STAR TREK (2009) was one of the most pleasant surprises of that year. J.J. Abrams brought together an amazing cast that had great chemistry with one another and was able to make a great science-fiction movie. There are a few problems with it - the time travel stuff is a bit confusing and the script is a little dumb at times, but it is fucking tons of fun. It was nominated for Best Picture that year for a reason, you know?STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is a different story.
Let's get this out of the way. I really enjoyed STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS. It is a lot of fun for what it's worth, and like the original, the cast really does an awesome job with what they are given. There are tons of great moments in the film and the 3D is actually very good (especially in the first scene). That being said...
I feel bad for J.J. Abrams. STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, with its terrible title and all of that bad stuff, could have been a much better movie, film-wise. J.J. Abrams does a better job with each film he directs. He brought the lens flare down a little bit, constructed a few better action beats, and still made it as fun as what a science fiction film should be.
But there are tons of faults with STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, and every single fault is attributed to the terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE script. The film, written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof, has so many problems with it that I'm not sure where to begin. It's fun, but I really wish there was a better film behind it.
STOP RIGHT HERE! If you do not want to be spoiled, don't go any further than this until you see the movie. Or, if you were like every other person online and knew a certain reveal, then continue on.
The movie opens up with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise trying to save a planet in the galaxy. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) has to rescue Spock (Zachary Quinto) before he dies in a volcano, revealing their cover. This scene is one of the highlights of the film, and looks fucking stunning in 3D. I am not sure what is a better opening scene - this one or the opening of the previous film.
Anyway, Captain Kirk gets demoted to first officer for breaking protocal and Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood) assumes the Captain's chair again. Spock is transferred to a different crew as well, but it is quickly forgotten about after a suicide bombing takes place in England. When an emergency meeting takes place, Kirk realizes that the man behind this attack - John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), a former Starfleet officer gone rogue - is about to attack at the meeting. But it's too late - he shoots the place up and gets away, but not before killing Pike. Kirk swears his revenge against Harrison, and word is that he is on the unoccupied Klingon planet Qo'nos.
This is at the point where the film goes from great to just good.
Before I go ahead and discuss any more of the plot, I should mention a few things that most people should know if they haven't been hiding under a rock. The writers of the film have worked on many projects before this movie. Roberto Orci, when he isn't screaming "False Flag" on Twitter, wrote the first two TRANSFORMERS movies, along with Alex Kurtzman, who directed PEOPLE LIKE US last year. I never bothered seeing it because it looked like I would just be wasting my time.
Damon Lindelof, however, is an even bigger name. Outside of being credited as the one to ruin PROMETHEUS (which, on a side note, was ruined to begin with), most people attribute him as to completely destroying the sixth season of LOST. He wrote the final episode of that show and the episode that is known to EVERYBODY as the worst episode of LOST ever, titled ACROSS THE SEA.
Lindelof has explained through interviews and interviews on why he had to write ACROSS THE SEA into the television show. In the third-to-last episode of the show's run, we get backstory into two characters that mean something to the TV show, but then we get backstory into this glowing cave that was never shown on the TV show before. And in the final episode of LOST, our main character, played by Matthew Fox, has to arrive at this glowing cave and save the island.
Remember all of this...
Back to STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, the crew gets aboard on the U.S.S. Enterprise to go to Qo'nos (which is spelled wrong in the film, as Kronos). It is all of the same crew as the first time, with the exception being Carol (Alice Eve), the daughter of Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller). Oh, and Scotty (Simon Pegg), who is the only sensible one on the ship who realizes that the 72 torpedoes they brought onto their ship to bomb the shit out of Qo'nos with can possibly take down their ship as well. He quits when Kirk doesn't listen to him.
The villain John Harrison, after they pick him up at Qo'nos, happens to reveal himself as Khan. Someone thinks that revealing Khan as a villain is spoiler territory, and it really isn't. One, if you have gone on the internet in the last year and a half, you would have realized it. Two, it happens not even halfway through the movie. It's not a plot twist - it's a character. And the character has back-story. He goes into it, but all of his back-story is ignored later in the movie.
I am choosing not to go into the back-story because it is unnecessary. But I am nitpicking not just this scene, but maybe four or five scenes. There are quite a few moments where characters need to explain their actions in words. Khan explains his backstory. Admiral Marcus has an explanation for the crew that shows that he is just as much of a bad guy as Khan is. Spock calls Old Spock and asks him how he defeated Khan back in the old days. Seriously that happened. And people clapped.
This is probably all of Damon Lindelof's doing. Laziness, pure laziness. I call it the ACROSS THE SEA-equation. And I know that there are some ways that you just can't get by explanations, but at least limit it down to 1 or 2.I'm not going to spoil any more of the film except there is a scene that Kirk has to save the spaceship by going out of his way and doing something without anyone else knowing about it and being able to stop him. This almost entirely mimics what Matthew Fox did in the final episode of LOST, which, as you remember what I just told you, was written by Lindelof. Lindelof precisely plagarized himself.
There are few other nitpicks here, but I do have a feeling that Paramount and Bad Robot really rushed this film. It has been four years since the last one, which don't seem like it should have been rushed. I know that they probably wanted to make the best TREK film they could, but ultimately, it is just a fun popcorn flick, nothing more.
And from the way I keep on talking about STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, you would think that I really dislike it. However, I do like it. Plausibility and script is terrible, but I actually think there are some very solid moments in this film. The opening scene is quite brilliant as mentioned. There is a scene where Khan and Kirk work together and invade a different ship by flying through outer-space using some sort of jet-packs or something like it that is really fun to watch. And to see Spock take command of the ship in a couple of scenes is tons of fun.
I have a feeling that a lot of what happens in this film is going to make a lot of Trekkies mad. It's a shame because there is still a lot going for it, especially when it comes to the cast. The cast probably understood how bad of a script it was, but they really do stand out in this film. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto work really well together chemistry-wise, just about as good as Shatner and Nemoy did together. Karl Urban is a lot of fun to watch again, and I'm wondering why Simon Pegg doesn't have a role in every film ever made.
Because of different stakes, a lot of characters don't see the screen as much. Zoe Saldana's Uhara has one moment when she is able to shine, but doesn't get as much playing time as she did in the last one. The same goes for John Cho and Anton Yelchin, and unfortunately, they could have been used in a couple of scenes that would have made the film more enjoyable.
But let's discuss Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Khan/John Harrison/Spoiler. He has quite the potential for playing a truly evil villain, but given what we have seen of him in this movie (probably due to the script), he isn't given the chance on truly getting his moment to shine as a bad guy. I know that Cumberbatch has a following through BBC's SHERLOCK, but it's a shame that people are going to look at him as just another STAR TREK villain and not KHAN.
However, as much as I kill it, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is fun to watch. It isn't as dark as the terrible title suggests, but it is an enjoyable film. Trekkies might hate it, and science-fiction geeks may disagree with a lot of this, but for a summer movie, it's not terrible. It could be a lot worst, but sadly, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS could be a lot better.
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