Movie reviews and discussions (spoilers included)

[+ Clase Drene]

We can post movie reviews and comments here about any movie we like, there are no limits. Into darkness is directly reviewed first.:;:. This movie seemed to touch on the second trek movie but in a new light as well as changing character rolls from the original movies, what was/is your understanding?

[+ LtCmdr Alexander Richards]

Disappointing. It's a good summer blockbuster but it, imho, was no where near as good script wise as 09. Technically though (filming, post production etc) it was far superior - especially with 99% less lens flares.

Case in point on the script, haven't we already seen this movie twice before.

[Richard Matthews]

Oh boy, set back relax and smoke 'em if you got them ladies and gents. it's review time!

So, starting with the things I liked: the acting and visuals. The costumes were pretty neat (Oh god the Klingons, the Klingons!) Didn't like them being in all gray all the time. I do appreciate how they had multiple uniforms for different purposes. That is how it works in the military, so point there. My OTP is alive and going strong and a random secondary ship that I blame a very talented fic writer for even had a throw away line in the movie. Completely unintentional but hey shippers will latch on to anything!

. . . Moving right along.

Things I didn't like so much: okay ignore how problematic it is to have a white Brit sub in for a character who should have been Desi, who else was annoyed and found it boring when he turned out to be Khan? It actually had no real impact on the film as far as I could tell. He could have just been Harrison the whole time, and I don't think it would have mattered one bit. That being said I am a Khan fan, one of the best bad guys in TOS, in TOS anyway. Anyone else find the writing for him to be a little off? Khan is a grand chess-master who in the original earned Kirk's respect in spite of his evil ways; I know that was really Admiral (Insert his name here if you know it, I've forgoten) who was the actual big bad. But darn it people! If you're going to use Khan then use him right!

Actually while we are on this subject, to me it seemed like the writers didn't get Jim, Bones, or Spock at the point in time they find themselves in. And don't get me started on Uhura (Ok get me started) relegated to just a girlfriend for the most part with two moments of awesome. Only two! Sulu only got one badass moment in the film and he was setting down. Which no, come on give the man a sword people . . . ok that might be just the silly fanboy in me getting out of line. Moving on.

Not moving on so much, I have to complain about Jim now. He was like a bad fanfiction character for like most of the movie. Of course that was the only way they could make him happy with Spock because he was a [...] himself for most of the movie. And insubordinate to pike. Which just no. . .no . . . NO! And no again. I think the only reason I

And Bones, my favorite character of Star Trek as a whole. All they did was give the guy one liners, although I guess I should be glad that they let him a)be a doctor and that he was ultimately the one who saved Kirk. Really I think of the three Bones might have been done the best now that I think about it. Of course this again could be the fanboy in me. Doesn't help that Karl Urban portrayed the man. A lot of people say that karl does the best job out of the seven of the main cast. And I don't think that the guy disappointed us, but lordy people will not shut up about Cumberbatch, when funny enough I think it was Pine who carried this film. There were like five scenes that I don't think should have worked. But did because of his acting.

And speaking of the writing, let's just talk about the plot shall we? Who, and answer honestly here, was happy about this plot? Because I sure wasn't! They had all this time to come up with something new, and instead we get a remake with Kirk dying instead of Spock. There was a review that I read somewhere that said the movie is excellent until the Khan reveal, where it falls apart. You know what? I agree with whoever said that. It was unnecessary and things didn't make sense. A lot of clever call backs to the original Star Trek kept me entertained at least but who else wanted something more? I mean what is the point of an alternate timeline where it's been gone over and over again about how anything can happen and they just retell the same stories?

The Khan bellow . . . needed to stay out of the movie. Enough said moving on.

Who else loved Carol and was surprised to find that they did? I was! I could care less if they you know went the Jim/Carol rout but hot [...] at least they made the girl interesting and likable. I mean one of the first things she says to Kirk is "So you [...]ed my friend, never called, never wrote, and now you don't even remember her." I choose to ignore that said friend is Christen Chaple. On behalf of the character and Majel, [...] you JJ and company, Chapel woud never!

Now don't get me wrong. There are loads of things to love about this film. But I'm not in love with it like I was back in 2009. It's just not nearly as good as the first movie. That's my opinion anyway and few feels good to get that off the chest.

[+ Dany Rose]

I enjoyed the movie. It had its issues, but the acting was good, it was neat to look at, and it was Star Trek.

The problems I had were mostly two things (and maybe someone can explain how they make sense if they do and I'm being silly):

1) Kahn transported from Earth to Qo'noS-- that was my understanding anyway. If this was possible, why have ships? Harrison used Scotty's transwarp beaming which is for transporting an object/person between adjacent ships or planets. Wouldn't that be Earth to Mars? Qo'noS is not adjacent (as a planet) to Earth. It might be in a solar system adjacent to ours but I think that's stretching it.

2) The length of time it took the Enterprise to warp from Earth to Kronos. Or Kronos to Earth. Or Earth to Vulcan in the first movie thinking about it. In my opinion it would have added dramatic tension to have it actually take the two days its supposed to, but becuase this Star Trek is all action movie that is apparently "boring." I just think back to all those episodes where it took the Enterprise days to get to a place to save the day and having Kirk/Picard/Captain-of-Choice pacing and with the music and maybe a narration via a captain's log... nail biting to be sure.

I liked the first movie better. But I too really like the Carol Marcus character-- she surprised me. Overall it was still fun and Star Trek and that makes me happy despite the flaws.

[+ Whale]

I wrote my thoughts on the film here: http://www.whalewriter.com/star-trek-into-darkness-a-spoiler-filled-sort-of-review/

Spoiler warning, obviously

[Kali Nicholotti]

1) Kahn transported from Earth to Qo'noS-- that was my understanding anyway. If this was possible, why have ships? Harrison used Scotty's transwarp beaming which is for transporting an object/person between adjacent ships or planets. Wouldn't that be Earth to Mars? Qo'noS is not adjacent (as a planet) to Earth. It might be in a solar system adjacent to ours but I think that's stretching it.

I've been running around saying *this exact thing* ever since I saw the movie...my biggest issue with it...

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

BIG SPOILERS!

Finally saw the movie last night!

Overall, I thought it was entertaining. Lots of stuff to nitpick on the technical side -- the transporter, for instance -- but I at least appreciate that they set that device up in the previous movie, as opposed to making it up for this one. So I at least felt like there was some continuity in the universe there.

I was most disappointed that they wrapped up the story and brought Kirk back to life. If you're going to go all in on retelling the TOS movies, do it right. Give us the dramatic tension of wondering whether Kirk returns for the next movie. They still could have used the same device to return him to life, but wrapping it up in a bow like that was kind meh.

I think the biggest problem with the Khan/Harrisman thing is that you're damned if you do, damned if you don't make him Khan. If he's Khan, you set up this whole trick for the audience because you knew there'd be questions about whether he's Khan, but then it's kind of a letdown because it wasn't a chess-game at all like Khan was. If you don't make him Khan, then you scrap the character's motivations for all this and you have to basically rewrite the whole thing. That said, I'm still not entirely clear why Khan would start all this by killing the captains at the CO meeting at SFHQ -- what exactly did that accomplish?

Is the idea in Hollywood that audiences just can't handle dramatic tension anymore? Wrath of Khan worked because there was a great build-up, and then you had the long slow nebula chase, etc. I guess we'll never get tired of movie plots on warp speed, but I think we also miss out on a great element of good storytelling.

Finally, I think the most difficult part of this whole Abrams series is that he's trying to serve too many masters. He's trying to make a good movie but also talk to the fans. There's just too much to accomplish in a two hour long film. Too much to try and explain in all that time. I felt like, when looking at TOS, the biggest loss in the new movies is simply the lack of real unity and strength in the crew. Spock and Kirk's friendship seems forced -- we spent the first 30m of the movie with Kirk hating him, but we're supposed to believe they have this deep friendship? And McCoy seems like a bit player more than Kirk's closest friend and confidante. Overall, Kirk seems less like a leader and more like the guy running around trying to find his head all the time. Everyone still seems like they're just getting to know each other, rather than a crew that -- by Wrath of Khan -- had known each other for, what, 10 or 15 years at that point?

That said, there was plenty to like about this. I thought it was entertaining and enjoyable, and despite the total lack of grace in the Enterprise's engine room, I kinda liked that the engine is this crazy looking thing with a ton of tubes and wires, as opposed to a long cylinder with "the warp" in it, if you know what I mean.

On it's own, it's a A- action movie. When you try and reconcile the Star Trek stuff, it's a B-.