I know it's a bit late on this one but I saw it when it came out and that's the last time I've managed to do that with a film. So for those of you who haven't already decided whether or not to see this (and let's face it everyone made that decision long before it came out anyway) here's my review of Star Trek: Into Darkness.
Being the sequel to a reboot of a franchise over half a century old this movie has a lot to tackle. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am by no stretch of the imagination a Trekkie. I recently started watching TNG and I quite enjoy it. I have never watched Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise or, perhaps most importantly, I have only watched bits and pieces of the original series and it's subsequent movies. To be totally honest, even with my limited knowledge of Star Trek I still can't help but feel JJ Abrams doesn't quite understand what made the franchise popular in the first place. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty damn good summer blog buster, it's got great action scenes and some solid performances and some performances hammy enough that they're enjoyabl if not altogether convincing. But as a Star Trek movie? It's kind of mediocre. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
The central plot involves James T. Kirk being stripped of his command after doing something vaguely Kirk-like only to be thrown back into the captain's seat 10 seconds later to track down rogue agent John Harrison who kills a bunch of guys and disappears. There's also a subplot of Kirk and Spock's budding bromance. So yeah gets in to trouble, gets handed a captain's position because reckless endangerment and breaking the most important rules of starfleet show that maybe he's just the guy for the job and a troubled relationship with Spock. If that sounds familiar it's because it's the first movie. I get that they're trying to show Kirk growing into the man we're familiar with, but stripping him of his rank only to return it straight away seems kind of pointless to me. Joining the cast this time around is Benedict Cumberbatch as Harrison, a rogue agent with a secret, Peter Weller as Admiral Marcus, a moustache twirling bad guy and Alice Eve as Dr. Carol Marcus, an excuse to put a half naked woman in the trailer. Honestly, there's one point in the movie where it seems like having her there might actually serve a really good purpose but no she just ends up needing rescuing because fuck the leaps Gene Roddenberry made in equal representation this is a JJ Abrams movie so women get to provide T&A and drama.
That being said, the returning cast are enjoyable, Zachary Quinto as Spock is as spot on as ever, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg and Anton Yelchin are cheesy enough to be enjoyable, Zoe Saldana's Uhura is as strong as the original to me and Chris Pine doesn't detract too much from the people who seem to actually know what they're doing. Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing in this movie. He walks the line between campy and intense perfectly, fitting right into a Star Trek movie. The action scenes are all really fun to watch although there is one in space with Cumberbatch and Pine that maybe goes on a bit too long and isn't nearly as tense as Abrams seems to think it is. The big emotional moment between Spock and Kirk works and probably would have worked even better without all the "he loves me, he loves me not" bullshit. The special effects are beautiful and the 3D actually works well enough here. I still wouldn't recommend seeing it in 3D but it doesn't detract from the movie overall and isn't too distracting. Of course the 3D does get annoying with the lens flair and good god do we get that in spades. Even at the aforementioned emotional climax he just shoves lens flair in your face because he is literally the least self aware person on the planet. All things considered it's an enjoyable movie with some strong performances and more scenes that work than don't. That being said, is there still time to give Star Wars to someone else?
Being the sequel to a reboot of a franchise over half a century old this movie has a lot to tackle. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am by no stretch of the imagination a Trekkie. I recently started watching TNG and I quite enjoy it. I have never watched Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise or, perhaps most importantly, I have only watched bits and pieces of the original series and it's subsequent movies. To be totally honest, even with my limited knowledge of Star Trek I still can't help but feel JJ Abrams doesn't quite understand what made the franchise popular in the first place. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty damn good summer blog buster, it's got great action scenes and some solid performances and some performances hammy enough that they're enjoyabl if not altogether convincing. But as a Star Trek movie? It's kind of mediocre. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
The central plot involves James T. Kirk being stripped of his command after doing something vaguely Kirk-like only to be thrown back into the captain's seat 10 seconds later to track down rogue agent John Harrison who kills a bunch of guys and disappears. There's also a subplot of Kirk and Spock's budding bromance. So yeah gets in to trouble, gets handed a captain's position because reckless endangerment and breaking the most important rules of starfleet show that maybe he's just the guy for the job and a troubled relationship with Spock. If that sounds familiar it's because it's the first movie. I get that they're trying to show Kirk growing into the man we're familiar with, but stripping him of his rank only to return it straight away seems kind of pointless to me. Joining the cast this time around is Benedict Cumberbatch as Harrison, a rogue agent with a secret, Peter Weller as Admiral Marcus, a moustache twirling bad guy and Alice Eve as Dr. Carol Marcus, an excuse to put a half naked woman in the trailer. Honestly, there's one point in the movie where it seems like having her there might actually serve a really good purpose but no she just ends up needing rescuing because fuck the leaps Gene Roddenberry made in equal representation this is a JJ Abrams movie so women get to provide T&A and drama.
That being said, the returning cast are enjoyable, Zachary Quinto as Spock is as spot on as ever, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg and Anton Yelchin are cheesy enough to be enjoyable, Zoe Saldana's Uhura is as strong as the original to me and Chris Pine doesn't detract too much from the people who seem to actually know what they're doing. Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing in this movie. He walks the line between campy and intense perfectly, fitting right into a Star Trek movie. The action scenes are all really fun to watch although there is one in space with Cumberbatch and Pine that maybe goes on a bit too long and isn't nearly as tense as Abrams seems to think it is. The big emotional moment between Spock and Kirk works and probably would have worked even better without all the "he loves me, he loves me not" bullshit. The special effects are beautiful and the 3D actually works well enough here. I still wouldn't recommend seeing it in 3D but it doesn't detract from the movie overall and isn't too distracting. Of course the 3D does get annoying with the lens flair and good god do we get that in spades. Even at the aforementioned emotional climax he just shoves lens flair in your face because he is literally the least self aware person on the planet. All things considered it's an enjoyable movie with some strong performances and more scenes that work than don't. That being said, is there still time to give Star Wars to someone else?
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