Star Trek: Into Darkness

[WampusCat]

I definitely noticed the Millennium Falcon homage. It's been too long since I've seen Blade Runner to catch that one, though.

Even good 3D annoys me and tends to take me out of the movie, so I saw it in 2D and was perfectly immersed.

[Pearly Di]

I, too, would welcome enlightenment on the nods to the Millennium Falcon - so many big-ass starships in the film, I wouldn't know the difference - and to Blade Runner!

Impy ... I'm sorry you were disappointed. I didn't go in with high expectations. I'm not a Trekkie, and haven't actually ever seen The Wrath of Khan!! I do get the reference though.

Although I'm not hardcore, I've seen plenty of Classic Trek, TNG and some of the spin-offs, and I do enjoy the franchise and the characters very much. All I want is to be entertained. Into Darkness did that, and it was heaps better than the moronic trailers I had to endure in the half hour before the film began. Hollywood seems more and more a cultural wasteland.

Spoilers!

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Damn, they killed off that nice Captain Pike.

But, I'm sorry, I was kind of rooting for Khan. I confess to getting rather annoyed with the Starfleet officers who kept on beating him up and that includes Jim Kirk. No, seriously, sign me up for the Dark Side now.

Liked the Khan/Spock fight, mainly because I kept on thinking, "How jazzed must Benedict Cumberbatch be, to be on the receiving end of a Vulcan death grip."

I thought that Kirk jump-starting the Enterprise like that was pretty funny.

Loved him and Spock crying. What a bromance!

Love Karl Urban as Bones: "Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a torpedo analyst!"

What a beautiful ship the Enterprise is.

And if I may say so, I did enjoy that glimpse of London and the English countryside and architecture circa mid-23rd century. Lovely production design. And Christopher Wren's cathedral still stands, 300 years later. I should think so too!

[Alatar]

I'm assuming the Millenium Falcon reference is the scene where:

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Kirk flies the Falcon shaped ship into the space where Spock says it won't fit. "I'm not sure that qualifies."

[WampusCat]

That's what I thought, Alatar.

[Lalaith]

I got that one, but what's the Blade Runner reference? (I'm not even 100% sure I've seen that whole movie. )

And Dr. Who fans will recognize the desperate dad in the opening scenes.

[halplm]

Yes, I did, it was sad

But I enjoyed the movie a great deal. One problem I had was that the relationship between Spock and Kirk is still really knew in this reality, so the closeness they showed in the original movie was a little strange to see here... they had completed their 5 year mission and then some during Wrath of Khan.

[Primula Baggins]

Saw it today and loved it. Will see it again soon.

No spoilers in what follows, until the spoiler bars.

Hal, I didn't find Kirk and Spock's closeness incongruous. They haven't been working together as long, no—but the magnitude of what they've been through together (chronicled in the first movie) is much greater. I am sure Kirk didn't get command of the Enterprise in such a chaotic way, under such desperate circumstances, in the original timeline. And we know Spock didn't lose his planet—or his mother, at this point in his life.

Non-spoiler comments (though really . . . is there anyone who hasn't seen it yet who cares about spoilers? Serious question, please post if you're one):

Benedict Cumberbatch . . . I think I have to agree with Di that he out-Rickmans Rickman in terms of the velvety evil of his voice (and I never thought anyone would). And he certainly also does so in the wild originality of his countenance. He exudes danger whenever he's on camera.

I loved the continuing humor and character moments that make clear that everyone involved in this understands what was most great about the original show: the characters and their relationships and interactions as they dealt with major, major crises and whole new worlds.

In the old show we never saw (and I never wanted to see) whole episodes focusing on character relationships. But the moments we saw, in among the adventures, gave so much depth and humor and sometimes sadness to the show. The writers and actors got it and gave us those fleeting moments. These writers and actors do, too.

Spoiler:

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I am so glad they got their five-year mission "to seek out new life, and new civilizations." If the producers really follow through on that, it will be so wonderful to see space-based science fiction that is not about an immediate threat to Earth and the battle to fight it off—but instead about discovering what's out there.

I'm looking forward to going along for the ride.

[JewelSong]

If they make a new TV series out of this, I will be one very happy Trekkie.

For me, the most squeal-worthy moment came when

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Leonard Nimoy had his brief cameo appearance.

. Seriously, I think I did squeal...and I was in a nearly-empty theater.

[Primula Baggins]

I was so delighted. That one came from out of nowhere for me.

[Lalaith]

That was awesome.

[Frelga]

Non-spoiler comments (though really . . . is there anyone who hasn't seen it yet who cares about spoilers? Serious question, please post if you're one)

Well, me. But at the moment, I have no idea when I'll make it. If folks who've seen it want to unmask the spoilers, and don't mind putting the SPOILER warning in the thread title, I'll be happy enough to take my chances.

[TheTennisBallKid]

I've been trying for over a week to figure out why this film didn't quite work for me.

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It is, like the first film with the new cast, a fun ride (though, especially with this one, perhaps bordering on too frantically action-packed), I love the new cast and the chemistry they have. The humor often elicited genuine laughter from me.

I had accepted that reusing the Khan storyline was inevitable but don't like the way it played out.

Khan is built up as being motivated by his concern for his crew (he's causing death and destruction, but his targets are the even more villainous Admiral and his cronies), and goes berserk when he thinks they've been killed, but he never gets a chance to react to the news that they are, in fact, still alive. The final fight between him and Spock would have been much more interesting if this had had been allowed to come into play.

Also, sorry Cumberbatch fangirls , but Ricardo Montalban he ain't. And therefore, he is just not Khan. Maybe I could have bought a story where he was one of Khan's lieutenant's, such as Joachim from TWOK...

I love that Kirk is given a heroic death (unlike in Generations, where he...falls off a bridge), but it all had absolutely no emotional impact on me, despite the wonderful interaction between Quinto and Pine. Knowing that Magical Healing Blood was going to save him* combined with it just feeling like a lesser version of a great movie scene (the end of Wrath of Khan is one of the few movies that make me cry, every dang time), ruined it for me. (I'm in a weird place, emotionally, right now, so that may have been a factor, too. It may work better upon revisiting it, though we have no plans to see it again right now)

Anyone else catch that the "Millenium Falcon" ship was "confiscated during the Mudd incident last month"? Maybe the next film will be...The Wrath of Harry Mudd.




*Yes, they bring back Spock in the original cast films, but at least it took a whole movie to do it, and they sacrifice their ship, Kirk's son, and their Star Fleet careers (or they would have, if hadn't they hadn't done that whole "Save the Whales -- Save The Planet" thing in the next movie)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

ttbk, it is wonderful to see you here! I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I should be able to finally see it in the next few days, so I'll be able to see (and share) what I think at long last.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I finally saw. I really wanted to like it. I really thought that I would like it. And there was a lot about it that I did like. But ultimately, it didn't really work for me on a lot of different levels.

[Primula Baggins]

I'd love to hear what the problems were for you. I didn't think it was perfect, but I had a great time. OTOH, I am a vintage-1966 Star trek fan, and I'm very open to the possibility that I'm a blind fangurl here.

(Yes, plot problems, but I couldn't be a 1966 fan of TOS if I couldn't swallow those fairly cheerfully.)

[halplm]

I think these new movies are made for fans of all of Star Trek... I think that if you don't love Star Trek, they will fall apart... just like any of the Star Trek films.

If you love Star Trek... I don't honestly see how you can be disappointed in these films.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

If anything, I am too much a fan of the vintage 1960's series. I just finished rewatching the original series and I've never seen any of the other series. So I am so invested in the original characters that it is hard for me to accept some of the differences.

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I find the Spock/Uhuru romance to be completely ridiculous, utterly unmoving, and just a distraction. Spock in general is way more emotional than he should be, so that when the emotion is actually wrenched out of him, it is not as powerful as it should be and Zoe Saldana is so not Uhuru. I don't like Simon Pegg very much as Scottie, and Scottie would not resign like that, nor would Kirk let him. I thought there was way too much James Bond like action, particularly Spock's (and Uhuru's) fight with Khan, which I thought was completely out of place. Admiral Marcus just seemed like an idiot to me, and rather than rendering Khan a more ambiguous villain he just makes me care less about the whole story. And I agree with ttbk completely about the death scene; while Quinto and Pine were very good, it was like a pale echo of one of the classic scenes of all time, and the magical blood regeneration was just a cop out. I also couldn't figure out why people squeed over Ninoy's cameo; I thought it was stupid and a waste of time. At least in the first film young Spock and old Spock were alone together; having him have Uhuru raise him through the ship hailing frequencies and have him be on the main screen on the bridge for anyone to see was just silly. In my opinion, of course.

On the bright side, Karl Urban is eerily perfect as Bones, and had most of the best lines in the film. The actors that play Sulu and Chekhov are adequate. Pine and Quinto are often very good (although they can't overcome the fact that they just aren't Shatner and Nimoy). And Cumberbatch is utterly brilliant. Way better than I had hoped, and I had high expectations. Like the original, and yet different. Much as I love Montalban's over the top performance, I think that Cumberbatch's more subtle performance is even better. It makes me all the more excited to see what he does with Smaug (and to a lesser extent, Sauron).

Edit to add: do we really need spoiler tags? It probably would be easier to discuss without them.

[Lalaith]

I'm enjoying reading everyone's thoughts. I don't know that I have anything to contribute at this point, though. I liked it, but I tend not to be critical of anything Star Trek-related.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I watched the first Star Trek movie yesterday and today. I remember that it wasn't very good, but I was utterly shocked at how bad I found it.

On the bright side, that made my feelings about the Into Darkness much warmer. It still isn't anywhere near the level of Wrath of Khan, but compared to "Star Trek the Motion Picture" it is a brilliant piece of filmmaking.

[Frelga]

V, do you mean the first movie of the new reboot, or the original movie?