Crossposted from my Blogetary:
Just as Ryan Harvey stated about "Iron Man Three" in his Black Gate review earlier this month, it's hard to really write about "Star Trek Into Darkness" without letting out a bunch of spoilers (and we don't want to do that, do we). And no matter what I say there will be people who won't like it for various reasons: it doesn't fit into the traditional canon, they don't like J.J. Abrams (Yeah, I don't either, but, as with Tom Cruise, he often makes a good movie), it's not the Kirk/Spock/Bones/Sulu/Uhura/Chekov/Scotty they grew up with and they are uncomfortable with this reboot.
Well, if you didn't like the first prequel reboot you probably will hate this movie even more and you should probably quit reading now and find your nearest streaming provider to watch the other Star Trek movies or series, or see if KDOC/MeTV is playing reruns to get your ST:TOS or TNG fix. Really, don't read anymore or you'll probably get apoplectic.
Otherwise, read on.
First, before we begin, did you notice a few weeks ago this little meme going around? The mashup of Torchwood and Star Trek?
For anyone familiar with the Doctor Who and Torchwood series, the long-coated form of the delicious Captain Jack Harkness is a familiar sight, however not one normally associated with Star Trek per se. And yet, once you watch this second prequel (as it was called at the screening at Paramount I went to), you wonder where Captain Jack and the Doctor were during the entire movie (indeed, about halfway through I started wondering why Benedict Cumberbatch hasn't been tapped to play the Doctor as yet, although he's still got that Sherlock thing going on....).
As stated at the screening, this is a "second prequel" – we see Kirk, Spock, Uhura and Sulu in an opening sequence. They have moved beyond the new recruits in the first prequel, but are still raw and young and don't think things out. They think with their hearts (even Spock) and all view the world through their various moral POVs. They are all trying to do the right thing, however they all have different ideas of what the right thing is (isn't that just life?). They are practicing the shoot-from-the-hip "cowboy diplomacy" that Picard accused the original Spock of doing in The Next Generation (Season 5/Episode 8/Unification II). Where an older and wiser Kirk may have thought through his moves first, this younger more impetuous Kirk is just beginning to learn when to jump into the fray and when to back down. And he hasn't gotten it down just yet. This is classic Star Trek. Several times at the beginning Kirk and the audience are both reminded that he is not good at playing by the rules and during his last command he didn't lose any of his crew. More classic Trek and a prompt as to just how young James Tiberius Kirk is at this point.
HOWEVER, while the storyline at the beginning is classic Star Trek, the movements on the screen are classic Star Wars. And this mashup continues throughout the movie. This isn't just a movie for people who love Star Trek. It's a movie for people who love the genre. There were so many inside references that I noticed at the screening that I wondered how many other allusions I was missing. I do believe that, in part, this was a love letter from J. J. Abrams to all the scifi/fantasy fan boys and girls out there in the 'verse. When this movie comes out on DVD I'll be sure to go through it and see what I missed. The opening scene where Kirk and Scotty (I think it's Scotty?) are running from pre-industrial beings on a planet and trying to obey the Prime Directive and make it to the ship at the same time is straight forward Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, while the tiffs and interactions (chemistry if you will) between Uhura and Spock is reminiscent of Princess Leia and Han Solo or (if you liked the new ones) Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker. There are also some flying sequences that are straight out of the Millennium Falcon playbook. And then let's not forget Scotty's little friend who looks like a grayed-out Ewok.
But it's not just Star Wars. There are also references to the Original Series episodes (definitely a tribble on the screen) and movies, as well as inside jokes (like when Kirk tells Chekov to "put on a red shirt" at one point and at another, tells some security guys they're just big targets in their red shirts and to change into civilian clothes) and appearances by other Star Trek characters. And at one point there was a character who said, "What do you think I am, a Peacekeeper?!" I just about lost it. Now, if there was a Farscape reference in there, then there must have been Stargate SG-1 references, because both those series were very faithful in alluding to Star Trek as a nod and a wink to genre fans. In my perfect world, there would also be Buffy/Angel/Firefly references. As it was, I'm pretty sure some of the verbal altercations between Kirk and Spock were ripped off from Leonard and Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Things were just moving a bit fast for me to catch everything though.
Now, we don't watch movies just to see mashups and insider references, though they do make movies lots of fun. But if that's all we saw, those movies would get old and insular. Don't worry if you're not a fan boy or girl, though. If you like scifi action adventure this is a nonstop roller coaster ride. There are great lines, a couple of flashes of skin for those looking for it, fights with the bad guy, fights with the good guy and even a couple of tearful scenes and twists in the plot. On the whole, an enjoyable ride if you are just a straightforward fan of scifi action adventure.
Not everyone likes roller coaster rides, however. And to give the naysayers their due, Star Trek as a whole is just as much about the drama as it is the action. Whether it's Picard fighting Cardassian torture in TNG (There Are Four Lights! ), the low-budget but suspenseful TOS Doomsday Machine, or Commander Sisko considering his options in the Season 6 episode "Far Beyond the Stars" where his visions show him as a science fiction writer of the 1950s who's work has been suppressed, Star Trek traditionally spends just as much time on thoughtful suspense and drama as they do on action. And there really isn't much of that type of drama in this movie. But, these characters have not built a chemistry on the small screen in front of a weekly audience, either. Television series can take the time to build relationships and create arcs where movies don't have that luxury. The Star Trek movies were able to harvest and glean the chemistry and story lines built up over the series to add depth to their movies. In "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," people watching Kirk hearing his son being killed over the 'com felt the drama of that moment based not just on the movie, but on three years of a tv series and at least two other previous movies.
And yet, I don't think we should give up on expecting good drama out of the Star Trek franchise. I just think that J.J. Abrams is to the Star Trek reboot movies what Chris Columbus was to the Harry Potter movies. He got the series going and he told a good story with some fun hooks. Just as with Harry Potter, there's lots of action and lots of kids screaming and much of what is included in the movies is for the benefit of "the youngsters." However, also like the Harry Potter movies, both the fans and the characters will grow up. I think eventually, if Paramount continues in this new reboot, they will move onto another director who will tell more grown up stories with more depth, more drama, more suspense and maybe a tiny bit less action. The characters aren't going to be raw new kids anymore. You can pull out the screw ups and screaming kids pulling a victory out of their butts a limited amount of times before it gets old. Then it's time for the grown up stories.
So, I enjoyed this one. I look forward to the next, should it come to pass.
And I leave you with this Audi commercial depicting the relationship between the "old" Spock and the "new" Spock that gives a good indication as to some of the fun mashup available in "Star Trek Into Darkness."
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