new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer.
Posted April 17, 2013
on:- In: Star Trek
- 20 Comments
There’s a new trailer out for Star Trek Into Darkness. It’s a pretty fucking epic trailer.
Looks awesome, yeah? i want to stand up and applaud after watching that.
but do these J.J. Abrams movies feel like Star Trek?
And does it matter? Does Star Trek have, for lack of a better term, umami, that is or should be present in the J.J. Abrams films? and if yes, what is that particular flavor?
discuss.
I’ll go first. You know how a lot of people were annoyed with the X-Men prequel that came out a couple years ago? Long time fans said it didn’t jive with the cannon story line and ret-conned a bunch of stuff. my only experience with X-Men is the movies, so if characters and plotlines were changed from the comics I had no way of knowing. The way Abrams is handling Star Trek makes me really sympathize with those X-Men fans.
20 Responses to "new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer."
Yep, that is crazy cool! Makes me want to pull out the blu ray tonight and watch Star Trek. This is the movie I’ve been looking most forward to (barring the Hobbit films) since the first one came out in 09. Thanks for sharing that!
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No, it isn’t Star Trek. It is Star Wars meets Die Hard meets The Avengers meets The Transformers meets Generic SF Action Film – and it also looks like they’ve recycled some ideas from the 2009 film (Kirk in the spacesuit). Revenge is a common theme in these films, however (Kahn, The Search for Spock, The Undiscovered Country, First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis right on to the present) and in spite of Cumberbatch’s effective voice, it seems a little worn. Why is someone always out for revenge?
The 2009 film had so many plot holes, but all was forgiven since it was a ‘reintroduction’ to these characters. Where it went *grossly* wrong was Kirk being given his first captaincy while only a third-year cadet without any real experience. He got lucky on that adventure because they were dealing with an idiot. A lot of experienced Star Fleet officers (including Spock) got passed over for that job and it never felt right. I hope this is addressed in the new film, and if it is, then Kirk is undermined as a character because he is in a position he doesn’t deserve (and keeps having to earn, from the looks of it).
But back to the ‘revenge’ theme – there might be something to it, as a reflection of our present reality, which is what Roddenberry really intended Star Trek to be. Our corrupt world is haunted by acts of vengeance, of terror and the fear that it will devastate us all. Who will be the hero to save us? This is the fantasy of it, of course, where Star Trek becomes Iron Man or Superman, the convenient geniuses who, after a little battering, still manage to save the day.
The series never pretended to be about superheroes, but offered us a positive vision of humankind – how we overcame our pettiness, ignorance and apathy to build a better world. The problem with that, of course, is, where is the conflict? The devil is always lurking around, somewhere.
I do think it’s a shame that a younger generation is now experiencing Star Trek in this way, and not its full flavor: what about the ‘five year mission’ to explore the galaxy – seek new life and new civilizations? With the original Star Trek (and to a lesser extent, TNG) we were along for an exciting ride into the New as well as exploring the questions of our past behavior and where it might lead us. I miss the adventure of it. All the ‘epic’ action and special effects and lens flare in the world won’t make me forget that. They are no replacement for going where no one has gone before.
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I really like J.J. Abrams and can’t wait to see this movie, but I’ve never been into Star Trek until the new movies.
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1 | tomspeelman
April 17, 2013 at 11:54 pm
One of my first real exposures to Trek was the 2009 film. A couple years later, I discovered TNG and that’s what made me a Trek fan.
The Abrams films may not have that blend of social commentary and humanism the franchise has always had–I’ve seen this in my Star Trek Saturdays series and I’m not even past the first season of TOS–but I would argue they don’t need to. In the popular consciousness, Trek has become pigeonholed as being all about speechifying and technobabble, and if the way to correct that is to make these high-octane action films with Trek trappings, then I’m on board.
Now here’s something I’m upset about: WHY are there no tie-in books set in the alternate timeline of the Abrams films outside of a novelization of the first film? What the heck, Pocket?
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Michael
April 18, 2013 at 6:43 am
Novels were planned but cancelled by Paramount.
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tomspeelman
April 18, 2013 at 11:47 pm
Did it have something to do with Bad Robot?
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