Star Trek: Into Something Something Something

I wasn’t thrilled with the new Star Trek.  I’m not using that phrase as an intentional understatement implying that I didn’t like the movie.  I did enjoy it.  It just didn’t thrill me.  Which, in an action movie such as Abrams reboot of Trek, is a seriously problem.  Why didn’t it blow me away as it seems to have done many of the other critics?  I’m not entirely sure, but I suspect that it has a lot to do with the fact that the movie was too busy.  This is going to contain some massive spoilers, so be warned.

The movie kicks off on a red alien planet with Kirk pulling some bullshit.  The planet looks cool as hell, as do the aliens, but we never really got WHY we’re there, other than some throwaway lines later about studying the planet.  What we do know is that Kirk violates the Prime Directive in rescuing Spock from a volcano, and in doing so gets his ship taken away from him and will be sent back to the Academy.  All this really does is inform us how ridiculous it was for an Academy cadet to be made a freaking captain without even graduating.  It’s like the writers realized how dumb that was, and had to pull some other dumb bullshit in order to “correct” it.

Then, all of this becomes irrelevant 90 seconds later when albino Khan shows up and kills half of the command staff of Starfleet, and Kirk gets his ship back.  (They really missed a great opportunity to put Pike in a Yes/No lightbulb chair here).  Why take Kirk’s ship away if you’re going to give it back to him immediately afterwards?  I understand that they were trying to make the emphasis of this movie Kirk not being ready for command.  But . . .that was the emphasis for the FIRST movie.  Why do it again?

Then we get to Khan.  Don’t get me wrong.  Benedict Cumberbatch did an admirable job with the role.  The problem here is two-fold:

1. Benedict Cumberbatch should never play a character that couldn’t ALSO be named Benedict Cumberbatch.
2. They just didn’t give him enough screentime.  Khan isn’t an “also” villain.  If you bust Khan out, you’d better be ready to BRING it, and he’d better be the ultimate bad guy of the film, with no motivation other than his own.  With the Klingons and the evil admiral, what could have been an amazing role that would have challenged Montalban became Danny Devito as the Penguin.  Decent job in the role, but completely swallowed by the million other things going on in the movie.

It really felt like they didn’t have a clear idea of a single story that could carry a movie, so they just kind of melded 3 episodes of a TV show together.  The result was entertaining, but I’m not sure I can qualify it as “good”.  The role reversals from Wrath of Khan were neat, as was the implication that the original Star Trek timeline can continue to affect this altered continuity thanks to Old Spock, but ultimately I felt that the film really fell on its face in terms of writing.  The DVD is going to be on my shelf when it comes out, but probably only because I love everything about Star Trek.  I’m not even sure what the title of the film means.  Into Darkness?  Who exactly went into darkness?  The admiral?  Kirk?  The title implies some kind of Heart of Darkness journey into the dark reaches of humanity.  Instead, what we get is lens flares and explosions.  I’m still on board for Star Trek 3, but come on, J.J..  Let’s get it together.