GUT REACTION REVIEW: STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

Star Trek Into Darkness
Paramount Pictures

By: Chris "Sledge" Douglas

Is this becoming a thing?

I mean, I've been feeling really conflicted about a lot of movies lately. You can see this in my Gut Reaction Review of Iron Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man; movies that either had great moments but overall turned me off in one way or another, or otherwise great movies that get ruined by one or two major aspects. I'm really wondering if this is just me, or is this becoming a thing that is apparent to others.

I got that feeling again with this movie... but fortunately not as strong.

I caught a midnight showing of Paramount's Star Trek Into Darkness. As before, there will be a spoilerized review after the non-spoilered.



Here's the long and short of it:

If you liked J.J. Abrams previous Star Trek film, you'll like this one.

...

G'night!


Well, it's oft said about movies, but it's especially true here. It feels EXACTLY like the previous. Visually, stylistically, atmospherically, musically... its the same.

Even the plot feels similar: A bad guy (who's revealed to be a big name from the alternate, IE TOS universe's past) wants revenge on something. And Kirk and crew risk everything to stop him.

In fact, this film also has similarities to another film in the Star Trek series, and while you could have picked worse films to ape, it feels like it's less of a homage and more of a straight up copy. Like, a line for line copy.

No, I mean this literally. Some dialogue and situations are LINE FOR LINE.

At the very least, strong performances by everyone involved make up for any issues I had with the above. The interaction between Quinto's Spock and Urban's McCoy was fantastic and actually had me forgetting I was watching the new crew for a moment. Pine's interaction with Spock was fine, but something just doesn't quite work with his interactions with McCoy. It just didn't feel like their relationship was at the point were Kirk would trust Bone's advice, sometimes above his own judgement. It's possible that this could be something that's expounded upon in a future film, but it's also probable that they don't even notice it as a problem. You never know with Hollywood these days.

Speaking of Urban's McCoy, I think his character gets criminally underused. Even most theatrical posters, INCLUDING those for the previous movie. McCoy's place among the main trinity of the Enterprise crew appears to be completely usurped by Saldana's Uhura. Don't get me wrong, Saldana's Uhura is fine... in fact in many ways, I like her better than Nichol's. But one thing I have always liked about TOS is the interaction between Spock, McCoy and Kirk. And I feel that this series has a distinct lack of this.

I enjoyed the sense of scale we got in the film; in many ways it was similar to Star Trek: The Motion Picture in this regard. A lot of attempts to gauge the size of the Enterprise were made; from against relatively tiny humans to against the massive ship we see in the trailer.

Also the design of the Enterprise is very interesting. Seeing the contrast of the sprawling pipes and vats of engineering go to the sleek luster shine of the bridge was a very good way to show how different those areas really are.

Overall, however, I enjoyed the experience. I thought Cumberbach played an intense and very strategically sound villain. And a number of moments genuinely had me saying, "wow" out loud. And seeing this in 3D is very much worth it. The perspective popped, especially during the many fantastic action scenes!



If you don't mind getting spoilerized for a more detailed review, scroll down!
































********** SPOILERS **********


First of all, the BIGGEST spoiler (and one that has been accidentally spoiled a number of times previously in the mainstream media) is that Cumberbach's character is indeed Kahn Noonien Singh, ala the TOS episode Space Seed, and more notably Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn (or WOK as we will say from here on out). Cumberbach's Kahn is interesting as he doesn't feel at all like Montalban's, but it still works regardless. There is a certain intensity in Cumberbach's performance that Montalban simply never had the opportunity to show. While Montalban's Kahn was a man obsessed with revenge, Cumberbach's seemed very willing to go and get it himself rather than just play mind games with the Enterprise crew. Here, we get to see Kahn not only attempt these mind games, but he also gets out there and physically gets the job done himself.

Another big secret for this movie is, what would this universe's Klingons look like? Would they follow the mold established from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (TMP) with the ridged foreheads, or would they be more like those from The Original Series (TOS) who looked very human-like. After all, it had been established on Enterprise (and a little bit in Deep Space 9) as to why TOS's Klingons looked that way (of course, the actual real-life reason is simply that TMP changed the look to be more impressive on the big screen). What we got was kind of a weird mix of both. Even stranger is that they (or at least the one we got a good look at) were missing the trademark Klingon facial hair that has been there even since the TOS days. It's not bad, just... different. And different is perfectly fine in most cases.

Earth looks very contemporary. This is fine, since we are meant to be able to relate to the destruction of these locations as if it is happening to our world.

This is also in stark, colorful contrast to our first view of another planet, Nibiru. This world is very much the sort of brightly colored location we would see on TV in the 1960's, made to take advantage of the (then) new invention of the color TV. And therefore, very much like TOS.

Leonard Nimoy shows up once again as Spock Prime here, and I'm a little conflicted about this scene. Of course, if I knew my much more experienced alternate universe self was hanging out in my dimension, OF COURSE I'd try to glean some info off of him. But, the fact that this universe's Spock didn't even try to look up Kahn's name in their vast computer database (which I'm assuming they have; they haven't really shown us much of this aspect in either film) before calling on future Spock is a bit weird.

Other notes:

- I think it does a good job of showing young brash Kirk developing into a mature responsible captain, considering everything he had to go through to get there.

- There was a definite theme of the millitarism of Starfleet vs the idea of exploration and science that permeated TOS and especially TNG.

- People have complained about Kahn's miracle blood, but it didn't bother me. It was established from the get go that there was something up with it, so it's not like it came out of nowhere. We're talking about a sci-fi franchise here. These stories happen, and they're FINE.

- We finally get to see what happens when a hole is blown into the ship mid-warp, and it was an interesting opportunity. But thinking back, they could have done a little more besides just having them be sucked out.


I do have my usual round of questions, however:

- Near the end, Kahn grabs a hold of Scotty's head, and squeezes until we hear a very audible and squishy pop, and Carol Marcus screams bloody murder. A little while later, we see Scotty, his head perfectly fine, and simply walking around like he was dizzy. What the hell even happened there? Why was there a pop sound if it wasn't from him squeezing his head like a pimple?

- Again, as mentioned in the non-spoiler portion, there were WAY too many references to WOK. I get that it's one of Trek's most successful and popular films, but did we have to be so blatant? From having characters and situations to out right COPIES of scenes. I'm not saying they did them poorly either. Just that they didn't seem to have the same weight as the original.



And finally, my nerd cred is established by pointing out these fine references:

- Kirk messing around with cat chicks may be a reference to Shatner's apparent affinity to them during the production of Star Trek V.

- Sulu mentioning a ship confiscated during the Mudd incident? Hmmm...

- A mention made of the Daystrom Institute - a reference to the TOS episode "The Ultimate Computer," where a computer is given total control of the ship.

- In WOK, Ricardo Montalban and William Shatner never were in studio together. Here, not only do they have plenty of time together, they even make plenty of physical contact.

- Starfleet communicators now act more like phones then walkie talkies, as they had been previously been used. Looks like things have indeed come full circle.

- A reference is made of the transfer off the Enterprise of Nurse Christine Chapel. While she was not seen onscreen, her voice could be heard in the previous movie. She was voiced here by Majel Barret Rodenberry, one of only two original TOS cast members to reprise their roles (the other, of course, being Nimoy). This transfer may have been a reference to her death, which happened not too long after the previous film.

- McCoy mentions his "legendary hands"... the last time I remember hearing about this was the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," where the DS9 crew goes back in time and visits the TOS era Enterprise.

- McCoy performs surgery on a torpedo... much like he does in Star Trek VI!

- When USS Vengence is first seen, it sounds a lot like V'Ger's theme from TMP.

- Finally, Sulu as captain... a hint of what is to come?



Anyway, as you may have already seen, despite my minor complaints, I really enjoyed this experience. Though it makes me really wonder what will be done in a third movie. Will it be an original story, or another homage?