Startrek: Into Darkness
May. 16th, 2013 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackIt was like the last film, but better. As befits an even-numbered Trek film.
Stupid things
It has all the same sorts of stupidity. The startrek universe was always a bit vague how long it took to get between solar systems -- sometimes it seemed like days and sometimes like months. But it successfully recreated the feel of naval exploration, where established routes could be travelled fairly reliably, but you could blunder off and get lost somewhere and take months or years getting back.
But the new film throws away that feeling and has Earth and Klingon feeling hours apart. It seems they can just pop over to Klingon and say "hi", not that the Klingon homeworld might be a long way inside Klingon territory. And they can just phone home whenever they like, except when it would be plot-important, when they can't.
And one guy can take over all of Starfleet with no-one saying "hang on, blowing up the flagship full of innocent people, isn't that, um, bad...?"
But despite all this, the stupid things were mostly established in advance or irrelevant to the plot. You could fix most of them with a few five-second insertions establishing that a lot of work went on behind the scenes. Unlike the previous film, every emotional climax wasn't completely undermined by randomly changing the rules at the last minute. So the awesome things could shine through.
Awesome things
It turned fan service up to 11. There were so many references, some hilariously over-the-top that almost made the cinema applaud, like the reference to the "KHAAAAAN" shout. Some were easy to miss if you don't memorise the previous films, like Carol Marcus being the father of Kirk's son.
Benedict Cumberbatch was awesome.
The character interactions were awesome. Some characters didn't get a lot of screen time, but they all brought new life to the roles they were playing.
Trying too hard
It would have been so much more interesting if Kirk had stayed dead. The crew is just jelling -- it's time to show us Spock trying to lead these humans without Kirk to back him up, and let Sulu play first officer and let Uhura or Checkov play the maverick.
But no. Oh look, deus ex machina resurrection at the last minute, what a surprise.
Bechdel Test
Meh. One new female character, who had some plot role, but spent a lot of time having men react to her. A few good Uhura scenes, but mostly about her relationship with Spock. No other major characters were female.
Bonus "stereotypical tribespeople who need patronising" at the start.
Stupid things
It has all the same sorts of stupidity. The startrek universe was always a bit vague how long it took to get between solar systems -- sometimes it seemed like days and sometimes like months. But it successfully recreated the feel of naval exploration, where established routes could be travelled fairly reliably, but you could blunder off and get lost somewhere and take months or years getting back.
But the new film throws away that feeling and has Earth and Klingon feeling hours apart. It seems they can just pop over to Klingon and say "hi", not that the Klingon homeworld might be a long way inside Klingon territory. And they can just phone home whenever they like, except when it would be plot-important, when they can't.
And one guy can take over all of Starfleet with no-one saying "hang on, blowing up the flagship full of innocent people, isn't that, um, bad...?"
But despite all this, the stupid things were mostly established in advance or irrelevant to the plot. You could fix most of them with a few five-second insertions establishing that a lot of work went on behind the scenes. Unlike the previous film, every emotional climax wasn't completely undermined by randomly changing the rules at the last minute. So the awesome things could shine through.
Awesome things
It turned fan service up to 11. There were so many references, some hilariously over-the-top that almost made the cinema applaud, like the reference to the "KHAAAAAN" shout. Some were easy to miss if you don't memorise the previous films, like Carol Marcus being the father of Kirk's son.
Benedict Cumberbatch was awesome.
The character interactions were awesome. Some characters didn't get a lot of screen time, but they all brought new life to the roles they were playing.
Trying too hard
It would have been so much more interesting if Kirk had stayed dead. The crew is just jelling -- it's time to show us Spock trying to lead these humans without Kirk to back him up, and let Sulu play first officer and let Uhura or Checkov play the maverick.
But no. Oh look, deus ex machina resurrection at the last minute, what a surprise.
Bechdel Test
Meh. One new female character, who had some plot role, but spent a lot of time having men react to her. A few good Uhura scenes, but mostly about her relationship with Spock. No other major characters were female.
Bonus "stereotypical tribespeople who need patronising" at the start.