STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS - Grading & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies: Kelvin Universe' started by Agent Richard07, Apr 18, 2013.

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Grade the movie...

  1. A+

    18.8%
  2. A

    20.6%
  3. A-

    13.2%
  4. B+

    11.1%
  5. B

    7.9%
  6. B-

    4.1%
  7. C+

    5.7%
  8. C

    5.0%
  9. C-

    3.5%
  10. D+

    1.5%
  11. D

    1.6%
  12. D-

    1.3%
  13. F

    5.7%
  1. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Orci & Kurtzman are fans. Any "fan service" is because they are adding things that they'd like to see in a ST movie. If other fans are happy, that's a bonus.

    Huh? Carol had no conflict with her father until she got curious about all information on the torpedoes vanishing from Federation databases. She states this in the movie. From there, we see her squirm as she learns more and more about the admiral. When we do.

    No. But it they kept him as an all-new villain, people would now be ranting about a "lost opportunity" to revisit Khan.

    It did, for all the people I've seen the movie with.

    I've just seen the movie for a fourth time. This movie has plenty of suspense!

    So???

    You wanted Kirk to stay dead?

    Ask Nichelle Nichols.

    Made sense to me.

    Some plot threads are fun to be left dangling.

    The 2D DVD will be out by Christmas.

    Like this one? And a few homages and callbacks to a 31-year old movie do not make a crime.

    Yeah, we want to hear the heavy-handed messages about tolerance, meetings around long tables about interstellar diplomacy and the rescue of the Andorian ambassador from the surface of Sylax IV. Until we wish everyone was dead.

    http://www.theonion.com/video/trekkies-bash-new-star-trek-film-as-fun-watchable,14333/

    They did!
     
  2. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It's funny that the two most unoriginal outings are the most succesful. It's all about execution and promotion, the content is secondary. They never had to resort to blatant rehashing of previous plot points, lines of dialogue or even entire scenes back in the TNG, DS9 VOY days. But they shot themselves in the foot by cutting budget and promotion and hiring editors for directors.
     
  3. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Huh?

    There were many, many complaints that TMP rehashed "The Changeling", that too many episodes of TNG were "rehashes" of episodes of TOS, and that VOY stole from itself over and over.
     
  4. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    You're talking about First Contact and The Voyage Home, right ?
     
  5. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I guess not.
     
  6. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    You forgot Shade of Gray.
     
  7. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I limited myself to one example per show in question. ;)
     
  8. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    Saw the movie yesterday, and good lord, I spent an obscene amount of time trying to catch up with the thread afterwards, and even though I skipped about 100+ pages that were mostly pre-release speculation, I still didn't manage to read everything...so forgive me if I touch upon something that somebody else has already said.

    I'm somebody who was on the fence about the previous film (I refuse to continue a numbering system that was only actually used for the original TOS films, which ended 22 years ago). For every nifty touch that I genuinely enjoyed, there was something absolutely brain-dead that had nothing to do with violating Trek canon. And I refuse to take any connections to said canon very seriously, even though they perpetuate the concept in this film. This is a reimagining paying lip service to its predecessor. (But those who do insist on trying to rationalize how B literally diverged from A might want to take into consideration how often the prior version of this crew traveled back in time. If their adventures have been replaced with a new reality, this could potentially have had much further-reaching effects on the timeline....)

    Anyroad, I found this installment to be much more solidly crafted and generally enjoyable. The new versions of these characters are fun and I mostly found them well-utilized and entertaining. Loved all the little easter egg nods. The villain featured in the trailers was exactly who I figured he'd be...and any doubts that I might have had evaporated in the scene where Kirk beats himself up trying to pound on "Harrison". Who else could it have been? But they used him in a different way that kept me guessing. You-know-who's cameo was kind of corny and unnecessary to the plot, but nonetheless an unexpected treat as I'd been completely unspoiled going in.

    I had a feeling early on that they'd recreate Spock's sacrifice in some way, and hoped they wouldn't be so unoriginal as to literally redo it with Quinto's Spock. What they did was...clever...entertaining...but I'm not sure it elicited from me the reaction that the filmmakers intended. I saw the blood cure coming as soon as Kirk headed for the reaction chamber...it had been set up so obviously earlier in the film, and was just dangling there conspicuously, waiting to come into play. So far from taking Kirk's sacrifice seriously, I repressed myself from giggling out loud, lest I might disturb other movie-goers who were taking it at face value as a solemn moment.... As for Quinto's yell...it was another shoe that had been waiting to drop for most of the film...at least they used it in a clever and dramatically appropriate way. (I have no problem with this version of Spock being a bit less restrained than Nimoy's in extreme circumstances...that much was set up in the previous film, so it's consistent for this version.) And then they topped it off with a Spock/Khan match-up...something that should have been done in TOS.

    Did anyone else have a feeling of deja vu when super-healing blood was used as a plot device in a series that co-stars Zachary Quinto? I know the show fell out of favor, but am I really the first person to think of giving a shout-out to Claire...?

    My prediction for the next film: time travel. I'm picturing a greatest hits mash-up of "City on the Edge of Forever" and The Voyage Home. Could they actually dust off that old "Spock kills Kennedy" idea? Fandom would explode--Try protesting that it's not Trek when it's Roddenberry's idea....
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2013
  9. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Nitpick: that's "déjà vu".

    I hope not. I hate time travel, and we've had it in the last movie again. At least last time it was kinda clever.
     
  10. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yes, because we wouldn't want *50* "Shades of Grey". ;)
     
  11. The Doctor

    The Doctor Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This is a massive thread with hundreds if not thousands of posts, so I won't go into a full 'review' here. I will say that this movie, of all the previous Trek outings, was the most human. There were a lot of tears in this movie, our crew actually felt things on screen in ways that we've never really seen before. The gut punch of Kirk losing his command and the tears of gratitude when Pike moved heaven and earth to put Kirk back on a starship. Uhura listening as Spock tells her why he seems so reckless and uncaring. 'Harrison' recounting his reaction to the fate of his crew.

    Whatever its shortcomings, this movie absolutely nailed the people who live and work on the Enterprise and their relationships with each other.
     
  12. Claudia

    Claudia Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Sorry, but to me there was some kind of byplay that this father/daughter-conflict didn't just come up with the torpedos.

    Maybe people - but not me.

    If you had bothered to read instead of commenting phrase by phrase you'd know that I'd have preferred that the death scene had been with Pike - and yes, that Pike had (irrevocably) died in that scene.

    You can't really tell me that you felt touched by Kirk's death - especially knowing that he wouldn't stay dead, can you? The hint with the Tribble early on in the movie was quite heavy-handed, after all...

    People criticize Spock's death in TWOK because it got rendered meaningless with his return - talk about meaningless sacrifice here with Kirk.

    I wouldn't mind Uhura - if her role would have contained more than talking about emotions in inappropriate situations (and beaming down to Earth herself even though that's a security officer's job IMO).

    Thank God.

    Sorry, but where was the original material in STID? Khan? Not really. Section 31? Equally not likely.

    No idea who you're referring to by "we" - but *I* want to see something like that because if I want action and space fights and exceptionally meaningless dialogue I'd rather see Star Wars.

    Who did grow in this movie? Kirk's the only one who got a hint of character development, but everyone else?
     
  13. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Spock's death in TWOK was meant to be a price that Kirk had to pay in order to A) survive Khan and B) understand that he can't always cheat death.

    In Into Darkness, it was a way by which Kirk would grow to understand the responsibilities of being captain. The two scenes don't have the same impact, but in both cases, Kirk has to survive in order for them to work.

    Three thousand seven hundred and seventy-six at this time. </data>
     
  14. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    Typo fixed but for the accents, which I'm not bothering with.

    I'm talking this crew traveling back to the 20th/21st century...story-wise, a different animal from how time travel was used in the '09 film.
     
  15. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Still, they've done that twice before. And I still hate time travel. ;)
     
  16. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    ^Keep in mind that it's more a prediction than a preference on my part. I'm just trying to get into these guys' heads and think of what they'd want to do next....

    On an unrelated note, I've seen a lot of people say that security guards should have been beamed down in the climax instead of Uhura....Dramatically speaking, it could only have been Uhura...she was the only one who could talk Spock down from his rage, and it's a pretty common conceit in these types of series that you never use a nameless extra to do a job that one of your established characters can do. I have zero issues with how they've used the new Uhura in this series so far.

    All of the regulars were pretty well-used in this film except maybe Chekov. Urban's McCoy is highly entertaining, but I don't know if we'll ever quite get the classic Kirk/Spock/McCoy triangle in this series, as Kirk and Spock have more of a comedic love/hate relationship in this version.
     
  17. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Which makes sense narratively, but clashes with reality, where the exact opposite is the norm. :)
     
  18. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Chekov went from yellow uniform to red uniform! That's gotta count!
     
  19. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    So he got the same amount of growth as he got in two seasons and six movies in TOS. :lol:
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2013
  20. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Isn't that a downgrade ? :rommie: