Star Trek Into Darkness: 86% at RT.com (Post reviews here!)

[blankslate]

There were so many more realistic ways they could have done that though. I think it was more of a "What would look cool as a special effect" decision.

Well a maguffin is something that gets the plot moving without really being explained....

So... it served its purpose in Star Trek. The character introductions and the character interactions worked for me.

from wikipedia...

The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. The most common type of MacGuffin is an object, place or person. However, a MacGuffin can sometimes take a more abstract form, such as money, victory, glory, survival

Like I said if you have an issue with something like that being used in a Star Trek movie than I can see that. and it is a topic worthy of debate. However, the other things were well done enough that I was willing to suspend disbelief.

 

[esun]

Overall the movie was entertaining. I got a free screening this morning in 3D. I thought the 3D was pretty useless, more distracting than entertaining, but not overly so (didn't ruin the experience). Action was great, special effects were excellent, story was good enough, basically what you'd expect out of it. Only two complaints:

Spoiler

1. Khan should've kicked the crap out of Spock when they fought at the end. Especially when Spock was hanging from the ship and Khan was on top, Khan picked him up onto the ship to fight him, which of course made no sense when he could just kick him off. 2. The method they used to save Kirk was so blatantly obvious almost immediately after Kirk died that it was really no surprise when they brought him back.

I liked Benedict in Sherlock and I agree with the others he did a good job here. Also agree on the flip phone thing which looked out of place given that they're basically outdated already.

 

[Exterous]

Which one is the one with the whales? That's the best one.

KT

ATOT thread on the whale movie:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2320159&page=2

 

[Aharami]

Liked it a lot, but holy lens flare Batman!! Beyond excessive

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Like someone said earlier, both of Abrams' Star Trek films have been mindless, generic space action films and each have had stupid plot devices or plot holes bigger than the Enterprise. If I had to rank his films against the original 6 classic crew films, they'd fall at the bottom with perhaps only Star Trek V being worse.

As far as the casting goes, Karl Urban as McCoy is easily the best and I think Simon Pegg is good as Scotty, though he doesn't really look much like him. I don't care for Pine as Kirk at all, while Quinto is OK as Spock. To quote another person in this thread, the whole Uhura and Spock relationship is stupid, contrived, and completely and totally unnecessary.

Spoiler

Benedict Cumberbatch played an evil psychopath well, but he is no Khan. Ricardo Montalban owns that role and this version of Khan wasn't in the same league. Also, the excuse given as to why the Admiral would wake a 300 year-old man to design weapons and ships was EXTREMELY lame, unrealistic, and stupid.

I am worried about Star Wars and the mindless stupidity Abrams may introduce into it.

 

[TwiceOver]

Going today. Can't decide between my shitty theaters 2d or 3d showing.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I have a free 3D screening on Thursday, otherwise would prefer 2D.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I am worried about Star Wars and the mindless stupidity Abrams may introduce into it.

The original trilogy was great but it was never intended to be intellectual or anything. Abrams style will be just fine for Star Wars. I personally like what he's done with Star Trek but am not really watching them as anything other than a fun scifi action flick.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

The original trilogy was great but it was never intended to be intellectual or anything. Abrams style will be just fine for Star Wars. I personally like what he's done with Star Trek but am not really watching them as anything other than a fun scifi action flick.

There was a mysticism and a sense of wonder in the original trilogy, at least in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. It was reduced but still there in Return of the Jedi and largely absent from the prequels. My fear is that the next trilogy will be just a bunch of mindless action movies filled with explosions, gaping plot holes, and lens flare overwhelming every battle. I thought Lucas ruined his legacy with the prequels and ruined his lone chance at redeeming his reputation with the disaster that was Indiana Jones and the Crystall Skull, but I fear Abrams will just continue the destruction of the Star Wars IP.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

It's no World War Z (complete turd), but it sure tries hard to be a mashup between 1982's Star Trek II and Transformers. The movie is more of a "whiz-bang" action movie that just *happens* to have some Star Trek stuff in it. I quite enjoyed 2009's Star Trek, which was an homage to the older series, and had some great time travel/alternate reality stuff in it. Unfortunately, I found this sequel to be much less enjoyable, probably because it rips off so much in an attempt to appeal to fan nostalgia. That, and it really leans far too much on the relentless action as a crutch, while what should be the true legs of the film (character development and plot) wither a bit.

ST: Into darkness is actually a pretty passable action flick, if you like things moving around so fast that it distracts you all the time from following the plot, much like the Transformers movies. (Man, each time I promise myself I won't go watch another one, but then I do anyway)

One of the main characters resigns from his post for ethical reasons for all of 20 minutes. Another is demoted for perhaps 15 minutes before being reinstated to his original post. Another main character dies - for about 10 minutes before being brought back to life just like in the comic books, completely negating any meaningful reaction from fans to his death and noble sacrifice. The movie is chock full of very temporary changes like this, to the point of aggravation.

Doctor McCoy's lines are pretty funny through the movie - until they start to overdo it - and then you start to wince as they keep pushing it more and more, and he just seems like an annoying stand up comedian.

You know that a movie is kind of bad when your wife turns to you a little more than halfway through and jokes about a zombie tribble turning into the first Borg, and you turn to her and respond with "You will be assimilated - cooo!" We usually only do that sort of thing with the really bad movies, when we're bored.

You get the feeling while watching the movie that Paramount didn't learn a single lesson from Star Trek Nemesis. No, we don't want you to simply copy an old successful movie from the series so that you can make more $. We want a completely new plot, for once. (how about a sequel to another old episode, like you did with Space Seed?) Oh, there were some surprises this time around that kept it from quite sinking to that level, but overall that was what they were trying to do here.

If I had to list my LEAST favorite Star Trek movies, in order from the one I liked the least, it would be something like this:

Star Trek Nemesis (ripoff, bad plot, weak villain)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (much too slow)
Star Trek: Into Darkness (whiz-bang fast, parody of itself, ripoff plot)
Star Trek V: (unbalanced, silly God story, happy vulcans)
Star Trek III (a whole movie about undoing the previous one)

I guess after watching Star Trek: Into Darkness, I would suggest that Trek fans instead try one of these:

[L=http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Invasion!]http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Invasion![/L]

or

[L=http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&fi...]http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=star+trek+collective[/L]
(any of the first 6 results would be excellent viewing, depending
on your personal preferences)

 

[Sonikku]

Spoiler

1. Khan should've kicked the crap out of Spock when they fought at the end. Especially when Spock was hanging from the ship and Khan was on top, Khan picked him up onto the ship to fight him, which of course made no sense when he could just kick him off.

Spoiler

Bear in mind Kahn has a superiority complex. He's superhuman, looks down on everyone who isn't and likely considers stomping on someones fingers as a means to achieve victory as being beneath him. Being an overconfident warrior, he probably relishes in defeating his enemies man to man when possible. As for Spock being able to hold his own, bear in mind vulcans are three times as strong as humans are, coupled with his angst from losing his friend likely made it a tougher contest for Kahn than if it were kirk fighting him.

 

[mnewsham]

Like someone said earlier, both of Abrams' Star Trek films have been mindless, generic space action films and each have had stupid plot devices or plot holes bigger than the Enterprise. If I had to rank his films against the original 6 classic crew films, they'd fall at the bottom with perhaps only Star Trek V being worse.

As far as the casting goes, Karl Urban as McCoy is easily the best and I think Simon Pegg is good as Scotty, though he doesn't really look much like him. I don't care for Pine as Kirk at all, while Quinto is OK as Spock. To quote another person in this thread, the whole Uhura and Spock relationship is stupid, contrived, and completely and totally unnecessary.

Spoiler

Benedict Cumberbatch played an evil psychopath well, but he is no Khan. Ricardo Montalban owns that role and this version of Khan wasn't in the same league. Also, the excuse given as to why the Admiral would wake a 300 year-old man to design weapons and ships was EXTREMELY lame, unrealistic, and stupid.

I am worried about Star Wars and the mindless stupidity Abrams may introduce into it.

we get it we get it, you don't like it and you dont want us to like it too.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

we get it we get it, you don't like it and you dont want us to like it too.

I wasn't aware we weren't allowed to share opinions. I really don't care if you like it or not, because judging by the hours and hours of trashy crap on TV these days, Americans have no taste for quality entertainment anyway so I'm not surprised this will be a big hit.

 

[TheSlamma]

There was a mysticism and a sense of wonder in the original trilogy, at least in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. It was reduced but still there in Return of the Jedi and largely absent from the prequels. My fear is that the next trilogy will be just a bump of mindless action movies filled with explosions, gaping plot holes, and lens flare overwhelming every battle. I thought Lucas ruined his legacy with the prequels and ruined his lone chance at redeeming his reputation with the disaster that was Indiana Jones and the Crystall Skull, but I fear Abrams will just continue the destruction of the Star Wars IP.

You actually think the SW IP is recoverable? LOL

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You actually think the SW IP is recoverable? LOL

You're probably right, but I can hope.

 

[bearxor]

I had reservations going in, but it was pretty awesome. Sure, it has more action sequences in it, but that's the price these days. You don't want to bore a mainstream audience by sitting around a dinner table and quoting Shakespeare.

 

[Sonikku]

Looking back, this seems like the first time I can remember the Enterprise doesn't fire a single shot of anything for the whole movie.

 

[SP33Demon]

I'm going to skip this one until I can see it during a weekday matinee.

 

[Fritzo]

I'm going to skip this one until I can see it during a weekday matinee.

You do that.

 

[Skel]

I enjoyed the first part of the movie well enough. These reboots of the movies really do feel more like Star Wars movies than Star Trek. The focus on action from individuals rather than a crew on a ship. It works on some levels just not on others for me. I'm really glad the lens flares were more under control than the first one, that movie was painful to watch in parts.

Things I thought worked.

Spoiler

Kirk bending the Prime Directive. It was going to happen..
A terrorist provoking Kirk to say fuck the rules I should just go get him, even if he's in Klingon space.
I enjoyed McCoy's role for the most part. It did start to get a bit much, but all in all he did work.
Simon Pegg did a good job as Scotty too. I wasn't convinced on him at all in the first movie, but thought he did a good job in this one. I liked his role in the movie, including his sabotaging the Dreadnought.

Things I just didn't see the point but didn't cause me to not like it..

Spoiler

Spock and Uhura. I just don't get it, don't see the reason to have it in the movie. There was a reason why there really wasn't any relationship drama in Star Trek movies. They end up being pointless.
Kirk whining about Spock filing his report. He really should have known by that point what was going to happen. For him to be surprised was pretty stupid.
Cumberbatch playing the same Sherlock. I just couldn't help but seeing the same guy. I would have liked a bit more difference between the two
The Admiral putting the rest of Khan's people in torpedoes. I could handle the idea of Khan going off the reservation but didn't quite understand why the Admiral didn't attempt to defrost another one to find someone more agreeable to making uber weapons for Star Fleet. Just seemed a bit wasteful.
Scotty getting on board the Dreadnought. With a ship that important you'd figure the people opening the doors could count how many shuttles are coming in. It also sounded like they were still working on the ship, they needed welders still, then suddenly they're fully working with the intent of going to battle.

Things I really didn't like...

Spoiler

The strip mining of The Wraith of Khan. With an entire universe and a whole new audience they could have done anything. Instead it's a reheated version of an epic movie. Why the felt the need to use Khan in the first place rather than something new was a huge stretch but it was even worse they weren't done there.
Kirk now taking the dying turn. When Spock died it meant something as we had been watching him for decades. This Kirk didn't have that history nor did it really make sense in the movie other than just to take from The Wraith of Khan.
Kirk coming back to live via a blood transfusion. That had to be the worst sin. That was stupidity on a whole new level. Now Star Trek has cured Death. What's the point of anything now?

 

[kranky]

Saw the 2D version. First thought: when is this going to be over? My butt is getting numb. It was about a half-hour too long.

Spoiler

The Spock-villain fight at the end was too long.
There was zero drama to Kirk going in the chamber since everybody knows Kirk isn't going to die, even if he dies.
I like Star Trek although I'm not a diehard fan, but this didn't have a Star Trek feel IMHO. The characters were there, but the story didn't quite fit.

 

[dud]

I personally like what he's done with Star Trek but am not really watching them as anything other than a fun scifi action flick.

If you are watching just for a "fun" action flick that requires no thinking then you should be very pleased. In the case where you actually care about what you're watching then you're in trouble. After watching ST as a kid in the 60s and 70s and watching how Lucas nearly ruined SW with his last three "episodes" I wonder what it would take for the American public to NOT be satisfied and tell Hollywood to stop shoveling the crap.

I doubt that G. Roddenberry would have approved of this ST movie or the 2009 one as well. The whole thing is becoming unrecognizable to those who grew up with the franchise. It's just another sign of the dumbing-down of America. If we'll pay to watch this shit ...

 

[dud]

I had reservations going in, but it was pretty awesome. Sure, it has more action sequences in it, but that's the price these days. You don't want to bore a mainstream audience by sitting around a dinner table and quoting Shakespeare.

If true this is pathetically sad.

 

[Vic Vega]

I saw it. It sucked. It was terrible.

Don't waste your time, if you're a Trekkie or not.

 

[mnewsham]

The whole thing is becoming unrecognizable to those who grew up with the franchise.

They aren't trying to make it like the original, that has already been done. They don't want a remake so much as using the same universe but for a totally different fan base and style of writing.