friends did.
Don’t get me wrong, their are criticisms I agree with you on (Urban continues to be wasted), but I didn’t think the story was nearly as convoluted as you did.
And to Do: I wasn’t bothered by that nearly as much as the fact that they didn’t even bother to test one of the 72 other folks to see if they had the “magic blood” too.
It sounds like I’m hating on the movie, but that’s not totally the case. I did enjoy the visceral thrill ride of it all, I just wish they hadn’t relied so much on Wrath of Khan for the story. And I’m with you on the other 72. When Bones said to bring one of them to him, I assumed that since he was out of Khan blood, that he’d try one of the others. Maybe it was just “easier” to go with the known commodity.
J.J. Abrams runs a hit factory. Block busters are guaranteed . I enjoyed Star Trek. Anyone who is a fan of the tv series
can easily identify with the perfect casting of Chris Pine(Capt. James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto(Ofc. Spock) and Zoe Saldana(Ofc Uhura). If you could put the tv cast along side the new cast on a split screen, one could easily see how
the young whipper snappers involved into the tv cast. Greast casting. The plot involves a one man act of terrorism
from within the Starfleet. The villain Commander Harrison(Benedict Cumberbatch), spoiler alert, later revealed to be
Khan is great. See Star Trek in Imax but no D is better then 3D, which is just a way to charge more ticket money. Of
course there is a cameo appearance from the tv series. The opening sequence reminded me of the 1st Indiana Jones
movie where he was being chased by the local natives throwing spears. Next time get a more thrilling opening.The bromance between Kirk and Spock looked and felt genuine whereas the love scene between Spock and Uhura felt
forced. Kirk seeing a beautiful woman in just her underwear and not putting on his moves actually happened in the movie. Rounding out the cast is Bones(Karl Urban), Scotty(Simon Pegg), Sulu(John Cho) and Chekov(Anton Yelchin)
whose accent comes and goes, is the weak link in the chain. Put Star Trek on you movie list.
I thought this movie was better than the first one, particularly in term of the performances. In the last movie, I simply could not see Pine as Kirk, but this time around he really felt to me like a younger version of Shatner’s character. Cho as Sulu was also really excellent, and, again, I could see him as a younger version of Takei’s character. Urban and Quinto continue to be great as McCoy and Spock. But one of my gripes with Abrams’ Trek is that Uhura has usurped Bones’ place in the trinity of Kirk, Spock, and Bones. I get that he’s trying to give the only female officer more to do, but was the only way to accomplish that to make her “the girlfriend”? Why not let her be her own person? This (completely illogical) relationship with Spock has pushed Bones to the periphery and also diminished Spock’s relationship with Kirk (the death scene was touching, but then Uhura was shoehorned into the scene because she’s on an equal level with Kirk in Spock’s life – what?!). I love Zoe Saldana, even more so because I met her on the street in LA and she was really nice to me, but this whole “Spock’s girlfriend” thing is ruining what is otherwise a kick-ass female character.
I also felt that they should not have rehashed elements from Khan – they could have tried to make Cumberbatch’s character an original villain instead of glomming onto the lore of TOS’ most iconic baddie. And, as good as Benedict was, how is an Englishman playing a character who is clearly supposed to be of Indian descent? I realize Montalban was not Indian, but at least he was a brownish dude with an accent. It would have made so much more sense for Cumberbatch to play an original villain or even Gary Mitchell, as was rumored.
Being a few credits shy of my degrees in astrophysics and biotechnology, I can’t speak to the science of this movie – but it seemed ridiculous. Khan’s superblood bringing the dead back to life? *snort* This is why Abrams preferred Star Wars – he knows how to make entertaining popcorn flicks, but he’s dumbed Star Trek down for the masses.
Is this movie entertaining? Yes. Better than the first one? Yes. Great action sequences? Hell yeah. Beauty shots of the Enterprise? A few! Fine performances? Sure. Fun nods to classic Trek? Yup. (My favorite: they used Harry Mudd’s cargo ship to fly to Kronos.)
Overall, it’s a good, entertaining movie. I’ll buy it when it hits DVD. But the gripes I mentioned above really irk me because they could have been avoided by a director who knows and loves Star Trek and is not primarily interested in turning this franchise into a space opera.
Gosh, with all my complaining I forgot to mention something positive – as a fan of DS9, I liked the integration of Section 31 into the story.