Star Trek Into Darkness

Regarding Star Trek Into Darkness. (Don't worry, I will break for spoilers...)

Torn. Liked it, was fun... but I find, as was pointed out by a dear friend, I have trouble when whole scenes/lines from the original series are cannibalized and then used in ways that can't possibly have anywhere near the same impact, simply because this particular crew hasn't earned it yet. Which is fine. They haven't been together all that long, it'll come. And I do have faith that this new crew will build its own poignant legend as most of the others have. There's a lot of power in this ensemble, and they have one thing that I have found makes the experience: in-depth and well-written character interaction (for the most excellent example of how this succeeds, please watch ST: The Next Generation). I'm talking about individualized characters bumping against each other and reacting in ways that are not only appropriate, but evocative of MORE interaction, more plots. They feed off each other and the whole thing becomes this beautiful cohesive whole that goes way deeper than the plot-of-the-week.

But. We ARE dealing with a revamp of my absolute favorite original Star Trek film here, so I'm afraid I cannot look at this film without a little bit of :/ 

And here we go with the spoilers.

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So. 

The Wrath of Khan. Spoilers for that here, too.

I knew we were going to be dealing with the Khanberbatch. I knew it. Someone postulated the theory way back when, and I was just, I was ECSTATIC at the idea. Ask anyone I babbled to at the time. I once basically outlined the entire run of Khan's encounters with the Enterprise crew to a friend who is not an avid ST original series fan. It took up a third of our conversation that night. I'm sure she was just thrilled. That's how geeky I am for that film.

And god, that was a good film. There was something there, something feral, instinctive, primordial. Basic humanity shoved right to its limits. Part of this was the presence of a truly formidable and frightening enemy with a bone to pick. Part of it was the crew having been together for years already, having gotten under each other's skin and inside each other's hearts. Part of it was the lack of crazy newfangled trappings: just two ships, two agendas, and one (literally) world changing technology caught in the middle.

Not to mention, an ending that left no back door out of the pit it plunged into.   

Into Darkness certainly had a formidable villain, with a most legitimate bone to pick. The Khanberbatch did an excellent job. Of course. He's always a joy to watch. Not only that, but he didn't ape off of Ricardo Montalban's stupendous Khan at all; he recreated the character entirely. And the others, the Enterprise's crew, did a wonderful job conveying emotional impact that is tricky when working with such a recently formed ensemble of characters. 

I think the difference in theme here is crucial to why one film works, and one film WORKS. This time around, that theme was family. Last time around, it was sacrifice. Both valid and heavily provocative themes that came up again and again in many forms throughout each movie. 

In this case, and in my opinion, the sacrifice thematic arc packed more punch and left more holes in the heart when it was finished. It was spooled out extremely effectively, starting with the Kobayashi Maru simulation and ending with the Kobayashi Maru reality. Hard hitting, very hard. Yes, they fixed things in the third original series movie, but even that came with a nasty trade-off. There was no real white flag, no quarter given.

I feel almost offended (maybe "alienated" is a better word) by the way Into Darkness takes scenes and lines from The Wrath of Khan, scenes that cut the heart right out with a dull blade, and tries to fit them to a crew that simply doesn't have that history, that knowledge of each other, that sense of camaraderie and understanding. I think, again, that this young crew will have that, in spades. But, and through no fault of their own, they simply cannot compare to the time spent laying the foundations in the original series. There was a whole lot more to lose in The Wrath of Khan because there had already been a whole lot more gained. These scenes and lines ("The needs of the many, etc." ... "I (was and always shall be) am your friend"... "You'd better get down here. Hurry."... and of course the immortal Khaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!! scream) in this less layered scenario, just come across as adulatory, a salute to a well-loved memory, and with no punch of their own. What's more, it toes the unfortunate line of being amusing, which is no place this movie wanted to go during these scenes.

The pain I felt from Kirk's death scene in Into Darkness was not for this Kirk and this Spock. It was the remembered pain of Kirk losing Spock in The Wrath of Khan.

So. Thoughts done. And now I'm jonesing for The Wrath of Khan again. Maybe I'll watch it a few times. ^_^