Star Trek: Into Darkness

J.J. Abrams-Hey guys. Hey. Hey Audience. I got a secret. There's a secret dude in into darkness, but I'm not gonna tell you who, cause it's a secret. Even though there is only one character in all of original star trek it could be and hiding his identity only serves to make it really obvious who it it as its the only one reason you would hide him. Because it's a secret, and you audiences love secrets.

No not a fan of Abrams. I find his secret box concept annoying and trite. If you don't know what that is google it. So how was the movie?

Don't blame me, the poster spoils it.

So Star Trek. Oh what a tangled web we weave. It is one of if not the largest sci fi franchise of all time sprawling over decades with a very... VERY loyal fanbase. Than the dark seed Abrams got his hands on it and decided to make a reboot/alt universe and it was a hit. This is it's sequel. 

So yet again we hit a snag in terms of reviewing. The meat of this movie, and the most glaring flaws of it come from it's spoilers. I will give a non spoiler review and preface the spoilers with warnings, but in this case they have to be discussed to do the film any justice. So if you're averse to spoilers, watch for the warnings.

Who could it be? Said no one ever.

These are the voyages of the starship into darkness. A terrorist has attacked a starfleet archive for unknown reasons and a meeting of the top brass is commenced. However when that too is attacked, Captain Kirk and his loyal crew are sent after the mad terrorist. When it becomes clear that there is a larger game afoot, Kirk will have to learn that not everyone can be saved, and that the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.

3D was pretty good btw

So as for the directing, it's actually fairly decent. I may have a grudge against the JJ but i can admit when a scene is shot well. That being said, if i was to make a gripe about the direction it would be that we get way to intimate with the characters faces far too often. Yes close ups are nice and can be used effectively but not all the damn time. The score is brilliant as par for the course for a Star Trek movie. The effects are great and are really able to be showcased in several spectacular ship based set pieces. The acting from everyone is superb with special shoutout to Benedict who owns every scene he's in. Chris Pine is sometimes a little lacking but it's not bothersome.

So, non spoiler review. It's enjoyable. As an action movie, it fills the time. The action and acting are good enough to make it worthwhile. The biggest problem with this movie is plot. There are a dozen plot threads going throughout the run time and almost all of them are ignored or abandoned by the ending. If pacing is something that bothers you, then the last act of the movie will not be fun for you as it rushes through to the end. While this is not a good movie, it has several admirable qualities that make it worth your time. No, the real problems come at the end, so here there be spoilers. SPOILERS. I'm even giving you a picture in between to give you one last chance. SPOILERS

Spoilers I say!

Spoilers. So everyone who got to here knows spoilers right? We good? Ok. It's Khan. It's Wrath of Khan. Sherlock is playing Khan. Worst kept secret in the biz but there you go. The most major flaw of this movie comes from this fact as there was in fact, no reason for it to be Khan. In this not original star trek universe, we know nothing about him, his crew, or the Eugenics war. Therefore, we are given no ties or connection to his character or motives. There's no impact from his identity, he just announces "he is Khan" and then we move on. We are not given a reason to care and he is here solely to satiate Abrams fanboyism as newcomers won't get it and long time fans will be annoyed. Coupled with the fact that his motivations make no sense when coupled with his actions and the plot between him and the Admiral. Here is a point by point plothole list of this movie.

If Khan needed the Admiral to further his plans then why did he launch an attack on a starfleet command meeting that could have ended with the admiral dead.

If the Admiral didn't want Kirk to find out what the missiles were then why did he send him after Khan when clearly he could have gone himself.

Why is such a big deal made about the hostilities with the Klingons if nothing ever came from it? They kill a patrol of Klingons and then never mention it again. What was that subplots point?

If the Admiral's plan was to start a war between the Alliance and the Klingon Empire than again, why didn't he go himself.

Why did Khan direct Kirk onto the ship when his HUD went offline when at this point Khan clearly doesn't need him anymore.

Why didn't Khan do what he threatened immediately and destroy the enterprise and collect the cryo pods later rather than negotiate?

How did Bones undo 72 missiles in what was clearly less than an hour?

Who and how disabled the Enterprises warp core?

So Khan who has been frozen for 300 years can give the admiral a starship design that is significantly more advance than anything we have now? Why didn't he and his crew do that before they were frozen.

This isn't a plothole but just to reiterate, the Klingon plotline, the Admiral plotline go absolutely nowhere.

Now at this point,  I was still enjoying the movie. Then the last twenty minutes rolled by and we have some major issues. Up to this point they did their own thing and despite the issues, it worked. Then they decide to go somewhere and invite comparisons that they really should not have dealt with. The movie redoes the radioactive core scene from Wrath of Khan beet for beet only with the roles reversed. This was not earned by the movie and only serves as fanservice. It has no place in this film and is rendered doubly pointless when not five minutes later, it is clumsily resolved with no repercussions. Everyone get's away Scott free and nothing is learned. Again, you don't want to invite comparisons from Wrath of Khan. You will lose. It's like redoing the "here's looking at you kid" scene from Casablanca. Yeah you may do it well and the actors might to a good job but your still just copying what has already been done.

Though I disagree with the use of his character, his performance saves this movie

I fear for Star Wars VII now more than I ever have before now. Abrams is not the right choice as this movie is evidence to. You should not be given reign over a franchise if you are infatuated with it. That only leads to trying to do what has already been done rather than taking a new angle on the series. There are several good elements of this movie and I repeat that it is worth watching, but there are too many issues pervading the film to be called good.

Check it out if you're in this for the action

Rent if your a long time Trek fan

Skip if you hate movies with more holes in it than the enterprise does.

Notes:

The Klingon redesign is awful and makes them look like orcs. 

The crash of the enterprise was awesome.

I'm getting tired of the 'villain let's himself get captured' plotpoint.

The core scene reversal is unnecessary.

Thinking back, the plot was useless. Nothing advanced in a logical way and little was resolved.