STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS - Grading & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[throwback]

Belz...

Paramount said the film's audience was comprised largely of longtime "Star Trek" fans, but was optimistic that good reviews and word of mouth would bring in a broader audience in coming weeks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/19/entertainment-us-boxoffice-idUSBRE94I09K20130519

Paramount was hoping that this film would be like STIV, which attracted the general audience. From what I am reading, it is the fans who are seeing this film multiple times. Paramount was, also, hoping to get the coveted 18-to-25 year olds to see this film, but it is the older crowd who are watching the film.

Trek's demographics tell an interesting story that contributes to that theory: the audience skewed heavily male (64 percent) and older (73 percent over the age of 25). In comparison, the first movie did a better job reaching women (only 60 percent male) and younger audiences (only 65 percent over 25).

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3686&p=.htm

Having Alice Eve in her two-piece was acknowledged earlier this year as a ploy to get these younger males into seats.

I have done research on the terms fanboy and fangirl. I was wrong in what I said. However, the impression I get from research is that these are the people who will enthusiastically support a product, even when it's flawed. They are not the sort of people who would openly criticize a flawed product. In fact, fanboys and fangirls would attack these people for disagreeing with them. This is based on a cursory reading of the definitions supplied for this word at Urban Dictionary. (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fanboy)

PC Magazine defines fanboy as,

A male, or "fangirl" if female, who is devoted to a particular product or company. Fanboys are loyal and steadfast in their dedication and opinions.

(http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/58308/fanboy)

I may get things wrong, but generally I make it a habit to research what I write so that I speak not out of ignorance.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

If the majority of people who saw the film were longtime Star Trek fans, the movie would have been the biggest box office bomb of the year. There simply aren't enough people to keep the film franchise viable with only the longtime fans going to see it. Even Nemesis with its poor showing relied on a hell of a lot more than just fans seeing it.

Plus, that article is discussing the projected turnout in the first weekend before the weekend was even out. Of course there's going to be a higher turnout of fans in the premiere weekend.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

If you've got the glass ball that lets you see they don't turn into a world full of Reavers or Breen or Imperial space nazis, that can justify intervention, assuming you are willing to play God with history. But revealing the giant metal bird to them at an impressionable time is monstrous.

Kirk might be condemning them to millions of years of religious strife.

That's impossible to predict. The important thing is that they are alive. They are an intelligent species - I see no reason not to trust them to work things out eventually.

One question, though: At one point, Kirk and McCoy are running from the aliens and Kirk suddenly slaps a tapestry with alien-looking writing on it, on a tree. Why does he do this? To slow the aliens down?

It will end up a fantastical myth like all the fantastical myths we happily include in our history. I can't see it having lasting impact. Those that saw it will die off, the story will become hazier and more fantastical and eventually the civilization will develop to the point where most think the story is fiction dreamed up by some primitive who ate too many magic yellow mushrooms.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It was too chessy when Spock yells out "Khan!!" I don't why he was, it was Admiral Marcus who crippled the ship and caused the power loss. Khan had just taken control of the Vengeance.

That's what i thought on my first viewing - but on my second I saw that although the Enterprise was damaged and helpless, it was Khan's attack after beaming Kirk, Scotty and Carol back which damaged the warp core and sent the Enterprise falling to Earth.

 

[gornsky]

They still publish Cinefex??

Sure do!
http://www.cinefex.com/

Something I've noticed the four screenings I've seen: Kirk stumbles over Carol's surname in the last scene, calling her "Dr Marius". Makes me wonder if it was just Chris Pine slurring, or if the script actually indicated that Carol was again avoiding the Marcus name, being tainted as it is now.

Yes, I notice that every time. It's weird!

 

[Belz...]

Belz...

Paramount said the film's audience was comprised largely of longtime "Star Trek" fans, but was optimistic that good reviews and word of mouth would bring in a broader audience in coming weeks.

Assuming this is correct, that's a LOT of fans. Second, that's very bad for the franchise.

 

[AnnLouise]

(On a side note, I didn't find the civilization on Nibiru convincing. Ancient civilizations built their cities around temples. A lone temple, it didn't read "real" to me.)

For the purposes of the movie, I think it worked. The first thing that came to mind for me, with that overhead shot, was "Mexico City" - i.e. a giant structure built in the middle of a lake. But I've only seen STID once, so I could be wrong.

 

[Ovation]

They still publish Cinefex??

Sure do!
http://www.cinefex.com/

Something I've noticed the four screenings I've seen: Kirk stumbles over Carol's surname in the last scene, calling her "Dr Marius". Makes me wonder if it was just Chris Pine slurring, or if the script actually indicated that Carol was again avoiding the Marcus name, being tainted as it is now.

Yes, I notice that every time. It's weird!

It's just another nod to TOS. In Gamesters of Triskellion, Kirk mangles Uhura's name (see, there's a minutiae-laden Trekkie in each of us ).

 

[F. King Daniel]

And at the end of Wrath of Khan, Kirk shouts, "Go Zulu!" as they warp away from the exploding Genesis device. That annoys me every. Single. Time.

 

[Belz...]

Nah, you're just mishearing. He says Sulu ! Right ? Right ?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

There aren't enough Trek fans in North America to open a movie at better than about a thirty million dollar weekend. Most folks who saw it last week weren't trekkies.

 

[AnnLouise]

There aren't enough Trek fans in North America to open a movie at better than about a twenty million dollar weekend. Most folks who saw it last week weren't trekkies

We saw it at an 11:50 matinee. Just as Spock asks Carol Marcus "what are you doing here?" the power for the entire theater cut out. In the while-the-time-away discussions, I heard a younger-than-me group talking about the various Trek tv shows. Most memorable line overheard? "I can't watch the original show - it's too cheesy." (Second most memorable? An older guy telling his female companion "See, they have Section 31 and so do we!")

My husband and I are not the target demographic for this series now - it's the guy who doesn't think he'd watch TOS due to it's cheese quotient.

(After about 15 minutes of waiting, the entire multiplex was herded out and given passes. We drove to Waukesha and it took us until 4 p.m. to finish, but we did manage to see the whole movie.)

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Yeah, you've got to figure that most fans account for more than one ticket sold. I've gone to three showings with six people, and you could only call three of them other than me "fans."

 

[RAMA]

Interesting reviews below...

http://io9.com/star-trek-into-darkness-the-spoiler-faq-508927844

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/62468

http://collider.com/star-trek-into-darkness-review/

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/episodes/trekxi.htm#stid

There's nothing interesting about that kind of fanboy ranting, sorry. Since reviews are running about nine to one positive for this flick, whatever little damage a bad fan review might do to some hypothetical movie is completely meaningless here.

Interestingly, along with high critical ratings and fan ratings in general, the site known for STID "bashing" rates an 8.3 from audiences, and ST09 is rated an 8.1.

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

I went to see STID with my best friend at Saturday's 1:10 pm showing in Jasper, AL, and, including myself and my friend, there were exactly six people in the theater. For the sake of the prestige of the Star Trek brand, I was hoping the film would do better than this.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

 

[BeatleJWOL]

That 1-pm-on-Saturday Jasper, AL constituency is harsh, man.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

How do we know that's not a significant percentage of the total population of Jasper, AL?

 

[M'Sharak]

Admiral Buzzkill

If you are a fan of Star Trek, then automatically you are a fanboy and a fangirl. This name calling doesn't help anyone.

That wasn't name-calling, and "fanboy ranting" is both a reasonably accurate and a remarkably concise description of the content of at least three of the four reviews to which his remark was being addressed.

 

[siskokid888]

Well, late to the party, and I just can't make a determination about the movie (I gave it a B-). A lot of you, from the poll anyway, seemed to really like it. I can't decide, maybe I will have a better take after my second viewing. Plenty of action, decent humor. Fairly interesting story. I had guessed right about Cumberbatch's identity. As others have mentioned, the whiter than white 'batch playing (SPOILER ALERT)


Kahn took me back a little, but it is a movie after all. I just was hoping for a little more substance. The question is, with studios demanding the big payday from franchises like Trek, will we ever see a truly substantive Trek film.

Anyway, as I mentioned, a lot of you seemed to really like this movie. Would you point out to me what you saw as making it so enjoyable to you? Maybe you could help sway me from thinking it was mediocore to seeing something about it that I missed. Thanks.