Star Trek: Into Darkness Discussion [**NO SPOILERS PLEASE**]

[Amaris]

Midnight Showing, Wednesday (well, Thursday at 12:01 AM, technically)

The Danbarry - Middletown must be far different than the Danbarry - Florence! I went to ours once and it was the worst experience I ever had in a theater. Terrible chairs, terrible sound system and the picture was incredibly dim.

I've never been to the one in Florence. The one in Middletown I've gone to for years, and it's actually pretty nice. As theaters go, I'd give it a solid "B."

Also, they've just transitioned to the Sony 4K cinema setup. Our Danbarry seems intent on improving their theater, which is great. I don't mind paying $4 for a small popcorn if it means a much better theater experience.

Oh, which reminds me: When I went to purchase the tickets, they had to go authorize the system to sell ST:ID advance tickets. It seems that the corporate office had sent the authorization without notifying them. That only took a few minutes, but while I was waiting off to the side of the line, matinee hours began. So you could see a whole line of senior citizens coming in to watch a movie. They were all coming to see Gatsby, (which I want to see as well).

Anyway, so 15 or 20 of them go through the line, and all of them are wanting to watch Gatsby. Well, toward the end, this little old lady, hunched over, with walking stick, cream yellow colored blouse, white hair, real sweet looking, shuffles up to the counter. The sales agent says, "one for Gatsby, ma'am?" to which she replies, "No way! One ticket for Iron Man 3, please."

As she walked away, I commented, "wanting to see that sexy Robert Downey, Jr.?" at which point, she says, without even turning back, "you bet I am!"

I just about died laughing.

 

[Phily B]

Kinda missed it in the first showing, but Doohan's son looks like he is back and gets a line.

 

[USSPhilippi]

Well, I'm seeing it next Thursday night with my non-Trekkie friend Michelle in Pittsburgh. I chose the Cinemark in Robinson Township, with the big XD screen, and we will be watching in XD 3D.

I'm confident I'll enjoy it. There has yet to be a Star Trek movie that I absolutely hated. Yep, I find redeeming qualities even in TFF and Nemesis.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I'd love to see it again tonight. Seeing if I can get anyone to go with me.

 

[Classic Fan]

Kinda missed it in the first showing, but Doohan's son looks like he is back and gets a line.

Yeah he was, made me happy he got a line and an interaction with the cast. Nice little thing abrams gave the family.

I will say its just great to me there are people appreciating and discovering the rest of Star Trek through these movies too.

I had the same conversation with a friend. I'm so happy that people such as the friend I spoke, and others I know, will watch a new Star Trek movie and enjoy it. 10 years ago it was stereotyped for nerds.

Star Trek was once just for us fans, now, I love the fact abrams has introduced it to new audiences who embrace it and are digging out the show/movies to see what makes trek good.

Makes me happy. Sounds corny, but it's true.

I dont care what anybody has to say, but JJ has been the best thing to happen to Star Trek in the past 15 years or so.

 

[fwise3]

Midnight Showing, Wednesday (well, Thursday at 12:01 AM, technically)

The Danbarry - Middletown must be far different than the Danbarry - Florence! I went to ours once and it was the worst experience I ever had in a theater. Terrible chairs, terrible sound system and the picture was incredibly dim.

I'm going to AMC Newport on the Levee.

Seems we have several people from the Cincinnati area on this board! I live up in Lebanon myself, which is only a few miles from Middletown. Like you, I'll be seeing STID at the AMC at Newport on the 15th!

 

[Amaris]

Cool! Southwestern OH/Northwestern KY represent!

 

[intrinsical]

I'm one of those huge trek fans who thought the 2009 movie was great as a summer blockbuster but below average as a "trek" movie. And quite frankly, this is the first time in my entire life where I'm seriously considering skipping a trek movie premiere.

So this is my question to those who have watched the movie, give me a reason why I should not miss Into Darkness?

 

[Commishsleer]

You'll regret not seeing it at the cinema, in 3D, in IMAX because I regret years later not seeing a lot of the Trek movies I missed at the cinema.
If you dont want to give JJ the satisfaction of your ticket money at the box office, fair enough but you'll be the one missing out IMO

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I'm one of those huge trek fans who thought the 2009 movie was great as a summer blockbuster but below average as a "trek" movie. And quite frankly, this is the first time in my entire life where I'm seriously considering skipping a trek movie premiere.

So this is my question to those who have watched the movie, give me a reason why I should not miss Into Darkness?

You don't necessarily have to go and see the premiere, but watch it at least once on the big screen.

It is a lot of flash and action and a wild rollercoaster ride, but the story, while not perfect (which trek story on the big screen is?) it has a moral and social message and strong ties to old Trek and characterizes the well known characters in a new but familiar way.

 

[Pindar]

So this is my question to those who have watched the movie, give me a reason why I should not miss Into Darkness?

No, in fact I'd prefer no one else go then I can have the Theatre to myself.

 

[MacLeod]

Well the showing I went to only had maybe 40 people in the screen. But then again it was an 00:05 showing.

 

[BillJ]

Cool! Southwestern OH/Northwestern KY represent!

We're just considered Northern Kentucky. Don't confuse us with the Hill people!

 

[AvBaur]

I originally wrote this review for Letterboxd, but since it's essentially spoiler-free, I'll repost it here:

★★★ (out of 5)

Well, that was kind of underwhelming...

First, I should probably say that I've been a huge Star Trek fan since I was a child and that some of my frustrations with the film probably stem from its inconsistency with the lore and spirit of the Trek universe. I mean, those are hardly the movie's only problems, but I imagine someone unfamiliar with Star Trek beyond the 2009 movie might be much more forgiving of some of those flaws and be able to just lean back and enjoy the ride. Because the "ride" part is certainly the one thing this movie mostly excells at. The pacing is breathless, the visuals impressive, the actors charismatic, and the action often exciting, even as some of the action scenes, and indeed the entire structure of the film's plot, often feel like a mere rehash of its predecessor.

Despite greatly enjoying J.J. Abrams' first installment, I'll admit I went into the sequel with some reservations, due to some persistent rumors about the villain and to the marketing materials seemingly working very hard to downplay the "space adventure" element and the fact that this is, indeed, a Star Trek movie. It turns out at least some of those concerns were unfounded, as the parts with people in leather jackets running around planet surfaces shooting guns are much less prominent than I feared and the majority of the action does take place on starships in space, involving a lot of familiar characters and places. I was, however, right about the villain (or villains, as it turns out) being quite problematic. Without delving into spoilers, I think I can safely say that the movie has two major villains, one of them a personified jumble of convoluted conspiracy theories (not too surprising, given screenwriter Bob Orci's political views), the other a blurred cypher without any background information or clear motivations, whose menace only becomes apparent in the context of the story when it's spelled out by a wholly gratuitous cameo appearance. This lack of clear character motivations makes for a pretty convoluted story, that paradoxically still manages to remain utterly predictable at every turn.

You may wonder at this point why I still gave the movie an "above average" rating, when I clearly disliked so much about it. Well, as I hinted at in the beginning, I do think there is a lot to like about it on a technical level, and I do think that many non-Trekkies will probably enjoy it a lot more than I did. (Which is ironic, seeing that they worked so hard to shoehorn in quite a few contrived Trek references "for the fans.")
In fact, I think most everyone who worked on this movie did a pretty great job except for the screenwriters, which makes this the second year in a row where my biggest movie-related disappointment of the year was co-written by Damon Lindelof (although to be fair, the other two writers have been responsible for a fair number of clunkers over the years, as well). I'll probably rewatch the movie at least once to see if I can ignore its problems and just enjoy the more fun elements, but for now, I'm going to have to say it was mostly a letdown for me.

 

[Amaris]

Cool! Southwestern OH/Northwestern KY represent!

We're just considered Northern Kentucky. Don't confuse us with the Hill people!

Sorry, you're stuck here with the rest of us.

 

[shapeshifter]

To anyone whose read Countdown Into Darkness and seen the movie, would you say the events portrayed in CID were, (pick one) very relevant to the movie, somewhat relevant, not relevant at all?

 

[AvBaur]

^ One thing from the comic was sort of mentioned, but I don't even know if that would be enough to qualify as "somewhat relevant".

 

[F. King Daniel]

To anyone whose read Countdown Into Darkness and seen the movie, would you say the events portrayed in CID were, (pick one) very relevant to the movie, somewhat relevant, not relevant at all?

Not relevant at all. Ditto the videogame.

 

[shapeshifter]

^ One thing from the comic was sort of mentioned, but I don't even know if that would be enough to qualify as "somewhat relevant".

To anyone whose read Countdown Into Darkness and seen the movie, would you say the events portrayed in CID were, (pick one) very relevant to the movie, somewhat relevant, not relevant at all?

Not relevant at all. Ditto the videogame.

Welp, that's $40 down the shitter.

Thank you for responding, though.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Saw it for the second time, this time in the English original, and I made up my mind.

Thumps up!

I don't think you will be disappointed when you see it (at least twice)