using my star wars icon for my star trek post cos I'm a rebel

[labellementeuse]

I have extremely confused thoughts about this film so I hope this will collect them. I think overall my reactions fall into two categories: delighted pleasure at specific moments, and frank bemusement at the general, overall ... plotting, theme, pacing.

Delighted Pleasure

So there were some things that were done very well.
- Benedict Cumberbatch got punched in the face a lot.
- The general SPACE!!! -yness of it was tremendously satisfying, although in my case not *quite* as satisfying as the first movie (nothing beats that shot of the Enterprise being built in the first remake, IMO). But still wonderful. Space is great.
- The casting and the individual performances I thought were all fantastic. This cast has a tremendous chemistry. Uhura and Spock and Uhura and Kirk and Kirk and Spock, and the triangle, had a wonderful vibe. I loved the scene in the lift with Kirk and Uhura quite beyond measure. The human element is IMO a very underrated aspect of science fiction generally, so I found that very pleasing.
- The through-the-glass moment, which is so iconic that even I, Trek ignoramus, recognise it, was beautifully inverted. This might have been a little more moving if it hadn't been spoiled in the trailer but, still, it was terrific (and hello, tribbles, you were a funny moment). I imagine there were a few more moments there that I really needed to have seen Wrath of Khan to pick up on, but I got the general vibe, I think.
- The Chekhov's Tribble was, IMO, better done than the Chekhov's Extremis that was used identically in Iron Man III. Quite a bit more subtle although, sadly, still not subtle enough for me to not have worked it out well before the miraculous tribble resurrection.
- It makes me lol that the Chekhov's Guns in both these big summer blockbuster sequels were the opposite of guns, viz, things that resurrect people rather than kill them.

There were more things that I enjoyed but those are the nutshell thoughts. Basically the movie kept me really entertained, I enjoyed it. And I hope there's PILES AND PILES of fanfic. Threesomes, please.

BUT

Bemusement

I guess my primary objection is that the movie sets itself up from the beginning to have no stakes. It tells you so in what I think was a tremendously, tremendously flawed beginning. I don't mean the tacked-on Madcap Adventure on Another Planet, which was silly but very Trek (and pretty racist; cargo cult, really?) or the Scenes from Future!24 where poor old Mickey blew himself up again and where I almost thought this Star Trek movie was going to be about terrorism. No. I mean the fucking stupid series of scenes where Kirk is bumped down to the Academy, and then immediately back up to First Officer and then right away back to Captain of the Enterprise. Like, that is literally three scenes in a row.

I understand that what they were trying to do was to give the story a moral for Kirk, like STXI where the lesson was, people will tell you you can't save everyone, but actually you can (or something). They wanted to set the lesson up to be ... I'm not even sure. Obeying orders? The importance of mission protocol? It was very confused because Kirk seemed to learn his lesson right away (when he chooses to arrest Cucumberface instead of assassinating him), and then just continue executing that lesson (always arrest and go through proper procedure) - EXCEPT that of course, Kirk also immediately gets orders and protocol that are bad and that he ignores. So he only obeys the rules that suit him - which is what he was doing anyway. So he learned nothing and we learned nothing.

Given all of that, what the Pike sequence actually represented was a vivid reminder that nothing would actually change and there were no stakes. Yes, OK, Pike died. (Which, by the way: if you want to kill someone dramatically, it's a bit pointless to make them a character you have to give several scenes first so the audience remembers why they're supposed to be sad.) But Pike didn't die to make Kirk sad. Theoretically, sure. But actually, Pike is sacrificed on the altar of Kirk having to be captain and Spock having to be First Officer. This is brilliant in the first film, where it happens at the end and is about reconciling the two universes, being a genuine reboot. But in this film? It just assured you that the second film would end exactly the same way as the first film did. No movement. No growth. No change. And there wasn't enough going on in the rest of the movie to get movement, growth or change in the audience out of it - in a weird way, it had all the worst bits of episodic television (no stakes) and all the worst bits of feature films (no new thought, which is what episodic SF tv, like SF short stories, is really brilliant at).

Look, every movie doesn't have to have a moral. But this one really seemed like it wanted to! But it couldn't figure out what it was. Khan didn't have a compelling philosophy to set against Kirk's - they vaguely nod to a superior being Nazism or something, but that's not what motivates his actions in the film. Is it about care for others and his crew? Is it about cockiness? Kirk's vaunted no-dead-crewmembers streak is lost, but he didn't seem to notice because the Enterprise was fine. Is it about not being a warmongering murderous prick? Maybe, but then maybe Marcus should have been the actual villain instead of half a villain. What was the point of Dr Wallace/Marcus? She was lovely, fit right into the crew, I really liked her, but ... like, what? Something about family and valuing the people around us? I DIDN'T UNDERSTAAAAAAAND.

So yeah. I'm puzzled. The film: it's puzzling.

Comments

[morbane]

Your thoughts, let me agree with all of them!

I would like to add: The Wrath of Khan, original movie, worked because of the long development of friendship between Kirk and Spock. It seems perfectly find to me to use Khan as a villain in the rebooted Trek verse, but to do a new movie that echoes the old, when these two have barely gained respect for each other - no. Into Darkness had Spock showing more emotion about Kirk than he previously had about his whole planet. Does not compute.

(The argument in the away-team shuttle was such a wonderful threesome moment, though: 'Don't bring me into this!'/'Well, actually, she's right.')

I agree with you especially about the lack of stakes and the lack of lessons and I'd like to come up with something coherent to add to that, but you seem to have said it already.

And oh that plot. Everything about Kronos - wtf. Everything about fighting near Earth - argh. Nabiru - argh. In this movie, we had some pretty interesting, competent, fun characters doing cool stuff in space, and if you ask me what they actually did, I will pretend to forget.