Amph JJ Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness

Just got back from seeing it. Not bad but I can tell that fans will either really love it or really hate it. The general moviegoing crowd will probably enjoy it, but many of the parallels and throwaway references will be lost on those who aren't too terribly familiar with ST, so they'll just enjoy the ride regardless. The plot isn't too difficult to follow, the action is decent, and the inter-character relationships hit the mark just like they did in the last film.

My only real complaint was more to do with the calibration of the film being too small for the screen it was on. Had the black bars across the top and bottom while the aspect ratio of the film was slightly out of whack making everyone look 30 pounds heavier.

 

That sounds like a problem with the theater.

 

Yeah that's definitely a projection problem. The film is in scope they probably had the projector in flat.

 

I know it's a theater problem, which is why I listed it as my only complaint.

 

I gave it B+. RT has it at 87% and MC has it at 73%.
So overall it's good. They need to come up with new music for the intense action scenes.
I really liked the very end where they link to the TOS in various ways.

And the SW movies better not feel like this. They need to keep the two very separate, no lens flare please that will help.
Cumberbatch played a good......

Spoiler

Khan

He is a great actor.

 

I didn't notice the lens flare quite so much in this one as I did in the last film. Maybe one or two places where it really seemed odd, not the thousands of seemingly inexplicable flares which were in the first film.

 

Just got back from seeing IMAX 3D. It was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it as did my friends.

 

This is a bad movie and it should feel bad. Unfortunately it is an inanimate sequence of images and waveforms that when played in succession create the illusion of persistant motion and as such cannot actually feel; therefore it is I who feel bad.

Rarely have I felt my intelligence so repeatedly assaulted in a theater.

 

It was fantastic

 

It was the ramblings of a conspiracy-addled mind. It shamelessly invoked 9/11 imagery for shock value. It can't understand the difference between a utopian communist future and a transnational capitalist future. It doesn't understand how humans speak to one another. It has space ships that move at the speed of plot. It doesn't even understand how gravity works. And it dedicated itself to "post-9/11 veterans" because yes it is that self-important.

 

Wait, what? There's actually a dedication?

 

Yes. Yes there is.

 

Man, there are real world political reasons to dislike this film?

*sob*

 

I honestly thought I was imagining things for a minute. That maybe, in my upsetness, I was suffering from a hallucination. But it was really there.

 

Right before the end credits begin or toward the end?

 

man, billy. you've got me really excited to see it now.

 

Wow, this movie has even worse timing and tact than I thought it did after Boston.

 

This movie was... not sure I'd say decent to pretty good. It was watchable at least, and honestly I liked the first one much better. The characters interaction was still great, quite a few funny moments, but still tons of problems. Good blockbuster, great special effects, but really, not sure this leaves me optimistic for Episode VII or not (Abrams was always a Star Wars fan, but never really a Trek fan until he got the project, I heard? But then enthusiasm alone isn't that great a thing either, take TCW for instance).

Spoiler

Another Leonard Nimoy cameo? Really? Not to mention how stupid it is that they can call New Vulcan (wherever that is) but can't even signal earth which is within visual range! Because comms were broken or jammed or whatever. But then these movies have always been really stupid about that, not the "the Enterprise is the only ship in range" bits but that apparently no one has sensors, so they can visit the Klingon homeworld with nobody detecting them, heck, someone beamed all the way from earth to Quo'nos in one shot (didn't catch how this movie spelled it).

Not to mention Kirk didn't do that much. Heck, he was dead for a good deal of the finale, and I just couldn't take his death scene seriously after we saw Bones experimenting with that tribble (forget Kirk with Khan-ish tendencies, think of a killer tribble! ). Not to mention how silly his "aligning" the core was (keep kicking it until its fixed!). But then that's an Abrams Trek movie for you.

The Vengeance was an ok design (I think that was the name, heard it a few times I think and mainly because I saw "Vengeance crew members" in the credits), mainly I liked the shot where we saw the Enterprise and the much bigger Vengeance right next to each other (though they've already done the Enterprise next to much bigger ship thing too last movie already). And Carol Marcus was ok, I had been spoiled that the blond woman was Carol Marcus, but then went doh when I forgot that the Admiral was named Marcus too. And at least they continue the incompetent/corrupt Starfleet Admiral tradition. Going to miss Pike though.

I like the Section 31 reference too. Kind of funny to have it mentioned out loud, but then an organization that mysterious can be "destroyed" and then re-emerge whenever. And something like this (a more militaristic Starfleet) is something they would do.

The opening action scene was fun, though felt like Kirk should have come up with something more inventive than just wreck that culture to save Spock. Sure TOS had plenty of Prime Directive violations, but usually Kirk wasn't quite so... casual about it, or at least would have come up with a clever way to minimize the damage, not to mention expecting not just Spock, but the entire crew to lie about the mission (not sure why the Enterprise had to be underwater rather than in orbit as usual, but was probably because of the gimmicky transporter, as always), but then the movie emphasized Spock a lot too (heck, even in the credits there was a big build-up to Quinto's name).

And yeah, not sure how I feel about Khan crashing the Vengeance into a city. I mostly expected someone to stop it, but then considering the Enterprise's very spotty record with combat (it was basically outgunned and never returned fire once I think?), there probably wasn't anyone around to notice it crashing until it hit the ground (not like there's a space station around or anything like that, since the Narada could just waltz in easily too, oh wait, there is). Well, either for something to save the city or for it to explode when it crashed. Ok final combat, and glad they at least stuck Khan back in cryo, if they stuck him in a normal prison he would've gotten out easily. And yeah, Quinto's Spock going KKKKHHHHHAAAAAANNNNNN just isn't that great compared to the original.

Its entertaining and mostly action, and most of the characters got at least one good moment (aside from Chekov, but then they've never used him well, Sulu they used much better), aside from more transporter silliness (and running in corridors, can't even forget the running through corridor parts ). Wonder if there'll be anymore, oh well, at least nice to see Trek still active. Maybe I'll go check out that Countdown comic now to see if its entertaining (avoided it due to spoilers until now).

 

The more I sit and digest this film the more I realize that this movie will likely polarize the fan base. One guy I know (who is about as big of a fan as I am) saw it last night and HATED it. I don't want to spoil people yet (and I don't have much time), so I won't talk about it much now. I would suggest that everyone at least see the film and take time to mull it over before posting a bunch of whargarrbl about it one way or the other.

 

Not perfect, but still a thousand times better than any of the TV series episodes or any of the other movies, even your prescious Khan.

 

Put down the pitchforks people, there's actually a reason for this. Most of the extras in that last scene *are* returned veterans and Abrams has been working with the group - The Mission Continues - for a few years. Empire did a piece on it recently.

 

Spoiler

 

That's a terrible reason.