Talkin' In the Movies: Star Trek Into Darkness SPOILERS!

Hello, dear readers. Josh and I both saw Star Trek Into Darkness, and we couldn’t wait to chat about it.  For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, probably best to come back later as we’ll be talking about a lot of different points in this film that will not only spoil awesome surprises, but will  be unintelligible if you don’t have a basic knowledge of the plot.

Here there be SPOILERS, you are warned…

JEFF

First thought, it's really great to have a sequel title without a colon or hyphen in it, it works both as a title and a sentence. They are literally trekking into darkness. "Sulu, chart a course for… darkness."

JOSH

I honestly thought there was a colon in the title until I started writing my mini review. I like how the film tried (I won't say succeeded) to take its characters into darkness as well (The eventual ‘Magic Blood’ kinda killed all hope of an actual dark ending).

JEFF

Nice segue! Yes, this movie definitely tried to grit up the bright shiny world created in the first film. Not too dark, but darkness-i-er. There were noticeably fewer lens flares, and our characters, from the opening sequence onward, had real moral dilemmas to deal with. First Mickey from Dr. Who had to choose between his daughter's life and appeasing a terrorist, and then Abrams took all our old favorites on a ride down the dark road when they were confronted with a new, mysterious villain.

JOSH

Yes, it was nice to watch, and it made for a very interesting Act I and II.

The Who fan in me screamed SO LOUD when Mickey (Noel Clarke) was on screen, and he did so well in his small part that it made you really care for his character. His ‘sadistic choice’ set up what a completely cold-hearted character Cumberbatch was. I thought that was a great way to introduce a villain into your film: by showing his effect on others in the world. They also eventually made you see that Cumberbatch had a compelling reason for what he was doing. The character was very cleverly set up.

I thought some of the film’s set up however was kind of pointless (taking the enterprise away from Kirk, then making him first mate then rehashing the first film by giving the ship back). That was all needless. We need to see Kirk grow. So I didn't enjoy that, but after the death of... insert name I can't remember here... Kirk's story really kicked in for me.

JEFF

Admiral Pike, Josh! Admiral Pike... show some respect.

JOSH

But I did enjoy the cold open on the red planet with the white creatures... that was a great way to open the film.

JEFF

Yes, the cold open was a great mini-adventure that was a nice tip of the hat to the original TV show. I agree that the beginning struggle with Kirk's demotion and then almost immediate re-promotion was needlessly complicated, but I like what it did. It set up Kirk as a very fallible character who is ridiculously unprepared to lead. This is a huge issue leftover from his crazy-fast rise to power in the first film, so it's great to see them build the consequences of his devil-may-care attitude into the story of this movie. That is one very big thing that they did very right. Kirk needs to learn responsibility and to learn that maybe if he wants to be captain he DOESN'T need to go on every single dangerous away mission.

The problem with this arc for me is that he CONTINUES to make stupid and irresponsible decisions all the way up to his last foolhardy choice, which actually manages to save the day. For me that doesn't begin to address the body count it took for him to get there, or the civilian body count to follow as Khan continues to run amok.

If Kirk took a little time to think about any of the plot-point decisions of this film, or consulted his crew, he would have made very different choices. Right now I see his brashness working more as a tool of writer's convenience than as part of a fully realized character, which is my only real disappointment with this film.

JOSH

Yeah. He's still a very immature character and he's not learning, a very TV show trait but this is not TV. I think Kirk and his arc encapsulate the entire film for me. Good on the surface, but don't dig too deep because you are going to find a ton of flaws.

Kirk bothered me only a little, and I was able to move past that, but the character that bothered me the most was Uhura. She's a strong character, played by Zoe Saldana, an extremely gifted actress. She's built as a strong, independent woman who can kick ass with the boys and is a smart as anyone. Right?

SO WHY DOSE SHE YELL AT SPOCK IN THE MIDDLE OF A MISSION!!!

Come on! So out of character, especially since she said that she just said she was all right and that Spock's choice wouldn’t affect her.

JEFF

Yes, Uhura is a pro that would have saved that for the bedroom. Attempting the joke was good, but the result maybe wasn’t.

JOSH

The scene was entertaining enough, but again it felt like a scene from a TV series - sitcom to be specific -- not a major summer blockbuster that for the most part was logic and plot driven.

JEFF

I think the tension between Spock and Uhura was necessary, but it had to be awkwardly shoe-horned into the middle of the action because this movie (AWESOMELY) was non-stop. They never slowed down from start to finish.

JOSH

I liked the pacing, I just think they could have found a better place to have the conversation. Maybe right before they leave in search of Khan? As the reason that Kirk questions her about emotions? But moving on. On the whole, the characters were solid and entertaining. Any thoughts on the Wrath of Khan connections?

JEFF

Yes, so the first Star Trek did a brilliant job of re-starting the series while still paying homage to the original and leaving room for the characters to change and grow. Since this is a carbon copy universe, all of the characters of the first series can be expected to still exist somewhere within this new universe. It stands to reason that the whole canon is still up to be used when needed. However it was a really bold move to bring back Khan and directly mirror the second film in the original series.

I think most fans, myself included, were happy to see such an iconic character come back, and to be re-introduced in such a great way. The animosity of Khan and Kirk is set up completely differently than in the original, but we arrive at much the same place by the end of the film. Benedict Cumberbatch was a brilliant choice. Instead of a body-builder with metal-band hair and pec-cleavage, this Kahn is cool, manipulative, and oozing confidence, intelligence, and strength. He was well cast and well used. In hindsight, some of his actions don't completely hold up (such as why not just bomb the admiral meeting, or poison them, or any number of covert killing tactics, and take what you want? etc.) but the ominous effect is palpable every time the character is onscreen.

Also it's a great comparison to Kirk. Khan is in control, Kirk isn't. A great example of this is the scene where Kirk petulantly tries to beat up Khan after taking him prisoner. Kirk is a boy, Khan is a man. I love that Spock now take a more active role in taking Khan down (he really is the smarter captain of the Enterprise. He's the guy that actually gets stuff done!) but perhaps a bit of Kirk’s arc toward taking responsibility is diminished by never out-manning Khan himself.

He does stand up to Admiral Robo-Cop (Peter Weller AWESOMELY returning to the big screen – to bad his character ‘loses his head’…) and saves the lives of his crew by sacrificing himself though, so kudos.

JOSH

I have to say again that I did enjoy the journey of this film, and when watching I noticed the (unsubtle) connection to The Wrath of Kahn but it didn't bother me. I like how these old characters are interacting in this new universe, we are in total agreement. I felt the role reversal of Spock and Kirk was natural for this film. I didn't like the ‘Magic Blood’ solution, because it fixed a problem in thirty seconds that took almost two films for the “Genesis’ solution to fix in the first series. But what the reversal did for both Kirk and Spock was fantastic, they each needed to be in their new situations to learn new lessons and to truly understand each other.

However, I don't like the Future Spock connection. You had your problem with this movie, that was mine. It's just confusing. Is this series supposed to completely replacing the other reality? Did the other films never happen? I really don’t need Future Spock popping up and being like, "I said I'd never ever help you with anything, but since you asked this specific question let me tell you exactly what to do" I don't want to even think about the other universe in terms of this film. MORE over-complicated Damon "I WROTE FOR LOST SO LETS MAKE THIS SOOOOOO COMPLICATED AND MYSTERIOUS" Lindelof.

JEFF

I didn't care for the cameo either, it was fun, but it sets up Future Spock as being the all-knowing answer to any problem. Talk about writer's convenience! They went for a quick laugh to straighten out their snarled-up plot, but in the process made this new universe a group of people that can't think for themselves. I get why they made that choice, but overall I thought it was a bad move. Past the first film, I think that Future Spock’s knowledge of this new tangent reality is used up. He, like the rest of us should be along for a brand new ride where none of us know what to expect.

JOSH

I think crossing universes is a bad move in general, it's not like Tobey McGuire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of Spider-Man are hanging around chatting like "listen Young Peter... give up on that Gwen chick, let's talk about Mary Jane."

JEFF

Instead of KHAAAAAAAAN, we both want to shout at the screen and scream LINDELOFFFFFFF!

JOSH

LINDELOFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!

JEFF

Granted, we don't know what was written by him and what wasn't, but the overall trend of his work makes me not like or trust him, and will attribute anything bad to him.

JOSH
I blame him, what has he not worked that hasn't been overly complicated and overall just sad and confusing?

JEFF

His last (and only) solo sci-fi effort was Prometheus. Enough said.

JOSH

You know, I could rip into this film for little things I didn't like, but it did what it wanted to do, and overall was very fun to watch. I don't need to be super nit-picky about something that I enjoyed watching, and probably will enjoy again. There are enough really satisfying moments in Into Darkness that I can happily forgive its flaws. Good for this series, yes. Fun to watch, yes. All-time great or even a standout, socially relevant blockbuster? No. I'll stand by my 4 out 5 stars I gave it before, but after doing some digging I may be close to sliding it down to 3.5 out of 5.

JEFF

I would also see this movie again in a heartbeat, what it lacked in depth it more than made up in flash. It was a FUN movie. It had the popcorn factor and it had truly stunning action that never stopped along with some great humor. Though we nit-pick, we both really enjoyed it and are ready for the next!