Matt Gottshalk
Resident Preditor
Wife and i enjoyed it.
Star Trek: Into Darkness
- Thread starter David Jimerson
- Start date
Wesley Byram
Well-known member
Spoilers below:
Not being a fan of the 2009 "Star Trek," I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness better than I expected, if looked upon purely as a mindless action flick. The visuals were top-notch. Also, this movie addressed the suspention-of-disbelief-breaking promotion of Kirk from cadet to captain, albeit only breifly. It started to lose me a bit with all of the references to Wrath of Khan toward the end. I believe that there is an unwritten rule about not making references to better movies in your film, as the audience will want to start watching that better film. I laughted out loud when Spock yelled "Khaaaaaaan." It seems doubful that laughter was what J.J. was intending for that moment.
BTW, does anyone else find it odd that the North Indian Khan Noonian Singh is now a snow-white British guy? Granted, Richardo Montalban didn't look all that Indian either, but I can kind of forgive a low budget show from the '60s for that. Getting Khan's ethnicity so wrong just screams of "Did Not Do Their Homework."
Not being a fan of the 2009 "Star Trek," I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness better than I expected, if looked upon purely as a mindless action flick. The visuals were top-notch. Also, this movie addressed the suspention-of-disbelief-breaking promotion of Kirk from cadet to captain, albeit only breifly. It started to lose me a bit with all of the references to Wrath of Khan toward the end. I believe that there is an unwritten rule about not making references to better movies in your film, as the audience will want to start watching that better film. I laughted out loud when Spock yelled "Khaaaaaaan." It seems doubful that laughter was what J.J. was intending for that moment.
BTW, does anyone else find it odd that the North Indian Khan Noonian Singh is now a snow-white British guy? Granted, Richardo Montalban didn't look all that Indian either, but I can kind of forgive a low budget show from the '60s for that. Getting Khan's ethnicity so wrong just screams of "Did Not Do Their Homework."
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Loved it! Two thumbs up!
Great performances by the entire cast. Awesome look to the movie, really liked the actor's performance as Khan.
I was entertained from start to finish, and that's all I want in a movie. there weak points that did stretch my suspension of disbelief, but if you can do that and still make an entertaining movie, that's great.
Spoilers:
Ok, Scottie can just blend in with the other ships and waltz in to the death star ship? Really? You can build star ships, but you can't tell if an unauthorized ship just joins the pack?
Scottie can just disable an entire ship? There are no fail safes, warning systems, lock outs on a ship specifically designed for a small crew? No one can monitor his communication between the ships? The Guard is just going to stand there and have a conversation when you're in a battle with the Enterprise? Ok, but seems hard to believe.
Why do we need the Leonard Nimoy scene other than a tip of the hat to the old series? Seemed totally unnecessary.
Your superior intellect plan is to hide your buddies in photon torpedos? Do you like these people or not? And no one notices Khan slipping people into torpedos? Also, doesn't make much sense.
I really disliked the first one because the plot was so weak IMO. Everything was just blamed on "time travel" and I totally did not buy into it. But this one was what I expected. They established the characters, they established the reason for the "reboot" and went on to finally tell a decent story.
I didn't mind the re-imagining of The Wrath of Khan. I thought it was a fun roller coaster ride, and I think Abrams did indeed expect people to laugh when Spock yelled Khaaaaaaan! I thought it was funny.
Now that Kirk has his ship and has gotten his 5 year mission the next movie should be a standard Star Trek adventure, complete with an away team to the planet to investigate some strange happenings in space. I hope they are done saving the world, for now.
Great performances by the entire cast. Awesome look to the movie, really liked the actor's performance as Khan.
I was entertained from start to finish, and that's all I want in a movie. there weak points that did stretch my suspension of disbelief, but if you can do that and still make an entertaining movie, that's great.
Spoilers:
Ok, Scottie can just blend in with the other ships and waltz in to the death star ship? Really? You can build star ships, but you can't tell if an unauthorized ship just joins the pack?
Scottie can just disable an entire ship? There are no fail safes, warning systems, lock outs on a ship specifically designed for a small crew? No one can monitor his communication between the ships? The Guard is just going to stand there and have a conversation when you're in a battle with the Enterprise? Ok, but seems hard to believe.
Why do we need the Leonard Nimoy scene other than a tip of the hat to the old series? Seemed totally unnecessary.
Your superior intellect plan is to hide your buddies in photon torpedos? Do you like these people or not? And no one notices Khan slipping people into torpedos? Also, doesn't make much sense.
I really disliked the first one because the plot was so weak IMO. Everything was just blamed on "time travel" and I totally did not buy into it. But this one was what I expected. They established the characters, they established the reason for the "reboot" and went on to finally tell a decent story.
I didn't mind the re-imagining of The Wrath of Khan. I thought it was a fun roller coaster ride, and I think Abrams did indeed expect people to laugh when Spock yelled Khaaaaaaan! I thought it was funny.
Now that Kirk has his ship and has gotten his 5 year mission the next movie should be a standard Star Trek adventure, complete with an away team to the planet to investigate some strange happenings in space. I hope they are done saving the world, for now.
I liked it, even though I agree with many of the holes and quibbles put forth here, and continue to question whether it really feels like 'Star Trek' overall.
SPOILERS:
The characters make it work, and the chat with Nimoy that led them to repeat parts of the ending of the Wrath of Khan but in reversed roles actually made some kind of of weird sense to me, and was somewhat fulfilling. Only weird part is that Scotty tells Kirk he won't survive the climb...if I remember correctly that's why Spock had to go in the old one, because a human couldn't handle it in the first place, but oh well...and yeah, the blood instead of Genesis was a bit to clean of a conceit (did anyone not know it was coming with the amount of times they flashed it), but I guess Kirk can't die.
SPOILERS:
The characters make it work, and the chat with Nimoy that led them to repeat parts of the ending of the Wrath of Khan but in reversed roles actually made some kind of of weird sense to me, and was somewhat fulfilling. Only weird part is that Scotty tells Kirk he won't survive the climb...if I remember correctly that's why Spock had to go in the old one, because a human couldn't handle it in the first place, but oh well...and yeah, the blood instead of Genesis was a bit to clean of a conceit (did anyone not know it was coming with the amount of times they flashed it), but I guess Kirk can't die.
87% on the Tomato meter:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_into_darkness/
That's a huge hit by Rotten Tomato standards.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_into_darkness/
That's a huge hit by Rotten Tomato standards.
Wesley Byram
Well-known member
I think that I get your point,* but I disagree that the change to Khan is comparable to the examples cited. I was under the impression that nuTrek's timeline shares the same events with the old universe up to Nero's arrival, and branches off from there. Khan should therefore still be the same man that Montalban was playing in the Original Series and WOK, seeing as his origin took place long before Nero.
On another note, one thing that I liked seeing in the movie was the surprise twist where Kirk and Khan are forced to work together to combat the greater evil of Admiral Robocop. I think that it would have been more interesting to see that twist expanded through to the end of the film rather than have Khan revert back to a generic moustache-twirling villian so that they could have another action beat. It seemed like a lost opportunity to show a different side of the character, with the circumstances of his meeting the Enterprise crew having been so different from the events of Space Seed.
*That Will Smith holds considerable sway in Hollywood over casting decisions?
prexdealer
Well-known member
Forgot the part about red shirt deaths...Always the poor schmucks...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZs8llqFfcU there is a better one put to music I just can't find it.
Wesley Byram
Well-known member
I thought that the movie's plot was a fairly blatant allegory for America's War on Terror. The "darkness" alluded to in the title is referring to the loosening of Starfleet's principles of justice due to want of revenge and fear of further attack.
On an only distantly related note, did anyone else notice the shattered moon over Kronos?* Was that supposed to be Praxis? If the Klingons are going through a similar disaster as to the one in "Undiscovered Country," then it might explain why Admiral Robocop was so determined to start a war with them now rather than later: Kick'em while they're down.
*Science nitpick. That moon should have re-coalesced due to gravity unless the explosion that broke it up *just* happened, like within a few hours.
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
If it was referring to Spock's proclivities, and at least an interest on the part of Kirk... the first installment should have been so named...
I am a bit mystified as to the title... but that didn't stop me from liking the show... as for lack of philosophical depth... my need for late night coffee induced, tobacco smoke filled, discussions about 'philosophy' are long past... give me hot chicks and big explosions...
Not quite the same thing. According to the premise, these are supposed to be all the same people, just in a different timeline which was changed 25-30 years prior. It's not supposed to be a totally separate continuity. And Khan, being from the 20th century, would not have been affected by the timeline change at all. He's a Sikh.
Wesley Byram
Well-known member
Yes, Exactly. It's an inconsistency that undermines the premise of the rebooted universe. Further, it reinforces the impression (probably false impression, but still...) that Abrams and company's knowledge of Star Trek comes mostly from pop-culture references, Internet memes*, TWOK, and Galaxy Quest, rather than from the source material. (Edit: Didn't mean to imply that TWOK doesn't count as part of the source material.) It seems like they were unaware that Khan is a South Asain Sikh.
*Why else have Spock yell "KHAAAAAAAN" during what is ostensibly an emotional death scene other than to reference the pop-culture meme that TWOK started?
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Especially since Admiral Marcus shares far more of the blame than Khan, really.