Star Trek: Into Darkness
Just saw the new Star Trek movie, and I got to say, not impressed.
I was disappointed from the moment I heard that the plot line of the next movie would have Khan in it. While I really enjoyed the first reboot movie--the way it was set up allowed for different interpretations of the characters and new story lines, which I was excited about--the second one was pretty much "blah" for me. The Khan story line has been done before, and it was done better. In my opinion, they never were going to be able to top TWOK, so they shouldn't have even tried. It's a reboot. It's an opportunity to come up with a new villain and a new story--something we fans of TOS haven't gotten for a while--and instead they decide to (badly) rehash old plot lines.
Well, color me bored.
I wasn't sold on Khan. Even though old Spock referred to Khan as his most dangerous adversary, there was a reason for that hatred and violence in TWOK--living on a barren planet! His people dying! Years and years of hatred building up for Kirk specifically!--and there wasn't a reason for it in this movie. It seemed more like the creators of the movie just said, "Let's just use Khan! Everyone knows he was Kirk's big enemy! It'll be great for a lot of action in the movie!" and then didn't put anymore thought into it.
Even the "death" scene was a poor mimic of the one from TWOK. Just as I expected from this movie they pretty much redid the scene (but opposite of course), and tried to make it "better" or more "exciting" by having it take FOREVER for Kirk to realign and fix the warp core. Sorry, but I was far more moved and convinced the by the struggle Spock had in that tiny little room in TWOK than in the elaborate set up in Into Darkness. In my opinion TWOK's version was far more dramatic and devastating, and by the time I got to Kirk's death scene in this movie, I didn't believe in it, and I didn't really care. Sorry.
I'm going to skip over the too many actions scenes--since filling up three hours worth of overly long action scene after overly long action scene seems to be the style of movies these days--and talk about how once again, the female characters were reduced to nothing more than romantic support for the male leads and eye candy. This is something that very much upset me in the first movie, and I was hoping, since they already established Uhura's attachment to Spock and put to rest the rivalry over her, that we'd actually get to see her with storylines separate from her attraction/annoyance to or with the boys.
No such luck.
The first scene we see her in is about Spock, all her character's emotional turmoil is about her relationship with Spock. Not to say that she wouldn't be having some emotional turmoil regarding him, I mean I'm sure dating a Vulcan isn't the easiest thing in the world, but give her something else as well, would you? The boys got their own internal struggles--Kirk's grief over Pike's death, Spock's fear of his own emotions--why doesn't she? Instead, once again Uhura was changed from a character who had an important role in both the starship crew and the storyline, to just being the "romantic interest."
Hello, that is a step back.
I did enjoy Benedict Cumberbatch in the movie. Though I wasn't sold on this version of Khan, I attribute that more to the writing than his acting. I enjoyed most of his scenes well enough, even if this version of Khan was missing the high brow intellectual superiority that the previous Khan displayed, and focused more on his "savagery," as this movie claimed. And I am glad that my boyfriend, who has never seen any of the tv show or the older movies decided that Spock and Kirk were the "true love story" of the movie. So I'm glad the focus on their friendship was enough for a complete Star Trek newbie to get a glimpse of their epic friendship.
But over all, I was disappointed with the movie, and it just makes me want to go back and rewatch all the original stuff, just so I can comfort myself with the real thing.
I was disappointed from the moment I heard that the plot line of the next movie would have Khan in it. While I really enjoyed the first reboot movie--the way it was set up allowed for different interpretations of the characters and new story lines, which I was excited about--the second one was pretty much "blah" for me. The Khan story line has been done before, and it was done better. In my opinion, they never were going to be able to top TWOK, so they shouldn't have even tried. It's a reboot. It's an opportunity to come up with a new villain and a new story--something we fans of TOS haven't gotten for a while--and instead they decide to (badly) rehash old plot lines.
Well, color me bored.
I wasn't sold on Khan. Even though old Spock referred to Khan as his most dangerous adversary, there was a reason for that hatred and violence in TWOK--living on a barren planet! His people dying! Years and years of hatred building up for Kirk specifically!--and there wasn't a reason for it in this movie. It seemed more like the creators of the movie just said, "Let's just use Khan! Everyone knows he was Kirk's big enemy! It'll be great for a lot of action in the movie!" and then didn't put anymore thought into it.
Even the "death" scene was a poor mimic of the one from TWOK. Just as I expected from this movie they pretty much redid the scene (but opposite of course), and tried to make it "better" or more "exciting" by having it take FOREVER for Kirk to realign and fix the warp core. Sorry, but I was far more moved and convinced the by the struggle Spock had in that tiny little room in TWOK than in the elaborate set up in Into Darkness. In my opinion TWOK's version was far more dramatic and devastating, and by the time I got to Kirk's death scene in this movie, I didn't believe in it, and I didn't really care. Sorry.
I'm going to skip over the too many actions scenes--since filling up three hours worth of overly long action scene after overly long action scene seems to be the style of movies these days--and talk about how once again, the female characters were reduced to nothing more than romantic support for the male leads and eye candy. This is something that very much upset me in the first movie, and I was hoping, since they already established Uhura's attachment to Spock and put to rest the rivalry over her, that we'd actually get to see her with storylines separate from her attraction/annoyance to or with the boys.
No such luck.
The first scene we see her in is about Spock, all her character's emotional turmoil is about her relationship with Spock. Not to say that she wouldn't be having some emotional turmoil regarding him, I mean I'm sure dating a Vulcan isn't the easiest thing in the world, but give her something else as well, would you? The boys got their own internal struggles--Kirk's grief over Pike's death, Spock's fear of his own emotions--why doesn't she? Instead, once again Uhura was changed from a character who had an important role in both the starship crew and the storyline, to just being the "romantic interest."
Hello, that is a step back.
I did enjoy Benedict Cumberbatch in the movie. Though I wasn't sold on this version of Khan, I attribute that more to the writing than his acting. I enjoyed most of his scenes well enough, even if this version of Khan was missing the high brow intellectual superiority that the previous Khan displayed, and focused more on his "savagery," as this movie claimed. And I am glad that my boyfriend, who has never seen any of the tv show or the older movies decided that Spock and Kirk were the "true love story" of the movie. So I'm glad the focus on their friendship was enough for a complete Star Trek newbie to get a glimpse of their epic friendship.
But over all, I was disappointed with the movie, and it just makes me want to go back and rewatch all the original stuff, just so I can comfort myself with the real thing.