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STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS - Grading & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Grade the movie...


  • Total voters
    796
Is it just because I have short-term memory problems, or did Khan not actually say, in the films, "I will have my vengeance" and "your commanders have committed a crime I cannot forgive"?
 
There's a lot of the voice over in the trailers that doesn't appear in the movie. Either they trimmed a scene or two, or the dialogue was written for the trailer.

Certainly Pike's dialogue in the trailers isn't lifted from his scenes - the gist is the same, but different wording and attitude.
 
There's a lot of the voice over in the trailers that doesn't appear in the movie. Either they trimmed a scene or two, or the dialogue was written for the trailer.

Certainly Pike's dialogue in the trailers isn't lifted from his scenes - the gist is the same, but different wording and attitude.

Which was a whole lot better (that was one of my favourite scenes). I guess the rest will be extras on the deluxe 3-D/2-D Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy release in November.
 
As an all-action, sci-fi adventure movie, it was a success.

As a genuinely well-written and fresh and vibrant piece of Star Trek, it failed.
 
Found an article by Jason Bailey. http://flavorwire.com/391410/guess-what-hollywoods-bridesmaids-revolution-never-happened

It's interesting to see some actual resaerch confirms what I've been grumbling about in Trek. Here's what it says about STID:

"Star Trek Into Darkness has two women as well: Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, who is tough and smart, although most of her screen time is devoted to the particulars of her romantic relationship with Spock, and the new character of Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve), a brilliant scientist who nonetheless gets an underwear scene that plays like the dictionary definition of “gratuitous.”"

Actually, he forgot the mom, two hookers, and some nurses, although all their dialogue added together was less than Keenser's, plus Aisha Hind's bald navigator.

Still, he goes on to say:

"And the other excuse that you’ll often hear is the old “hey, we’re just giving people what they want” standby — that the reason we see so many movies aimed squarely at teenage boys and thus unconcerned with girls (EW GROSS COOTIES) is that they’re the audience that’s going to the movies, so Hollywood is merely making the comic book flicks and gross-out comedies that they demand. Trouble is, that notion is bulls***. Earlier this year, the MPAA released their annual statistical rundown of who goes to the movies — and guess what, women go. More than men."

So PLEASE guys, you probably have one more shot to do this right plus the ongoing comic series and maybe an animated series and maybe a live Trek series... Please stop sidelining female characters.

Let's see the re-imaging of the Chapel/Korby story in the ongoing comic, lets see Janice Rand hand evil Kirk his a** on a plate and next time they need a psychiatrist, lets see Helen Noel, the next time they need an astrobiologist, let's see Ann Mulhall, and let's see Ilia and Chief Difalco put some time in at the navigator's console.
 
There's a lot of the voice over in the trailers that doesn't appear in the movie. Either they trimmed a scene or two, or the dialogue was written for the trailer.

Certainly Pike's dialogue in the trailers isn't lifted from his scenes - the gist is the same, but different wording and attitude.

It seems to happen quite a bit. In the IM3 trailers, the Mandarin had dialogue that was not in the movie, for example.

I've wondered a time or two where this type of dialogue comes from: older versions of the script, scenes edited out of the movie, dialogue recorded for the trailer?

But... I've never been meticulous enough, or honestly really cared enough, to actually try to match it up with DVD extras or whatever.


One other thing: was that actually an A.I. or mechanical crew member on the bridge, or did I misread that? Thought he was pretty cool.
 
I wish Uhura was the character she was in the original movies as well, the strong and useful character who actually did things like humorously read Klingon and dance like a stripper.
 
There's a lot of the voice over in the trailers that doesn't appear in the movie. Either they trimmed a scene or two, or the dialogue was written for the trailer.

Certainly Pike's dialogue in the trailers isn't lifted from his scenes - the gist is the same, but different wording and attitude.

Which was a whole lot better (that was one of my favourite scenes). I guess the rest will be extras on the deluxe 3-D/2-D Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy release in November.

Just gotta say it again. Greenwood was SMOKIN' in that scene.

Where the trailer version was oratory, this was a complete bollocking, an emasculation, a man taking on a child. I felt every ounce of Pike's experience, his frustration, his disappointment. And I have to hand it to Pine, after a few token justifications which, on first utterance he believed wholeheartedly, Kirk just looked shattered, chastened, beaten. He looked so completely deflated that it made sense that Pike immediately went to Marcus to reinstate Kirk to active duty, then came looking for him to reignite his confidence in himself.

Then in the :ack: scene, I just believed Pike was in terrible agony. That shallow puffing, that glassy-eyed stare of the nearly gone putting every last ounce of energy into just hanging on. And then he managed to look completely corpse-like and lifeless with a single tear running down his cheek.

Tour de force performance. In every thing BG does he is completely convincing. He can be a thoroughly terrifying villain or a magnificent hero. I am SO sad to have lost him in this universe.
 
You mean Uhura, who:

- jumped from a shuttle damaged from being inside an active volcano into an alien ocean?

- was a member of an away-team party that flew down to Kronos in an unarmed civilian spacecraft that was being chased by Klingon warcraft?

- faced off against a band of Klingon warriors while the men in the away-team hid in the ship?

- fought with the other members of the away-team against Klingon warriors?

- beamed down to a moving garbage scow where she shot and incapacitated the main villain of the movie?
 
Just gotta say it again. Greenwood was SMOKIN' in that scene.

Where the trailer version was oratory, this was a complete bollocking, an emasculation, a man taking on a child. I felt every ounce of Pike's experience, his frustration, his disappointment. And I have to hand it to Pine, after a few token justifications which, on first utterance he believed wholeheartedly, Kirk just looked shattered, chastened, beaten. He looked so completely deflated that it made sense that Pike immediately went to Marcus to reinstate Kirk to active duty, then came looking for him to reignite his confidence in himself.

Last night I was watching it thinking.. have we EVER seen Kirk taken down a peg like this? And I don't think we have. And it was absolutely perfect because Kirk does want Pike's approval. I like how it takes quite a bit of dressing down before it sinks in too, it's a great Kirk scene as well as being fantastic acting from Greenwood.
Then in the :ack: scene, I just believed Pike was in terrible agony. That shallow puffing, that glassy-eyed stare of the nearly gone putting every last ounce of energy into just hanging on. And then he managed to look completely corpse-like and lifeless with a single tear running down his cheek.

Tour de force performance. In every thing BG does he is completely convincing. He can be a thoroughly terrifying villain or a magnificent hero. I am SO sad to have lost him in this universe.

I think it was the most realistic death scene I've ever witnessed. Actually started worrying about death in the middle of it!
 
It's interesting to see some actual resaerch confirms what I've been grumbling about in Trek. Here's what it says about STID:

"Star Trek Into Darkness has two women as well: Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, who is tough and smart, although most of her screen time is devoted to the particulars of her romantic relationship with Spock, and the new character of Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve), a brilliant scientist who nonetheless gets an underwear scene that plays like the dictionary definition of “gratuitous.”"

Actually, he forgot the mom, two hookers, and some nurses, although all their dialogue added together was less than Keenser's, plus Aisha Hind's bald navigator.
I think you're making something out of nothing. While I agree that Marcus' underwear scene was gratuitous, I think the idea of changing the whole scenes just to include conversations with female characters is foolhardy. Uhura and Spock's relationship was a part of showing how Spock's emotions were getting the better of him and how she was worried that he may be suicidal after what happened in 09.

It's not this production crew's fault that the TOS crew had one woman with a large role in it, they obviously weren't willing to change everything just for the sake of a "perception" of equality. Now forgive me if I seem callous, but it's the same problem with people who want to put a gay character in and, almost literally, shove it in our faces. Showing equality doesn't mean pandering to that part of the population, it means showing that they too can be a part of something, and in that sense, Star Trek has succeeded.
 
I didn't love it, but it was better than I thought it would be. Much better than ST09. But it still felt lightweight. Kirk is much quippier than I care for, though they seem to be letting him earn some gravitas via experience, which is fine. I'm all for some humor but the crew exchanges frequently felt more in tone with Farscape than Star Trek, in fact, now that I think about it, the Abrams team writers' Kirk seems much more Jon Crichton than Captain Kirk, though there were several moments when Pine managed to evoke Kirk pretty effectively.

My basic conclusion - enjoyable movie, and there appears to be some real hope for this series as Star Trek. Like most new incarnations it may simply be taking its time finding it feet. Right now I feel like I did after suffering through most of the awful season 1 of TNG and finally getting 11001001 - I see an inkling of interesting Trek coming to life. Now, if the next movie can manage to be Measure of a Man, we'll be in business.

By which I mean, they need to lay off redoing TOS material and actually create something original. New versions of Trek are worthless until they find their own voice. There was plenty of set up for Klingons and Khan's return, but here's hoping they can strike out on their own for at least one picture.

Meanwhile, this very doubtful Trekkie regained a little hope today. I might even go see it again.
 
Well Uhura is a comm officer so there is not much she can do really. She only gets more dialogue in the reboot because of her relationship with Spock.

All the strong female characters are in the spinoffs (except TNG because Yar got killed off)

Rebooted Janeway.. what actress?
 
- faced off against a band of Klingon warriors while the men in the away-team hid in the ship?

- beamed down to a moving garbage scow where she shot and incapacitated the main villain of the movie?

I was glad to see Uhura get some screen time BUT the fact it was just her and a bunch of men on the ship is symptomatic of the problem the franchise has with its gender roles.

Putting Uhura on the volcano mission and beaming her down to help Spock instead of a few security guards was silly. Putting her on those missions alongside qualified personnel would have been fine.
 
I whipped this up after the first "Disruption" video came out, with Harrison's analysis of Kirk and played on the rumors that Harrison was Khan, although I very much believed he was not. Turns out I was spot on without knowing it. ;)

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrd8-uUN2VQ[/yt]
 
It's interesting to see some actual resaerch confirms what I've been grumbling about in Trek. Here's what it says about STID:

"Star Trek Into Darkness has two women as well: Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, who is tough and smart, although most of her screen time is devoted to the particulars of her romantic relationship with Spock, and the new character of Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve), a brilliant scientist who nonetheless gets an underwear scene that plays like the dictionary definition of “gratuitous.”"

Actually, he forgot the mom, two hookers, and some nurses, although all their dialogue added together was less than Keenser's, plus Aisha Hind's bald navigator.
I think you're making something out of nothing. While I agree that Marcus' underwear scene was gratuitous, I think the idea of changing the whole scenes just to include conversations with female characters is foolhardy. Uhura and Spock's relationship was a part of showing how Spock's emotions were getting the better of him and how she was worried that he may be suicidal after what happened in 09.

It's not this production crew's fault that the TOS crew had one woman with a large role in it, they obviously weren't willing to change everything just for the sake of a "perception" of equality. Now forgive me if I seem callous, but it's the same problem with people who want to put a gay character in and, almost literally, shove it in our faces. Showing equality doesn't mean pandering to that part of the population, it means showing that they too can be a part of something, and in that sense, Star Trek has succeeded.

I think Kirk's threesome could've been cut from the film. I think it's a caricature of Kirk to say he would do something like that. I agree with you that Carol's underwear scene is gratuitous. I think showing Zoe's ass was another faux pas. It's not perfect, but the character of Uhura is 10x better than any woman in Starfleet before her. It's just not to where it needs to be outside the Star Trek world.
 
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