May 25, 2013

What Could Make Star Trek Into Darkness Better

This is a new article that I will be starting today and writing twice a week called, What Could Make [title of movie] Better. With the sequel to 2009's, Star Trek, out right now, what else are we going to talk about.

When I left the theater, my mind was blown away on how far film technology has gone. I did not want this movie spoiled for me, so I did not read any reviews, I didn't go to the Wikipedia page or any other page to look up the plot, and I did not watch any clips of the film. I watched the trailers and knew this film was going to be epic.

Unlike Iron Man 3, after a few days I still can't disassemble this film and criticize it for all it's worth, but I did have gripes watching the film and I still have the same, and newer, gripes now.

SPOILERS WILL ENSUE AFTER THIS BREAK














Shall we begin?

Again, if you haven't seen this film, don't read this. It will spoil everything for you.

1. Darkness

The film is called Star Trek Into Darkness, yet there is little darkness in the film. The film is not all that dark. There is darkness in the film, but it fades every time the audience gets a glimpse of it. The film should have been title Star Trek Through Darkness, because that is what the crew of the Enterprise does. They trek through darkness and come out the other side alive and well. The creators wanted to make it a stand alone film, but with a title like Into Darkness, you'd think that the Enterprise would go into darkness with no possibilities of surviving. Then cliffhanger or something, right? There should have been a lot more darkness.

2. Death

In the film, Kirk is demoted because he "doesn't know the rules," and "doesn't respect the chair." He also goes on insane missions that involves almost getting members of his crew killed. This whole thing about being reckless, not respecting the chair of the captain, and thinking he is invincible and god would have come in handy if only the writers kept with it, by killing someone important off. We can all talk about how Kirk dies and how Spock almost died, but what does it matter when they come back to life in two minutes. It would be different if Spock or Kirk died at the beginning of the film, and came back at the end of the film, but Kirk dies and five minutes later he comes back to life. It feels as if the writers write themselves into a hole and just decide to find some miracle cure to bring back characters.

3. Keep the Action going and Don't Start Too Soon

This film suffers from starting the action too soon and not being able to follow it up. Take for instance, the epic action sequence in the middle of the film featuring the Marcus's ship and the Enterprise in warp speed. The Enterprise is getting destroyed, flips out of warp speed and the action ends. This epic piece of action would have been enough to make the end of the film, but it takes place 30-45 minutes before the film ends. After this, we have a hammy dialogue sequence with Marcus's daughter, some poor jokes from Kirk, and an interesting space scene where Kahn's almighty-ness is of no use. My point is, the writers created the best action sequence in the film, only to pull the action away because, again, they dug themselves into a writer's hole.

4.  Stick to the Trailer

If you've seen the trailer to this film, you would think that Kirk goes after Kahn only to find out that Kahn is in a massive ship right in front of him. Kahn shoots down the Enterprise, the Enterprise plummets into the Earth's ocean and then, due to something awesome that Kirk and the crew come up with, the Enterprise rises out of the sea and then. . . well. . . who knows, defeats Kahn. But this is not what happens. What happens is that, many of the scenes that are depicted in the trailer happen over various points in the film . . . sadly. I think after the writers saw the trailer they thought that it was awesome, but it was too late to change the film. I give props to whoever edited the trailer. They have a great imagination and know how to make an epic ending, or somewhat ending.

5.  More Kahn/Cumberbatch.

Again, the trailer depicts Kahn as the bad guy, but Kahn doesn't really do much. Kahn destroys an archive, kills Pike and Marcus, and runs a ship into San Francisco. It might seem like a lot, but in a movie that is a little over two hours, and Kahn supposedly the main villain, it isn't a lot. Cumberbatch is a great actor, and I think the creators tried to go for too much of a twist with the character that Cumberbatch didn't get a chance to shine as an actual villain.

I hope Man of Steel's General Zod won't be twisted as "not the villain" because it feels like every villain that has been shown in superhero movies lately haven't really been villains. The Mandarin and Kahn were just minor pieces in these films.

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