Let's get into it.
I will admit that I have never seen Wrath of Khan. I've never been a Star Trek fan, so I never bothered, and thus may be missing something in Abrams' remake. However, one of the things I loved so much about his first reboot was that it was so accessible - you didn't have to be a Trek fan to know what was going on, and you didn't have to be familiar with the characters to fall in love with them. So I'm not willing to cut Abrams any slack on this front.
That said, here are my specific complaints about Star Trek: Into Darkness.
- As I said in my first review, I thought Abrams was telling us with his first Trek that he was off the leash, not to be constrained by the previously established Trek canon (however you may feel about that decision). But what do we get as a follow up? A film that tries to shoe horn as much reference and remake that it possibly can into a story that would have been better served without it. John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) was more interesting before the "reveal" that we're actually just doing Khan again. The story of Kirk's disgrace with the Academy, and him getting called to task for his shitty captaining by his mentor Admiral Pike, was way more fascinating than the revenge drama we got. All of this was washed away in the first twenty minutes of the movie.
- Let's talk about those first twenty minutes. I was SO excited to see Pike's dressing down of Kirk, because it's a big character moment for him - yes, he's been insanely lucky so far, but the way he runs his ship and his attitude are dangerous and will probably kill someone someday. To have another character, one that Kirk respects so much, actually call him out for that could have been a great story to follow - except that we forget about that the instant Pike dies. The Federation takes the Enterprise away from Kirk...and then gives it back to him almost instantly. His abilities as a captain are never in question for the rest of the film. Even his bad decisions are mostly the product of him taking pretty solid advice from his crew. It doesn't end up meaning anything.
- Which brings me to character motive, or lack thereof. As a Federation terrorist, Harrison was on the way to having some kind of motive - perhaps he was wronged by the Federation. It doesn't matter, it didn't have to be complicated. But by turning around and making him Khan, he has a tenuous motive for revenge against one specific member of the Federation (Admiral Marcus, who, um, what? How can I give a shit about a conflict with someone I've never met before, and who's characterization wasn't explored enough to matter) and NOTHING to justify that last scene where he crashed the ship into San Francisco. Khan is only ever angry at one person: Marcus, Kirk, Spock. But somehow, we're supposed to buy that he's this huge danger to the universe?
I feel like this is where it would have been helpful to have seen Wrath of Khan, because the scene with Old Spock gives some intimations of how dangerous Khan is - but the point is, we never see that in this version. He's some kind of superhuman, and I totally get why he hates Marcus, but the explosive destruction aimed at the Federation is never earned.
- Seriously, the Klingons were in the movie for two minutes and were more interesting than everything else. Can the next movie be about them?
- The dialogue was brutal. Seriously, I love Karl Urban, he's a great actor, and we've seen that he's great at being Bones - so why why WHY would you reduce him to a series of stereotypical metaphors and one-liners? All of the characters were distilled down to their TOS stereotypes (except, interestingly, Spock, who continually talks about being unable to feel and then being REALLY BAD at not feeling).
Speaking of, can we talk about how unfair Uhura's part in this whole thing was? I alluded to it in my other review, but seriously: she's supposed to be capable and professional. I do not believe at all that she would choose to fight about her relationship with Spock on the shuttle on the way to an extremely dangerous mission. It was poorly placed, distracting, and damaging to all characters involved.
- For all that the stakes keep being raised, and the probability of death looms ever closer, I never felt like there was any tension. With the sole exception of Khan and Kirk's flight through space (which would have been even more effective if it had been edited a little tighter), I never once was afraid for these characters. Hell, Kirk died and I didn't take it seriously, because I knew what story we were in (which is another reason the Khan bait-and-switch doesn't work - yes, it's Spock that dies in the original, but that doesn't stick, either). There is a way to create tension when your audience knows the ending of the story, this movie just never knows how.
- And at the end...nothing is different. Khan is back in a cryo tube (which, how? How do you fight an super being back into a freezing tube?) Kirk has the Enterprise back. All the relationships are where they were in the beginning, because nothing was ever a serious threat to them. The whole film felt like a wasted opportunity.
I'll probably go see more Trek films, if Abrams keeps making them. But I won't feel the same kind of unreserved excitement I had before STID. Which makes me really, really sad.
I will admit that I have never seen Wrath of Khan. I've never been a Star Trek fan, so I never bothered, and thus may be missing something in Abrams' remake. However, one of the things I loved so much about his first reboot was that it was so accessible - you didn't have to be a Trek fan to know what was going on, and you didn't have to be familiar with the characters to fall in love with them. So I'm not willing to cut Abrams any slack on this front.
That said, here are my specific complaints about Star Trek: Into Darkness.
- As I said in my first review, I thought Abrams was telling us with his first Trek that he was off the leash, not to be constrained by the previously established Trek canon (however you may feel about that decision). But what do we get as a follow up? A film that tries to shoe horn as much reference and remake that it possibly can into a story that would have been better served without it. John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) was more interesting before the "reveal" that we're actually just doing Khan again. The story of Kirk's disgrace with the Academy, and him getting called to task for his shitty captaining by his mentor Admiral Pike, was way more fascinating than the revenge drama we got. All of this was washed away in the first twenty minutes of the movie.
- Let's talk about those first twenty minutes. I was SO excited to see Pike's dressing down of Kirk, because it's a big character moment for him - yes, he's been insanely lucky so far, but the way he runs his ship and his attitude are dangerous and will probably kill someone someday. To have another character, one that Kirk respects so much, actually call him out for that could have been a great story to follow - except that we forget about that the instant Pike dies. The Federation takes the Enterprise away from Kirk...and then gives it back to him almost instantly. His abilities as a captain are never in question for the rest of the film. Even his bad decisions are mostly the product of him taking pretty solid advice from his crew. It doesn't end up meaning anything.
- Which brings me to character motive, or lack thereof. As a Federation terrorist, Harrison was on the way to having some kind of motive - perhaps he was wronged by the Federation. It doesn't matter, it didn't have to be complicated. But by turning around and making him Khan, he has a tenuous motive for revenge against one specific member of the Federation (Admiral Marcus, who, um, what? How can I give a shit about a conflict with someone I've never met before, and who's characterization wasn't explored enough to matter) and NOTHING to justify that last scene where he crashed the ship into San Francisco. Khan is only ever angry at one person: Marcus, Kirk, Spock. But somehow, we're supposed to buy that he's this huge danger to the universe?
I feel like this is where it would have been helpful to have seen Wrath of Khan, because the scene with Old Spock gives some intimations of how dangerous Khan is - but the point is, we never see that in this version. He's some kind of superhuman, and I totally get why he hates Marcus, but the explosive destruction aimed at the Federation is never earned.
- Seriously, the Klingons were in the movie for two minutes and were more interesting than everything else. Can the next movie be about them?
- The dialogue was brutal. Seriously, I love Karl Urban, he's a great actor, and we've seen that he's great at being Bones - so why why WHY would you reduce him to a series of stereotypical metaphors and one-liners? All of the characters were distilled down to their TOS stereotypes (except, interestingly, Spock, who continually talks about being unable to feel and then being REALLY BAD at not feeling).
Speaking of, can we talk about how unfair Uhura's part in this whole thing was? I alluded to it in my other review, but seriously: she's supposed to be capable and professional. I do not believe at all that she would choose to fight about her relationship with Spock on the shuttle on the way to an extremely dangerous mission. It was poorly placed, distracting, and damaging to all characters involved.
- For all that the stakes keep being raised, and the probability of death looms ever closer, I never felt like there was any tension. With the sole exception of Khan and Kirk's flight through space (which would have been even more effective if it had been edited a little tighter), I never once was afraid for these characters. Hell, Kirk died and I didn't take it seriously, because I knew what story we were in (which is another reason the Khan bait-and-switch doesn't work - yes, it's Spock that dies in the original, but that doesn't stick, either). There is a way to create tension when your audience knows the ending of the story, this movie just never knows how.
- And at the end...nothing is different. Khan is back in a cryo tube (which, how? How do you fight an super being back into a freezing tube?) Kirk has the Enterprise back. All the relationships are where they were in the beginning, because nothing was ever a serious threat to them. The whole film felt like a wasted opportunity.
I'll probably go see more Trek films, if Abrams keeps making them. But I won't feel the same kind of unreserved excitement I had before STID. Which makes me really, really sad.
Also when Spock died, he was out of the picture for a whole movie before they went and got him back- much more convincing than Kirk's.
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