Title: Star Trek Into Darkness
Director: J.J. Abrams
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban,
Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Peter Weller, Benedict Cumberbach
Review:
I’m not a Trekkie in the pure sense of the word, because I
don’t know every single episode from every single series that ever came out and
there have been a few series. I did see every episode of Star Trek the Next
Generation which for non Trek connoisseurs is the series in which Patrick
Stewart played Captain Jean Luc Picard. Now that one I enjoyed all the way
through! I’ve also seen every Trek film ever made and have enjoyed them for
different reasons. For example, I love the old ones starring William Shatner
because of the chemistry between the characters, the interactions between them
and the banter they play off each other, this by the way is an element that the
new films are delivering as well. The new actors channel their older counter
parts rather effectively in my book; which of course makes the whole film that
much more enjoyable, cause a huge part of what audiences like in these Star
Trek films is seeing Kirk and Spock quibbling about “gut reactions” and whether
something is logical or not. I think audiences agree with me on this respect, the
audience I watched Star Trek Into Darkness with giggled at the comedic elements
in the dialog, especially when they brought in those old phrases like “Dammit
Jim! I’m a doctor not a miracle worker!”. There’s lots of nudges here and there
that Trekkies will eat up, it’s a film that’s mindful of its core audience while
at the same time attempting to appeal to a broader audiences in order to break
with old stigmas.
J.J. Abrams bringing Star Trek Into Coolness
This time around, there’s a mysterious terrorist inflicting
fear upon the population of earth, by blowing up landmark buildings. The
terrorists real purpose is to kill the leaders of the federation! When the terrorist successfully
kills some of them, Kirk and his crew have to head to the Klingon home planet
in order to find the one responsible and make him pay. Along the way,
relationships will be tested, friendships will clash, and the enterprise will
test its limits! Can Kirk and crew bring this megalomaniacal madman to justice?
In this film connoisseur’s eyes the Star Trek films have always
been cool, I have always loved them; but I know this is not the way everybody
sees them. To the rest of the world Star Trek is synonymous with the freak and geek
crowd, you know, those guys that dress like Klingon’s in comic book conventions
and have discussions on Star Trek lore speaking in the Klingon language. What J.
J. Abrams wants to do with this new series of films is change all that, he
wants to make Trek sexy, make it cool. Not an easy task when we consider that Star
Trek has never cared to be sexy. They’ve never been about beautiful looking
people. In fact, in the first series of films we followed a crew that was
populated by fat, old, bald people. Not so with these new films where the crew of
The Enterprise is young, beautiful and sexy. Hell, on these new films Kirk’s
always getting some action, he is portrayed as a womanizer! There's a scene in which a character needlessly strips to her under wear which many people seem to think went "too far", a comment which I find absolutely stupid, hollywood has never been shy about showing skin, especially when it will get more butts in theater sits. The scene is surely gratituous, I agree, but no big deal. Certainly not something to make a big deal about. Pretty ladies in underwear aside, I think all these changes serve to make the film more entertaining.
J.J. Abrams wants you to be amazed by a Star Trek film, he wants people to go
see Star Trek Into Darkness more than once! Well, if you ask me he has successfully
achieved his goals, I know I’ll be seeing it again. This is the biggest Star
Trek film ever, what’s not to celebrate? I mean, this here Star Trek film is a
summer blockbuster of gargantuan proportions! I was wowed. First up, the visual effects are sheer
perfection, you should be impressed. I mean you will see gigantic spaceships
traveling through the universe, alien planets and civilizations, a futuristic
version of earth, these vistas offer us bucket loads of escapism. If you want
to escape to another world, here’s the movie for you to do it with.
I wasn’t aware that in some ways this film was going to be a
pseudo-remake of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn (1982) a film that is heralded
by legions of Star Trek fans across the world as the best Star Trek film of the
first series. That film is a flat out revenge film, and Kahn, as played by
Ricardo Montalban is without a doubt the best of all Star Trek villains. Not a
single actor has been able to reach Kahn’s memorable villain status. Considering
that Wrath of Kahn is one of the best Trek stories ever told, what did J. J.
Abrams and his crew do? They basically remade Wrath of Kahn. I wasn’t aware
of that going into the theater, but damn, with a few alterations here and
there, the second half of this movie is basically a remake. But, to be honest,
it’s a damn good one and it doesn’t play out the same exact way that it did in
Wrath of Kahn. The film also borrows heavily from episodes of the television show.
Still, even when we take these things into consideration, the film manages to
offer us many innovative ideas, one after the other. There’s this awesome chase
sequence that takes place as two ships are traveling at warp speed that was so
awesome! So be ready for a film that has similarities with other stories of
Trek lore while at the same time blowing your brain to smithereens with cool
new ideas. Even the aliens who have minor scenes look freaking cool!
The infamous (yet delectable) stripping scene
Thematically speaking this film is all about terrorists attacks and what makes them happen. Why does a terrorist decide to attack a country and kill innoncents? What fuels that hatred? Is their anger somehow jusitified? The film addresses the terrorist
attacks that took place during 9/11 and it also plays with the notion that these terrorist attacks might have been self inflicted in order to provoke a war. It also
speaks about how the government trains individuals to become stone cold
killers, and then, when these trained killers have to return home, they are
unable to continue functioning properly in society because they are used to
carnage and death. Soldiers just can’t go back to buying cereal at the supermarket
and mowing the lawn, kind of like what we saw in First Blood (1982). They also talk about weapons of mass destruction, a fear
that has recently shown its ugly head again in society and as a result, these fears are now reflected and discussed in films as well; so we get contemporary themes on this film. Above all, what I enjoyed the most about Into
Darkness was how fun it was, it’s never boring, not for a second. So far, this
is the most exciting movie of the Summer 2013 season, it’s even more exciting
than Iron Man 3 (2013), which kind of lacked in action a bit. If it’s not the
entertaining banter between the crew (how charismatic and funny are these guys?)
then it’s the amazing action pieces. Bottom line is this is one big, fun ride!
Now, we all know that J.J. Abrams is the director behind the next Star Wars
film (Episode VII) and all I could think of was what J.J. Abrams will do with
the Star Wars universe; I say strap your selves tight, if Star Trek Into
Darkness is any indication of what J. J. Abrahams can do with a science fiction
property, then were in for an exciting ride through hyper space!
Rating: 5 out of 5
