"STAR TREK Into Darkness" - 2013

[Bryancd]

From a FaceBook friends page:

"Star trek 2 is gonna be the summer movie to beat. I'm officially a trekkie."

Like we have said before, this film is going to be a challenge for some and a joy for others all dependent on what your expectations are for a TREK film. I do agree with Chris that to paint all of Trek with "intelligent experience" brush isn't a fair assessment of Trek since TOS. Having so much content over the years, Trek has done it all, I don';t think we should pigeon hole it into a specific style. I read what Tim's thoughts were and can see exactly what he is referring to but my reaction to those issue's are minimal compared to my overall experience watching.

[spoiler]I agree that Khan's motivation was a bit rushed and scattered and that's why in my review I felt the inclusion of the Marcus made for too many bad guys. I wish they had afforded Khan more time to develop the sense of almost regal menace he had in Space Seen and TWOK. Instead they had to have himm give a huge info dump exposition while in the brig and use Spock Prime to get the audience up to speed on him.[/spoiler]

[Dangelus]

Well I've only gone and watched the movie.
My thoughts?

I was pleasantly surprised! I still have few problems with it but considering the direction they decided to go in I think they did a great job.

[Praxis]

[spoiler]
I have to see it again to be sure I correctly understood but my takeaway is that Marcus wanted the Enterprise to deliver the torpedoes and their payload to Kronos to use the augments to devastate the Klingons from within their home world and basically eliminate two threats at one time.[/spoiler]

Ah, thanks Joby, that makes some sense.[spoiler]I was thinking it wouldn't matter how much initial damage to was done to Kronos, just as long as Khan got killed, the Klingons got pissed, and the enterprise got destroyed. But the augments could probably do much more damage than any conventional weapon (as long as they were guaranteed to get aggressive with the Klingons). So then Marcus and the USS Vengeance would be cleanup, that makes sense.[/spoiler]

But the movie just keeps pushing the action on and on and on and on. It's afraid of slowing down for even a micro-second to let us breathe.

This is a valid point KingIsaac. If there was one thing I would've liked it's a couple more quiet moments to breathe. On the other hand this movie grabbed me by the collar and never let go, and I went for a ride :).

[spoiler]I agree that Khan's motivation was a bit rushed and scattered and that's why in my review I felt the inclusion of the Marcus made for too many bad guys. I wish they had afforded Khan more time to develop the sense of almost regal menace he had in Space Seen and TWOK. Instead they had to have himm give a huge info dump exposition while in the brig and use Spock Prime to get the audience up to speed on him.[/spoiler]

Bryan, I can agree with that. [spoiler]The brig scene did get a little exposition-y, going against the wise storytelling dictum of show-don't-tell (and that's when it got muddled for me on torpedo situation). Maybe some filming of those previous events between Marcus and Khan might have done much to develop their characters for us.
I'm wondering what a person new to Trek would think of all this. I'd guess that some scenes might appear pretty scatterbrained.[/spoiler]

[Bryancd]

In regards to the torpedoes..

[spoiler]I assumed Marcus was simply hoping Kirk would launch them at Khan, thus killing Khan and his fellow augments in one fell swoop. I didn't get the impression the cryo augments were meant to survive.[/spoiler]

[Praxis]

In regards to the torpedoes..

[spoiler]I assumed Marcus was simply hoping Kirk would launch them at Khan, thus killing Khan and his fellow augments in one fell swoop. I didn't get the impression the cryo augments were meant to survive.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Why not kill the augments by more conventional means? Like, just damage the cryo pods or something? Seems like a lot of hassle to do it this way...kinda "evil genius" strategy :P I hope that upon second viewing there is more to it than that. Oh well, didn't really get in the way of my enjoyment. I'm more in the brain-off camp when enjoying a good flick  ;)[/spoiler]

[Bryancd]

[spoiler]I think that all of Admiral Marcus plans were ill conceived and poorly portrayed in the film, it's the weakest aspect of the story for me.[/spoiler]

[starbase]

After watching both of the rebooted versions of Star Trek, I wind up leaving the theater bursting at the seams with opinions.  I've been watching Trek since 1967 so even though I understand that this is a different time line, I can't help but compare it to the original.  While I liked ST:ID, or as I'd rather refer to it as Trek 12,  more than Trek 11 (eleven - not Roman numeral II), I have my good and bad opinions about the movie.

[spoiler]
Good
Am I the only one who loved the appearance of Leonard Nimoy?  It's the best nod to the original that there can be and I never had a hint that he'd be in it.

Spock at the science station was a welcome sight to see.

All the McCoy-isms - I'm a doctor, not a ...

McCoy's line - don't be so melodramatic, you were barely dead.

At times, Zachary Quinto was Spock - I mean he really looked like Spock from TOS.

The crew seemed much more comfortable with each other than in the last movie. That they were willing to sacrifice themselves for each other goes back to what TOS was all about.

Kirk's - Space the Final Frontier, These are the voyages - at the end of the movie.

It was a nice twist that Spock did not lie when he gave Khan back "his torpedoes" but didn't say that they didn't have the same contents.

Khan resisting both the Vulcan neck pinch and forced mind meld were believable and well done.


Bad
Rico had wanted during the podcasts, as did I, for the villain not to be Khan.

As soon as McCoy and Marcus saw the frozen guy in the torpedo, I knew that it was about
Khan.  I whispered to my wife, Botany Bay.  So the reveal was telegraphed in advance for me.

Up until I suspected it was Khan, I was really enjoying this movie.  This really soured the taste the rest of the way.

When Scotty said, Kirk would flood the compartment with radiation, I held my head and said, "no please don't play this scene out again".  Then the scene with Kirk and Spock on both sides of the plexiglass. As I read on the forum, "lazy writing".  I felt it was a desecration of TWOK and of the most poignant scene of the movie franchise.

Spock yelling Khan!  I was hoping that wouldn't happen since it was too overacted by Kirk originally.

You'd figure with a genetically advanced human, he'd be more elegant in his executions than being a head crusher.

If Khan's blood brings Tribbles and Kirk back to life, why did they have to bring him back to save Kirk?  Why couldn't they partially defrost one of the other 72 super-beings and borrow their blood for Kirk?

If phaser stun setting barely slows Khan down, why didn't Uhura up the setting?

Seriously, why did JJ expect someone named Khan Noonian Singh to look like Benedict Cumberbatch?  I know that Ricardo was Hispanic but at least he looked exotic.

As I remember it, the genetically advanced humans wanted to rule over populations.  It wasn't that they wanted to destroy everyone who's inferior.  "It's better to rule in hell than serve in heaven".

So many public displays of emotion between Spock and Uhura.  Maybe a little more subtle with the double finger touch?

Admiral Marcus' wanting to destroy the Enterprise even after giving him what he wanted.  His being too over the top in villainy was not believable for the head of Star Fleet.



Nit-Picks
Kirk's hound dogging with the pussycat alien girls.

Why are the phasers firing like they emit miniature photon torpedoes?  What happened to the phaser beam?

The scene where Kirk and Khan are flying through space to the other ship was ridiculously long.

Too soon in the timeline to know about Tribbles.

Too soon in the timeline to know about the Gorn.


Minor Nit-Picks
Since Gorn are cold-blooded, there should be no problem delivering Gorn babies since they should be egg layers.

[/spoiler]


Here's my ranking order of all the films:
1.  #2 Wrath of Khan
2.  #6 Undiscovered Country
3.  #4 The Voyage Home
4.  #8 First Contact
5.  #3 The Search for Spock
6.  #12 Into Darkness
7.  #11 Star Trek reboot
8.  #7 Generations
9.  #1 The Motion Picture
10. #10 Nemesis
11. #9 Insurrection
12. #5 The Final Frontier

[Praxis]

Here's my ranking order of all the films:
1.  #2 Wrath of Khan
2.  #6 Undiscovered Country
3.  #4 The Voyage Home
4.  #8 First Contact
5.  #3 The Search for Spock
6.  #12 Into Darkness
7.  #11 Star Trek reboot
8.  #7 Generations
9.  #1 The Motion Picture
10. #10 Nemesis
11. #9 Insurrection
12. #5 The Final Frontier

Seriously, who can resist a good rank-a-thon?

My faves ranking (lots of ties....And I personally feel there is a lot to love in all of these films, even last place...I mean, it's Trek! ;D )

1st: #6 Undiscovered Country  :Bow:
2nd:  #4 The Voyage Home
Tie for 3rd:  #7 Generations + #8 First Contact
Tie for 4th:  #11 Star Trek reboot + #12 Into Darkness
Tie for 5th:  #2 Wrath of Khan + #3 The Search for Spock
6th: #9 Insurrection
7th:  #1 The Motion Picture
8th: #5 The Final Frontier
Dead-freakin-last! : :smilie_bleh: #10 Nemesis

[Bryancd]

#1 TWOK
#2 First Contact
#3 Into Darkness
#4 Voyage Home
#5 '09 STAR TREK
#6 TMP
#7 Search for Spock
#8 Undiscovered Country
#9 Genrations
#10 Insurrection
#11 The Final Frontier
#12 Nemesis

[Rico]

Lynn and I went this afternoon and she really liked it.  As she came out she turned to me and said, "Ok, I have to admit it but that was a really fun, well put together movie."  Very high praise coming from my non-Trekkie wife!  I enjoyed it just as much the second time - I think actually more than the first time.  Excited to talk about it tomorrow on the vidcast.

[WillEagle]

Here is a interview with Alice Eve that you all might enjoy.
http://www.hitfix.com/videos/star-trek-into-darkness-alice-eve-interview

[jedijeff]

I saw the movie today, and really really enjoyed it. Like others said it was just a really good cinema going experience, it held me the entire way through the movie. There was a lot of Action in this, when we left the theatre, we were sort of asking ourselves how much action is JJ going to put into Star Wars.

[spoiler]I kept myself as spoiler free as possible. I did know a bit about the USS Vengeance and that it was the ship the crashed into earth, as well driving the theatre my friend did let slip to me the John Harrison was Khan, though I somewhat expected that. But the Kirk death scene caught me off guard, and left me wondering for while if that was the end of the run for Kirk. That said, I felt that this version of Kirk we miss a bit and he is not nearly as cool as the Shatner Kirk. It was cool how they sort of switched around Kirk and Spock from what we saw in TWOK, but a larger part of me would have rather seen Kirk on the mad pursuit of Khan at the end. I guess for me, I like Kirk to be the  Number 1 Guy, and Spock there as he right hand man. But none the less, really liked those pursuit scenes.

A few nit picks. In the first movie, I really had an issue with Scotty, but liked him much much more this time around as I found they toned his character down. I found McCoy this time around to be a bit hard to swallow, just found the performance to be a bit to much for me, and everything out of his mouth was just using the old Bones lines that we all loved the original series. A few throughout the movie I will enjoy, but pretty much every line spoken was to much for me.

Also I still don't really care for engineering, it just feels far to big for the scale of the ship. Given how large the hanger bay looks, I just don't see where engineering fits in the ship given the size they are suggesting. I guess they need it to be large to fit the story elements and to add some drama in those Enterprise falling from the atmosphere to earth scenes, but still just having a tough time swallowing it.

I did love that a lot of the story did take part on the Enterprise and that there was another ship involved as well. I am a real sucker starships and space ships in general, so this movies just fills a huge need for me in terms of Starship battle I so crave. I even really liked the design of the Klingon D4, they had a real insect look to them, sort of a stocky predecessor to the Bird of Preys.[/spoiler]

[Geekyfanboy]

Just got back from seeing the movie... I LOVED IT!!!

Had to go back and read three pages of comments from you all..  I feel bad for those who were unable to enjoy it. I actually think I liked it better then the first one. :) Not going to go into details.. gonna write up a blog post and I'll post the info here when I'm done.

[Geekyfanboy]

Uploading my video now.. created a folder "Trek Movie Reviews" mine is in there.

[saunders]

I loved the movie.  I thought it was better than the first (which I also thought was great).  The special effects were great.  The story was a lot of fun.  They had great use of humor in the movie.  I thought with the title "Into Darkness" they would go really dark with the story so I was really surprised with how funny the movie is...and not in a silly self parody type of way...but with a natural character based humor.  The relationships between the characters is really working.  I think JJ picked a really good cast.  My wife, who is not a Trek fan to say the least, loved it.  We both couldn't stop talking about it afterwards.  I think it'll be a big crossover movie.

I find it very hard to rank the movies, but I would put this one up near the top.