![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/star_trek_into_darkness_feat.jpg\" "\\"star_trek_into_darkness_feat\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
T<\/span>his post contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film and don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read another sentence.<\/b><\/p>\n I should admit upfront that while I enjoy J.J. Abrams’ update of Star Trek<\/em>, I ultimately prefer the quiet, more thoughtful and ethical dilemma-driven Original Series to the more action-oriented approach of the recent movies. That preference drives my major dislikes below, but I ultimately think it is a weaker film for its reliance on action, and that it’s not just my personal preference saying so.<\/p>\n I should also admit that I’ve only seen The Motion Picture<\/em> of the original series movies, so I have very little knowledge or preconceptions of the particular Trek<\/em> lore that informs Into Darkness<\/em>.<\/p>\n Now, THIS is a villain. Cumberbatch is menacing every second he’s on screen, but menacing in such an extremely charismatic way that I never wanted him to leave the screen. It’s only been a few days since I saw the movie, but I already remember every one of his scenes 10x better than all the other scenes. Kirk who? No, but seriously, he’s a villian who gives you chills simply with a glance or a tone of voice, and I loved seeing that.<\/p>\n I just said I didn’t remember the rest of the cast as much as Cumberbatch, and that’s probably true, but they still all did a wonderful job embodying their characters from the original series. That was my favorite thing about Abrams’ first Star Trek<\/em> movie, and nobody’s fallen down on the job since then. I particularly liked the extra time given to Checkhov, even if he did prove not to be as good an engineer as Scottie. He was trying so hard! <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Along with the previous thing, Zachary Quinto continues to be a standout as Spock. He gets the character perfectly, and I quite liked his arc here – always bringing up the logical thing, as Spock is wont to do, but he played the parallel scenes discussing his suppression of emotion with Uhura and realizing he can’t always suppress it with Kirk really well, and it was great fun seeing the ever-cool Spock go off the deep end in rage. Incidentally, after that one scene with Kirk and Spock, I can totally see the genesis of slashfic. Just saying.<\/p>\n There’s humor spread throughout Star Trek Into Darkness<\/em>, but the moment that made me laugh out loud predictably involved Simon Pegg (who I love anyway). When he’s on the other starship and trying to get to the airlock he needs to open to let the Enterprise team in, and the camera just lets him run all the way down a very long hallway. Kudos to Abrams for letting a long shot like that play all the way out, especially in the middle of an action sequence. It’s a great technique that not many directors utilize any more, and it played perfectly here. Probably my single favorite shot of the whole film.<\/p>\n In movies or shows that have a long history and a lot of lore, I really love moments that tie it into the existing mythology, so I liked the ending with the Enterprise setting out on the five-year voyage that is the basis of The Original Series. It’s a fan moment, to be sure, but it definitely brought a pleased smile to my face and left me with a warm fuzzy at the end of the film.<\/p>\n Okay, I get that the new Star Trek<\/em> films are specifically reimagined as action films, and I get that that’s part of why they’ve managed to be so popular. And I certainly love a good action sequence. But here’s the thing. The most intense and electrifying moments in this film are whenever Cumberbatch is on screen simply talking. He’s utterly menacing, and even though he proved to be a formidable physical enemy in the fight against the Klingons as well as later, he’s still more terrifying just talking. There’s a battle of the wills (and ethics, and morals) set up here between him and Kirk as well as Spock, and it seems like there was SO MUCH unplumbed possibility for psychological warfare in here. It’s clear he’s extremely devious and untrustworthy, but his concern for his crew is a strong magnet for someone like Kirk. And the film seems to want to deal with the psychological challenge of dealing with someone like this, given Kirk’s final speech that talked about the danger of becoming like the enemy in order to beat him. But we actually didn’t see any of that play out on screen, it was only talked about, because the film wanted to spend its time in action set-pieces instead of psychological complexity.<\/p>\n Admittedly, I haven’t seen The Wrath of Khan<\/em>, so I had no stake in whether Cumberbatch was Khan or not. Frankly, I don’t think trying to keep his identity secret in the marketing made much difference anyway, even if everyone hadn’t already guessed it was going to be him. Relying on a reveal like this is silly, and Abrams needs to stop doing it. And then the reveal itself, when Cumberbatch just goes “My name is…Khan.” It’s simply fan service, nothing more. If you didn’t already have a knowledge of Khan from previous Star Trek<\/em> iterations, the only reaction is “and….so what?” Because his being Khan doesn’t mean ANYTHING at this point within this film.<\/p>\n And that unbalanced dependence on action is nowhere more clear than in the central action sequence which starts with Admiral Marcus attacking the Enterprise and doesn’t end until Spock finds Kirk in the radiation chamber, or even possibly when Khan is defeated. It escalates over and over for no reason other than to escalate, and with no rise and fall that lets you regroup and start to care again. By the time Kirk headed up into the core, I was like, okay, he’s got to do what now, oh, whatever, I don’t even care anymore. It was too much, my adrenaline had already run out with no breathing time to recover it, I didn’t feel any real stakes (now, if they’d actually let Kirk die for real, that would’ve helped some), and I was basically just biding time until it was over. Which was like forty minutes or something. And it’s not like I’m not an action fan. I love well-executed, interesting, well-shot, well-choreographed, and well-paced action. This was largely just bombast. Also, apparently the people on the Enterprise are a gazillion times more important than anybody on the ground, because it was uber-important to stop the Enterprise from crashing and killing everyone on board, but no one cares that Khan crashed his ship and took out several city blocks presumably full of people.<\/p>\n As a side note, having the part where Khan and Kirk shoot across debris-filled open space to hit a three-meter airlock on the other ship be so close to the beginning of this sequence? Dumb. Because really, everything after that is anticlimactic. Nothing can really beat that in terms of flashiness.<\/p>\n Should’ve had more Cumberbatch, more mind games, and more exploration of the moral quicksand of defeating an enemy like Khan. Should’ve had less mindless, bombastic action. A decently enjoyable popcorn movie, but nothing more. Star Trek<\/em> is capable of much better, but I’m not sure Abrams is the right guy to tease it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This post contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film and don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read another sentence. I should admit upfront that while I enjoy J.J. Abrams’ update of Star Trek, I ultimately prefer the quiet, more thoughtful and ethical dilemma-driven Original Series to the more action-oriented approach of the recent movies. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,2663],"tags":[2820,2818,2012,755,2821,2817,2819],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/star_trek_into_darkness_feat.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32879,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/scorecard-june-september-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":32821,"position":0},"title":"Scorecard: June-September 2013","author":"Jandy","date":"October 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This has been a long time in the works. Even after I decided to just go with picture instead of blurbs and the whole bit, it still took me like two weeks to put together. Lots of interruptions lately. The baby is crawling, and she has the best cord-finding radar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/SC-Much-Ado-About-Nothing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3265,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/2010-oscar-prediction-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":32821,"position":1},"title":"2010 Oscar Prediction Time!","author":"Jandy","date":"March 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We're only a day away from the Academy Awards, and I figured I'd put up a few prediction thoughts. We'll be live-blogging the ceremony itself over on Row Three, so look out for that starting around 4pm PST. Plus, if you think you've got a good peg on the awards\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36284,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-35-animal-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":32821,"position":2},"title":"Challenge Week 35: Animal House","author":"Jandy","date":"September 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There have been several movies in this challenge that I didn't expect to like and surprised me quite a bit. This was not one of them. After I loved The Blues Brothers so much, I thought maybe my pre-conceptions of Animal House might be way off, and the team of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/national-lampoons-animal-house.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/national-lampoons-animal-house.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/national-lampoons-animal-house.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/national-lampoons-animal-house.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3136,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/wrapping-up-2009-my-favorite-movies\/","url_meta":{"origin":32821,"position":3},"title":"Wrapping Up 2009: My Favorite Movies","author":"Jandy","date":"January 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, another year is down the tubes, and even the time of frenzied list making (not only of the year but of the decade in many cases) is starting to wind down. My top ten films of 2009 and my top ten of the decade are posted over on Row\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"chungking-express.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/chungking-express.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35722,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/challenge-week-12-army-of-darkness\/","url_meta":{"origin":32821,"position":4},"title":"Challenge Week 12: Army of Darkness","author":"Jandy","date":"March 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"That...was...AWESOME. Near the beginning, a medieval lord throws a prisoner into a deep pit. After a minute, a veritable geyser of blood shoots out of the pit and all over the courtyard. At that moment, I knew I was going to love this movie. It's got an over-the-top audacity that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/tf-feat-boom-stick.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32697,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/our-little-future-movie-fan\/","url_meta":{"origin":32821,"position":5},"title":"Our Little Future Movie Fan","author":"Jandy","date":"April 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I meant to do this post much earlier, but as anyone out there with kids will understand, they're kind of time-consuming, especially in the first few weeks. Our daughter was born March 1st, and thus is six weeks old today. As may come as no surprise to anyone who recognizes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Karina-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Things I Liked<\/h3>\n
Benedict Cumberbatch<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/benedict_cumberbatch_star_trek_into_darkness.jpg\" "\\"benedict_cumberbatch_star_trek_into_darkness\\"")
<\/p>\nThe cast’s continued embodiment of the roles<\/h4>\n
Spock’s character moments<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/startrek-hands.jpg\" "\\"startrek-hands\\"")
<\/p>\nThe long shot of Scottie running<\/h4>\n
The beginning of the five-year voyage<\/h4>\n
Things I Didn’t<\/h3>\n
Relying on action rather than psychology<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Star_Trek_Into_Darkness_Enterprise.jpg\" "\\"Star_Trek_Into_Darkness_Enterprise\\"")
<\/p>\nThe reveal<\/h4>\n
The overlong central action sequence<\/h4>\n
The Conclusion<\/h3>\n