Review Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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Hux

Member: Rank 6
It's not the worst.

For me the problem is this: the new reality/timeline (as explored in the 2009 film) was a great idea and allowed these well-known characters to have brand new stories without upsetting the canon. We could now do anything we wanted with them whilst still respecting the shows and films that had gone before. Great. Fantastic.

So what does JJ decide to do for the sequel now that he can tell any new story he wants? That's right, he re-imagines Wrath of Khan!

What!?

You've created a new timeline and can tell any story you want but you decide to be derivative and throw a ton of fan wank at the screen, even getting Carol Marcus to come along, even getting Spock to scream Khan!!!! It was lazy writing of the worst kind and completely wasted the whole premise of these characters getting to live DIFFERENT lives and have DIFFERENT adventures.
 

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
VIP
Plus, a big reason for the emotional power of Wrath of Khan is the fact that, by the time of that movie the crew had been together for many years with the full 5 year mission behind them plus potentially a second 5 year mission after the first movie (if you accept that theory). The relationships between the characters truly felt as though they had developed over decades. Which made the loss of Spock a truly heart-wrenching moment which wasn't undone until the next movie. With the remake you had characters who had been together a couple of years at most with relationships that were still fairly new and nowhere near the depth of the original series. And the death of Kirk is almost immediately undone so there is no real emotional impact from the story.
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
I still found this movie enjoyable, but that's really only because I am a shameless whore for anything involving Cumberbatch. The man has talent dripping from everywhere. I think the movie could have been saved with one simple rewrite. Make him anyone other than Khan.If he has just been another augment or even just a super big bad, the movie would have been better. But we go from Khan being a charismatic man of color to a pasty white Brit, and it doesn't work. Still, I do like to watch this one every now and then, just because it's STAR TREK, and it's not STAR TREK V.

And honestly, I liked the addition of Carol Marcus. I would like to see that lead up to David being part of the new timeline.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
I thought that this was the only good scene in the entire film..... only made so by McCoy's soon to be corrected lack of faith in Sulu as Captain material....





As for the rest of the movie....

Mehhh....
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Trek: “Khan” Director Not An “Into Darkness” Fan


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Of the three films in the rebooted “Star Trek” film franchise, there’s little question the most contentious one is the J.J. Abrams-directed “Star Trek Into Darkness”.

Lifting a bunch of scenes and character names from 1982’s iconic “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the film is a (very) loose remake but fails to be as skillfully executed or coherent as both Abrams’ 2009 first ‘Trek’ film, or his subsequent “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” which similarly served as a sort-of remake of the original 1977 “Star Wars”.

Nicholas Meyer, who directed both the original ‘Khan’ and the well-regarded “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” has spoken with Midnight’s Edge this past week and was asked for his take on ‘Into Darkness’. Turns out he wasn’t a fan mainly because it didn’t offer a new spin on the old idea:

“It is, on the one hand, nice to be so successful or beloved or however you want to describe it that somebody wants to do a homage to what you did and I was flattered and touched. But in my sort of artistic worldview, if you’re going to do an homage you have to add something. You have to put another layer on it, and they didn’t.

Just by putting the same words in different characters’ mouths didn’t add up to anything, and if you have someone dying in one scene and sort of being resurrected immediately after there’s no real drama going on. It just becomes a gimmick or gimmicky, and that’s what I found it to be ultimately.”


Despite the issues, ‘Into Darkness’ went on to make $467 million at the global box-office, and reviews overall were mostly pretty good. As of now though the franchise’s film future is uncertain, while it returns to the TV realm with the second season of “Star Trek: Discovery” in January.
 
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