To boldy go ... where it's been before
By David Germain |
May 19, 2013, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
STAR Trek Into Darkness" is like fan-boy fiction on a US$185 million budget. It's reverential, it's faithful, it's steeped in "Trek" mythology.
It's also an excessively derivative what-if rehash of themes and interactions that came before, most of the characters lesser copies and even caricatures of the originals. The scenario's been hijacked and rejigged from better "Trek" plots of decades ago, the best verbal exchanges lifted nearly verbatim from past adventures.
In short, the new chiefs of Starfleet aren't coming up with much to call their own.
They pile on the spectacle in a way that's never been seen before in "Star Trek," whose old big-screen incarnations were so notoriously underfunded they had to go back and borrow props, miniatures and visual effects from previous installments. The action in "Into Darkness" is top-notch, the visuals grand, though the movie's needless conversion to 3D muddies the images.
But the heart is, well, halfhearted, as though the people of the 23rd century are there to mouth the standard logic-vs-emotion, needs-of-the-many-vs-needs-of-the-few patter of "Star Trek" to count time before the next space battle or ray-gun shootout.
Director JJ Abrams was most definitely not a fan-boy for this franchise when he made 2009's "Star Trek," which reintroduced Kirk, Spock and the rest of the starship Enterprise gang with a time-travel twist that allowed the William Shatner-Leonard Nimoy original to coexist with an entirely different destiny for the new players.
Abrams grew up a fan of "Star Wars," the next space saga he'll be reviving with the launch of a third trilogy. But his key collaborators, screenwriters Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof, are "Trek" fan-boys to their marrow.
The 2009 reboot replayed and tweaked elements connected to 1982's "Wrath of Khan," and "Into Darkness" mines that vein further. The filmmakers remain so closely in orbit around yesteryear's "Star Trek" that they wind up zigzagging fitfully through the Enterprise's greatest hits.
"Into Darkness" opens with a splashy action sequence to again show the cockiness of Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) - with his willingness to flaunt the rules - and the icy intellect of half-Vulcan First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto), who's willing to sacrifice his life to stick to the Starfleet playbook. Just as the space brass is about to split them up, Starfleet is hit by savage terrorist attacks by mysterious desperado John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Kirk, Spock and their Enterprise crew are dispatched to take Harrison out.
Fine acting has rarely been a cornerstone of "Star Trek," but much of the "Into Darkness" cast seems to have taken ham lessons from Shatner. Karl Urban as Dr McCoy maintains the same grouchy, stick-up-his-butt expression throughout, while Simon Pegg as Scotty, with his "Shrek"-thick Scottish brogue, is downright cartoonish.
As Abrams moves on to "Star Wars," he leaves "Star Trek" in a good place for successors to tell some rip-roaring sci-fi stories, but hopefully without relying on reruns of old "Trek" moments.
It's also an excessively derivative what-if rehash of themes and interactions that came before, most of the characters lesser copies and even caricatures of the originals. The scenario's been hijacked and rejigged from better "Trek" plots of decades ago, the best verbal exchanges lifted nearly verbatim from past adventures.
In short, the new chiefs of Starfleet aren't coming up with much to call their own.
They pile on the spectacle in a way that's never been seen before in "Star Trek," whose old big-screen incarnations were so notoriously underfunded they had to go back and borrow props, miniatures and visual effects from previous installments. The action in "Into Darkness" is top-notch, the visuals grand, though the movie's needless conversion to 3D muddies the images.
But the heart is, well, halfhearted, as though the people of the 23rd century are there to mouth the standard logic-vs-emotion, needs-of-the-many-vs-needs-of-the-few patter of "Star Trek" to count time before the next space battle or ray-gun shootout.
Director JJ Abrams was most definitely not a fan-boy for this franchise when he made 2009's "Star Trek," which reintroduced Kirk, Spock and the rest of the starship Enterprise gang with a time-travel twist that allowed the William Shatner-Leonard Nimoy original to coexist with an entirely different destiny for the new players.
Abrams grew up a fan of "Star Wars," the next space saga he'll be reviving with the launch of a third trilogy. But his key collaborators, screenwriters Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof, are "Trek" fan-boys to their marrow.
The 2009 reboot replayed and tweaked elements connected to 1982's "Wrath of Khan," and "Into Darkness" mines that vein further. The filmmakers remain so closely in orbit around yesteryear's "Star Trek" that they wind up zigzagging fitfully through the Enterprise's greatest hits.
"Into Darkness" opens with a splashy action sequence to again show the cockiness of Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) - with his willingness to flaunt the rules - and the icy intellect of half-Vulcan First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto), who's willing to sacrifice his life to stick to the Starfleet playbook. Just as the space brass is about to split them up, Starfleet is hit by savage terrorist attacks by mysterious desperado John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Kirk, Spock and their Enterprise crew are dispatched to take Harrison out.
Fine acting has rarely been a cornerstone of "Star Trek," but much of the "Into Darkness" cast seems to have taken ham lessons from Shatner. Karl Urban as Dr McCoy maintains the same grouchy, stick-up-his-butt expression throughout, while Simon Pegg as Scotty, with his "Shrek"-thick Scottish brogue, is downright cartoonish.
As Abrams moves on to "Star Wars," he leaves "Star Trek" in a good place for successors to tell some rip-roaring sci-fi stories, but hopefully without relying on reruns of old "Trek" moments.
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