Star Trekkin' into a migraine review

POSTED BY: Wishimay
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 19:04
VIEWED: 6886
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WISHIMAY

Friday, May 17, 2013 5:53 AM

Just came home from a double header of Iron Man 3 (Live Free or Iron Harder heh) and Star Trek into Darkness (which ironically had waaay too many lights in it)

I liked Iron Man, and if there's one thing I have to say about it, it's that it has a whole lotta plot-a. I'd have a hard time picking out anything to hate about it, with the exception of the lover's spats... The ending was a little toooo easy of a fix, but at least it was fun. And they live happily ever after *sigh.

In fact if I was to pick one to see on video, I think Star Trek would be it, and that saying something- with us being Benedict-aholics.
I just couldn't relate to this Trek. When Benedict says who he is and they yell his name later, I just wanted to gag. The re-write was decent enough, but it still feels like the grandkids have taken over the ship(and I'M ONLY 33, mind you). Where Bill Shatner had confidence and charm and over acting, Chris Pines' Kirk just seems horny and swagger-y and then depressed(through no real fault of his own, I think, and it probably relates better to some of the guys of today's generation.)

* Only slightly spoiler-y here....

Did it keep my attention? Sure. Did I hate it? No. Did Spock need to cheat? Um, NO. I'm pretty sure he could've come up with "ACTUALLY ARM THE MISSILES" all be himself. But then they couldn't have fit Leonard Nimoy in for one last bit part. And they made Spock look more like he has Aspergers than anything which is ANNOYING. I'm sure to someone who hasn't seen the old movies it's better, but to the old hats, it's a little worn and yeah, rehashed in spots. And there's a lot of head squeezing going on, which was just oddball to me??? (thus the migraine reference of the title)

P.S. at the end of Iron Man 3 it says "special thanks to Joss Whedon" yay.
And the last easter egg at the end of the movie was waaay funnier the way I imagined it. They did not add one at the end of Star Trek, and it would have been soo easy just to have Scotty shaking his head or something.

Also, on the way home I had a vision of the thirteenth re-imagining of Star Trek. Every single character will have had the chance to have yelled that ever important name of the movie, I'm just glad I was around to have seen it done RIGHT.

* Warning, bigger spoiler!

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

WISHIMAY

Friday, May 17, 2013 12:31 PM

I'm not the only one who was a wee bit disappointed, apparently.

We're both in agreement on Benedict Cumberpatch, though...One hellova screen grabber. I don't think he looks ANYTHING like Jeremy Irons, but yeah, the voice has similarities....

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/movie-review-star-trek-darkness-d
oesnt-feel-star-090050830.html

KWICKO

Friday, May 17, 2013 12:35 PM

Haven't seen Iron Man 3 (haven't seen 2 yet, either), but I did get to see Into Darkness last night, and my reaction is probably 180º from yours - I loved it! I think JJ Abrams is the best thing to happen to the franchise since Wrath of Khan. And Cumberbatch is just awesome. Chris Pine *IS* Kirk, and channels Shatner amazingly well, all hamminess and melodrama, but Bones McCoy tends to steal any scene he's in and make it all his.

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero

"I was wrong" - Hero, 2012

Mitt Romney, introducing his running mate: "Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Paul Ryan!"

Rappy's response? "You're lying, gullible ( believing in some BS you heard on msnbc ) or hard of hearing."

SISTER

Friday, May 17, 2013 12:47 PM

I, too LOVED the 'Trek into Darkness'....seemed to be a homage to all the ones that came before and fit quite nicely into the 'alternate universe' Trek that JJ Abrams has created. The casting is, in my opinion, perfect.
I was a fan of the original Trek long ago and these new films have been fantastic!

WISHIMAY

Friday, May 17, 2013 2:14 PM

I think some people are just so happy to have a reboot they don't see what IS wrong with it... I like to take a critical eye to anything I watch. I very, very rarely like an entire film. And I didn't HATE this one. So you're only about 60 degrees off from me.

But there were some glaring issues Hubbs and I had with this one. Kicking the reactor back in alignment and it just magically works? Oh, and the little "disarmament of the photon torpedo" and that convenient handhold on the back of the scows in the last fight scene?? Dumbing down Spock?? All those heads of Starfleet in a nice conveniently unprotected glass room?? An engine room that looked more like something from Sonic the Hedgehog? A white boy with an English accent saying "I ahm Kahhhn"?? Don't even get me started on what happened on Chronos...

I'll overlook a couple things, but every five minutes there was another thing that was just off or too convenient to swallow.

TWO

Friday, May 17, 2013 5:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I'll overlook a couple things, but every five minutes there was another thing that was just off or too convenient to swallow.

A good alternate title for this movie would be "Getting Away With It: Or, the Further Adventures of the Luckiest Bastard You Ever Saw."

The characters have urgently necessary arguments about the morally, ethically, and procedurally correct thing to do in a crisis, then Kirk makes a unilateral, straight-from-the-gut decision that worsens everything; and yet somehow at the end he’s rewarded, or at least not seriously punished.

Sometimes the reward is quite deliberate — as in the end scene, which finds Kirk being celebrated as a hero after making what looked to me like a series of catastrophic rookie mistakes that ended dozens of lives. Other times it’s as if the cosmos itself is protecting Kirk, as when he loses command of the Enterprise for his behavior on the primitive planet, then gets it back thanks to another sudden plot twist.

Both the opening mission and a subsequent intergalactic act of aggression are presented as having grave consequences if they fail, then the film just sort of writes them off with a shrug, as if to say, “Well, that’s all in the past, and as long as it doesn’t happen again, no harm, no foul.” (Has anyone in the Federation actually honored the Prime Directive?)

Too much of "Star Trek Into Darkness" has what I call a “playground storytelling” sensibility: “Lie down, you’re dead. Never mind, you’re alive again — now fight!”

www.rogerebert.com/reviews/star-trek-into-darkness-2013

ECGORDON

Friday, May 17, 2013 6:02 PM

I won't argue with anyone who likes Abrams' Trek films. All I'll say is they are generic SF action films, with only cursory nods to Roddenberry's vision. They are popular for a reason, all flash, very little substance, which is what I could say about almost any SF film these days. I saw the first one once, probably never will again. Won't bother with this one either.

ZEEK

Friday, May 17, 2013 8:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
I won't argue with anyone who likes Abrams' Trek films. All I'll say is they are generic SF action films, with only cursory nods to Roddenberry's vision. They are popular for a reason, all flash, very little substance, which is what I could say about almost any SF film these days. I saw the first one once, probably never will again. Won't bother with this one either.

This is something I touched on talking to one of my friends recently. JJ's Star Trek seems so generic that I wonder what he'll do differently with Star Wars. My guess is nothing. There will just be lightsabers in the same kind of action packed adventure ride through plot hole nebula.

TWO

Saturday, May 18, 2013 12:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Zeek:
. . . same kind of action packed adventure ride through plot hole nebula.

"Watching it is like talking to a salesman who stops every 40 seconds to ask if you're still with him, and then slaps you in the face just to make sure."

"The writers throw old-school Trek-heads a bone every few minutes, but these mostly serve as unwelcome reminders of how faithless the movie is to its source material, and how lacking it is in what made that series great: ideas, characters, stories that meant something"

www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/16/movie-review-star-trek-darkne
ss/

HKCAVALIER

Sunday, May 19, 2013 7:28 PM

I watched every episode of TOS dozens of times with my brother growing up, to the point that I could name any episode within the first 20 seconds of the teaser. Aside from the dozen or so best TNG episodes, I've always prefered TOS.

I always thought the movies sucked. I saw the first and I thought it was so bad that I skipped the next two and came back for The Voyage Home, which I liked. I still have never seen The Search for Spock. After that, I saw the rest of them, but I can't remember a thing except for the hokey Zardoz "God" that they meet on styrofome planet #454. And all TNG movies were just utterly gawdawful embarrassing.

Then about a month ago I saw TWOK for the first time, and like so many sacred bovine from my childhood which I never saw until I was grown, I was a tad shocked at just how embarrassingly bad it was. The two leads ran out of plywood scenery long before they stopped chewing. The Mullet. And that creepy blond Son of Kirk and their creepy reconciliation after the death of Spock. I will give it this: the only time a Star Trek movie made me cry was inside the reactor room with Kirk and Spock.

I never even thought of Star Trek as "science fiction" in any serious sense. If I hadda categorize it I'd say it was "utopian futurism." Their technology has always been purest magic. What brought me back again and again was the pure delight in watching the main characters do their thing. The show was always about delight and charm and the movies were always so utterly wooden and plodding and bad.

So, J.J. comes along and resets the whole thing and brings delight back to the table. The chemistry between the leads and their astonishing impersonations of these beloved characters from my childhood is simply a joy to watch.

Select to view spoiler:

And, of course, with Darkness, I got to see a version of TWOK that I could actually recommend to someone who hasn't seen it. I was crying throughout the movie instead of just that one moment when Spock said "I have always been and will ever be your friend" in the original. The lover's spat in the shuttle craft was brilliantly handled and heartbreaking once we heard what Spock's deal was. And, and! J.J. did the only sensible thing with Khan at the end. Don't maroon several dozen superbeings on a planet, just put 'em back in their little boxes! Shelve 'em and forget 'em like the Ark of the Covanent. No fuss, no muss.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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