Star Trek Into Darkness
As of writing this review, I have yet to have seen most of the previous Star Trek film or any of the older Star Trek movies and TV shows. So this is not from the point of view of a pissed off Trekkie wishing that this would have been an updated version of an older movie. With that said, let's dive into the darkness.
The film opens up with Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) being chased by the inhabitants of a planet. As he's being chased, Spock (Zachary Quinto) is attempting to stop the volcano on the planet from exploding. The ship that's holding him loses its grip on him, so he ends up stuck in the volcano. Once Kirk arrives back onto the Enterprise, he is informed about Spock's problem. Kirk manages to save Spock seconds from his death and they all head back home. The next day, Spock and Kirk are called in to Star Fleet Command where Kirk is demoted due to his actions of showing a spaceship to a pre-historic species and Spock is re-assigned to a different captain. At a meeting soon afterwards, we find out that a man is threatening to destroy Star Fleet. The meeting is interrupted by another attack from this man where several men are killed. So now it's up to Spock and Kirk to stop this man at all costs.
Straight off the bat, once we meet our main villain, Benedict Cumberbatch shows us just how amazing of an actor he is. No other actor could have even come close to pulling off this kind of villain. The movie is also full of action. From start to finish, it's almost nothing but action and suspense. Yeah, there's moments here or there that don't keep up the pace, but they're pretty short. The movie also gives a lot of fan service to fans of the previous films that most likely won't watch it, except to point out how it's not what they wanted, just like every fanbase with a remake or reboot. The little back and fourth between Kirk and Spock is also pretty interesting.
Alright, this movie does have a few medium sized issues. Let's start with the beginning of the movie. Like I said, it opens up with this pre-historic planet seeing a spaceship for the first time. So maybe this will play a huge part in the movie right? No? Well does it at least get like a sub-plot or something? No? Well then why was there so much going on here? The only thing that moment is in the movie is to have a reason to get Kirk to lose his power as captain, which he gets back in around 10 minutes after losing them. Yeah, the moment is mentioned every now and again, but they showed so much, like the inhabitants drawing the actual ship, that I thought they would go somewhere with it. Then there's the Klingon war aspect. See, the main villain ends up hiding out on the home planet of the Klingons, but if anyone from Star Fleet goes there, it will start a war. Yet no war with the Klingons is started here. Hopefully, if there's a third movie, it will have something to do with the war. My final complaint with the movie is Alice Eve's character, Carol. She serves no purpose at all other than to be argued over and treated like some toy between two fighting toddlers.
So should you see Star Trek Into Darkness? If you're not a Trekkie, then yes. This movie is amazing and will prove that fanbases will complain about any slight difference to something they already know. NEWSFLASH!!! IT'S A REBOOT!!! Reboots are a completely different vision than the ones you grew up with. So of course it's going to play by different rules and the characters will be different.
The film opens up with Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) being chased by the inhabitants of a planet. As he's being chased, Spock (Zachary Quinto) is attempting to stop the volcano on the planet from exploding. The ship that's holding him loses its grip on him, so he ends up stuck in the volcano. Once Kirk arrives back onto the Enterprise, he is informed about Spock's problem. Kirk manages to save Spock seconds from his death and they all head back home. The next day, Spock and Kirk are called in to Star Fleet Command where Kirk is demoted due to his actions of showing a spaceship to a pre-historic species and Spock is re-assigned to a different captain. At a meeting soon afterwards, we find out that a man is threatening to destroy Star Fleet. The meeting is interrupted by another attack from this man where several men are killed. So now it's up to Spock and Kirk to stop this man at all costs.
Straight off the bat, once we meet our main villain, Benedict Cumberbatch shows us just how amazing of an actor he is. No other actor could have even come close to pulling off this kind of villain. The movie is also full of action. From start to finish, it's almost nothing but action and suspense. Yeah, there's moments here or there that don't keep up the pace, but they're pretty short. The movie also gives a lot of fan service to fans of the previous films that most likely won't watch it, except to point out how it's not what they wanted, just like every fanbase with a remake or reboot. The little back and fourth between Kirk and Spock is also pretty interesting.
Alright, this movie does have a few medium sized issues. Let's start with the beginning of the movie. Like I said, it opens up with this pre-historic planet seeing a spaceship for the first time. So maybe this will play a huge part in the movie right? No? Well does it at least get like a sub-plot or something? No? Well then why was there so much going on here? The only thing that moment is in the movie is to have a reason to get Kirk to lose his power as captain, which he gets back in around 10 minutes after losing them. Yeah, the moment is mentioned every now and again, but they showed so much, like the inhabitants drawing the actual ship, that I thought they would go somewhere with it. Then there's the Klingon war aspect. See, the main villain ends up hiding out on the home planet of the Klingons, but if anyone from Star Fleet goes there, it will start a war. Yet no war with the Klingons is started here. Hopefully, if there's a third movie, it will have something to do with the war. My final complaint with the movie is Alice Eve's character, Carol. She serves no purpose at all other than to be argued over and treated like some toy between two fighting toddlers.
So should you see Star Trek Into Darkness? If you're not a Trekkie, then yes. This movie is amazing and will prove that fanbases will complain about any slight difference to something they already know. NEWSFLASH!!! IT'S A REBOOT!!! Reboots are a completely different vision than the ones you grew up with. So of course it's going to play by different rules and the characters will be different.