Saturday, May 18, 2013

Why I didn't like Star Trek: Into darkness

Excellent movies have often caught me by surprise. 

Seeing Drive for the first time is an example of this. I expected a mindless action film with Ryan Gosling playing Vin diesel-light. Instead I was shown a story of a silent loner who had serious issues and desires. Drive was a film about a character experiencing deep pain and wanting a way out of it. So keeping this in mind, I shouldn't be surprised at why I found the newest Star Trek disappointing.



The movie succeeds at being exactly what I expected it to. There are lens flares, explosions, epic songs and especially evil villains. The cast is back, filling their seats exactly where they left them after the 2009 reboot. The film even delves into themes of terrorism and the philosophical challenges of war and defense. While there are so many positives to look at when examining this film, I can't help but wonder why it left me with such a bad taste in my mouth.


Star Trek has always been driven by characters.

If anyone ever tells you otherwise, they are wrong. Whether observing the series television shows, or the theatrical releases, every successful outing of Star Trek is fueled by characters. The more pain and difficulty that they go through, the better. One of the most beloved characters from The Next Generation, Data, is specifically praised because his entire purpose is to display human growth from a distinctly Star Trek perspective. Spock achieved the same level of development in the original series. 

Star Trek: First Contact, is an excellent example of characters in turmoil. The characters that the audience have known for over a decade, are questioning their identities. Data is tempted by the Borg,  while the ship itself is slowly consumed and destroyed. The characters in that film are engrossing, and pull the audience with them through a well crafted tale.

Into Darkness lacks believable story.

Sure, we get the bullet points that Abrams wants the audience to know. Kirk sleeps with lots of women, he gets into fights, he drinks, he violates rules and he often does this to defend people that do not reciprocate. But when you think of a character like this, if Kirk actually held these traits and was consistent, he would horribly depressed. The original Kirk may have been similar, but it feels like someone created a list of traits that Shatner displayed with the original Kirk and told Chris Pine to show them without any context. I felt like the new Kirk had absolutely no reason to act the way he did. There was no story displayed that justified the creation of such an absurd character. This pervades all of the film and is a constant problem that Abrams never addresses.

The dialogue in this film is painfully blank in most instances. This leads to flat characters that are predictable and cliche. None of the characters every really grow and learn from their mistakes. It is most obvious with the addition of Alice Eve, whom has no purpose in the film other than to provide a pathetically weak female that Kirk can save. She has maybe ten lines, yet we see her half naked almost immediately. 

By the way, did nobody notice that she has a British accent, and her father has an American accent? How did that happen?

The result of such vapid character development is that at no point am I actually concerned for the well being of any of the characters in the film.

At the end of the original Wrath of Khan, when a critical character sacrifices his life for the well being of the crew, I remember feeling genuinely sad. There was no gimmick or magical solution for his passing. Without revealing Into Darkness's plot, the new star trek establishes almost immediately that any character can be brought back from near death. I'm not making this up, it's literally the first scene of the film where we learn how to give life to any organism. Tension cannot be created with such possibilities.

There are many more reasons why I didn't like Into Darkness, but they are predictable. 3D needs to go away, it hasn't added anything to film. The story could have been made much more sensible by simply removing some of the more absurd story elements.

Imax is apparently slang for, so loud you'll look past the plot holes

I went into this movie thinking about the new Star Wars films. I was excited to see work by the man who would be creating those titles. I left with a genuine worry for the future of the science fiction genre. Abrams has failed miserably to deliver anything close to the film I expect.

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