STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (3D)
Plot? In Act 1 we see Kirk as a brazen, arrogant captain of the Enterprise, who follows his own rules and is told to get a dose of humility. After facing the challenges presented throughout Act 2 and 3 with some kind of death wish, Kirk learns… nothing. Rather the audience learns that the main character isn’t Kirk, but once again it was Spock all along, as despite being an emotionless being, he has the greatest emotional journey. Well that doesn’t sound too promising for character development, now does it? But don’t get me wrong, they’re still entertaining characters at the end of the day. Meanwhile everyone else practices their poker face in Act 2, except for those wearing a red shirt – turns out they’ve all been selected for random extermination.
Recommend it? I do, particularly if you’ve seen the first one (actually you won’t understand a lot about the characters if you haven’t seen the first, as Star Trek Into Darkness leaps straight into the action and doesn’t dumb things down, which I appreciate). The characters are enjoyable, there are explosions, fights, special effects and it’s all a bit of fun, really. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a Hollywood blockbuster – honestly I can’t say it’s better or worse than any other film that’s typically in its genre. It’s certainly not ground-breaking cinema or anything – in a few decades time I’m not sure how well this series will be remembered, although its done wonders for the Star Trek fandom. But as I said, these films are kinda just made to be entertaining and nothing much else, and comparing it to that standard, Star Trek Into Darkness achieves its goal.
Act 2 does get a bit mind-bogging in regards to character motivations. Remember in The Avengers where there’s just a lot of talking and guessing of other characters’ motivations? Yeah, it’s that all over again, but thankfully Star Trek Into Darkness still manages to keep momentum, unlike The Avengers which practically grinds to a halt with its action. Apart from that, you’ll enjoy it and possibly even watch it twice. Go for 3D – you get more of the feeling of the sparseness of space. I was too lazy to drive to a place with Vmax/Imax, but honestly I didn’t mind it on a regular sized cinema screen. Upgrade if you’re particularly picky. If you’re too impatient to simply wait a week, then do book your seat ahead. After the first Sunday, the number of admissions tends to die off quickly with these blockbusters (how about seeing it Monday night? What a novel idea!). Morning weekday sessions are dead, as always.
(WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD)
Further discussion? I feel the more you try to analyse Kirk’s character journey and lessons, the more you realize he didn’t learn anything. The writer’s tried to make it so that Kirk learns from Spock and the same vice versa, but the thing is, in Act 1 Kirk makes the decision that his friends are important and worth saving, and in Act 3 when he goes to sacrifice himself, he still does it for the same reason. Hence there’s no real character development. Yes, he imitates Spock’s willingness in the beginning to sacrifice himself, but Spock merely did it for the mission – it was just awkward to get rescued in the middle of a volcano, completely unlike the situation Kirk finds himself in and therefore their two character journeys can’t be compared. I know some viewers will be like, “Kirk and Spock ended up trading places – that’s so clever!” but it’s all just surface level. However, Spock does grow more and more as a human, learning that it is ok to experience fear and to value of your own life, while also appreciating friendship and how others perceive him. So he does end up developing as a character.
I guess it bugs me so much because I feel a bit cheated. There are a few things they set up in this film that never gets addressed or there’s simply no payoff. For instance, Pike says Kirk needs to learn humility. I can’t say that he did by the end of it. Also when Future Spock advises Spock, telling him that he defeated Khan with great sacrifice. What exactly was that sacrifice? You could say that it was Kirk’s life, but it just seems a bit indirect (he dies trying to fix the ship… which I guess in turn was the result of Khan, but still…). Of course, by getting advice from his future self, Spock could’ve altered the future and averted the full pain he would’ve experienced otherwise, which seems to have been the case when he thought ahead and armed the missiles. But that’s no fun! The other way creates more drama! Spock cheated!
Overall I think I will have to see this film again, as I’m sure a few others might as well. Not necessarily at the cinemas though – I can wait for DVD. After hearing Khan’s back story, then the Admiral’s version, then future Spock, it just became a little hard to follow about who really believed who, who was lying and manipulating and when, and who had the best poker face. I think I came away thinking that all the versions were true, in that case there were two villains in this movie; Khan and the Admiral, who both had evil desires but they obviously couldn’t combine forces. If that really is the case, then kudos to the writers for being a bit original, though as I said, I think I need to watch this again for clarity.
I give it points for killing off Pike though. That took some balls.
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