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usernamenumber(no spoilers until you're warned about them further down...)
There seem to be a lot of strongly mixed feelings about Star Trek Into Darkness (man, I still wince a little every time I say that title...). A lot of people really liked it, even loved it, and a lot of people seem to have left the theater reeling in a "wtf was that?" sort of way, and not the good kind. Me, I'm embracing the power of "and": I thought Star Trek Into Darkness was a deeply, sometimes insultingly stupid movie... that I enjoyed despite all that, and kinda wouldn't mind seeing again, which frankly confuses me.
I think it's the cast. I love this cast. My main take-away from the first movie was that I would love to see that cast in a better movie, and I felt double that after this movie. A co-worker mentioned how she'd love to see the weekly TV series adventures of this crew and yes. That. Also, while it does nothing to address the issues with Benedict Cumberbatch's character (which I won't get into here because spoilers, but about which everything has already been said for those who care to look), he does do a damn fine job of it. I still haven't seen Sherlock, but I'm told that his characterization in this movie is not that different from his characterization there... which means I'm kind of afraid to watch Sherlock now. But I digress.
Basically, why did I not like this movie? Why might I go so far as to say I hated it? It's not nerd rage; they actually had a lot of nice callbacks to the original series that I thoroughly enjoyed. No, it's because I'm pretty sure J.J. Abrams thinks I'm an idiot. To talk about why I think that, along with some other reasons why overall I liked the movie despite myself, we need to take a Star Trek Into Spoilers, so from here on you've been warned.
....
Let me (attempt to) count the ways...
And yet somehow I came out having really enjoyed the experience. I think part of it is that, as I said above, I really do love this cast, and I don't just mean my mancrush on Simon Pegg (which was, I must admit, redoubled by this movie). Everyone seems to have grown into their roles even more than the last time, particularly Kirk and Spock. I was a bit lukewarm about them in the first movie, but their characterization and chemistry in this one was just perfect, plus Uhura gets to be more of a badass, Karl Urban seems to still be dabbling in the occult, which is the only way I can account for his ability to channel the ghost of DeForest Kelley, and I just want to pat poor Chekov on the head and tell him everything's gonna be ok. I would love to see what would happen if, say, you had this cast in a movie with dialogue by Abrams and everything else (plot, consistency, etc) by JMS. Bonus points if it involves the Indiana Jones stunt from the beginning of this movie coming back to bite them in the ass in interesting ways.
There were also little bits of fan service that I enjoyed, like what appeared to be a Deltan on the bridge (even seated where Ilia sat in the original movie, iirc), references to "the Mudd incident" (which I would lovelovelove to have actually seen), etc. Oh, and the fact that the movie, in another example of "J.J. Abrams is not as subtle as he thinks he is", gave me a reason to talk about "Chekov's Tribble" being fired at the end of the play, for which I will be forever grateful. EDIT: Can't believe I forgot to mention this bit, but ok, I was dubious when I realized what they were doing with the big nod to the end of the original Trek II (which I'll be vague about because even if you don't care about spoilers I think it will be more fun as a surprise), but... yeah, I actually rather liked it.
Plus, the movie was fun, despite everything.
A co-worker characterized Star Trek Into Darkness by saying "hey, you like all these puppets, now watch them dance!!", which I think is pretty much spot on. The characters are sufficiently well acted and well written (convenient lapses when "wouldn't it be cool if..." called for it aside) that I found myself satisfied just to watch them do stuff, even when the stuff in question was insultingly dumb.
I kinda hated this movie, but I also kinda loved hating it. If you go see it, it's probably worth seeing in the theater, but if you can do a matinee or something to avoid paying full price, that's probably for the best.
There seem to be a lot of strongly mixed feelings about Star Trek Into Darkness (man, I still wince a little every time I say that title...). A lot of people really liked it, even loved it, and a lot of people seem to have left the theater reeling in a "wtf was that?" sort of way, and not the good kind. Me, I'm embracing the power of "and": I thought Star Trek Into Darkness was a deeply, sometimes insultingly stupid movie... that I enjoyed despite all that, and kinda wouldn't mind seeing again, which frankly confuses me.
I think it's the cast. I love this cast. My main take-away from the first movie was that I would love to see that cast in a better movie, and I felt double that after this movie. A co-worker mentioned how she'd love to see the weekly TV series adventures of this crew and yes. That. Also, while it does nothing to address the issues with Benedict Cumberbatch's character (which I won't get into here because spoilers, but about which everything has already been said for those who care to look), he does do a damn fine job of it. I still haven't seen Sherlock, but I'm told that his characterization in this movie is not that different from his characterization there... which means I'm kind of afraid to watch Sherlock now. But I digress.
Basically, why did I not like this movie? Why might I go so far as to say I hated it? It's not nerd rage; they actually had a lot of nice callbacks to the original series that I thoroughly enjoyed. No, it's because I'm pretty sure J.J. Abrams thinks I'm an idiot. To talk about why I think that, along with some other reasons why overall I liked the movie despite myself, we need to take a Star Trek Into Spoilers, so from here on you've been warned.
....
Let me (attempt to) count the ways...
- I touched on this last night, but seriously, during the entire production process for this movie nobody once said "umm... by the way, 'cold fusion' is actually already a term, and it doesn't mean 'thing you can throw into a volcano to make everything instantly freeze". I mean, someone must have said that... right? And yet, there it is. I can only conclude that J.J. Abrams thinks I'm an idiot.
- I know it's a peaceful utopia and all, but this means not only can you fly a gunship into the heart of the capital and open fire on the equivalent of the Pentagon with nary a sign of prior detection, let alone response, but a friggin space battle can happen 1000km from earth, causing not one but two ships to go plummeting into the atmosphere again with no intervention and apparently first being noticed by people on the ground who proceed to stare at one of them as it hurtles toward them? J.J. Abrams must think I'm an idiot.
- Oh, and speaking of Kahn's attack on Federation HQ, he can turn a building into a crater a mile wide with a ring and a glass of water, but when he wants to kill a room full of people he doesn't just have an explosive he can lob in there instead of haphazardly trying to shoot everyone individually? But hey who cares about character when EXTENDED GUNFIGHT SEQUENCE! AMIRITE?! ...is what I would say if I was an idiot.
- That super-secret dreadnought that the secretive admiral has been secretly working on in secret for the past several super-secret years? There's a model of it on his desk. This isn't a thing I noticed on a second viewing or anything, J.J. Arbams is just way less subtle than he seems to think he is, and/or thinks I'm an idiot.
- ...but then apparently security is not really their strong suit, since it seems you can also just waltz up to their Super Secret Space Facility For Doing Secret Things and not only poke around, but join a convoy going into it by casually inserting your shuttle between two other ships without anyone so much as batting an eye. But hey, who notices minor details like that? J.J. Abrams must think I'm an... eh, you get the idea.
- ...and let's talk about the admiral's daughter for a moment. Imagine you grew up in the shadow of a father whom you loved and regarded as a role model (and who apparently made a policy of giving his daughter access to all the projects on which he worked-- wtf?). Then, in the course of just a few hours, you not only learn that he is a deeply flawed, even evil and homicidal man, but then watch him be brutally murdered just a few feet away from you. What a crushing, life-changing experience! Imagine the trauma, the months and years of slowly piecing back together your shattered sense of self, the-- oh wait, nevermind; she's back to flirting with Kirk, and doesn't even wince when he says "welcome to the family". But hey, we got to see her in her underwear for no particular reason, so it's all good, right
idiotsmen? In a way this makes me sadder than all the other ones. There could have been a whole movie's worth of drama there, of character. But no, from the moment she first appeared on screen I was afraid she'd be mainly there because boobs, and she was.
And yet somehow I came out having really enjoyed the experience. I think part of it is that, as I said above, I really do love this cast, and I don't just mean my mancrush on Simon Pegg (which was, I must admit, redoubled by this movie). Everyone seems to have grown into their roles even more than the last time, particularly Kirk and Spock. I was a bit lukewarm about them in the first movie, but their characterization and chemistry in this one was just perfect, plus Uhura gets to be more of a badass, Karl Urban seems to still be dabbling in the occult, which is the only way I can account for his ability to channel the ghost of DeForest Kelley, and I just want to pat poor Chekov on the head and tell him everything's gonna be ok. I would love to see what would happen if, say, you had this cast in a movie with dialogue by Abrams and everything else (plot, consistency, etc) by JMS. Bonus points if it involves the Indiana Jones stunt from the beginning of this movie coming back to bite them in the ass in interesting ways.
There were also little bits of fan service that I enjoyed, like what appeared to be a Deltan on the bridge (even seated where Ilia sat in the original movie, iirc), references to "the Mudd incident" (which I would lovelovelove to have actually seen), etc. Oh, and the fact that the movie, in another example of "J.J. Abrams is not as subtle as he thinks he is", gave me a reason to talk about "Chekov's Tribble" being fired at the end of the play, for which I will be forever grateful. EDIT: Can't believe I forgot to mention this bit, but ok, I was dubious when I realized what they were doing with the big nod to the end of the original Trek II (which I'll be vague about because even if you don't care about spoilers I think it will be more fun as a surprise), but... yeah, I actually rather liked it.
Plus, the movie was fun, despite everything.
A co-worker characterized Star Trek Into Darkness by saying "hey, you like all these puppets, now watch them dance!!", which I think is pretty much spot on. The characters are sufficiently well acted and well written (convenient lapses when "wouldn't it be cool if..." called for it aside) that I found myself satisfied just to watch them do stuff, even when the stuff in question was insultingly dumb.
I kinda hated this movie, but I also kinda loved hating it. If you go see it, it's probably worth seeing in the theater, but if you can do a matinee or something to avoid paying full price, that's probably for the best.
