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$$$ Star Trek Into Darkness Speculation Discussion - Spoilers, natch
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Ginger Beacon: [QB] [b] Right, so, let me say now, this will be a bit spoilerey. I wrote this on Saturday after seeing in Friday, but didn’t post it. In the end I figured why not. It’s ramblings about what I saw basically, with a few questions, comments and bits I liked and didn’t. Skip it if you haven’t seen it yet I guess, because it’s worth watching spoiler free. Although, why would you be here if that was your plan? [/b] Background then: Lucy and I went to see it On Friday night. I was a bit worried about it but excited. I’ve tried to inflict Star Trek onto her and while she likes it, I wouldn’t call her a fan, if you see what I mean. We liked the opening scene – good mix of action and humour. The natives were far more interesting than Spock in the volcano – after all they wouldn’t kill him off that early in the film, would they? Enterprise worship? Nothing new here, fans have been doing that for years. A super Alka Seltza ring? Really? Oh, apparently yes. Fine. Nice to see Bruce Greenwood back. Pike seemed to be rocking the Elvis look, with the fat greying sideburns, the body suit and the big rings - all he needed was the glasses. I really enjoyed the fanboy nods, such as using Section 31. Then, the attack on SFHQ happened and Pike, which was a little unexpected, but what was with Spock mind melding with him - bit intrusive? I dunno. Admiral Marcus’ nice open plan office, with a weird policy of displaying models of classified dreadnaughts alongside older (presumably less classified) star ships. Maybe it’s a clever double bluff. 72 torpedoes, eh? (might be remembering this a bit early). Scotty quits! But why replace him with the lowest ranked officer Kirk can think of? Just asking. At this point I will recant my reactions to the film at certain points. Despite having strived to remain spoiler free, it has been impossible to ignore all the rantings and ravings online, vis a vis John Harrison. So I get to the cinema thinking “Pease don’t be remake”. I watch the Spock scene in the volcano thinking “Uh oh, he’s talking about sacrifices and Kirk is cheating death”. The admiral is named Marcus (wincing uncomfortably). There are 72 torpedoes (Aww shit). I turn to Lucy and explain that I won’t be enjoying the film anymore. She gives me an elbow in the ribs. Fair enough. Anyway, back to the film. The flying hamburger they are going to use is from “The Mudd Incident” – nice. They go to Qu’nos and are chased by D4s. Ok, that sorta works. Then they meet the Blingons! Was that make up or did the Klingon Captain have gold bits on his (less than pronounced) ridges? Also, don’t Klingons have phones? Why did they not call their mates to say “were getting the shit kicked out of us – come quick and bring really big guns”. Might be an honour thing, I dunno. Right, so we get the big reveal – it’s halfway through the film, but ok. Now, to me this was left a little limp. What do I mean? Well, those with no prior will go “so what”. Those wh know a little will go “oh, ok”. Those who know a modest amount will go “oh, yeah, him”. Fans will go “NOOOOOOOOO! WHY? WHYYYYYY? GAH!” Perhaps I’m overeacting, but that was kind of how I felt. If it was a present to the fans, I’ll be swapping it at the store at the nearest opportunity. Lucy also noted that in this context, the vengeance thing was just a bit stupid. It was personal because of who got killed, so it was a personal revenge. It was all about rash decisions and being in the wrong place. There was no build up, no wait and no “w-word”. I also thought, despite being a good actor, Cumberbatch was wrong in this role. He was too lithe, too pale, too sneering. Or, as Lucy said “he’s no where near as buff as he should be”. Hurumph. All right, braced for the rest of it, the hollow feeling in my gut gradually dissipated and I just sat back and watched. The sets were as stupid and big as before – though I did like the torpedoes and the launchers, which fitted a lot better that the six shooters from the old films. Except for where they looked like they were supposed to shoot from. Never mind. I did enjoy watching the Enterprise getting beat up – lots of homage-ery there. A blown up warp nacelle, a huge scar cut into the side of the neck etc. The Dreadnaught was a heroic mess of a ship. Liked the Section 31 vibe, but yet another uniform? Really? That makes how many? There’s the ship board uniform, the scuba suit, the red cadet uniform, the blue wool cadet uniform, the admirals uniform, the teachers uniform, the grey “barracks” uniform, the smart grey uniform with matching hat, the last one but in green, the grey jacket with coloured triangles, the Section 31 uniforms. 11 uniforms (just off the top of my head)? Can you really call them uniforms at this point if everyone is wearing something different? And then came That Scene. What can I say? Erm. Well, I thought it was awful. It was a ham fisted rehash but it also lacked any of the emotional resonance, especially since it wasn’t permanent, or even at the end of the film – that confused me. Also, Quinto, you ain’t no Shatner. It was a good try by switching things around, but it just didn’t do it for me. Lucy noticed and did say to me “I know, he didn’t even steal Scotty’s glove and try to mind meld with him”. She was there in my hour of need. Oh, a note on the sets. I liked them a bit more this time. The brewery engineering was still there, but we saw the warp core. Well actually, we saw a high powered laser experiment, but it sort of fitted, I guess. The inside was bit Star Wars-y though – I was kind of expecting the millennium falcon to fly through and shoot it. I, as a scientist, also enjoyed the “kick it to make it work” approach to dealing with broken delicate and highly sensitive equipment. To be fair, we do that all the time. Oh, and why did the warp core need to be online for the rockets to work? Are those warp rockets? If I was building the Enterprise I'd have rockets that don’t need the warp core on just in case. Um. The ending wrapped everything up nicely I suppose. I was confused as to why Uhura beamed down on her own, but I suppose they couldn’t find a red shirt who wanted to umpire that spat. The baddie can come back but everything is hunky dory. Alice Eve is on the bridge, so that does not necessarily eliminate certain future persons happening. They can make more films, leave it there, do a series or whatever. It’s a good place to be. Lets see, the cast. Well Chris Pine is ok, but a bit wooden in places, B- maybe for him. Pegg was, well, Simon Pegg. Not old Scotty, but good with what he was given and I liked party Scotty, sneaky Scotty and naughty Scotty. I liked Spock in this actually, Quinto was really good. . Urban was probably the unsung casting hero here, although his accent did slip a bit at one point into something odd. His McCoy just about nails it, but really has been side-lined in these films. Yelchin was good in a red shirt, but didn’t really do much. Sulu did even less. Zoe Saldana is still not Uhura for me. She’s too whiney and lacks sassyness. Again, might be writing not casting, but she is my least favourite transition from old to new. BC, as I said I think he was misplaced here, but did well with what they gave him. Alice Eve was ok but didn't have all that much to do - did JJ admit she was there simply to have a nice pair of boobs? [b] Overall, the film was a good flick. But, and it’s a big one, for a film that is trying hard to please it’s fans, most of whom it’s piggybacking from a 45 year old franchise, it kind of undoes itself. It harks back to the 2009 film and the older shows, sometimes very nicely (Section 31, Mudd etc – all small, brief references). It’s got action, big set pieces, dynamic characters, but ultimately it’s a bit untidy around the edges and it is ultimately predicated on ripping off what was (to most Star Trek fans) the best Star Trek film ever. It’s a big let down, it’s not as good as it was the first time around, and it makes me think that maybe it would be better to kill Star Trek here and now. But at least no matter how bad it gets, we still can have our mantra: “It wasn’t as bad as Nemesis.” [/b] [/QB][/QUOTE]
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