It’s not so great a feeling to
walk into a theater to see a flick and find yourself becoming mentally prepared
to be disappointed, but I must admit to just such a situation this past weekend
when going to see Star Trek Into
Darkness. The Star Trek reboot four years ago
was a little fun, but with some of the heresy director J.J. Abrams committed
upon Star Trek canon, and all
that God-awful lens-flaring to which he subjected us, I wasn’t really yearning
for the sequel at first. Well, maybe
“heresy” is perhaps a strong word, but it’s the first one to come to mind. Anyway, as I began to see the promotional
materials and teaser trailers over the last several months, and being blown
away by some of the visuals, I found myself looking more and more forward to
seeing his next attempt at the Star
Trek universe.
The pre-title sequence, with Kirk
and McCoy fleeing some pursuing primitives while Spock becomes trapped in an
erupting volcano, didn’t do much to allay my fears that I’d be disappointed in
the movie, though. Sure, the very Raiders of the Lost Ark-esque
chase scene is quite well-crafted, but it almost immediately conveyed to me
that Abrams still didn’t “get it” (damn it, Federation Battle Cruisers CAN NOT
make landfall!!!). It had enough hectic
and funny banter and interplay amongst the characters, however, that I found
myself getting past the details and getting caught up in the movie pretty quickly.
The movie has the reckless feel of
some of original series episodes where Kirk showed his rashness and selective
disregard for authority, as the first film did, but the rebelliousness seems to
be less for its own sake in this film, and in that sense is an improvement on
the previous film. The
Prime-Directive-be-Damned attitude for which Original-Series Kirk was so
beloved is in full-force here, and while we do get to see a little bit more
consequence of his actions, it’s still not as much as there SHOULD be. This character trait is the one that Chris
Pine seems to enjoy portraying the most, with his smirk-and-narrow-eyes being
dished out in Shatner-like proportions.
It’s also the facet of Kirk’s personality that sets the movie’s events
in motion.
I won’t delve into plot details
too much for fear of inadvertently dropping spoilers, and there are so many to
avoid revealing that I hope I can still convey to you that I did enjoy the
movie and recommend that you see it. Into Darkness shamelessly steals
plot elements from a few different points of Star Trek’s past, namely some
shady forces attempting to instigate a war with the Klingons and a certain
villain who turns out to be more than meets the eye. All of our favorite characters are back, and
all have enough to do that their presence doesn’t feel like glorified
cameos.
Seeing these characters interact
is the best thing about it, even more so than the previous film. The casting of all these actors is spot-on,
and their preparation and attention to detail is evident. There were several instances of some
combination of each or all three of the lead actors being onscreen when I found
myself thinking of Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley, as the body language of Messrs. Pine,
Quinto and Urban is all so very perfect.
On the other hand, not every
character harkens back to the original - Simon Pegg’s portrayal of Scotty is
done to such a hyperactive level that James Doohan himself might not even
recognize the character anymore (if he were still with us, that is…). The rebooted version of Dr. Carol Marcus
didn’t even really seem to serve much purpose here, either, other than to
provide an opportunity for Kirk to see her in her undies and possibly plant the
seed for him to… er, plant the seed… in the next movie.
After praising the casting,
though, I must wonder about the logic of John Harrison’s ethnicity and accent
without putting so much detail to this question as to reveal a vital plot point. Watching any movie requires a certain amount
of suspension of disbelief by the audience, but the level of that suspension
should not be too great, and if a film attempts at least a token explanation of
some illogical point, most folks would probably buy it and move along. Sadly, Abrams’ screenwriters didn’t even attempt
to explain why we’re supposed to accept Benedict Cumberbatch as “Harrison,” and
that one point of logic nagged me enough that it took me out of the movie for a
few moments.
The movie is a visual treat,
too. The actions sequences, and there
are plenty of ‘em, are technical marvels to be sure, and while Abrams’ penchant
for filling the screen with debris and an almost pornographic level of mass
destruction continues from the first film, thank God he throttled back on the
lens-flare somewhat!
Star Trek Into Darkness is a funny, involving and entertaining popcorn-flick that
is very enjoyable in the moment, but I don’t think it as good as the first
three or four movie adventures of the original cast. Abrams expends a lot of effort in giving us “Easter
eggs” that remind us of moments from the series’ previous iteration, so much so
that his version almost doesn’t seem to be moving in an original
direction. Given his public admission
that he was never as enamored of Star
Trek as he is with Star Wars,
one might hope that his taking over the Star
Wars franchise will mean the next Star
Trek film might be made by someone who has some interest in creating an
entirely original story for these characters to inhabit.
Oh, and as a side note - it’s
certainly a relief that San Francisco won’t be destroyed for another 250 years,
since I’d very much like to see it before all of Telegraph Hill is overtaken by
the Starfleet Campus…
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