Marooned on the far rim of Fairfax Circle last Saturday by a trailer hitch installation, I made my way on foot to the (relatively speaking) nearest movie theater* to watch Star Trek: Into Darkness. I have some things to say, but since they involve spoilers we'll hold off until after the jump.
Executive Summary: An excellent cast are made to say and do things with which I disagree in a film I would really like to love but can only really like.
Click here to proceed. Did I mention there are spoilers galore?
So let's start with what I liked. As with the first Abrams Trek I really enjoyed the interplay of the main cast, particularly Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban, who inhabit Spock and McCoy to an extent I would not have thought possible. In support, Peter Weller enjoys a light snack of scenery as a crusty warmonger, Alice Eve is very easy on the eyes as an oddly-accented** Carol Marcus, and Benedict Cumberbatch is appropriately coldly menacing as (confirms we are below the jump) KHAAAAAAAAAANNN!
Which is where we get into the problems. The film leaned a bit too heavily on a reverse engineering of Star Trek 2 for my liking. Too much pepper in the soup, or something like that. I'm a blogger, not a film critic! Anyway, a lighter touch with the plot and dialog callbacks would have helped. On the other hand, it just occurred to me that Carol Marcus' expression of shame at being her father's daughter was a nice mirror to David Marcus' opposite declaration in Wrath of Khan. So there's that.
But enough with the God-damn lens flare already.
*in absolute terms, 1.5 miles in 90-degree sunshine
**We owe so much to original Spock.
2 comments:
I liked it fine but the whole "there Militirazing StarFleet" idea reminded me of "no fighting in the warroom" from Dr. Strangelove.
Great cast though. Scotty alone is a wonder.
I very much enjoyed the cast. Eomer as Dr. McCoy in particular. Even the reverse engineering was ... OK. But they took it too far. IMHO. I saw the KHAAAAAAN! coming, but when they put Kirk in the contaminated room I couldn't help the "really? REALLY?" reaction. And that's not so good.
Liked, not loved. Wish Cumberbatch had been given the opportunity to show the charismatic side of Khan a bit more.
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