HUGE MOTHER FUCKING SPOILERS!!!!!
Unlike MovieBob, I thought the movie was enjoyable and if you're not a Trekkie then you'll probably like it even more. That being said....
WTF! KHHHAAAANNNNN!!!!! So the rumors are true they literally tried to remake The Wrath of Khan, problem is Abrams has about the wit of a chimpanzee and just totally does not understand what that film or Star Trek is about. Khan's character is just thrown in as this huge fan reference but he doesnt have any real meaning behind his character and falls on the backburner for half the film so Peter Weller can do his predictable twist only for him to show back up to fill the remaining villain seat for the rest of the movie. Leaving aside some pretty massive plot holes (I'll mention some later) the major problem with the movie is that it means absolutely nothing, it just carefully exploits the major scenes Trekkies love from Khan and ST in general without any real meaning behind them. Sure lets just name drop Section 31, throw in Khan, rip off the ending of Wrath but flip the characters, oh and look a Tribble, but what does it all mean in the end?
The Wrath of Khan had very clear themes from start to finish, the movie was about Kirk getting old, about life and death, and most importantly Jim Kirk finally experiencing loss. Throughout the original series and original movies Kirk never experiences loss, he's cocky, headstrong, and yet always manages to eek out a victory by the skin of his teeth with everyone getting out alive. In Wrath, for the first time he has to experience the loss and the death of a close friend and despite all his cunning and guise he cannot overcome this in the end. Into Darkness at first looks as though this is the theme it is going for and flat out tells the audience this in the beginning of the movie, but half way through this theme is lost and we simply experience a movie full of exciting action pieces and a Vulcan fighting a genetically modified human, SO COOL...Even for the popcorn eating masses this is just way too dumb of a movie.
It's like Abrams is scared if they stop shoving explosions, lens flare in your face, and comedic lines in your face the audience will get bored. I honestly do not believe there is a single scene in the movie longer than a minute where there is none of those three things going on. Comparing this movie to TDK is insulting because at no point in that movie does Nolan treat the audience as idiots, something Abrams repeatedly does in his.
Now let me talk about the ending which just had me super disappointed. So Abrams has the balls to rip off the exact ending of Wrath but flip the characters. Now let me say this, I believe the end of Wrath to be one of the greatest endings to a movie and the way it is shot is beautifully done and leaves a major emotional impact. In this movie the scene comes off as nothing more than a cheap imitation without any beauty, meaning, or purpose behind it. In Wrath you have this perfect scene where Kirk believes he's won yet again and defeated Khan only to be told that Spock has been hurt, so he races down to Engineering all the while the camera repeatedly cuts to shots of the Genesis planet being created from the machine, thus we get this beautiful contrast between the beginning of life and the death of another. Then we get the big emotional scene between Kirk and Spock where Kirk has to deal with the loss of his best friend and understand that "the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the needs of the one." Something Spock had been trying to tell Jim from the beginning of the movie. In the end Kirk grows as a character, he becomes more humble, he finally faces loss and death, and this experience leaves him feeling "younger." And again the shot of Spock's coffin surrounded by all the life of the Genesis planet is just beautiful.
NOW lets talk about Into Darkness's rip off which has no meaning behind it than basically a "wouldn't it be cool if we had the same scene but reversed the roles." Spock learns nothing from this scene, neither does Kirk and all the while I knew that Kirk wasn't going to die since Abrams basically shouted to the audience a bit earlier that Khan's blood has magic regenerative powers and of course we all know there is going to be a sequel. So Kirk and Spock win again through blind luck, neither character has learned anything they haven't already learned and things go on again like normal.
I just don't get the inclusion of Khan, the only people that would care about him is Trekkie's and considering that they've nearly butchered his character it could only serve to upset them. The general audience has no idea who Khan, they don't know about the Eugenics wars, Khan's role during that period, or what being a genetically modified human really is. And none of this is explained to the general audience, only near the very end do they mention to the audience that Khan's purpose beforehand was to wipe out all genetically inferior humans. Why didnt they just leave him as James Cunningham or whatever? Why the need to call back to one of the greatest villains of ST and then yet not even have the movie focus on him?
Now for some irritating plot holes and things I find annoying:
-Terrorism on Earth is no Big Thing; So like the major thing in ST is that Earth is a utopia, there is no crime, no murder, and certainly no acts of terrorism. So why is it when this super massive attack occurs on Earth that has killed hundreds everyone just acts like this is not a major deal and something that happens all the time in this world. Again Abrams and the crew show there lack of knowledge of ST.
-Section 31 Name Drop; So another little fan reference they throw in is a mention of Section 31, perhaps one of my favorite ST inventions. Thing is Kirk, Spock, and the crew's reaction to this is again very dumb. Remember StarFleet is a peaceful force of exploration and gaining scientific knowledge, the revelation that there is a covert military force within StarFleet would be quite dramatic and anyone responsible for it would be quickly fired. Yet here it seems like Section 31 is an official part of the Federation, albeit a secret one, when we know from DS9 it is not.
-Earth Has No Protection; This was a complaint in the first movie and now it's just really dumb in this movie, Earth, the home of the Federation, has no defensive force. The Enterprise and the other ship duke it out near the moon, in the fucking Sol System and there isnt a single other Federation vessel in the area? I remind you this is after the first movie where a Vulcan ship managed to fly to Earth unopposed so I would expect they would beef up security around Earth.
-Crashing Starships; Seeing how space travel is pretty common and thus crashes are likely I find it odd Earth has no sort of force that would be able to stop such crashes from occurring or at least minimize the damage. You know like some radar system that would alert them to an incoming vessel headed towards Earth, and maybe they could then either send out a force to try and stabilize it and at worse obliterate it to prevent it from causing more damage, most especially outside the HQ of Starfleet.
-Why is Khan Superman? Yes he is genetically modified and I enjoyed his combat skills but how in the fuck does he manage to take several stun shots at maximum level? He's still a human and one stun shot can literally take down just about anything at a high level. And it was simply trying to placate fans by having him resist Spock's Vulcan touch.
-Why did Khan attack San Fran? I didnt get this part at all, at the very end Khan pilots his ship to San Fran to destroy StarFleet HQ but why? He didnt even destroy StarFleet HQ but crashed it in the middle of San Fran and just started running. Where is he running to? To attack StarFleet alone? To escape? If he wanted to escape why not crash in some remote area or near a ship port and steal a ship? The movie just makes it looks like he has some plan he's going to execute that has to be stopped and yet he doesnt.
I could go on but I'll stop, again despite my complaining I was entertained but since this is Star Trek I expect my brain to be challenged a bit not completely shut off when I watch it.
