Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

[Endicott]

I think the consensus is DS9 is way better than Voyager.

Yes, I agree with this. I think DS9 was better than TNG by a tiny bit, because the space station frontier setting allowed them to circumvent Roddenberry's bollox ideas about people always being nice to each other.

Voyager will make you tear out your hair as you lament the squandering of an interesting series premise, which quickly degenerates into the same old Trek cliches of previous series. And of course it ruined the Borg.

Oh yes, the film. Quite clever. I'm not sure it's what I wanted, but I enjoyed it.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Oh and the other thing that annoyed me:

Spoiler alert

the bit right at the end was IDENTICAL to the last one! Kirk walks onto bridge, checks team are all ready, gets Enterprise ready to go and WOO! WE'RE OFF ON AN ADVENTURE THAT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO SEE!

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I think, really, that I'd love to see a TV series with this cast. Or just another Star Trek TV series.

[mycroft]

Never been much of a Trekkie, but I did love this. Like in the old ones, McCoy is still my favourite, but I did mark out when

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Spock did his nerve-pinch thing

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.

The biggest annoyance for me was

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Kirk losing his command, only to be reinstated fifteen minutes later. I was worried Scotty's resignation was going to be the same, but that sub-plot worked out better

[close]

.

Oh, and I will be sending Alice Eve the bill for my broken monocle. Even before we got to see her in her pants.

[lipsink]

Oh and the other thing that annoyed me:

Spoiler alert

the bit right at the end was IDENTICAL to the last one! Kirk walks onto bridge, checks team are all ready, gets Enterprise ready to go and WOO! WE'RE OFF ON AN ADVENTURE THAT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO SEE!

[close]

Also,

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the Admiral Pike character seemed to be re-enacting the exact same storyline as the first film: Father figure whose death ignites Kirk into action. Only in this one they actually followed through and killed him.

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[Alberon]

I just got to see this last night and really enjoyed it. Yes, it's big and overblown and like the vast majority of the films not pure Trek in the way the best of the various series can be, but it just was bloody good fun and a clear improvement on the last film.

Being a trekkie I also liked all the little nods to the films and previous series. I'm sure I saw a model of the NX-01 in that admiral's office and

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Section 31 first appeared back in Deep Space Nine.

[close]

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The admiral uniform Pike and others were wearing was very similar to Kirk's in The Motion Picture and I'm sure Pike's line of "They gave her [the Enterprise] back to me" and the current captain's demotion to first officer come straight from that first movie.

And, of course, at the end you have a mirror image of the ending of Wrath of Khan even to Scotty's near copy of McCoy's line to "get down here. Better hurry." Though Kirk kicking the warp drive back online is just as silly looking as Spock fumbling in that box of sparkles back in Wrath of Khan.

[close]

There will be another television series eventually. They don't want to saturate the market like they did before. I suspect the next one will only occur after the 13th film which Paramount, apparently, wants for 2016.

[The Region Legion]

Another massive problem with the film is that the entire opening sequence makes no sense.

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Why would they land the Enterprise on the planet underwater instead of just beaming down the away team like in all Star Trek ever?

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Surely landing the ship would have been just as loud and attention-grabbing for the primitive race that lived just slightly in from the edge of that cliff as leaving was?

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Who sent them on that mission exactly? Were they studying the race like they used to on TNG and then discovered that the volcano was going to destroy them, so Spock - completely against the Prime Directive - developed a plan to save them? Considering he was willing to die for the Prime Directive why did he even get involved in saving them? I suppose he could have a thing about species being wiped out now after Vulcan, would have been nice to get that bit of character development though, maybe in the scene with Pike.

[close]

Also, someone else said that

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Cumberbatch could have been one of the other augments instead of Khan

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. This is exactly what I was hoping for throughout because Cumberbatch

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looks exactly like Joachim, Khan's 2nd in command from Wrath of Khan

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. You could have set it up that he

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just used Khan's name, such was the depth of his loyalty, that he wanted the name to be feared before he'd even unthawed and had Khan set up for the 3rd film

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. There was even a moment to reveal it -

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when they have to take one of the augments out of the cryo-tube for Kirk to use - that one could have been the real Khan

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. The only problem being that

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it would have meant two films that were pretty much the same, villain and all

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[Alberon]

Another massive problem with the film is that the entire opening sequence makes no sense.

Spoiler alert

Why would they land the Enterprise on the planet underwater instead of just beaming down the away team like in all Star Trek ever?

[close]

Spoiler alert

Surely landing the ship would have been just as loud and attention-grabbing for the primitive race that lived just slightly in from the edge of that cliff as leaving was?

[close]

Spoiler alert

Who sent them on that mission exactly? Were they studying the race like they used to on TNG and then discovered that the volcano was going to destroy them, so Spock - completely against the Prime Directive - developed a plan to save them? Considering he was willing to die for the Prime Directive why did he even get involved in saving them? I suppose he could have a thing about species being wiped out now after Vulcan, would have been nice to get that bit of character development though, maybe in the scene with Pike.

[close]

Spoiler alert

There was a line about non-line-of-sight beaming not being possible due to some magnetic disruption, I think. And the ship could have arrived at night and travelled underwater. Possibly.

As I understood it, they were surveying the area, saw the problem and Kirk decided to try and save the natives without them becoming aware of the aliens and so not violating the Prime Directive. It's only when Kirk revealed the ship to save Spock the directive was actually broken.

[close]

[mothman]

Yes, the uniforms are sexy, but why so many? Someone on another Forum counted 11. I'm not sure about that - does a wetsuit count as another uniform change when it's functional? At least they didn't count Alice Eve's undies as a uniform in its own right. But consider:

1. Dress Uniform.
1a. Admiral's dress uniform that was a bit like the ones from ST:TMP.
1b. Undress Uniform - Kirk & Spock walking around Stafleet HQ with the dress trousers and black undershirts but not the jackets.
3. Special "We're Going On A Shuttle" uniform with the colour-coded triangles on the lapels (

Spoiler alert

also worn by Scotty when he sneaks on board the USS Vengeance

[close]

).
4. The normal Star Trek uniform we know & love.
5. Futuristic (it reminded me of the 29th-Century Starfleet uniforms seen in a couple of Voyager episodes) "We're Starfleet But Evil" uniform worn by the Vengeance crew. Why?? I do recall that other Section 31 personnel seen in other Trek eps had their own black leather outfits (very covert, not) but I doubt that was the impetus.

Is there going to be a Star Trek Barbie range again, and they wanted lots of outfits?

Spoiler alert

As to the retreading of ST2:TWoK, it seemed to be done differently enough to not bother me too much. As soon as I saw Kirk was going to die, I knew Bones would bring him back with Khan's blood. I'm embarrassed to admit, though, I'd forgotten about the "KHAANN!" shout so it was a surprise when Spock did it.

[close]

[Custard]

Saw this earlier, and found it to be a great big bag of bollocking fun

It's an all out action film, and as another poster said, there isn't much room for in-depth dialogue or character-development as they're constantly racing straight off to the next action blow-out

Buuuuuutttt..... it works, and is a lot of fun to watch. I saw it in 3D, and found it to be one of the most immersive films I've seen in the novelty medium so far.

There's a lot of funny lines, much like the first film, and Bernard Chunderbag is great as yer villian. Loved the scene with

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Kirk attempting to beat him up, and failing miserably

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and also

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the end fight with Spock

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is great and very exciting

So yes, I enjoyed it muchly. Even better than the first, and one of the best science-fiction action films I've seen in years.

[The Region Legion]

Spoiler alert

It's only when Kirk revealed the ship to save Spock the directive was actually broken.

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Interfering with the natural progression of that species - even if that natural progression is their extinction - is against the Prime Directive. Pike even chews Kirk out for playing God. You'd have thought Spock would have been more against it, although perhaps if Kirk ordered him to do it then he couldn't refuse.

[MojoJojo]

While arguing about a fictional directive is a bit pointless, wikipedia suggests it's only interference in a society or giving them knowledge of aliens that is a problem.

[SavageHedgehog]

I thought, while it was hugely contrived, the plot was a big improvement over that of the "first" film, insofar as it had a couple of neat central concepts (or gimmicks) which kept me interested. I also felt the actors had really eased into their role, and that the humour was wittier and less broad. But I found the action pretty monotonous, and didn't really care what happened. The

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mirror of the Kirk/Spock stuff from Khan

[close]

admittedly could have been worse, but I still found it pretty cringeworthy. Still, in all honesty, while I don't have much interest is seeing it again, in all honest it was probably one of the better Trek films.

[The Region Legion]

whoops, tried fixing the quote mistake in my last post.

[mobias]

Saw it last night in 3D IMAX. Thought it was great fun. Not sure it was as good as the first one but the story kept me guessing which was good. I agree with Mark Kermode though, it was if anything just slightly too relentless. Some of the humour seemed slightly too contrived. The bit were Spock and Uhura had the domestic domestic argument on the way down to the Klingon planet seemed a bit desperate. Other than that I really enjoyed it and I thought the cast still worked really well, Benedict Cumberbatch was a worthy enough villain.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Really liked it. It was a huge improvement on the first one in that stuff actually happened in it. It probably ran about ten minutes longer than it should have but there was a good mix of humour, action and people standing about on the Enterprise trying to sort a problem out.

[Alberon]

Won't happen, but apparently Joe Cornish has been tipped as a possible director of Star Trek XIII due for release in 2016.

[The Region Legion]

Won't happen, but apparently Joe Cornish has been tipped as a possible director of Star Trek XIII due for release in 2016.

That seems more than impossible.

Then again, I suppose the possibility of Simon Pegg being Scotty once upon a time seemed pretty unlikely.

Surely Edgar Wright is a more likely Brit choice though? He apparently already directed a scene in the current one.

[phantom_power]

I think Cornish isn't that unlikely. Attack The Block went down well with the American critics and he is involved with Tin Tin for Spielberg. Wright would be busy with Ant Man then as well I expect

[mobias]

Star Trek is a pretty big technically demanding movie to put in the hands of someone who hasn't much experience directing in my opinion. I think its unlikely Joe Cornish would be given it.

[phantom_power]

You could have said the same of Shane Black and Iron Man 3. His only previous directorial effort was the fairly low-key Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I think directors get so much help with the logistical aspect of these big blockbusters that it is more important that they have some sort of vision that they can sell to the studio. Marvel is a bit of an outlier when it comes to choosing interesting directors for their films but it isn't completely out of the realms of likelihood for Cornish to get the gig. I doubt he will but it wouldn't blow my mind if he did.

[sirhenry]

I saw it this evening in IMAX 3D and quite enjoyed it. Not as much as I'd hoped; the shakeycam in the fight

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with the Klingons where Cummerbund Does Doom

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didn't work at all in fuckoffhuge format - thing-bloke-explosion-gun-right uppercut-explosion-bloke-thing-explosion which just made me and my daughter want it to be over. And that was my main impression, that the crashes and disasters were far more exciting than the fights and overshadowed them throughout. I suspect it was that with a static or panning shot you can develop a sense of suspense, whereas with fast cut shaky shots nothing builds, it's just more of the same.

I did like all the nods (and blatant mirroring) to the old shows and films,

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especially the TWOK ending rewrite

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. Unfortunately Kirk headbutting a Klingon was lost in the shakeycam and McCoy doing animal experiments was a bit upsetting. I was curious what they were going to do with the Klingons,

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at first assuming that they would all remain in armour, but they appeared to be a half-way house between the early and later ones.

[close]

Overall those bits made up for the gaping plot holes that would suddenly appear like a sudden side-passage, but it would be nice to have the third film go more towards the more thoughtful and coherent Trek stories, rather than a series of massive explosions every 10 minutes.

Cummerbund did make an excellent, and very sympathetic, villain.

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Shame no brainworm, though.

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[Johnny Textface]

I assume that these directors aren't really that involved in the big cgi set pieces e.g. Shane Black. Not in the way that someone like James Cameron is anyway. Branagh, Favreau are other examples.

[phantom_power]

Why would you assume that?

[Small Man Big Horse]

I thought the new version of the Klingon's looked shite, and longed for the days when they'd just slap a pasty on someone's forehead.

I saw it last night in IMAX and it was impressive stuff visually and action wise, and really enjoyed the first two thirds or so, but I was left a bit cold by it overall.

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Khaaaaaaaaaaan was reduced to a insane thug by the end (and his character could have done with a little more depth in general), but worse than that was the Kirk dying thing, which pissed me off a fair bit, unfortunately. I remember being blown away by the end of Wrath of Khan, I was only 9 when I saw it and was incredibly upset by it all. This was back in the days when I presumed such a thing was permanent, and as it was pre-internet and before I read movie magazines, I had no idea for ages that there would be another movie, nor what it's title would be. So to 'homage' such a moment, but to try and make us think even for a second that they'd kill of the main character in a major franchise was all a bit of a mis-step. Especially as they'd heavily signposted how they'd get out of it earlier on in the film. Add to that the fact that I found the final Spock / Khan fight a bit dull and it just ended in a disappointing manner for me.

[close]

Still, a lot of it was really enjoyable, and I don't regret seeing it. But I can't say it's given me any optimism that the Star Wars films will be anything particularly special.

[Johnny Textface]

Why would you assume that?

Because they have zero previous experience directing these types of spectacular cgi set pieces. Its just weird that they just seem to be able to do it, usually very well.

[phantom_power]

The process is the same. It is just camera placement and choreographing movement, just like non-CGI stuff. Obviously the technical bods do all the work but it is all the director's vision

[Blinder Data]

Got back from this last night and was mildly disappointed. It felt to me like a missed opportunity. After four years I was hoping for a film that would take the franchise forward and shake things up a bit, not a film that rehashed the best bits from a previous instalment. Did the references have to be so on the nose and similar to Wrath of Khan? I was pretty excited when I thought that

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Kirk was actually going to die

[close]

but the fact that they resolved that so easily,

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locked away the baddie forever

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and everything turned out OK made it feel to me like a big waste of time. What did we learn from this film? That Spock needs to be a bit more human? That Kirk can sacrifice himself despite his ego?

Too much time was spent on the ship and on needless albeit enjoyable action sequences, like the shooting through space into the airlock bit. When the film had such great ideas (

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unleashing a horde of pissed off criminals under a despotic psychopath

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) why didn't it use them instead of frittering it away on unnecessary moments? The performances were generally impressive, Bodybag Cumberwang was fucking excellent and Pegg's improved greatly.

I just wanted it to go further! Not have everything wrapped up and put to bed like at the end of a TV episode. Maybe that's where its future should lie. Game of Thrones is the most watched thing on the planet, HBO have been ahead of Hollywood for years. What's to stop them doing a Star Trek TV programme and completing total media domination? I hope the next film isn't as unremarkable as this one.

[Alberon]

HBO and other cable shows have spoilt just about all network shows for me. I've watched enough of them that I can always tell what is going to happen based on simply how many minutes into the show I am.

HBO has taken a high fantasy book (albeit a gritty realistic one) and made it not a cult show but a proper hit whose ratings are apparently still increasing.

I really really want them to tackle an SF book series next. Something like an Iain Banks Culture or Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space series. Each book series is not a straight single story like A Song of Fire and Ice but linked.

[The Region Legion]

Maybe that's where its future should lie. Game of Thrones is the most watched thing on the planet, HBO have been ahead of Hollywood for years. What's to stop them doing a Star Trek TV programme and completing total media domination? I hope the next film isn't as unremarkable as this one.

They did that. It was called Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and you can thank it for every dramatic TV show now having a running plot instead of stand-alone episodes.

[small_world]

On the HBO thing, there's an amazing TV series within the Foundation series.