Star Trek Into Darkness: 10 Things That Make No Sense
by Amarpal Biring10. Under The Sea
Arguably the best part of the 2009 Star Trek movie was the opening sequence. As Nero crippled the USS Kelvin, Kirk was born within the carnage and his father crashed the Kelvin into Nero’s vessel so the rest of the crew could escape. It was dramatic, full of emotion and a great way to start a film.
Star Trek: Into Darkness begins with another action packed opener. We see the Enterprise crew in the middle of a mission to save a planet and its inhabitants from an erupting volcano. Kirk and McCoy distract the locals while Spock is lowered into the volcano to set off a device that will cool the angry eruption. The scene is well paced and fun. It has the spirit of the Original Series even if it lacks the punch of the opener in 2009. However, there are some elements that make no sense.
This scene was part of the preview attached to the beginning of The Hobbit. Watching it at the time, one bit bugged me and it continues to do so. Kirk hides the Enterprise under water so that the primitive locals don’t see it and in turn contravene the Prime directive, the Starfleet rule that forbids interference in the natural evolution of a species. So to avoid that happening, Kirk orders the Enterprise to be concealed underwater while they go about saving the planet.
The thing I don’t understand is why would he go to the trouble of hiding the ship underwater? The inhabitants of the planet are at the stage where they would worship a firework if it went off in front of them, so why not leave it in orbit? It makes zero sense to take the ship down and then go to all the trouble of concealing it under the ocean. When I saw the preview, I was hoping that in the final cut of the film, there will be a logical reason for why the Enterprise was underwater but sadly no.
The image of it rising out of the water did look amazing; like all the special effects in this movie, that was impressive and full credit to ILM for putting it together, but it seems aesthetics is the only reason for putting the Enterprise underwater. You can imagine that the idea of the Enterprise rising from the depths of the ocean was mentioned during a script meeting and they ran with it. No reason given, it’s underwater.
First time I watched this sequence, it did leave me worried about the rest of the film, the 2009 movie was full of illogical inconsistencies and the worry was that this film would too. Enterprise underwater aside, I’m happy to say Into Darkness had less dumb shit than its predecessor but the focus of creating great looking effects and action sequences at the expense of a logical structure in the script was clearly evident. They didn’t expect the average cinema-goer to question why the Enterprise is underwater because they think the average popcorn muncher is a moron who isn’t worried about small details like this. But this being Star Trek, a franchise that used to pride itself on creating a believable vision of the future, Kirk ordering the Enterprise to be hidden underwater sticks out like a sore thumb and will undoubtedly confuse and annoy long term trekkies.
The second thing that doesn’t make much sense in the opening scene is Spock and the Prime Directive. Having got himself trapped in the middle of the volcano, Spock argues that he should be left to die because the natives might see the Enterprise and it would violate the Prime Directive. He is hell bent on the fact that he shouldn’t be rescued, there is no way around the Prime Directive, it mustn’t be violated.
The second thing that doesn’t make much sense in the opening scene is Spock and the Prime Directive. Having got himself trapped in the middle of the volcano, Spock argues that he should be left to die because the natives might see the Enterprise and it would violate the Prime Directive. He is hell bent on the fact that he shouldn’t be rescued, there is no way around the Prime Directive, it mustn’t be violated.
Of course, Kirk ignores him and the Enterprise rises up from the ocean and goes to the rescue. Rather bizarrely, Mr Scott claims that if the volcano fully erupts, the Enterprise might not be able to stand the heat. Considering a volcano eruptions generates heat anywhere from 1000C to 1500C, it’s considerably less heat than what would be generated by a ship entering a planet’s atmosphere, and that is even before we bring the Enterprise shields into the equation. But back to the point….
Once Spock is rescued, he still can’t get over that Kirk violated the Prime Directive to save his life. Clearly Starfleet’s rule No.1 is very important to the Vulcan who finds it difficult to bend the rules.
But Spock didn’t seem too worry about the Prime Directive as he was cooling the volcano and changing the destiny of the planet. None interference does not mean keeping technology away from primitive species; it also means that you don’t change the natural evolution of planet and its inhabitants, even if by not interfering it causes their death. Spock seems quite happy to pick and choose how he applies the Prime Directive. On one side he can’t fathom breaking the Prime Directive, even if it means him roasting in a volcano; on the other side, he is quite happy to drop an ice cube into the volcano and in turn save a planet that would have otherwise perished.
Even has Captain Pike is giving Kirk and Spock a dressing down for breaking the Prime Directive, Spock is still unaware that he is flip-flopping on the idea of what none interference actually means.
Apart from being an exhilarating opening scene, this was written to build the friendship between Kirk and Spock. It’s unfortunate that that it had so many logic-holes that distracted from the drama on screen.
The wacky Starfleet promotions are still a common occurrence in ‘Into Darkness.’ You think the writers would have learnt from the criticisms about the last film that field experience appears to count for nothing and you could be promoted to Captain on the whim of any commanding officer.
In this film, the Enterprise has 6 captain changes. First Kirk is the captain, he then loses command and Pike takes over. Spock is transferred off the Enterprise before being transferred back where Kirk is in command again. After a short stint where Sulu gets to be Captain, Kirk passes command to Spock before taking back the captaincy at the end of the film. It is a wonder that the Enterprise crew can keep up with all the changes, it must make it really difficult to built a stable framework based on loyalty when the person in charge changes with every course correction.
Pike also saves Kirk from going back to the Academy by telling the Admirals that he would like him to be his first officer because he ‘’believes in him.’’ Kirk screws up almost everything he is sent to do but Pike keeps telling us that he sees ‘’greatness’’ in him and that he ‘’believes in him.’’
As an audience, are we supposed to take him at his word that he sees ‘‘greatness’’ in Kirk? Kirk hasn’t demonstrated any greatness, he seems arrogant and not ready in anyway to be the Captain of a ship. But like some sort of devote evangelist Pike ‘’believes in him,’’ and that is all it takes to convince Starfleet that Kirk deserves another chance. I might try that if I ever end up in court.
7. Khan
Undoubtedly, Benedict Cumberbatch is the breakout star of Star Trek: Into Darkness. The man has a tremendously deep voice that most men would kill for and he makes each line sound like a hot knife cutting through butter. He commands the screen every time he is in front of the camera and I’m sure that his Hollywood career is about to skyrocket. I’m no ‘’Cumber-Bitch’’ (the term used by fans of the sinister one) but his acting credentials are plainly clear for everyone to see.
That being said, the build up for Into Darkness had much speculation about his character’s identity. No one believed that he was ‘’John Harrison’’ and it turned out he wasn’t. The big reveal was that he was Khan Noonian Singh, the genetically engineered dictator.
It is sad that JJ Abrams was unable to find an actual Indian to play Khan. Yes, Ricardo Montalban was Hispanic but at least he looked like he could be from the Indian continent. Also Khan made his first appearance in the 60’s TV show so you can understand why they went for the easy route and got a Mexican to pretend they were Indian. JJ Abrams was under none of those constraints and could have got a number of Asian actors to play Khan. My feeling is that he went to the Simon Cowell school of casting; in the same way Cowell puts his finger in the air to see who is popular and picks them to be a judge on X-Factor, Abrams picked Cumberbatch for the same reason.
Lets look past the fact that Khan is supposed to be of Indian decent and Cumberbatch looks like he grew up on the mean streets on Middlesex rather than northern India. And lets ignore that when he announces his name is Khan, it comes across as believable as an Indian call center worker trying to convince you that their name is George or Barry. The main problem is that Khan is pretty much wasted in this film and his motivations are from the same school that ‘’Red Matter’’ came from.
Khan needs no introduction, he is easily one of the most memorable villains from Star Trek and that is thanks to Ricardo Montalban doing an amazing job playing him. Anyone who cares about Star Trek wanted to see Khan handled right, they got the acting ability but dropped the ball on pretty much everything else.
Khan in Into Darkness is being used by Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) to design and build technology that can be used to increase Starfleet’s strength. The threat from the Klingons is on the horizon and Admiral Marcus wants to make sure Earth is protected. Since finding them frozen in space, Admiral Marcus holds Khan’s 72 co-super people as a bargaining chip to force Khan into doing what he wants. That is the main reason why Khan is so angry with the Admiral.
Fearing for the lives of the 72 people he loves, Khan hides their cryo-tubes in 72 torpedoes he designed. We are not told how he managed to hide them in the torpedoes and how exactly it will save them considering the Admiral is quite aware they are hidden in there, but fair enough, Khan hid them in the torpedoes. However, if Khan was able to gain access to the frozen bodies and go to the trouble of hiding them, then why didn’t he just revive them all? Why bother hiding them? Just bring them out of cryogenic sleep and teach the Admiral a lesson. The bit where Khan sheds a tear to show us how much he loves his people and how hurt and angry he is at Admiral Marcus lost some of the punch when halfway through his monologue I was asking, why didn’t he just wake all of his frozen friends when he had the chance? It made no sense.
Another point is that Khan in this film is almost the support villain; the real bad guy is Admiral Marcus. Khan is not even formally introduced until half way through the film and he even helps Kirk stop the Admiral and save the Enterprise. We know he cant be trusted and he is only helping Kirk as a smokescreen to escape at the first chance he gets but not only is it weird to see Khan and Kirk working together and helping each other, it also makes his full villainous turn not have the impact it should.
In this film, Khan is also a full on Superman. A close combat expert, he can take down a whole garrison of Klingons on his own. Spock’s nerve pinch has no effect and repeated punches to the face don’t faze him. Even when Uhura bizarrely beams down (on her own???) and fires repeated stun shots into his chest, it takes a while for him to go down. So with it established that he is superhuman, why is he running from Spock at the end of the film? Why does he look so panicked? Surely he should be arrogant enough to think he can handle one Vulcan. It makes no sense.
There is a chance that Khan will make a return in a future Star Trek film but it now runs the risk of being a repeat of this film. Even if this film was ‘’Space Seed’’ and his next appearance (maybe in Star Trek 3) will be ‘’Wrath Of Khan,’’ then that would mean that three films have had revenge as a theme. If they were going to use Khan, then they should have given him the whole film. Here he shares villain duties with Admiral Marcus and Cumberbatch’s awesome acting is let down by shabby writing in another script by Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof.
Some are calling Cumberbatch-Khan the greatest Star Trek villain of all time, he is very far from that.Thomas Harewood (Noel Clarke) is the father who is forced into bombing the Section 31 instillation in return for Khan saving his daughter’s life. It raises questions about morality and the lengths parents will go to for their children. It’s well acted and the attack on London is full of emotion but it also left me scratching my head.
Harewood’s daughter is in hospital with some sort of illness, we know it’s serious by the concerned look on the parent’s faces. Khan turns up out of nowhere and informs Harewood that he can ‘’save her.’’ We then see Khan preparing the cure and Harewood administers the concoction. As Khan said, it saves the daughter’s life and now it’s up to Harewood to fulfill his part of the deal. He goes to work and blows himself up, killing himself and the people he works with and sending a message to Starfleet.
The issue with this sequence is that Harewood is a Starfleet officer. Once he got the cure and saved his daughter’s life, why didn’t he just report what Khan was planning to do? His daughter was saved; Khan had no more bargaining chips so go inform Starfleet that this guy wants you to commit a terrorist attack. On top of that, your daughter won’t grow up without a father and have to live with the stigma that her dad was responsible for a terrorist attack that killed a lot of people.
Instead, like an idiot, Harewood walks into his place of work and kills himself and all his friends, even though he didn’t have to. It makes no sense.
We finally got to see what the Klingons look like in JJ Abrams version of Star Trek. So far they had been hidden behind a mask, a mask that looked quite awesome actually, very cool and aggressive. We already saw Romulans with tattooed faces so how would Abrams re-imagine the Klingons?
The Klingons in this timeline have the ridges and they appear to have a passion for facial piercings, but they also look like a ‘species-of-the-week’ we might have seen on Star Trek: Voyager. We only saw one Klingon but if they are all like this, then they are a lot less interesting than the Klingons from the original timeline. But at least they still speak the same language.
Looks are not the only way the original Klingons are better, JJ’s Klingons appear to be crap at a lot of things including detecting long distance transports to their home planet and unauthorised ships entering orbit.
Yes Khan transported into an ’’uninhabited’’ area of Kronos but Klingons have the ability to build ships and conquer planets. Would a mysterious long distance transport not be detected? If for some reason they missed that, how did they not spot a mysterious vessel travelling near Kronos, an area that should be full of Klingon ships? It makes no sense; we have the ability now to detect anything alien that might enter Earth’s atmosphere. It was one too many leaps of faith for any of these events to seem plausible.
The war with the Klingons looks set to be a big part of Star Trek 3. Judging by their short appearance in ‘Into Darkness,’ Starfleet doesn’t have much to worry about, they seem quite inept. It makes you wonder why Admiral Marcus was so worried about the Klingons; they can’t even adequately protect Kronos very well so taking them out shouldn’t be too hard.
The female characters in this movie are pretty much redundant. I’m not saying that Abrams had to write a beefy role for the lady members of the cast as some sort of positive discrimination, but in ‘Into Darkness,’ Uhura is ‘annoying cliché girlfriend’ and Carol Marcus feels tacked on because the character was in ‘The Wrath Of Khan.’
Apart from where Uhura tries to communicate with the Klingons and a bit in the climax where she bizarrely beams down to fight Khan on her own, she did nothing other than be Mrs Spock. She was the concerned girlfriend, she was the moody girlfriend or she was the angry girlfriend, whichever role she was playing, she was Spock’s girlfriend.
Some reviews have said that the banter between Spock and Uhura was ‘’hilarious.’’ Believe me, there was nothing funny about watching Spock play the misunderstood boyfriend who keeps doing the wrong things to keep his woman happy. There is no spark between the two; the whole thing feels artificial. Spock is unlikable and the whole relationship plays out like the worst type of rom-com.
Alice Eve faired no better. Apart from being attractive, she was totally unbelievable as a scientist. She will be Kirk’s love interest at some point and ‘Into Darkness’ was her introduction to the audience, that’s assuming they remember anything about her apart from that we saw her in her bra and panties.
The casting of Peter Weller as Admiral Marcus won a lot of points with me, the guy can do no wrong in my book and he was brilliant in this, just like he was in the two part Star Trek: Enterprise episodes ‘’Demons’’ and ‘’Terra Prime.’’ Saying that, there were a couple of things about his character that bothered me.
Marcus is a top level Admiral in Starfleet and also the man responsible for using Khan to design advanced weaponry. He is worried that Earth is not defended properly and that he is the only one who is taking the danger seriously. The Klingons are on Starfleet’s doorstep and Marcus feels that the organisation is under prepared. So that is why he forces Khan to work for him while holding 72 of Khan’s people as frozen hostages. He needed Khan’s aggression and superior mind to produce superior weaponry so Khan helps him build the USS Vengeance, a beast of a starship designed purely to fight.
You can believe that the Admiral deeply cares about Earth and it’s people, which is what motivates him to go behind Starfleet’s back. A misguided hero who feels his short-term unethical actions will secure Earth’s long-term future. But when he turns into a full on bad guy, then his character starts to make no sense.
Firstly he is prepared to start a war with the Klingons. He wants the Enterprise to fire the 72 advanced torpedoes that contain Khan’s people at the Klingon home world. Not only will it deal with the Khan issue but it would also make the Klingons think that Starfleet launch a preemptive strike on the Klingon home world. He also arranged for the Enterprise to break down in Klingon space so that the Klingons would find the Enterprise and destroy her. Admiral Marcus would have tied up all the loose ends, be free to make up whatever story he wanted and save his own ass.
But for a man who is going to such lengths to make sure Earth is safe, what would starting a fight with the Klingons actually achieve? If he thinks that Starfleet is not ready and he only has one Dreadnought Class starship, the USS Vengeance, isn’t he just asking for trouble?
Later in the film, Admiral Marcus takes the USS Vengeance to destroy the Enterprise. After a short fight near the moon, the Enterprise is crippled and Kirk pleads with Marcus to spare the crew’s life. But now that Marcus is the movie’s bad guy, he coldly thanks Kirk for the offer but informs him that he has no intention of sparing the Enterprise or its crew. Has he always been a mass murdering psychopath? There is no regret in his action, he is almost relishing seeing hundreds of innocent people die. Where have his Starfleet ethics gone?
There must be something in the Replicators on the Vengeance because Admiral Marcus is not the only murdering nut job on the ship. The USS Vengeance’s human crew are also happy to have the blood of innocents on their hands. Identified by Scotty as ‘’private security,’’ we are supposed to believe that Admiral Marcus has hired this group of people and they will do whatever he asks, even kill a starship full of people. Do they work for Starfleet? Are they part of Section 31? Who are they and why are they blindly doing whatever Admiral Marcus orders?
Also, how exactly has Admiral Marcus managed to hide Khan and build the USS Vengeance within the Solar System without the rest of Starfleet finding out what he is doing? It’s not like his facility around Jupiter has top-notch security, Scotty managed to enter the facility in a Shuttlecraft without being detected. Scotty even managed to disable the USS Vengeance and make unauthorised communications to the Enterprise without the Vengeance internal sensors picking it up.
Towards the end of the film, Admiral Marcus is all over the place, his character starts to make less and less sense. On one hand he keeps talking about how he is the only one who can save Earth but on the other hand, the only people he seems to care about are himself and his daughter. How did a psycho like this make it to the rank of Admiral?
And the fight between the Enterprise and the Vengeance that takes place near Earth. Where are the other Starfleet ships? Why is no one concerned that there is a fight going on near the Moon? Why is no one in Starfleet command wondering where the USS Vengeance came from? The fight is taking place near Earth and you don’t even see a Shuttlecraft come up and have a look.
There were a couple of unintentional comedy moments in the scenes on the Vengeance. The security guard that catches Scotty messing around with the airlock controls must go down as the worst security guard in the history of Star Trek. He just stands there pointing his phaser at Scotty and asking him ‘‘what are you doing?’’ Even when he hears Uhura talking over the communicator, he still just stands there and does nothing.
The second bit I found it hilarious was when Kirk confronts Marcus on the bridge of the Vengeance. Kirk and Khan have stunned/killed all of the Vengeance crew but for some reason, Kirk won’t stun Admiral Marcus in front of his daughter in case it upsets her. Why not? Are the feelings of Carol Marcus so important that Kirk will risk the safety of the rest of the crew? Just silliness and more bad script writing.
2. Crash
Read more at Before ‘Into Darkness was released, we were teased with the image of a ship that resembled the Enterprise, crashing into San Francisco. It turns out that the ship in question was actually the USS Vengeance.
With a rather awesome trick by Spock, Khan is tricked into beaming onboard 72 live torpedoes that explode and cripple the Vengeance. The ship slowly falls to Earth and destroys a considerable area of San Francisco. Not only are innocent citizens who might be enjoying a sandwich near the bay killed, the ship flattens skyscrapers that must be full of people before it finally comes to a stop. The death toll must be in the tens of thousands, the Vengeance is a huge ship and it’s impact with San Francisco would have had major consequence for the poor people on the ground.
Not that you would know though, not only does Khan survive the whole thing without messing up his uniform, the people walking around San Francisco don’t seem too bothered about the starship that flattened half of the city. They seem more shocked by Spock beaming down with a phaser than the disaster that’s occurred a few blocks down from them.
In-fact, so little attention is given to the mass death of innocent civilians, the Enterprise crew make no comment about it and are more concerned that Khan might have survived the crash. Spock and the crew might be upset that Kirk is dead, but screw the tens of thousands who just died because you let off a bunch of torpedoes inside the Vengeance.
The whole ending of the film was nonsense and felt rushed. The crash and the routine fight between Khan and Spock appeared to have been written because it was the easiest way to end the film. It was just lackluster, the film started to fall apart as soon as Khan made his big reveal and by the end it was obvious the writers had run out of ideas.
1. Conclusion
It might sound like I hated the film but for all the faults, I did enjoy it. It was a much better film than the 2009 reboot and it had a tighter script, even if it fell apart by the end. Some bits felt like an Original Series episode (which was nice to see) but the shameless plagiarism of ‘The Wrath Of Khan’ was unnecessary.
Spock was still too emotional; it made the scenes where we are supposed to be surprised by his display of emotion mean very little because he is always having some sort of outburst. Spock comes across as a jerk with no social skills, rather than a Vulcan suppressing his emotions. Spock worked better as an alien who was embarrassed by his emotions and denied them even though you could see them festering below the surface. Quinto-Spock smirks, smiles, cries and shouts throughout ‘Into Darkness,’ he has lost the thing that made him unique and the only difference between him and the other characters in that he has pointed ears.
On the other hand, apart from the frat boy like attitude to every woman he sees, Chris Pine looked more comfortable as Captain Kirk. There were even moments of Shatnerism that were missing in the 2009 movie.
I also liked the way the Enterprise was shot in this film, we saw more of the ship and it looked great on the screen. The warp effect was also much better with the blue particle effect looking stunning in IMAX; you got a real sense of speed as the ship went to warp. It appears the Enterprise will get a slight redesign in Star Trek 3, the warp nacelles look more in proportion and they look less like hair dryers, so that might win around some people who hated the new look.
The introduction of Khan was badly handled and Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof still keep making the same mistakes in their scripts that have damaged all the films they have penned. But it was fun to watch; it looked great in 3D on the IMAX screen. It’s just sad that there were so many holes that acted like stumbling blocks and kept taking me out of the action on the screen. JJ Abrams has succeeded in making Star Trek into nothing but a special effects bonanza. It might make an enjoyable trip to the cinema but by alienating the legion of old school Trekkies in favour of quick ticket sales, this version of Star Trek will not have the legs to create a 50 year legacy like the original Star Trek did.
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This article was first posted on May 13, 2013
About the author: Amarpal Biring
Child of the 80's. Brought up on Star Trek, Video Games and Schwarzenegger, my tastes evolved to encompass all things geeky.
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About the author: Amarpal Biring
Child of the 80's. Brought up on Star Trek, Video Games and Schwarzenegger, my tastes evolved to encompass all things geeky.and is a total asshole
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25 Comments
Tom Baker
#6 – The 9th Doctor didn’t call him “Mickey the Idiot” for nothing.Barack Obama
“Considering a volcano eruptions generates heat anywhere from 1000C to 1500C, it’s considerably less heat than what would be generated by a ship entering a planet’s atmosphere ”Now might be a good time to explain the difference between “Temperature” and “Heat”Molten Lava has vastly more energy than the spilloff of entering the atmosphere.If you dont believe me, put out a match with your thumb vs putting your other hand in a really relatively low temperture of a pot of boiling water.Let me know which hand still works after the test.Barack Obama
The only thing I do not understand is that the Federation knows the Klingons are there, but there should be no reason to fear the klingons winning other than if the klingons were able to gain technology from their run in with the romulans from the previous movie.There should have been no need for super weapons any more powerful than the original trek history.
nottryingtotroll
SPOILER:Please don’t take this the wrong way but your arguments seem a little flat. My point is this, for example number 6 you discuss Noel Clarke and ask what motivation he had for blowing up the Starfleet research facility after his daughter was cured? Well think about it, Harrison probably told him he could blow up the hospital himself with his daughter in, or maybe he could walk in in the middle of the night and kill her. Sometimes, it really is worth thinking beyond what you see, it helps to suspend disbelief and you get more enjoyement out of the film.If they smoothed over each of the cracks you mention, it would be incrdibly ardious and dull. The film is massivley fun and sets out to reach far beyond Trek fans, which is why it may seem a little dumbed down to a Trek fan like yourself – especially considering your love for Wrath of Khan – but to someone like me, a non trekkie, it is nothing but good popcorn fun, and thats exactly what i wanted.i watched WOK a few weeks ago and have to say i was dissapointed, i hadn’t watched any other trek film except the reboot until then, but i pretty much know all the characters/films through parody and pop culture – this film serves the audience as it should, and in turn makes bucket loads of money in the process, appealing to the masses. If you go in the cinema not thinking about the Trek legacy so much, you may have got more out of it.This is just my two cents, i thank you for a great read, I can’t say i disagree with everything you say.Amarpal Biring
I get what you are saying, I totally understand that the best way to enjoy this film is to switch the brain off and go with it. But having been a fan for so long and enjoying Star Trek because I didn’t have to stop thinking to enjoy it, that is the problem I and other Star Trek fans have with this rebooted timeline.It might bring in new non-trekkies in the short term but they are not going to support the franchise like it has been for the past 50 years.Zak Forster
^this is the reason I don’t enjoy the new timeline as much as the normal one. Everything feels too Hollywood – the missions and quests are not clever but rather just explosive orientated fighting. If you look on any “review” based website the new films will receiver higher grades but I’d still rather watch the Kirk and Picard movies because I had to use my brain to understand the lingo and science of it all.- It is the same problem that has ruined the music industry.
Stephen Higham
Brilliant article, It says something for the quality of the action and the drama that none of these many factors bothered me in the slightest (until now… poor every woman Starfleet)- You were distracted by the shiny-shiny as Frankie Boyle would say. :)
Corinne Crook
Although I enjoyed reading this I have to diagree on a few points, rather than a shameless ‘plagiarism’ to me it seemed more of a tribute, (although a different time line, that some things still happen that are simular, like a parallel universe) and that Spock was just right, since in the original he did tend to smirk, shout and in the original movie even shedding a tear. I realise that I perhaps not being a trekkie for more than 3 years, I see it differently. Plus I tend to completely turn off in movie’s, not questioning anything unless really stupid and without the ability for myself to come up with a reason why something is done.- Sorry I can’t spell, I’m using my phone aswell.
Matt
Khan probably threatened to kill the man’s sick daughter if he didn’t do the suicide bombing. The guy may have argued that there’s no guarantee that Khan wouldn’t kill his daughter even if the bombing goes as planned. But Khan, being the super-intellect, probably rebutted, “But I can guarantee that if you don’t follow through on quid pro quo, I will make sure your daughter doesn’t live,” whether it’s removing the cure (Khan’s blood, I’m guessing) or murdering her.nick palladino
10. Logical gaffe needed for the great image. I wasn’t bothered by it but I can understand if one was.9. True. I interpreted it as Spock following the orders of his captain (stopping the volcano) even if he disagreed with them. When he tells Kirk to let him die it was him offering his opinion but the captain is the one to make the call. I always hated that use of the prime directive. It’s unethical to let thousands of sentients die when you can save them. You shouldn’t advance a species before it’s ready but that doesn’t mean you can’t help them. In that very scene they worship it as a god not somehow magically create a starship.8. Pike sees the qualities that made his father a hero. Also are you denying that Kirk saved Earth in the last movie? Seems like a bit of a biggie, especially considering the person he saved it from already destroyed a planet. He wanted him under his wing so he could show him the responsibility required of a captain.7. Great performance, didn’t care he was white (same as when Idris Elba was Heimdall). Logical flaws aplenty here. I liked the superhuman aspect of Khan. You got a sense that he was menacing physically and mentally.
In Space Seed the reason Khan won is because ladies are magically attracted to him….OK. And in WOK which I love, without those magic space worms that make you suggestible, he would have failed miserably. Also if I were to nitpick WOK why don’t the worms make the victims equally suggestible to captain Kirk’s orders? See, nitpicking movies is no fun D:6. This has been addressed before. Also desperate people often make rash decisions.5. Personal preference for looks and seems a bit fanboyish to complain. I prefer this version’s look. The Enterprise was far enough away from Kronos to prevent detection. Not sure how the shuttle worked, and again I didn’t care.4. I thought that every main crew member got their own moment and Uhura’s is her confrontation with the Klingons. Also the speech Spock makes about trying not to feel pain but failing was sweet.3. Starting a war is also a way to seize power from the people. He was going to kill the crew because if he took only Kirk he would be court martialled. The security guard bothered me because it went beyond weird movie logic into, “Is this guy a bit slow?”. I didn’t actually think why aren’t more ships coming…Dunno.2. Yeah my first comment out the door is wow thousands of people died. Same with the first movie, Vulcan is destroyed. Don’t know how a real happy ending works in either scenario.1. I liked the role reversal of Spock’s death. It humbled Kirk and showed Spock feeling emotion. I don’t feel he showed much emotion throughout this film, remember he never had his emotions purged so his reaction to Kirk’s death makes sense. I personally felt the Khan! yell makes more sense in this version because it’s a reaction to actual loss.I posted this rebuttal because you seem like a guy who likes to nitpick and that’s one of the worst things you can do because it ruins your experience. I loved the film but had some grievances with the logic involving Khan; not enough to ruin the movie though. Although hell my opinion might mean dirt to you because I got into Star Trek through ’09, then went back and watched TOS, TNG, and a bit of DS9.U40
Trekkies are usually hard core sci fi fans, and we all have OCD and a over appreciation to canon, so when idiots who cant handle canon like JJA make a film with as many flaws as his do we like to point them out, basically all we want is someone who knows and respects Star Trek to direct the films, not this guy. But I agree with a few of your points and about nitpicking, but it’s hard to ignore sometimes because to enjoy a universe like the Star Trek one it needs to seem realistic, to act as if it were in fact real and we could one day live in a world like it (Which was part of Roddenberry’s vision), but when something is wrong (like Vulcan having a different sky colour, or phasers not firing like light weapons) it is hard wired into our head that it is changeable and in fact fictional.tone
Small point on #9. Saving those beings could prevent another group of beings from evolving. Kinda like if someone had saved the dinosaurs, maybe we wouldnt be herebearuk
Star Trek Into Darkness falls apart as you watch it. It may have pleased a generic popcorn movie crowd, but it insults your intelligence and I expected better.10. Looks good, makes no sense.
9. Seems like nothing more than a way to take us to…
8. Kirk’s the captain, then he isn’t, then he is…whatever, I’m annoyed and feel like walking out.
7. ok, so this is Khan. Abrams and co. took an old trek movie, watered the vilian down to homeopathic dilution, and hoped we’d have some kind of collective placebo effect. The rapture!
6. Don’t they have remote detonators or timers or something? But more than that, would a starfleet officer turn suicide bomber, leaving his wife without a husband, and a child living with the knowledge her father was a traitor?
5. Klingons make for a convenient action sequence as if we didn’t have enough bad guys already. They are way better than…
4. listening to that bitch Uhura whining on about Spock. Someone slap her. As for Carol Marcus, was she there only to be seen in bra and panties? Nurse Chapel might have something to say about this.
3. Peter Weller is cool (cooler than Cumberbatch). His backstory and motivation seems more solid than almost anything in this movie.
2. Nothing is going to spoil my afternoon latte, not even a spaceship crashing into the city.
1. To fix a warp drive you need to give it a really good kicking.
1a. In another timeline Kirk and Spock were friends for 15 years or more. In this timeline you can count the number of DAYS they’ve been friends. Not much of a climax considering…
1b.I wonder what happens if I inject this guys blood into a dead tribble? WOW
1c. Fetishistic lens flare. Does Abrams do it just to piss people off? When Carol Marcus is chatting to her dad onscreen you can hardly see her face, the lens flare is extreme. Her role may have been pointless, but she is pretty.
1d. The transporters only work wth line of sight, do work, don’t work, won’t beam up but will beam down…otherwise known as sloppy writing to make the action sequences fit (Enterprise under the sea, space jumping between ships, Spock chasing Khan…)
I would happily torture Abrams in a Liam Neeson ‘Taken’ style…
Neil Swan
Nibiru at the beginning threw me. i thought they must’ve been in a holodeck simulation, but I don’t think holodecks were yet invented.- Again, great article, covered most of the flaws in the film, it seems JJA still hasn’t watched TOS, just googled some stuff. One thing that really bugged me was how forced the acting for McCoy was, he sounded really unnatural and again JJA thinks the “I’m a doctor not a …” line will fix that. But it was much much better than ST11 even though they still had sound in space and some more of the science was nonsense it was still nowhere near as bad as 11.Here is one problem I noticed, ST12 is set in 2260, and Khan has been frozen for 300 years, so in 1960, and the Eugenics Wars were between 1992 and 1996, he was not frozen then but soon after WWIII 2026-2053 where he fled with 84 others genetically enhanced people on a sleeper ship for 200 years, so someone didn’t do their research, if I just googled some of my years to make sure my argument was correct then why the hell cant these waste of time scriptwriters google ito avoid their plot holes. McCoy should have said “He was frozen about 200 years ago, about the time the war ended.” but then the 12 year olds in the audience might research that and find plot holes so they left it out, the entire Eugenics Wars and World War III are barely touched, a massive part of Star Trek history, the whole cause for the world Zefram Cochrane lived in when he piloted the first warp speed ship engaging us with the Vulcans.It’s still apparent that these idiots have not much respect for the nature of Star Trek, exploration, scientific integrity and realism, and a better future, social, political and more. All of it means nothing to these scriptwriters and especially JJA as he himself said in an interview “I tried to watch Star Trek but I couldn’t like it, I couldn’t understand it, so I will change it because mine is way better, like explosions and lasers and hot alien cat babes! PCHEEEW! ZZZWOOOO!”
Phil
I’d also add that when the Vengeance finds the Enterprise and demands that Kirk hand over Khan, Kirk really just should have followed orders–instead he assumes Marcus disabled his ship (which he never really obtains evidence of) and assumes Marcus will kill Khan and decides that Khan’s right to a fair trial is worth disobeying orders and warping off to Earth. Khan had just killed thousands of people and Pike. Wouldn’t Marcus be justified in at least disabling the Enterprise when Kirk just takes off with a superman/terrorist for Earth in a starship? Then when Kirk is stopped he decides not only to disobey the head of Starfleet and support Khan, he decides to team up with Khan and go take Marcus’ ship. Shortly thereafter Khan kills Marcus, Kirk disables the Vengeance, and Khan takes it on a final kamikaze run that destroys downtown San Francisco, killing tens of thousands more.The move ends with Kirk back in command of the enterprise? Why exactly wouldn’t he be court martialed? Even if Marcus did have a secret Dreadnaught building operation, Kirk sided with a terrorist, took him to the Dreadnaught, and tens of thousands of civilians and the head of starfleet ended up dying.At least it’s in line with The Wrath of Khan, where Kirk could have easily dealt with Khan and the stolen Reliant by just raising his shields when advised, but to be cool decides to keep them just for the heck of it. A bunch of collateral damage occurs, Spock dies, and Kirk his in a hero.Abrams has just taken it to a new level with a tragically comical amount of collateral damage following in Kirks wake.Dan W.
I agree, saving the planet violates the prime directive, yet it is certainly not the first or most blatant violation of this in Star Trek canon. It also serves a narrative purpose as the scene is about Spock being willing to violate the prime directive to serve the needs of the many, but not to violate to serve the few, or the one.Scott
You forgot the biggest plot hole of all.. Spock could have killed Kahn and any of Kahn’s crew could have saved Kirk with their blood, which could have easily been taken from statis..kirksgirl
Most important of all ..how is it possible that this is KAHN, THE Kahn, in TOS “space seed” isn’t that the first time they encounter kahn? what happened did the enterprise crew have a collective memory loss has the memory of these events been wiped from their minds?? I don’t get it it is frustrating , I mean sci fi is one of the coolest genre because you can make anything happen, anything is possible or atleast plausible yet with all that the writers had to go and bring a Kahn into it s character that has already been done in the (chronoloigical star trek) future, TWOK plot was cool the way they used the same actor and tied in the story, but this is pointless they really could have come up with something original!David
regarding the klingons thing, why wouldnt they detect the enterprise, etc… there was a short visual clue when they arrived at Kronos, which was the obliterated moon. Yes, the same moon Praxis that exploded in Star Trek VI, which if you’ve seen it basically set in motion that the klingon homeworld was pretty much wrecked as a result and would need to be evacuated. There are huge buildings and industry where Kirk & co land on Kronos – it clearly had to be abandoned as a result of the Praxis explosion. It also stands to reckon that the same kind of explosion would compromise the Klingon’s ability to detect ships in orbit.now… that does not explain the EXACT SAME OMISSION from the space battle between the vengeance and enterprise… they’re fighting around the moon! with those kinds of explosions in the movie, you’d probably be able to see them with eyes on the ground. and yet, no help arrives at any point during the battle.
that should be your real point of contention for #5Macahan
It makes no sense for Khan to shrug off Spock’s neck pinch when in TOS episode Space Seed we saw Spock knock out one of Khan’s men with it.Hendrawan
I’m not a hardcore fan of Star Trek, I barely finished the TNG, wathced a handful of DS9 and Voyager, a few of TOS and I love the Enterprise series whenever the budget cut was not present. I did enjoy this movie but the sense of inspiration which I expected from the huge franchise was nowhere to be found. I remembered getting a lot more of essence from many single TNG episode than this whole ride.I would also add some points of plot holes and inconsistencies:1. Assuming the reason of failure to lock on Khan after the Vengeance crashed was valid, why would Spock chase Khan alone knowing that he was chasing a superhuman? Is it too difficult to assemble a security team by “Security team, meet me in transporter room!” command. Had McCoy recruited all the security considering how fast he removed all 72 of Khan’s crews.2. Would it be too smart of Spock (and his team) to beam down to somewhere in front of Khan’s trajectory. Someone who’d programmed the academy’s simulations deserves that much of 2 steps ahead thinking. And when Khan jumped into a random vehicle, that would be a clear situation to beam him up saving Spock from wasting a few thousand calories in an uncivilized way.3. How is it possible that Khan did not anticipate the removal of his crews. Did he expect the infamous Enterprise crew didn’t know how to remove them. A true strategist would not underestimate his opponent. He could have assured himself that his crews were on the torpedoes by asking Spock to open the torpedoes hatches before he beams them up and zoomed them the way Kirk zoomed Khan’s suitcase. By opening the torpedoes hatch, the life-sign scanner should also pick them up.4. I am a brilliant aboard a crashing starship, what would i do? Sit down and hoping the crash won’t crushed me? Meh. Is the transporter working? (a) yes, then beam up to Enterprise and beat all the numerous medical crews and provide myself with a happy ending assuming other federation ships are still in their dormant sleep; (b) yes, then beam up to Kronos again or to some party in western Europe, imagination is the boundary; (c) no, but look! Ocean. with my super survival skill, no problem. This will provide a sequel anyway.5. Spock had 72 ace cards and he didn’t have a clue how to use it. How about just tell the abundant medical crews to point phasers at each of 72 cyro-chambers. Did Spock not learn how Admiral Marcus tamed the superhuman?I have to disagree with you on “The Moron” and “Under The Sea”. They’re plot holes but can be easily cleared. But regarding “Admiral Marcus”, I’m a bit in the middle for this. I agree that history told that this kind of person can raise to high command due to war situation but also in reality, many organizations or companies led by this conceptor kind due to their exceptional vision and leadership. It is possible that besides his war-oriented specialty, he thrived also in other aspects in the interest of the Federation.- It amazes me that website allow hackie crapturds write such a load of crap.I mean those one hundred monkeys aren't writting Shakespear,but are the internet written such garbage they think is clever shit
25 Comments
In Space Seed the reason Khan won is because ladies are magically attracted to him….OK. And in WOK which I love, without those magic space worms that make you suggestible, he would have failed miserably. Also if I were to nitpick WOK why don’t the worms make the victims equally suggestible to captain Kirk’s orders? See, nitpicking movies is no fun D:
9. Seems like nothing more than a way to take us to…
8. Kirk’s the captain, then he isn’t, then he is…whatever, I’m annoyed and feel like walking out.
7. ok, so this is Khan. Abrams and co. took an old trek movie, watered the vilian down to homeopathic dilution, and hoped we’d have some kind of collective placebo effect. The rapture!
6. Don’t they have remote detonators or timers or something? But more than that, would a starfleet officer turn suicide bomber, leaving his wife without a husband, and a child living with the knowledge her father was a traitor?
5. Klingons make for a convenient action sequence as if we didn’t have enough bad guys already. They are way better than…
4. listening to that bitch Uhura whining on about Spock. Someone slap her. As for Carol Marcus, was she there only to be seen in bra and panties? Nurse Chapel might have something to say about this.
3. Peter Weller is cool (cooler than Cumberbatch). His backstory and motivation seems more solid than almost anything in this movie.
2. Nothing is going to spoil my afternoon latte, not even a spaceship crashing into the city.
1. To fix a warp drive you need to give it a really good kicking.
1a. In another timeline Kirk and Spock were friends for 15 years or more. In this timeline you can count the number of DAYS they’ve been friends. Not much of a climax considering…
1b.I wonder what happens if I inject this guys blood into a dead tribble? WOW
1c. Fetishistic lens flare. Does Abrams do it just to piss people off? When Carol Marcus is chatting to her dad onscreen you can hardly see her face, the lens flare is extreme. Her role may have been pointless, but she is pretty.
1d. The transporters only work wth line of sight, do work, don’t work, won’t beam up but will beam down…otherwise known as sloppy writing to make the action sequences fit (Enterprise under the sea, space jumping between ships, Spock chasing Khan…)
I would happily torture Abrams in a Liam Neeson ‘Taken’ style…
that should be your real point of contention for #5