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May. 11th, 2013 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
4thofelevenEveryone knows the old thing about the even-numbered Star Trek movies being better than the odd-numbered ones. Some people might think this pattern was broken when the forgettable Insurrection was followed by the dreadful Nemesis.
I would argue, though, that the pattern holds – provided you count Galaxy Quest as the ‘good’ movie between those two. And really, why wouldn’t you?!
And, unfortunately, with that addition, the sequence continues perfectly, as 2009’s rather good, if flawed reboot is followed up by Into Darkness, a film that manages to make all the mistakes the reboot avoided. I really can’t recommend it.
The main problem I saw is that while the first reboot film was respectful of what had gone before, it made a strong effort to separate itself, to establish its own identity. Into Darkness, meanwhile, is utterly dependant on what has gone before. When it’s putting its own spin on things, it works quite well, but then about halfway through, it turns into a half-assed remake of Wrath of Khan.
And honestly, we’ve seen that before. Nemesis tried it, the reboot had elements of it – but even they at least tried to do something new. They didn’t bring Khan himself back and hope to coast on name recognition alone. They certainly didn’t try and do a scene for scene recreation and hope that would be enough to get the same response from the audience.
Spock’s death in Wrath of Khan is one of the most emotional scenes in the entire franchise. It’s also the culmination of all the themes of that movie; the Kobayashi Maru, facing death. Kirk’s ‘death’ here is neither. It almost feels like a parody of the original scene, divorced from any meaningful context. Spock’s death had weight – Search for Spock undid it, sure, but only after a long struggle. The get-out card for Kirk’s death is already rather unsubtly established; it has no meaning because he doesn’t stay dead long enough for anyone to care.
That was the point where it became obvious that despite its early promise, Into Darkness had nothing really new to say, and was just going to nudge the audience every so often. “Did you see what we did? Like in that other movie! Wasn’t that one great? Look, like in the other movie!” But there were other problems.
Much as I like to see Nimoy again, his cameo just reinforced the feeling that nobody had enough confidence in the reboot to let it stand alone. There’s a reason the old mentor always dies – because if he hangs around too long, the hero can never step out of his shadow. And here, it undermined Khan too – we don’t get to see him actually be a threat, we’re just reminded by old Spock that he was a threat back in ’82..
(It doesn’t help that while Cumberbatch is decent enough, he doesn’t have any of Montalban’s energy or charisma. His Khan is almost robotic; Montalban’s felt like a mythological hero, greater than human in all respects, including his flaws and emotions… I can believe Montalban was a prince and empire-builder, I can’t see anyone flocking to Cumberbatch’s banner…)
Bringing back Khan himself was a mistake, it only invited comparisons with a better movie. But I think they could have made it work – if they’d been willing to stick to their guns, do something different, rather than wallowing in shallow homages.
Other notes:
New Kirk is still a dick, possibly worse than in ’09. Thumbing his nose at regulations to save Spock? Sure, that’s Kirk. Covering up his actions, lying to Starfleet? Not so much. Whinging about the consequences of his actions? At this point, Kirk’s reminding me of Homer Simpson, and I expect any meaningful character growth to be rolled back in every movie as he becomes a flatter and flatter caricature.
Carol Marcus was an utterly pointless addition. We’ve come a long way; thirty years ago, she could be one of the Federation’s leading scientists. Now, her role can be defined entirely as the Admiral’s daughter and occasional eye candy…
So, there’s these torpedoes, right? And they’ve got people in cryo hidden in them. But they still work as torpedoes! And Admiral Marcus may or may not know there’s people in them. And they’re hard to disarm, except when Spock needs 72 of them disarmed in the middle of a battle. Multiple rewrites syndrome?
Was that a Mon Calimari on the Enterprise?!
I would argue, though, that the pattern holds – provided you count Galaxy Quest as the ‘good’ movie between those two. And really, why wouldn’t you?!
And, unfortunately, with that addition, the sequence continues perfectly, as 2009’s rather good, if flawed reboot is followed up by Into Darkness, a film that manages to make all the mistakes the reboot avoided. I really can’t recommend it.
The main problem I saw is that while the first reboot film was respectful of what had gone before, it made a strong effort to separate itself, to establish its own identity. Into Darkness, meanwhile, is utterly dependant on what has gone before. When it’s putting its own spin on things, it works quite well, but then about halfway through, it turns into a half-assed remake of Wrath of Khan.
And honestly, we’ve seen that before. Nemesis tried it, the reboot had elements of it – but even they at least tried to do something new. They didn’t bring Khan himself back and hope to coast on name recognition alone. They certainly didn’t try and do a scene for scene recreation and hope that would be enough to get the same response from the audience.
Spock’s death in Wrath of Khan is one of the most emotional scenes in the entire franchise. It’s also the culmination of all the themes of that movie; the Kobayashi Maru, facing death. Kirk’s ‘death’ here is neither. It almost feels like a parody of the original scene, divorced from any meaningful context. Spock’s death had weight – Search for Spock undid it, sure, but only after a long struggle. The get-out card for Kirk’s death is already rather unsubtly established; it has no meaning because he doesn’t stay dead long enough for anyone to care.
That was the point where it became obvious that despite its early promise, Into Darkness had nothing really new to say, and was just going to nudge the audience every so often. “Did you see what we did? Like in that other movie! Wasn’t that one great? Look, like in the other movie!” But there were other problems.
Much as I like to see Nimoy again, his cameo just reinforced the feeling that nobody had enough confidence in the reboot to let it stand alone. There’s a reason the old mentor always dies – because if he hangs around too long, the hero can never step out of his shadow. And here, it undermined Khan too – we don’t get to see him actually be a threat, we’re just reminded by old Spock that he was a threat back in ’82..
(It doesn’t help that while Cumberbatch is decent enough, he doesn’t have any of Montalban’s energy or charisma. His Khan is almost robotic; Montalban’s felt like a mythological hero, greater than human in all respects, including his flaws and emotions… I can believe Montalban was a prince and empire-builder, I can’t see anyone flocking to Cumberbatch’s banner…)
Bringing back Khan himself was a mistake, it only invited comparisons with a better movie. But I think they could have made it work – if they’d been willing to stick to their guns, do something different, rather than wallowing in shallow homages.
Other notes:
New Kirk is still a dick, possibly worse than in ’09. Thumbing his nose at regulations to save Spock? Sure, that’s Kirk. Covering up his actions, lying to Starfleet? Not so much. Whinging about the consequences of his actions? At this point, Kirk’s reminding me of Homer Simpson, and I expect any meaningful character growth to be rolled back in every movie as he becomes a flatter and flatter caricature.
Carol Marcus was an utterly pointless addition. We’ve come a long way; thirty years ago, she could be one of the Federation’s leading scientists. Now, her role can be defined entirely as the Admiral’s daughter and occasional eye candy…
So, there’s these torpedoes, right? And they’ve got people in cryo hidden in them. But they still work as torpedoes! And Admiral Marcus may or may not know there’s people in them. And they’re hard to disarm, except when Spock needs 72 of them disarmed in the middle of a battle. Multiple rewrites syndrome?
Was that a Mon Calimari on the Enterprise?!