Trek: “Khan” Director Not An “Into Darkness” Fan
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.
