Star Trek - Into Darkness, a Movie Review

I went to see Star Trek - Into Darkness this afternoon. Before I get into any of the particulars of the movie, keep in mind that this is a "reboot" of the franchise. An updated 23rd century for 21st. century audiences. What the comic books might call a "re-imagining".

The first venture into the re-imagining, of necessity had to introduce you to old characters with new faces: Bones didn't look like Bones, Sulu didn't look like Sulu, Uhura looked more like one you'd want to jump their bones, (which I understand Gene Roddenberry did on at least one occasion in the original. But, I digress!)

The first venture also set up the notion that the universe and the stories told might differ from the "originals". This was accomplished by having an old, creaky antique Spock* travel through time and muck things up a bit, changing the entire space/time continuum. Oops! Spoiler alert! (I'm kidding! If you haven't seen the first one by now, I sincerely doubt you care all that much.)

So, Into Darkness, the Alice Eve lingerie review (no, just kidding again! I'm a kidder!) starts with a vignette on some strange new world, accompanied with yet another debate about the value of the Prime Directive. Honestly, if this thing is their "Prime" Directive, you'd think they'd be better versed on it and monitoring who was actually, you know, breaking it. This leads to some conflict between Kirk and Spock which marginally provides some character development, but not much.

There's a mysterious stranger in town, and with just a couple of minor subplots, the movie takes off in earnest. (And, no, not Ernest Goes to Starfleet Academy!) There are gunfights and chase scenes and more gunfights and space battles, and the special effects are simply superb. The sci-fi geek in you might want to see this for just the special effects alone, not so much in that your jaw drops and you say, "Look at that!", but they help to move the story along, without looking cheesy or being obvious green screens.

I'm going to try to hit the high points all at once and save my complaints along with the spoilers, which are tucked away on the next page. The movie is a little over two hours, but it doesn't feel that long. The action sequences move the story along. The movie is well scripted, for the most part. I can tell you there is a nice homage to Star Trek II in this one (more about that in the spoilers!)

The movie recycles or "re-imagines" a number of characters from the Star Trek canon. Dr. Carol Marcus, the scientist in Wrath of Khan, mother of Kirk's son is here. And the underwear shot is literally so short that if you blink, you could miss it. (That's why they invented the 'pause' on your Blu-ray player!) but, this is a whole new universe where Uhura dates Spock and old Spock bruises the space/time continuum, so there's no guarantee that they'll hook up in this one.

The mystery stranger turns out to be an old familiar (I almost said "face") character. His face too, is unfamiliar to most Trekkers. I won't tell you up front who this is, but I had figured it out before I went to the theater. In fact, if you just thought about it a while, you could too. If not, maybe you're in need of a vacation...in France...maybe Cannes???

Knowing this "spoiler" did not detract from the movie, other than just waiting to see if it was confirmed. You'll get over it. I went back and forth a few times before deciding to see the movie. I'd heard both good and bad reviews, decided I needed/ wanted to see for myself.

I liked it. There was some tension trying to reconcile this as a stand alone effort and yet for those of us familiar with TOS, the comparisons cannot be helped. I would expect younger viewers not steeped in the lore of Roddenberry to enjoy it much more than the rest of us. But, it is as they say, a great summer popcorn movie. The new ensemble of players work well together. There's something there for the purist and newbie alike. See it, enjoy it, and then come back and see if you don't agree with some of my gripes. If you click on the spoilers, don't blame me! Overall, three out of five stars.

*Not enough pancake, spackle or concealer in the galaxy to show him otherwise.
For the real spoilers and gripes, or to make a comment, go here:

The mystery stranger, is of course, Khan Noonien Singh, first introduced in TOS, who went on to be featured in The Wrath of Khan, one of the better (if not the best) of the feature length Star Trek features (Even number). There is some additional character development with Khan that dovetails nicely into what is already known about him. It makes his character a little more complex and nuanced. That's a good thing. However, when of necessity, Kirk forms an uneasy alliance with him to defeat a common foe, Spock, who is left in charge of the Enterprise, turns to...Old Spock for advice. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! Old Spock was the worst plot device in the reboot and I sincerely thought we were done with him. But like the blood on Lady MacBeth's hands, "Out, out, damned Spock!" will not go away!

The homage I mentioned to Wrath of Khan, is really a reversal of the scene where Spock charges into some radioactive chamber to save the ship and Spock dies, while Jim looks on helplessly. Reverse the roles, tweak the dialogue a bit and it's the same scene. It's both lazy and clever. It works for me on one level, but not all.

Worst of all, was the sinking feeling I had about midway through the scene, when I thought about how they resolved the original. The Search for Spock was one of the lamer efforts (Odd number), and the thought of this movie setting up for a "Search for Kirk" sequel was giving me the heebie jeebies. Fortunately, I remembered the foreshadowing about the dead Tribble near the beginning of the film, and figured out how they were going to revive Kirk sans sequel.

Brief gripes: Christopher Pike dies in a shootout. In the freaking pilot for the series, he's wheelchair bound and goes off to to live on a planet where he can have imaginary legs and an imaginary girl friend. One other thing they did in the reboot, which I had mercifully forgotten, was they blew up the planet Vulcan! This screws with a large portion of stories in the original canon, and was, as far as I can see, completely gratuitous. Maybe Leonard Nimoy** has Princess Leia envy?

And putting cryo chambers into photon torpedoes? What was he thinking? I mean, they came in handy for Spock at the end, but what tactical purpose could they serve? They could have been held hostage or killed anyplace in the galaxy...why stick them on the Enterprise, sucking power from your torpedo drives? And please, somebody has to give Bones the opportunity to ask Spock if he's "out of his Vulcan mind". I mean, he's a doctor, Jim, not a screen writer!

** Or Zachary Quinto