Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

What JJ said:

At the end of the day, while I agree with Damon Lindelof that withholding the Khan thing ended up seeming like we were lying to people, I was trying to preserve the fun for the audience, and not just tell them something that the characters don’t learn for 45 minutes into the movie, so the audience wouldn’t be so ahead of it. I felt like, in a weird way, it was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends — brilliantly talented writers — who I somehow misled in trying to do certain things. And yet, I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible. Thank god I had the cast that we have, who are so unbelievably fun to watch. And an incredible new villain in Benedict Cumberbatch… I would never say that I don’t think that the movie ended up working. But I feel like it didn’t work as well as it could have had I made some better decisions before we started shooting.

 

[Osato]

What JJ said:

At the end of the day, while I agree with Damon Lindelof that withholding the Khan thing ended up seeming like we were lying to people, I was trying to preserve the fun for the audience, and not just tell them something that the characters don’t learn for 45 minutes into the movie, so the audience wouldn’t be so ahead of it. I felt like, in a weird way, it was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends — brilliantly talented writers — who I somehow misled in trying to do certain things. And yet, I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible. Thank god I had the cast that we have, who are so unbelievably fun to watch. And an incredible new villain in Benedict Cumberbatch… I would never say that I don’t think that the movie ended up working. But I feel like it didn’t work as well as it could have had I made some better decisions before we started shooting.

agreed. It’s not unwatchable but it’s not satisfying either.

I thought beyond was better.

in a lot of ways I think Star Trek has a hard time being a big budget production. Also the jj films almost ended up having some of the same problems that Voyager did. It’s a new universe but you want to bring in some familiarity to it.

I was hoping for a 4th film too.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think Abrams’ reflection is pretty accurate. Like I said, that movie got me through hell and I’ll always enjoy it. But I do wish he had cut back a little on the action and put a little more into the writing because all of the pieces are there - it’s sort of like an undercooked stew where it’s got great ingredients that haven’t finished coming together.

 

[Osato]

I think Abrams’ reflection is pretty accurate. Like I said, that movie got me through hell and I’ll always enjoy it. But I do wish he had cut back a little on the action and put a little more into the writing because all of the pieces are there - it’s sort of like an undercooked stew where it’s got great ingredients that haven’t finished coming together.

we needed more Alice eve too.

 

[TravisR]

That shot of the Enterprise looking small falling through the clouds, nothing but the clouds for a few seconds and then the ship rising up out of the clouds in the foreground was amazing. I love that so much that I wish Abrams had ripped himself off and did the same thing with the Millennium Falcon in one of his Star Wars movies.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

I don't hate this film. I like a lot of it. I don't like the whole TWoK rip-off scene at the end, and I still just roll my eyes at Spock yelling "Khan!!!" - which was not where Kirk did it in TWoK.

Thinking about it, they did kind of structure a lot of this Khan's motivations around things known from the past versions of Khan. His background (kind-of), and his remaining crew, or "family". That stuff would have needed re-thinking to give Harrison a different motivation to betray Marcus. Bringing in "Carol" was totally unnecessary. Any new secondary character would do - even if still played by Alice Eve.

Going back to the point of my last post, I still think Abrams and Co. were basically goaded into using Khan. As I mentioned, all the entertainment media began saying how "fans now want Khan". But the entertainment media has the wrong idea of what Star Trek fans really want - and Khan was not it. Yet, Abrams and Co. fell for it. But, we got what we got.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That shot of the Enterprise looking small falling through the clouds, nothing but the clouds for a few seconds and then the ship rising up out of the clouds in the foreground was amazing. I love that so much that I wish Abrams had ripped himself off and did the same thing with the Millennium Falcon in one of his Star Wars movies.

Yeah, that was stunning - especially in IMAX 3D. Still makes me cheer when I see it.

I’m still annoyed that when I watch it home that I have to choose between regular 3D or IMAX 2D, but not both together as it was originally intended.

I also thought from a design perspective it was genius to have anything “indoors” at the normal scope ratio and anything “outdoors” was IMAX. There was an intuitive logic to that choice that made the switching ratios feel natural rather than distracting.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

In recent years, I feel like I've come to appreciate what all the different incarnations of Star Trek have brought to the table. I love the franchise as a whole, even the parts I don't like, if that makes sense. I don't like Into Darkness, but I know many do, so I'm glad the franchise still connects with people.

But I still can't get over how spectacularly Paramount failed to manage the success of the 2009 film. They really took too long getting Into Darkness out there. I know they were waiting while J.J. did Super 8, but I think the four-year interval hurt the momentum quite a bit. Into Darkness made money (more worldwide than the first one did), but it felt like the enthusiasm wasn't as strong.

Setting aside whether you liked the actual movie or not, the marketing for Into Darkness just felt off to me. A lot of it, of course, was the stupid Khan bait-and-switch. I think it was a bad idea to include Khan at all, but if you're going to, why not hype that up? If you want the name recognition, why keep it a secret?

Then when it came to Beyond, they actually had a good movie on their hands, and it was being released during the 50th anniversary of the franchise. I don't think Paramount and CBS were on the best terms at the time, but surely they could have worked out something to make the movie's release more of an event.

Maybe now that all of Trek is back under one roof, they'll get some synergy going again.

 

[BobO'Link]

...it’s sort of like an undercooked stew where it’s got great ingredients that haven’t finished coming together.

That one statement pretty much sums up how I feel about this entire trilogy.

I was looking at the BR cases last night (this thread got me to dig them out for a possible rewatch). The thing that stuck out the most were the blurbs on the cases: "Fun, Smart, Sleek, Sexy, and Action Packed" (Star Trek) - "Spectacular... Exhilarating fun" (Into Darkness) - "Best action movie of the year" (Beyond). Not a single blurb about the story, or the cast, or anything of significance. Basically "Here's another action movie for the summer" type comments. And that's all I get from them. Outside use of character/item names the scripts don't make me feel like I'm watching a Trek movie at all - just another generic action movie set in space with familiar names to make me feel good. It's what I've come to expect from Abrams. All flash and little substance.

And that makes me sad because the cast is quite good. To good to be wasted on generic action/adventure space opera films.

 

[Tino]

This thread has me psyched to rewatch all three terrific films. Darkness may actually be my favorite.

 

[Tino]

A very well-crafted film, even if it felt a bit unnecessary. The cast is stellar, with terrific chemistry among all of the key players. Great cinematography, production design and costumes. Confident and well-paced.Having had two films in a row where the Enterprise uses military tactics to stop a military threat to the human race, I hope the next one is a really far-out science fiction concept. On their five year mission, find something truly alien and unknown, really "boldly go where no man has gone before."

Sounds like you’ve changed your opinion on this film.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Sounds like you’ve changed your opinion on this film.

All of the things that I praised back then still apply, it's just the flaws felt a little more problematic this time around.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys, interesting discussion about Into Darkness. It was good that Abrams has spoken about what worked and didn’t work in the script.

As some of you know, I don’t like this reboot. And I wanted to as a very long time fan of The Original Series. I recall a review of the first film, it said words to the effect that it has all the required elements for Star Trek, except it lacks that one element that made Star Trek what it is. It lacked an intelligence and substance that the series is so well known for. And when I saw the first film, I have to agree. As well as the second film. It’s Star Trek in name only. It lack’s the original’s spirit and ideas.

A poster mentioned above, they are very well made action movies, that’s mostly what they are. And I have to agree, they look great and have terrific visual effects. The Enterprise coming out of the clouds of Titan and out of the ocean in Into Darkness are fun to see. Very well done CGi.

In an interview with JJ Abrams, he related a story when he was a young boy, his father took him to Paramount studios to see a rough cut of Star Trek The Motion Picture and he said he was bored. But he loved Star Wars! Like any property where the original creative team is no longer developing the projects, I think it takes a certain person with the right understanding of the material and how to best interpret it to be the new show runner. In this case, because Abrams was a hot ticket, he was picked. But I knew his heart was in Star Wars, and that’s what he wanted to do. And of course, Star Trek is not Star Wars. ( And who can say that about Star Trek The Motion Picture! )

 

[Colin Jacobson]

we needed more Alice eve in her underwear

FTFY!

 

[Osato]

One challenge for paramount on potential future Star Trek films will be how to keep the cost down. Star Trek films do not do Star Wars / marvel money at the box office.
Into darkness is the highest grossing one I believe. $467 million.

 

[Tino]

I recall a review of the first film, it said words to the effect that it has all the required elements for Star Trek, except it lacks that one element that made Star Trek what it is. It lacked an intelligence and substance that the series is so well known for. And when I saw the first film, I have to agree. As well as the second film. It’s Star Trek in name only. It lack’s the original’s spirit and ideas.

I’m a long time Trek fan too and I wholeheartedly disagree with this assessment. I think all three films absolutely had the core Star Trek values, spirits and ideas firmly in place.

 

[Sam Favate]

I really didn’t like this one. It rivals Nemesis as my least favorite Star Trek movie. (Yes, both are worse than ST V.) I really hated the destruction at the end of the movie. In the wake of 9/11, I continue to believe that seeing destruction of major cities is the last thing audiences want to see. Also didn’t like the Khan ripoffs, nor did I like Cumberbatch, who over-enunciates every word, so as to sound ridiculous. Didn’t like the plot of the Vengeance (a rogue admiral or three in Starfleet, okay; an entire ship? That’s pushing it.). The Klingons were mishandled, as was the continuity-breaking idea that you could beam someplace many star systems away. Also, hated the disservice done to Pike in the beginning. Just terrible. There is almost nothing I liked about it.

 

[Osato]

I really didn’t like this one. It rivals Nemesis as my least favorite Star Trek movie. (Yes, both are worse than ST V.) I really hated the destruction at the end of the movie. In the wake of 9/11, I continue to believe that seeing destruction of major cities is the last thing audiences want to see. Also didn’t like the Khan ripoffs, nor did I like Cumberbatch, who over-enunciates every word, so as to sound ridiculous. Didn’t like the plot of the Vengeance (a rogue admiral or three in Starfleet, okay; an entire ship? That’s pushing it.). The Klingons were mishandled, as was the continuity-breaking idea that you could beam someplace many star systems away. Also, hated the disservice done to Pike in the beginning. Just terrible. There is almost nothing I liked about it.

It’s one of my least favorites too.