What did you like/dislike about Into Darkness (Spoilers)

The whole thing was flat out fun. Cumberbatch was a raging Khan without chewing the scenery. Quinto's Spock was spot on again. Seldana's Uhura was so cool and badass, Pegg's Scotty, Yetlsin's Chekhov, were also good. Urban's McCoy is like watching a young DeForest Kelley, Alice Eve's Carol Marcus was super smart and smokin hot; and Pine once again captured Jim Kirk without doing a Shatner impression. But most of all it was a great summer popcorn movie. For as much as I love the superhero flicks, Star Trek Into Darkness is the best summer flick so far.

 

I agree - the warp effects don't feel right. It feels like exhaust from a car instead of an actual spaceship...What kind of particles are those being emitted from those style warp nacelles?

I was also really really hoping Admiral Marcus would say, "dead or alive, you're coming with me." in homage of his character in Robocop.

And Khan/Harrison could've been more physically intimidating. Ricardo Montalban was more physically there, and he was an intellectual, whereas Harrison was just more of a murderer who used people.

 

>Blue Bussard cells.

-Agree with the other poster that color doesn't really matter.


>The warp effects being so different from the first movie's badass effects.

-Again, agree that it was refitted. I found it cool, actually.


>Enterprise working in-atmosphere.

-Well, considering the Enterprise was built ON Earth, I think it would be a HUUUUGE oversight for it to not be able to work within it's atmosphere.


>Making the USS Vengeance BLACK 'N SCARY.

-Why wouldn't they? It's a warship, not an apple store. Plus side: Less lensflare.


>Khan not being played by someone who looked like Fabio.

-Alright, major qualm here. If Khan had been played by anyone else, the role would have been cheesy and overdone. Cumberbatch had the subtlety to play it menacingly AND sympathetically. IMO, he was the best part of the movie. Plus he's the type of actor that his personality and acting ability make him attractive. Just ask the swarms of female fans of Sherlock if he's sexy or not.


>Not even batting an eye at the hundreds (thousands maybe) that died when the USS Vengeance crashed into Starfleet Academy and fucking leveled half of San Fransisco.

-I'm sure they cared, but ATM, they were trying to find Khan. Plus they were still just happy that it wasn't them that crashed.


>The first scene having no explanation.

-Why does it need one? It was there to set up the movie, we don't have to know the backstory. It reminds me of an episode of the BBC Sherlock where he just suddenly walks holding a harpoon and covered in blood, mad that he had to take the tube because no cab would take him. We don't need to know WHAT he was doing, it's just a great setup.


>The first scene's plan being fucking terribly thought out and executed (Bungee jump into a volcano and see what happens, Spock.)

-Again, we don't know what the thought process was getting there, so I'm prepared to take it on face value.


>The gunship not blasting Pike into bits when it hits him with its disruptor cannon. Shit, they made that thing sound and feel so beefy, I'd expect it to fucking gib him.

-Didn't seem "That Beefy" to me- he just needed something that could shoot a lot. Personally, I think it would have been laughable had it blown up people.


>When the Admiral's head gets mushed, his daughter is all smiles the next day. Sure he was a dick, but I'd be pretty fucking traumatized after that.

-Not the next day, a year later at a dedication ceremony.


>Some other little things that also don't really matter, because I nitpick everything.

-That's fine, there are little nitpicks. It's just whether they bother you enough to hate the movie.

 

Well acted...well directed...well paced. Awful, lazy, pandering, hole-filled script writing.

5 out of 10

 

did you think it was better written, worse written, or about the same as Star Trek XI?

 

Good question. At first, I thought it had potential. The Khan reveal was disappointing (and expected). And there was a point where I thought they may actually make him a sympathetic character...but he quickly became just another two-dimensional villain. So, I guess I would say the writing was about as weak as the previous film. That being said, I found this story far more insulting to the intelligence of even the average Trek fan.

 

Guess I must not even be an average Trek fan. My wife will be relieved.

 

I wasn't crazy that they brought back Pike just to kill him.

I felt Spock's Wrath of Khan line was forced.

Other than that:

Pretty much this. It was a fun ride from beginning to end.

Make more now.

 

I saw it on Saturday.

My likes:

The main cast. Such a likeable and enjoyable group of talented actors.

The production values and special effects. Just really top-notch, with quirky touches between the futuristic and the mundane.

The writing when it comes to interplay between the characters. The script has several nice touches where it reminds us that we're seeing people who are really pretty young, maybe not as mature as they should be, and who obviously socialize outside of work. Kirk's question to Uhura ("Wait a minute, are you two fighting? . .. What is that even LIKE?") was a fine example of this. I can see many viewers not caring for this aspect, or perhaps just not liking where the writers decided to put these moments in the story, but they didn't bother me.

The direction. Abrams keeps the whole story zipping right along, artfully concealing the flaws of the screenplay for many first time viewers and critics.

Dislike:

About that screenplay . . . well, Star Trek can no doubt be hard to write when you have established technology that can do truly wondrous things. So the writers are automatically laboring under a significant handicap in terms of generating dramatic tension, and I'm willing to give them a pass on certain things, like the transporter not being able to beam up Spock at certain points, etc.

The larger problems with the story that I disliked basically involve the Reset Button (Khan back in storage), everything looking shiny and new, and apparently no war with the Klingons even after the lapse of a year's time. There was really no need to bring Khan into the storyline at all, but since they did I think they could have been ballsier in handling him. For instance, instead of resorting to an old-fashioned fistfight between Spock and Khan, have the Klingons show up in Earth space, as if they're about to start the war Admiral Marcus wanted, but instead simply whisk Khan away. Maybe they were so stunned by his fighting ability that they want him for themselves. Heck, the third movie could open with Khan having become the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. Basically, almost any use of Khan would have been better with what they came up with, so I have to put that down as the main dislike I have for the movie.

 

Did we learn nothing from Shinzon?

 

Well, hopefully it would go over a bit better than Shinzon! :-)

 

They really just need to pull out all the stops and do a kick-ass Kirk vs. the Borg flick.

 

I loved the movie, it just wasn't perfect. Nothing is.

Also, >Blue bussard cells doesn't matter

Muh OCD. Shit just doesn't look right.

 

That was the original spelling used in Star Trek 6, when the name was introduced, yes?

 

Romanization is commonly used with many languages and is nothing to get upset about. 99.99% of the audience watching will not know how to speak or read Klingon. Just like if I wrote 東京 instead of "Tokyo", the majority of English speakers will not be able to read the kanji. And there is also no standard for romanization, as long as the person reading it can understand what is being written. I could spell "Tokyo" as Toukyou or Tookyoo and all are valid romanizations (Toukyou being the actual translation of the letters と　う　きょ　う), but as long as you recognized that the word in question is the capital city of Japan, it doesn't matter. And yes, I used to translate Japanese into English, so I'm used to this

 

Thanks you for asking. It was OK.

I'd have rather had the first movie, the one with aliens on a red planet that maybe would've presented me with a sci-fi what-if scenario.

We got two half-movies: 1) the self-justified terrorist. Really could've done more with that; would've taken more dialog: like a Spock-McCoy argument, Kirk must make tough decision. 2) the self-justified renegade admiral a la Cartwright in VI or the dude in Insurrection. Again, a good plot with room for gray and moral dilemmas. Especially tied into what governments feel they must do today to combat terrorism.

Anyhow, we got both of those, but only half each. Plus the undressed cipher that is Carol Marcus. And Cumberpatch was fine but, like Bana, not what one would call "great." Neither part was juicy enough imho.

The do-over of the Khan-plot seems lazy to me. There's a galaxy out there full of weird, cool adventures and choices.

Emotionally nowhere near TWOK, but I've already written about that somewhere. Gratuitous Nimoy scene: we've been there, done that.

It was a decent action flick; had funny parts. Effects were great!

My two cents.

 

The soundtrack.

I just don't think Michael Giacchino is a good composer at all. His music to both movies just lacks the emotional depth needed. I also have to say, I really hate his main theme. I was really hoping for more of the TOS theme to appear, but it's hardly anywhere.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FK5fTEROcI[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KbTMM7uzHE&feature=youtu.be[/yt]

I found this on YouTube where someone inserted a bit of the score from Star Trek VI. I think it works so much better.

 

Giacchino is the best Trek film composer not named Goldsmith.

Horner: recycled his own stuff.
Rosenman and Eidelman: recycled others' stuff.
McCarthy: ZZzzzzzzzz....

 

Have to disagree. Horner is probably my second favorite in the Star Trek music family. Sure, he may have reused music, but he re-used the themes across both movies. Plus, I think Horner and Goldsmith's music is really part of the movie. In the 2009 film and now this one, there's never really time to appreciate the music because the scenes move so quickly. You would NEVER be able to do a "Stealing the Enterprise," today.

Goldsmith and Horner's music drove so many scenes. I see no sign of this Giacchino's. The closest would be the Enterprise's reveal in the first movie.

 

Enterprise: 725m
Vengeance: 1450m
Galactica: 4.25km (4250m)