Star Trek: Into Darkness
Jun. 19th, 2013 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonimpJust got back from seeing Star Trek: Into Darkness. Very good movie, much more solid than Star Trek (2009). The actors seem to have settled into their roles and the writers have a better handle on things. The bromance was strong in this one and Spock's reaction to a new (female) science office invading his turf made me laugh. (The Spock/Uhura was played well, too. But definite bromance.) It just has this one scene that sorta kicked me out of the movie. But otherwise very enjoyable.
I don't know if this even counts as a spoiler anymore thanks to internets it's even on IMDB), but - Khan. Yes, they whitewashed the role. Yes, it was an amazingly good performance. Benedict Cumberbatch is an intense and terrifying and not unsympathetic villain. This isn't really a quibble I have with the movie, it's just kinda there. Whitewashing really isn't something we should still be doing in 2013, but he is an amazing actor.
Some issues I did have:
Minor: that volcano at the beginning was far too small to be threatening the entire planet. Even the Yellowstone supervolcano doesn't threaten the planet, it's already erupted three times and the planet's still here. That volcano was too small to even believably threaten the survival of the natives, unless the entire population lived right there on that continent.
Semi-minor: this is actually an issue with the first movie and how Kirk was promoted from cadet straight to captain. Pike toward the beginning of this one tells Kirk he wasn't ready to command and all I could think was well, yeah, no shit, what did you expect from the kid?
Not-minor: not enough explanation on who/what Khan and is crew were and what happened 300 years ago. I only knew because I eat up bits of trivia like that even when I haven't watched the show/movie (haven't seen the original Space Seed episode). My mom, who hasn't seen Space Seed either and hasn't seen Wrath of Khan in ages, was pretty lost.
Kinda major, related to the above: if all of Khan's crew were augments, as was kinda implied but not directly said, then why did they need Khan specifically alive at the end? Why couldn't they thaw out one of the others and use that person's blood? This was apparently answered in the novelization, according to the Star Trek wiki:
But it's a hole in the movie.
Which brings me to:
Major and pet peeve: magic plot device blood. The wiki isn't really clear on this point, but I think the regenerative powers of the augmented blood was established in previous Trek canon, but it still felt like a convenient (and broadcasted) magic fix. But my biggest quibble is, now they have it. McCoy was able to synthesize the syrum, which means they can synthesize it again, which means - no one can die. At least not from injury or disease. If someone dies, welp, just synthesize up some more of that syrum, inject them, and there you go. They've given themselves one HELL of a boulder to write around for any upcoming movies. It also minimized the emotional impact of Kirk's death, because you knew he was coming right back.
Which now brings me to:
That Scene.
It's not even a bad scene; in fact, it's very well acted. But the whole time that scene was playing I was sitting there with dual vision, watching Wrath of Khan in my head, and it kicked me out of the movie. Which is unfortunate, because, as I said, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are giving it their all and it should be a very emotional scene, but it just wasn't.
The subsequent scenes managed to pull me back into the movie and the rest of the movie was great, so it wasn't a deal-breaker. Just - unfortunate.
I don't know if this even counts as a spoiler anymore thanks to internets it's even on IMDB), but - Khan. Yes, they whitewashed the role. Yes, it was an amazingly good performance. Benedict Cumberbatch is an intense and terrifying and not unsympathetic villain. This isn't really a quibble I have with the movie, it's just kinda there. Whitewashing really isn't something we should still be doing in 2013, but he is an amazing actor.
Some issues I did have:
Minor: that volcano at the beginning was far too small to be threatening the entire planet. Even the Yellowstone supervolcano doesn't threaten the planet, it's already erupted three times and the planet's still here. That volcano was too small to even believably threaten the survival of the natives, unless the entire population lived right there on that continent.
Semi-minor: this is actually an issue with the first movie and how Kirk was promoted from cadet straight to captain. Pike toward the beginning of this one tells Kirk he wasn't ready to command and all I could think was well, yeah, no shit, what did you expect from the kid?
Not-minor: not enough explanation on who/what Khan and is crew were and what happened 300 years ago. I only knew because I eat up bits of trivia like that even when I haven't watched the show/movie (haven't seen the original Space Seed episode). My mom, who hasn't seen Space Seed either and hasn't seen Wrath of Khan in ages, was pretty lost.
Kinda major, related to the above: if all of Khan's crew were augments, as was kinda implied but not directly said, then why did they need Khan specifically alive at the end? Why couldn't they thaw out one of the others and use that person's blood? This was apparently answered in the novelization, according to the Star Trek wiki:
According to the novelization of Star Trek Into Darkness, after Kirk had died, Dr. McCoy was unsure whether any of the other Augments had the same genetic traits as Khan and they didn't have enough time to find out. For this reason they wanted Khan's blood to save Kirk.
But it's a hole in the movie.
Which brings me to:
Major and pet peeve: magic plot device blood. The wiki isn't really clear on this point, but I think the regenerative powers of the augmented blood was established in previous Trek canon, but it still felt like a convenient (and broadcasted) magic fix. But my biggest quibble is, now they have it. McCoy was able to synthesize the syrum, which means they can synthesize it again, which means - no one can die. At least not from injury or disease. If someone dies, welp, just synthesize up some more of that syrum, inject them, and there you go. They've given themselves one HELL of a boulder to write around for any upcoming movies. It also minimized the emotional impact of Kirk's death, because you knew he was coming right back.
Which now brings me to:
That Scene.
It's not even a bad scene; in fact, it's very well acted. But the whole time that scene was playing I was sitting there with dual vision, watching Wrath of Khan in my head, and it kicked me out of the movie. Which is unfortunate, because, as I said, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are giving it their all and it should be a very emotional scene, but it just wasn't.
The subsequent scenes managed to pull me back into the movie and the rest of the movie was great, so it wasn't a deal-breaker. Just - unfortunate.