2013
18MAY
Star Trek Into Darkness
And I say "spoiler-free" because it would really, really help you to go in entirely blind, as I did.
Granted, I have seen every single Trek movie in the theater since the late eighties, so I sure as hell wasn't going to miss Darkness, but I can safely say that the franchise is in good hands. The outcries of "it's a big dumb action movie" are mostly unwarranted - although, all of the Trek movies are big, dumb, and flashy to a certain degree. However, Darkness still knows that the characters and their interplay come first, with the action serving as a sort of framework to keep things rolling along. After all, these are characters that are partly defined by their jobs, as is the case in most sci-fi stories. Philosophical questions and questioning of motivation are still present, too, though a little muddled and not as concise as your average episode of The Next Generation.
No; the actual major problem with the movie is that it has the name Star Trek attached. What I mean is, while the original (i.e. 2009 remake) was fun enough, that was also ideally the time for the producers to get all the stupid winks-and-nods and callbacks out of their system. Unfortunately, the realm of Trek trivia is vast and colorful, so it feels like they doubled down for Darkness, and it eventually becomes insufferable to the point that it becomes hard to appreciate some of the drama. Particularly towards the end, where they missed a huge opportunity to "boldly go" in a new direction for the franchise, before chickening out in the lamest, most hackneyed way possible.
Rating: It's not mindless entertainment, but it's still entertainment regardless, with some manipulative heartstring-pulling. It's got an awful lot of super-convenient plot resolution magic at play, though, and a lot of half-assed physical powering up as opposed to letting the bad guys be psychologically menacing instead. Huh. Maybe they were right; maybe this is just a dumb action flick.
See it in 3D? Hell yes. If you're dead set on a big-budget space adventure, you'd better go all the way with it.
Granted, I have seen every single Trek movie in the theater since the late eighties, so I sure as hell wasn't going to miss Darkness, but I can safely say that the franchise is in good hands. The outcries of "it's a big dumb action movie" are mostly unwarranted - although, all of the Trek movies are big, dumb, and flashy to a certain degree. However, Darkness still knows that the characters and their interplay come first, with the action serving as a sort of framework to keep things rolling along. After all, these are characters that are partly defined by their jobs, as is the case in most sci-fi stories. Philosophical questions and questioning of motivation are still present, too, though a little muddled and not as concise as your average episode of The Next Generation.
No; the actual major problem with the movie is that it has the name Star Trek attached. What I mean is, while the original (i.e. 2009 remake) was fun enough, that was also ideally the time for the producers to get all the stupid winks-and-nods and callbacks out of their system. Unfortunately, the realm of Trek trivia is vast and colorful, so it feels like they doubled down for Darkness, and it eventually becomes insufferable to the point that it becomes hard to appreciate some of the drama. Particularly towards the end, where they missed a huge opportunity to "boldly go" in a new direction for the franchise, before chickening out in the lamest, most hackneyed way possible.
Rating: It's not mindless entertainment, but it's still entertainment regardless, with some manipulative heartstring-pulling. It's got an awful lot of super-convenient plot resolution magic at play, though, and a lot of half-assed physical powering up as opposed to letting the bad guys be psychologically menacing instead. Huh. Maybe they were right; maybe this is just a dumb action flick.
See it in 3D? Hell yes. If you're dead set on a big-budget space adventure, you'd better go all the way with it.