Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

[Spidey Freak]

Watched this last night with some of my friends who are huge Cumberbatch fanboys. Solid first half but second half rapidly begins to lose steam until movie (and villain) goes out with a whimper. For some reason, I couldn't connect to the emotional scenes like "the death scene", probably because of the weak script.

 

Khan was not used properly, which is the biggest flaw of the film, considering they chose to make Cumberbatch the focal point of the marketing over the Enterprise crew. Anyone who thinks he is a more memorable villain than the Mandarin is just deluding themselves, sorry.    Also, didn't care for the twist with the Admiral. 

 

The Enterprise crew were fun as expected, especially Pegg and Pine. Effects were good but at points some alien make-up looked corny like the primitive albino race shown at the beginning. Alice Eve is hot. That's it.

[Deep Wang]

This was pretty bad.

 

The worst was the completely inserted scene with the tribble.  I knew about the end before I saw it, but I wasn't expecting it to be handled so terribly. It's like they shot it, but didn't know where to put it.  It is really out of place.

[FilmBuff]

Got a chance to see this movie about a week ago. I have to say it's been a pretty disappointing year quality wise for movies. I've seen far more movies I've disliked this year than movies I've liked. Star Trek Into Darkness was very good. The first 20 minutes made me feel like I wasn't going to like the movie, but I got into it once things got going. The first 20 minutes reminded me a lot of The Dark Knight. Not that it's a bad thing, but it seems like a lot of movies have been copying The Dark Knight recently in their basic premise. Just shows how great of a movie The Dark Knight is. The action in this movie was top notch! In some ways it succeeded the action of the first movie. JJ Abrams continues to prove himself as a top notch action director with these two Star Trek movies and a highly underrated Super 8 film.. Action that is both engrossing and exhilarating. 

 

The acting was good. Benedict Cumberbatch was the absolute scene-stealer. Even though he was badly written in some scenes, he still owned the movie. Cumberbatch exceeded my expectations as a villain. The fact he elevated the poor writing he was given is a credit to his acting. The other actors were all good. The brought more depth and more layers to this film. Although, Some of the cast was shoe-horned into different scenes to give them something to do. Most notably Uhura. 

 

This movie is REALLY good, but I still rate Star Trek(2009) a tad bit better. Star Trek 2009 is an A+ film.

 

This movie I give an A- or 4.5/5.

[JackO]

I give this film an A. 

 

It felt like vintage Star Trek. Not big set pieces but most of the action happening on the ship. Cumberbatch was amazing. The twists didn't really feel like twists. I mean they worked within the plot. Khan switching sides temporarily worked for both sides since the head commander guy went rogue. Admittedly that guy going rogue was a bit of a stretch but not so much that I was taken out of the film. And we still got the kickass finale with a Spock/Khan showdown. There were again some terrorist subtext. I also thought of Boston and the pictures blasted all over the TV, when Kirk was looking at Khan's pic during the meeting. Khan is one of the best villains in years. 

[Michael Gary Scott]

Freaking loved it! Cumberbatch was amazing and Spock kicked ass. 5/5.

[Cmasterclay]

Loved it. Loved it loved it loved it loved it. Not to take the obvious unprovoked cheapshot, but Iron Man 3, THIS is how a summer blockbuster is done. Very funny and entertaining, but at the same time, serious and emotionally resonant. Pine and Quinto and the rest of the crew were awesome. I can't say enough about CumberKhan. Best blockbuster villain since the Joker, and the best villain period since Hans Landa. My only real complaint is that I wanted him on screen more. He owned the movie whenever he was in it. Almost overshadowed the rest of the film, which was all fantastic. I didn't love the casting of either Weller or Eve, but I lived with it.

 

A

[RobinHood26]

This was AMAZING and disappointing at the same time. J.J is a master. He really captures that more classic blockbuster adventure tone. Its dark enough, its light enough, its fun.The music was fantastic, finally i real true and true movie score. Im joining the Cumberbatch fan club because he stole the show. In fact one of my biggest complaints is that they could have used him more. 

 

 I wasn't a fan of the kicking Khan in the head then boom wrap-up. Especially because that chase and fight with Spock and Khan was the best action set piece in the whole movie. 

 

 I wish Kirk would have actually died, or maybe even halfway through and making Spock  the one to take down Khan in order to save Kirk. 

 

B+

Edited April 16, 2018 by Jay Hollywood

[Deep Wang]

Man, I really wish I saw the same movie you guys did. 

[Phil in the Blank]

As much as I enjoyed Cumberbatch's performance in this, I don't think his Khan is going to be as iconic as the original.

 

For example, just compare his ending, to the one from Wrath of Khan.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlyuI7xGI

 

Khan dies like a complete boss in that one and in general the script lets us see just how awesome he really is throughout the movie. I don't think the script does the same favours to Cumberbatch.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Phil in the Darkness

[kitik]

Hmm, very interesting movie. I loved it, yet I was also extremely disappointed with a lot of it.

 

As others have said, the action and visuals were fantastic (but the Enterprise theme music needs to never be played again, a hundred times in the first 40 minutes was enough). Abrams certainly knows how to make action thrilling, and how to take you for a ride and never let you catch your balance until the end credits roll.

 

Unfortunately, the whole rogue admiral plot is so played out in Star Trek. Its so overused that it deserves its own theme music just like the Enterprise. But what really didn't work was that whole Kirk dying twist on that TWOK ending. You gotta be kidding me. After sitting us through one whole movie to basically spell out as clearly as possible that this will be a different ST timeline,  they go and basically give us a sad parody of the ending of TWOK? Awful. And did they really need to telegraph it so badly with the dead tribble? Talk about a scene that fell completely emotionally flat.

 

Fortunately, Cumberbatch completely stole the movie. He was awesome just about every time he was onscreen. I had never heard of him before, but now I know why so many fans were hyping him up before this came out. Too bad he didn't go out with a bang, and he didn't even go out like a bitch, he just went back to sleep. That was kind of a lame ending, and now with his blood floating around there, it pretty much makes death significantly more irrelevant in the ST universe.

 

Of course, that can be used to an advantage in the next movie. Bring a few people back to life in the beginning, but then have the Klingons show up and start vaporizing and disintegrating people, that'll make death feel much more permamnent again, and will make the Klingons look like a truely serious and dangerous threat.

 

One last thing, like I said, Cumberbatch stole the show. the main cast of 7 were all good, especially Uhura, since it seemed like she stole a lot of the emotional impact stuff usually reserved for Bones, and the actors are all perfectly serviceable, but seeing Cumberbatch so dominate the screen just really drove home the point that Pine is the weakest link in the cast. He's a fine actor, but he's nothing compared to Shatner (for the role of Captain Kirk at least).

[DeeCee]

As much as I enjoyed Cumberbatch's performance in this, I don't think his Khan is going to be as iconic as the original. For example, just compare his ending, to the one from Wrath of Khan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlyuI7xGI Khan dies like a complete boss in that one and in general the script lets us see just how awesome he really is throughout the movie. I don't think the script does the same favours to Cumberbatch.

With the new timeline this is effectively Khan at the same point in time as "Space Seed" so having him survive makes a bit of sense. It does allow for him to be released or somehow escape down the track in a subsequent film.

[MovieMan89]

I'm not really sure how to critique this movie. From an entertainment summer blockbuster level it does succeed, but the whole thing wound up feeling rather....pointless. I mean the biggest advancement to the story here seemed to be developing Spock and Kirk's friendship, but I think that was already developed fairly well the first time around. I would have rather some other character's relationships been explored further. For example, it was essentially pointless to have Uhura and Spock become a couple in the first movie if their relationship was only going to be vaguely acknowledged and explored in this film. And aside from maybe Scotty, none of the other characters got further development than they already had either.

 

Khan as the villain was definitely an improvement over the first movie's lackluster villain, but he never became the menacing threat I was anticipating. Cumberbatch did a great job with the character, but I wish he would have had more to work with. Khan's scheme just didn't seem epic and evil enough for his character, and Admiral Marcus ended up being more of the villain than Khan in many ways. Especially since Khan was essentially just trying to seek vengeance for Marcus using him to start a war and holding his crew hostage as initiative. It's like they wanted us to sympathize with Khan until conveniently we were supposed to hate him for killing off Marcus, who was the real villain in the first place.    So yeah, they kind of dropped the ball again in the villain department, which they could get away with in an origin story like Star Trek '09, but not so much in the sequel. That's one of the biggest reasons IM2 failed.

 

Also the movie's "twists" and surprises were pretty cliche and not surprising at all. We all knew Cumberbatch was Khan, and Kirk's fake out death wasn't believable for a second to even the most naive viewers. C'mon, as if anyone really thought they were gonna kill  him off. Yeah right! If they had actually killed him off, it would have made the scene with Spock on Kirk's deathbed and Spock's subsequent vengeance very powerful. But since we knew Kirk wasn't dead for good it made all of that lose most of the impact they were going for.

 

Speaking of Spock's vengeance on Khan, that whole segment was pretty silly and unbelievable. Why did Khan let Spock chase him for so long in the first place? He's like a superhuman who crushed a guy's head with his bare hands earlier in the film.  Why  couldn't he just swat Spcok away like a fly like he did everyone else in the movie? And then when he finally does fight Spock, why is Spock so immune to his superhuman strength and able to hold his own? Is there something I'm missing about Spock's own abilities?  Cause if not that whole bit made zero sense. And then how they were able to bring Kirk back  from being radiation fried through Khan's blood seemed too convenient as well.

 

Basically the important points of this movie could be summed up in one sentence: Kirk and Spock meet Khan for the first time while further developing their friendship in lieu to setting off on their 5 year deep space voyage. That's all the important things that happen here. I've complained a lot, but the movie did deliver on the entertainment for the most part. The spectacle and visuals were top notch and the ensemble is still terrific with a lot of chemistry, even if most of the Enterprise crew took a backseat role. And although I enjoyed the action in this, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first's.

 

Overall this delivers for summer entertainment, but not really in any other way. It's not the satisfying film the first was and does little to advance the series. In many ways it felt like Abrams was still stuck in "reboot mode" for this, when he should have been in "sequel mode." So I was disappointed with this since I thought it would probably be the best blockbuster of the summer, but it's not a bad movie either. Just kind of there, and it does only the bare minimum it needs to. A solid B for now, but unfortunately I'm not expecting this to hold up as well on repeat viewings.

Edited May 16, 2013 by MovieMan89

[Spidey Freak]

Anybody else think they used "Old Spock" in the dumbest way possible?

[Deep Wang]

Anybody else think they used "Old Spock" in the dumbest way possible?

 

 

You would think so, but I will never put anything past Orci and Kurtzman.  Leave it to them to top themselves in the worst way.

[MovieMan89]

Anybody else think they used "Old Spock" in the dumbest way possible?

Yes, it was a totally unnecessary cameo and the midnight audience I was at didn't even get excited when he came on. I remember the massive pop from the audience  Nemoy got when he showed up in the first one.

[Deep Wang]

Yes, it was a totally unnecessary cameo and the midnight audience I was at didn't even get excited when he came on. I remember the massive pop from the audience  Nemoy got when he showed up in the first one.

 

I guess you could say Nemoy was phoning it in.

[baumer]

Who is this Cumberbatch guy and why is he so famous now?

[CoolioD1]

Who is this Cumberbatch guy and why is he so famous now?

He's in that Sherlock show. And he's not like famous famous there's just some loons that absolutely adore 'im.

[Michael Gary Scott]

Who is this Cumberbatch guy and why is he so famous now?

Cause he's a great actor. He will be this generations Alan Rickman.

[baumer]

0/3 so far this summer.  IM3 was ok, GG was horrible and STID is not much better.  This film just seems like a bunch of noise.  People are running around frantically, always bustling to do something, but most of the time, it's just a bunch of static.  I didn't understand Khan's motivation, or Pike's.  People just seem to do things in here because they need a reason to spend money on the film.  

 

Bones just seemed like a caricature of the television Bones and Scotty is always panicking.  

 

The film did nothing for me, it was watching Cutthroat Island...all action and no substance.

 

5/10