Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

May 17, 2013 22:30

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How do I put this?

Do you remember that high you felt at the end of the 2009 movie?  Yeah, that one.  Well, it’s completely absent at the end of this film.  “Into Darkness” is aptly named because you come out of it slightly feeling like you’ve just crawled out of a pit.  I’m not being spiteful.  After a four year wait for this film, I truly wish I could give it a better review.  To be fair, it’s worth it to see it once if you are invested in these characters, but you might not have that “can’t wait to see it again,” or that “can’t wait for it to come out on DVD” feeling that I know I had with the last one.

Still, this film has its merits.  So, I’ll start off with the bright spots.


Liked:

I really liked that every one of the crew seemed to be given something to do. Sulu has a foreshadowing moment on the bridge, Uhura gets in on “the action,” Chekov ends up in an interesting place, and McCoy works with Dr. Marcus to open, and then deactivate, a torpedo.  Kirk and Spock are the center of the movie, and they have some good moments too.  It was also nice to see Pike returning.

Friends. Kirk and Uhura have a wonderful friendship scene leading up to and in one of the ship’s transporters.  We also get to see Kirk having some nice scenes with other crew members and Pike (plus another familiar face), as well as the crew interacting with each other.

A Well-Played Villain. Benedict Cumberbatch does a very nice job in his role.

Small hints of Love. While their love is very much in the background, Uhura and Spock are still together.  Carol Marcus seems to be taking an interest in Kirk, and he seems interested in her.  I kind of still think she would be nice with McCoy, seeing as he’s much less of a womanizer, but this could play out well in the future.

Kirk. While I believe Chris Pine did a fine job playing Kirk in the last film, he seemed to be even better in this film, especially in scenes that required emotion.  Very nice.

Issues:

Spock. Zachary Quinto did a fantastic job playing Spock in the last film, but here his performance was lacking at times and at other times just flat out lazy.  He still had some decently played scenes, though.

Small Hints of Love.  Star Trek has never been known for its serious and ongoing relationships.  The one series that tried and did this successfully, Deep Space Nine, was considered by many Star Trek fans for a time as “not Trek.”  It’s as if the writers dramatically scaled back any real intricate dealings with love outside of friendship because “the fans” cannot take it.  Unfortunately for the rest of us, that means we don’t get to have it either.

The Story. Call it a rehash or a remake or whatever you want.  Just don’t try to even come close to calling this something remotely original.  In particular, there’s an important (and copied) scene between Kirk and Spock near the end of the film that just takes away most any wind this movie had in its sails.  It almost comes off as an odd love scene, and I'm not sure if this was the intent.  Star Trek Into Darkness never quite recovers afterwards.

So there you have it.  For better or worse.

Final Analysis: It wobbles, and at times it even twitches, but it gets there.
Grade: C 

movie reviews, star trek

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