Star Trek Into Darkness Review
Yeah it's not too bad. I mean it's not great by any stretch of the imagination but it's not a bad film. Bit of an odd opening but not a whole lot to say about the film. It's so devoid of anything creative that it just simply exists in the world and distracts people with flashing lights and homages/rips straight from the 4th Star Trek movie that make Star Trek nerds groan worldwide.
The problem I have with the film is the characterisations, the film may be interesting if you care about what's going on. The problem with trying to re-enact the Shatner, Nimoy dynamic is that you need to have the awesome implied intellectual capacity of Spock and the charisma of Kirk. Unfortunately Chris Pine (who lives up to his name with his wooden acting, WHAMMY!) has the charisma of a beige wet flannel and Zachary Quinto has the implied intellectual capacity of Honey Boo Boo but just says everything is illogical with a monotone voice. Whilst this may be OK if they were making Space Fights Part 2 with original characters the fact that they're making a Star Trek film that's going to be compared to these well loved and rounded characters makes the film fall a bit flat and kind of makes me want the bad guy to win.
Essentially this film (like most recent Blockbusters) is all about the bad guy played by the unstoppable juggernaut that is Benedict Cumberbatch. There is a twist that will make anyone who knows anything about Star Trek go 'hey yeah that guy cool' but it doesn't really have any true payoff as he just plays a pretty generic bad guy who gets one scene of being a bit douchey (terrorism is always a bit douchey) and one scene of kicking ass and then just fizzles out a bit. Just kind of shouts about stuff for the rest of the film.
The plot is relatively non-sensical and is all about people betraying people and bad guys maybe being good guys and then actually being bad guys but maybe.... it's not that hard to follow but its harder to grasp why anyone cares and seems to just be an excuse for Abrams to go all Star Wars episode I on us and throw a bunch of references to the original series.
Although really if you're interested in the new Star Trek films you really aren't in this for the plot. Abrams has shown himself time and time again as having a knack for visual flair with a slight overabundance for lacking plots (Lost post season 2) and a major overabundance for lens flare. The problem (which I keep going back to, like this film) is that you can't be this new age sci fi action film but try to cram in the complexities in the original seasons. In the originals people talked a lot and then maybe shot a few lasers and fought a green alien in a desert, and then Kirk banged it. It has the same problem as the Star Wars prequels that the action takes very much a forward seat and the acting gets thrown into the background, especially with this many characters who get a few lines each.
It kind of makes me worry about the new Star Wars film being directed by Abrams, not just because one man shouldn't have control of the Wars and Treks of the Stars. If Abrams thinks the point of these films was bland action set pieces tied together with a thinly stretched plot then we are in for a disaster. Although if we can get Simon Pegg into Star Wars as C3POs Dad or something I won't complain
All in all I gave it a 6 out of 10 because the action scenes are an absolute riots to watch but the plot inconsistencies and poor characterisation take you out of fully enjoying the experience, but for mindless fun I'd definitely recommend it. Plus what does Into Darkness mean? I mean I guess they go into Space and all which is pretty dark but they do that in all the films. Should have just been called the Rewrath of Kha....... oops.
The problem I have with the film is the characterisations, the film may be interesting if you care about what's going on. The problem with trying to re-enact the Shatner, Nimoy dynamic is that you need to have the awesome implied intellectual capacity of Spock and the charisma of Kirk. Unfortunately Chris Pine (who lives up to his name with his wooden acting, WHAMMY!) has the charisma of a beige wet flannel and Zachary Quinto has the implied intellectual capacity of Honey Boo Boo but just says everything is illogical with a monotone voice. Whilst this may be OK if they were making Space Fights Part 2 with original characters the fact that they're making a Star Trek film that's going to be compared to these well loved and rounded characters makes the film fall a bit flat and kind of makes me want the bad guy to win.
Essentially this film (like most recent Blockbusters) is all about the bad guy played by the unstoppable juggernaut that is Benedict Cumberbatch. There is a twist that will make anyone who knows anything about Star Trek go 'hey yeah that guy cool' but it doesn't really have any true payoff as he just plays a pretty generic bad guy who gets one scene of being a bit douchey (terrorism is always a bit douchey) and one scene of kicking ass and then just fizzles out a bit. Just kind of shouts about stuff for the rest of the film.
The plot is relatively non-sensical and is all about people betraying people and bad guys maybe being good guys and then actually being bad guys but maybe.... it's not that hard to follow but its harder to grasp why anyone cares and seems to just be an excuse for Abrams to go all Star Wars episode I on us and throw a bunch of references to the original series.
Although really if you're interested in the new Star Trek films you really aren't in this for the plot. Abrams has shown himself time and time again as having a knack for visual flair with a slight overabundance for lacking plots (Lost post season 2) and a major overabundance for lens flare. The problem (which I keep going back to, like this film) is that you can't be this new age sci fi action film but try to cram in the complexities in the original seasons. In the originals people talked a lot and then maybe shot a few lasers and fought a green alien in a desert, and then Kirk banged it. It has the same problem as the Star Wars prequels that the action takes very much a forward seat and the acting gets thrown into the background, especially with this many characters who get a few lines each.
It kind of makes me worry about the new Star Wars film being directed by Abrams, not just because one man shouldn't have control of the Wars and Treks of the Stars. If Abrams thinks the point of these films was bland action set pieces tied together with a thinly stretched plot then we are in for a disaster. Although if we can get Simon Pegg into Star Wars as C3POs Dad or something I won't complain
All in all I gave it a 6 out of 10 because the action scenes are an absolute riots to watch but the plot inconsistencies and poor characterisation take you out of fully enjoying the experience, but for mindless fun I'd definitely recommend it. Plus what does Into Darkness mean? I mean I guess they go into Space and all which is pretty dark but they do that in all the films. Should have just been called the Rewrath of Kha....... oops.