Star Trek: Into Darkness

Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:25 pm

The original movie, Star Trek the Motion Picture, not the reboot, which I like a lot (more than Into Darkness but not as much as Wrath of Khan, which I still think is the gold standard of Star Trek films.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 8:02 pm

I still remember what a disappointment STtMP was. The first new Star Trek in many years—I was so excited I could hardly stand it! And then meh. So few of the character moments that made the TV show special; so many endless slow SFX shots, first of the new Enterprise, then of the interior of V'ger.

I think that's part of what makes me like the reboot so much. I came out of the first film jazzed and thrilled and still a bit teary from the Leonard Nimoy Space . . . the final frontier. . . . at the end. It wasn't what I expected, but it was what I wanted.

Fri Jun 07, 2013 9:00 pm

Primula Baggins wrote: so many endless slow SFX shots, first of the new Enterprise, then of the interior of V'ger.

Painfully endless. And Shatner in particular is terrible, or rather what they gave him to do is terrible.

Post by **Lalaith** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 10:32 pm

Freddy and I went on a date last night to see Into Darkness. (He hadn't seen it.) I enjoyed it again, and he liked it quite a bit.

Near the beginning, I realized I was smiling from ear to ear for no good reason. It was just being in that universe again, I think.

Sat Jun 08, 2013 2:22 am

I'm glad you guys had a good time!

I certainly did not dislike it; I just thought that with so much of it being so right, it could have been a lot better. Ironically, I thought it had the opposite problem of STtMP. While the latter was painfully slow in many places, this one was too action packed for my taste; far more so for instance than TH:AUJ.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 8:59 am

I kind of agree about the action level, but I appreciated the many character moments and jokes so much that the relentless action didn't numb me as much as it usually does.

I do agree it would have been better without that, and I hope the next film(s), which are presumably going to be about adventures and exploration rather than THREAT! TO! THE! EARTH!, are able to provide more of what SF fans of a certain age (even older than me) called "sensawunda."

Sat Jun 08, 2013 1:53 pm

It sounds like our reaction really isn't that different, just that perhaps you are on one side of the positive/negative spectrum of that reaction, and I am on the other.

Some of the character stuff didn't work for me, though, particularly with regard to the Spock/Uhuru relationship, which really goes completely against my perception of Spock. Perhaps if I had not recently watched Amok Time and episodes like This Side of Paradise and All Our Yesterdays it would not stick in my craw as much.

Post by **JewelSong** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 2:07 pm

I saw this for the second time last night and enjoyed it even more.

Some observations:

For whomever commented about the "all-male" contingent around the table, I counted at least 5 women among the senior staff at the meeting where they all got blown to smithereens.

There are so many cool aliens on board the Enterprise...I didn't notice it the first time.

Loved the bedroom scene with Kirk and the two girls with the tails. Love that they have Kirk being his womanizing self.

I think the Spock-Uhura romance is perfectly done. I like this more conflicted, more confused, angrier Spock and think it works perfectly, considering the altered timeline and the fact that s whole planet is gone....not to mention his mother.

Love that they took the original confrontation with Khan from the original timeline and turned it around. I really enjoy stories that play with time and I like that even though the encounter with Khan is different, it still somehow plays out in the same way.

Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban are spot-on perfect in their characters. And I squeaked out loud again when Nimoy showed up.

Loved the aliens in the beginning. Did you see the cute little alien baby? And how they threw away their sacred scroll and bowed to the drawing of the Enterprise, their new god...just as Kirk says, "So they saw us! So what!"

Spock + Kirk 4 Ever! You can see why they were the original slash fiction couple.

I can't wait for the third movie. And it does seem that they might be laying the groundwork for a new TV series. In which case, I might explode with the geekiness!

Post by **Maria** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:55 pm

I finally saw it yesterday.

Meh.

The speakers kept popping and there was a small rip in the screen. And someone in the ticket line really annoyed me.

I'd have been better off waiting for the Blu ray. The movie wasn't good enough to make up for the negatives of the mechanics of going to a public theatre.

And playing out some of the same scenes in the previous timeline was just off-putting for me.

I didn't hate it... but I didn't love it either. I had a better time watching an STNG rerun the day before. We keep running across episodes I missed somehow way back when.

Post by **JewelSong** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:36 pm

Maria wrote: And playing out some of the same scenes in the previous timeline was just off-putting for me.

See, to me, that was one of the coolest things they have done with the altered timeline. It was like...certain things HAD to happen, but they happen in a slightly different way.

Post by **Maria** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:27 pm

It didn't read that way at all to me. My immediate reaction was "Really? The writers couldn't think of something different this time? Lame!" And my delayed reaction was,

Hidden text.

Post by **yovargas** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:30 pm

My general, somewhat limited experience with Star Trek has indicated that most of the time, if you actually try to think about what's going on, it'll probably ruin the intended fun.

(So sayeth a non-fan...)

Mon Jun 10, 2013 8:39 pm

It depends on what you are thinking about. If you are thinking about the nitty gritty details like Maria is talking about, I agree with you. But if you are thinking about big philosophical questions, well, that is what the show was all about (and that is what was largely missing from this movie).

Post by **yovargas** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 9:08 pm

My experience with TNG (around 3 or 4 seasons worth) the show was at least as likely to be about beating up bad guys or escaping death threats as it was to be about big philosophical questions.

Post by **Frelga** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 9:22 pm

yovargas wrote:My experience with TNG (around 3 or 4 seasons worth) the show was at least as likely to be about beating up bad guys or escaping death threats as it was to be about big philosophical questions.

You could say the same thing about LOTR.

Post by **yovargas** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 9:34 pm

Agreed, which to me always made complaints about all the flashy actions sequences in LOTR feel a bit odd.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 9:48 pm

yovargas wrote:My experience with TNG (around 3 or 4 seasons worth) the show was at least as likely to be about beating up bad guys or escaping death threats as it was to be about big philosophical questions.

I've never seen a single episode of The Next Generation (which I assume is what TNG stands for), or any other Star Trek series other than the original one, so my comments are strictly in reference to the real Star Trek.

Post by **JewelSong** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 9:56 pm

Voronwë the Faithful wrote:
I've never seen a single episode of The Next Generation (which I assume is what TNG stands for), or any other Star Trek series other than the original one,

That's too bad.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:35 am

There is some very good Star Trek there.

I would suggest "The Inner Light." One of the best pieces of science fiction television I've ever seen. With Patrick Stewart at his best, which is saying rather a lot.

There are a number of other episodes that are almost as good, and on the whole, I like it very much. Stewart is not Shatner, but none of the other Star Fleet captains were ever Kirk; you can get past that.

Tue Jun 11, 2013 1:22 pm

I have no doubt of it. And Patrick Stewart is certainly a far superior actor than Shatner, no doubt about that. But Star Trek to me is Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhuru, Sulu, Chekhov, etc. There is no getting around that. I might watch some of TNG at some point, now that I have the ability to do so, but I don't feel compelled to do so.