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shadowfireflame) wrote2013-05-17 11:30 pm
shadowfireflame) wrote2013-05-17 11:30 pm
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Review: Star Trek Into Darkness
Wedneday night at Star Trek Into Darkness premiere (for me, anyway, grr):
Benedict Cumberbatch: *appears onscreen looking SMOKING HOT*
Me: *internally screaming*
Fiancé: HOMG!!!!!! *spills huge cup of water all over himself*
Fiancé: *sits in the air-conditioned theater soaking wet and freezing for entire movie*
Thanks, Benedict Cumberbatch!!
I’m not a Trekkie, so I’ll mostly just talk about Benedict’s performance, which is all I really care about anyway.
The movie was lots of fun. Almost too much fun—certainly too much action for me. There’s being breathless with excitement and then there’s really desperately needing to take a breath in order to get some oxygen.
The relationship between Kirk and Spock continues to be incredibly slashy (with an intriguing OT3 moment including Uhura), and I enjoyed that each of the returning cast members gets his or her moment in the sun’s reflected flares (with Simon Pegg’s Scotty taking the comedy gold every time). The females in the movie could definitely have been given more to do than talk about their feelings (though Uhura does get to speak Klingon).
Benedict Cumberbatch—and I say this as someone who has spent untold hours watching this guy’s interviews and things—is literally unrecognizable as the villain John Harrison. He seems to tower over Kirk and Spock both physically and mentally, and he must have been paying attention to Andrew Scott’s performance as Moriarty because Benedict is like a cobra here, constantly coiled and ready to strike. His eyes seem paler and reptilian, and the theater actually felt colder and hushed when he was speaking, like nobody in the audience dared to breathe because he was so freaking scary. Incredibly charismatic. Too bad he’s...hardly given anything to do.
I wanted a movie just of him and his complex backstory, but instead he hardly got to speak at all. I mean, I’m sure Benedict had fun doing all the physical work, the jumps and fight scenes and so on, but I wanted more more more; I wanted to know everything about him and how he became this way and what he was like before (and the snippets we got were so interesting that I don’t think it would have dulled his character to get more of him). I just wanted him to have more screentime, I guess, but it was all used up in the relentless and basically pointless action scenes instead. And Benedict has such a knack for, well, everything, but especially showing what it’s like to be in pain (good lord, watch Third Star). But as his character in Star Trek Into Darkness is basically a super-soldier who can take a beating without flinching, there was no need of that incredible ability he has, despite Harrison getting repeatedly pummeled and pounded upon, which was such a waste.
Final verdict: definitely worth seeing for all the actors, but especially Benedict. Now if the director would just have stood back a little and let them breathe! That said, I very much look forward to seeing this again so that I can focus on Benedict’s performance.
EDIT May 19—On my second viewing (in 2D; my first viewing was in IMAX 3D), I enjoyed the movie more, as I was more prepared to accept it as just a fun romp. The action was easier to follow, the jokes were still amusing (except Bones; he was less funny the second time around), and the plot seemed more coherent. Still good fun. Also, there’s a scene in which Benedict sets course for a place and then has to confirm the coordinates, and damn, the way he says Confirm is basically the hottest thing ever. My eyes rolled back a little. :)
Slightly guilty admission: I think I am actually getting more enjoyment out of the various interviews with Benedict and the rest of the cast (particularly Simon Pegg) than I did out of the movie itself. I feel like I’ve learned so much about Benedict as a person because there are just so many interviews and people talking about him, too. The story of the neutron cream prank had me in stitches. I’ve basically been living on the great dudeufugly’s tumblr, as she is wonderful about reblogging pretty much everything.
Some interviews of note:
—the long one in Chinese in which he gets to discuss Sherlock, Hawking, and Van Gogh in addition to John Harrison
—this one in which Simon Pegg and Alice Eve discuss why they really think the ladies go for Benedict (so funny)
—the Google play one in which Benedict imitates that amusing gif of him, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, and Chris Pine in a car
—the supremely awkward David Letterman interview that starts off with Letterman not knowing who he is and ending basically Cumberbatched
—the Graham Norton Show one with Chris Pine and Kim Cattrall (Benedict goes into the audience to hug fans!)
—Simon Pegg with Jimmy Kimmel giving his account of the neutron cream incident
—this short outtake from an interview where Benedict makes a very funny face. There’s something hypnotic about this one; I’ve watched it repeatedly, and it’s always adorable!
There are a ton of others, so you can check dudeufugly’s tumblr if you want more. :)
[SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS; please be careful!]
Benedict Cumberbatch: *appears onscreen looking SMOKING HOT*
Me: *internally screaming*
Fiancé: HOMG!!!!!! *spills huge cup of water all over himself*
Fiancé: *sits in the air-conditioned theater soaking wet and freezing for entire movie*
Thanks, Benedict Cumberbatch!!
I’m not a Trekkie, so I’ll mostly just talk about Benedict’s performance, which is all I really care about anyway.
The movie was lots of fun. Almost too much fun—certainly too much action for me. There’s being breathless with excitement and then there’s really desperately needing to take a breath in order to get some oxygen.
The relationship between Kirk and Spock continues to be incredibly slashy (with an intriguing OT3 moment including Uhura), and I enjoyed that each of the returning cast members gets his or her moment in the sun’s reflected flares (with Simon Pegg’s Scotty taking the comedy gold every time). The females in the movie could definitely have been given more to do than talk about their feelings (though Uhura does get to speak Klingon).
Benedict Cumberbatch—and I say this as someone who has spent untold hours watching this guy’s interviews and things—is literally unrecognizable as the villain John Harrison. He seems to tower over Kirk and Spock both physically and mentally, and he must have been paying attention to Andrew Scott’s performance as Moriarty because Benedict is like a cobra here, constantly coiled and ready to strike. His eyes seem paler and reptilian, and the theater actually felt colder and hushed when he was speaking, like nobody in the audience dared to breathe because he was so freaking scary. Incredibly charismatic. Too bad he’s...hardly given anything to do.
I wanted a movie just of him and his complex backstory, but instead he hardly got to speak at all. I mean, I’m sure Benedict had fun doing all the physical work, the jumps and fight scenes and so on, but I wanted more more more; I wanted to know everything about him and how he became this way and what he was like before (and the snippets we got were so interesting that I don’t think it would have dulled his character to get more of him). I just wanted him to have more screentime, I guess, but it was all used up in the relentless and basically pointless action scenes instead. And Benedict has such a knack for, well, everything, but especially showing what it’s like to be in pain (good lord, watch Third Star). But as his character in Star Trek Into Darkness is basically a super-soldier who can take a beating without flinching, there was no need of that incredible ability he has, despite Harrison getting repeatedly pummeled and pounded upon, which was such a waste.
Final verdict: definitely worth seeing for all the actors, but especially Benedict. Now if the director would just have stood back a little and let them breathe! That said, I very much look forward to seeing this again so that I can focus on Benedict’s performance.
EDIT May 19—On my second viewing (in 2D; my first viewing was in IMAX 3D), I enjoyed the movie more, as I was more prepared to accept it as just a fun romp. The action was easier to follow, the jokes were still amusing (except Bones; he was less funny the second time around), and the plot seemed more coherent. Still good fun. Also, there’s a scene in which Benedict sets course for a place and then has to confirm the coordinates, and damn, the way he says Confirm is basically the hottest thing ever. My eyes rolled back a little. :)
Slightly guilty admission: I think I am actually getting more enjoyment out of the various interviews with Benedict and the rest of the cast (particularly Simon Pegg) than I did out of the movie itself. I feel like I’ve learned so much about Benedict as a person because there are just so many interviews and people talking about him, too. The story of the neutron cream prank had me in stitches. I’ve basically been living on the great dudeufugly’s tumblr, as she is wonderful about reblogging pretty much everything.
Some interviews of note:
—the long one in Chinese in which he gets to discuss Sherlock, Hawking, and Van Gogh in addition to John Harrison
—this one in which Simon Pegg and Alice Eve discuss why they really think the ladies go for Benedict (so funny)
—the Google play one in which Benedict imitates that amusing gif of him, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, and Chris Pine in a car
—the supremely awkward David Letterman interview that starts off with Letterman not knowing who he is and ending basically Cumberbatched
—the Graham Norton Show one with Chris Pine and Kim Cattrall (Benedict goes into the audience to hug fans!)
—Simon Pegg with Jimmy Kimmel giving his account of the neutron cream incident
—this short outtake from an interview where Benedict makes a very funny face. There’s something hypnotic about this one; I’ve watched it repeatedly, and it’s always adorable!
There are a ton of others, so you can check dudeufugly’s tumblr if you want more. :)
[SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS; please be careful!]
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Also, I think that Abrams relied too much on the big reveal of KHAN (watch that scene again, it's all about that moment), which didn't work for me at all. Because I'm not a Trekkie, I know that Khan is the ultimate ST villain but I don't care, so for a non-fan it was a pointless moment of "Yeah, and? So you used a fake name? Why should I care?" *shrugs*
Too much action, definitely. The movie didn't grab me emotionally at all, because all the quiet scenes felt crammed into those huge action set pieces, like "Shit, we need a bit of emoting now! Uhm, reference to old ST movie, but with reversed roles!". I enjoyed the movie while watching it, but I'm getting really irritated but some of the issues I have with it. And I compare it to Iron Man 3, which handled the action/emotion balance so much better.
But I loved Zoe Saldana (I always do), and she at least did get a bit of fighting here (compared to Alice Eve, who got nothing besides a wholly pointless underwear scene); Simon Pegg was huge fun, Karl Urban was suitably pissed off. *g* Quinto gets Spock very right, but I guess the movie didn't really manage to convey that epic friendship between him and Kirk for me. But I don't think that's the actors' fault.
And yes, most of the interviews were great!
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"Yeah, and? So you used a fake name? Why should I care?" *shrugs*
In the marketing, J.J. Abrams kept saying this was accessible to non-Trekkies while still pleasing Trekkies, and I thought they'd have done better to just stick to one or the other. I guess I wish they'd just created a new villain for him and then given him more screentime instead of this "big reveal" that didn't mean much to me.
I think Zoe Saldana was awesome! Loved that scene where she's brave and speaks Klingon; I wanted to see that work for them, but instead it looked like it was going wrong and then Harrison showed up, sigh. And I always love John Cho and Karl Urban and especially Zachary Quinto (and I like Chris Pine even if I think his acting is a bit off sometimes). Simon Pegg I liked a ton more than I usually do. I spent the whole movie thinking Alice Eve was going to turn evil and be on Harrison's side, so that was distracting for me! :)
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I thought they'd have done better to just stick to one or the other.
YES THIS. I just did a gigantic rambly post o'doom, but this pretty much sums it up. Because as a Star Trek fan, it... didn't work for me either. Not to say that I didn't enjoy parts of it, because I did, but not the parts that were geared towards fans, which is ironic, I guess.
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I always enjoy Movie Bob's reviews (for this movie it's at this link), and he talks about how frustrating it was as a fan having to watch J.J. Abrams not get it but instead pretending he got it, which was unsatisfying for everybody.
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Shame that most of the other crew members didn't have much to do. I love Simon Pegg (I guess Shaun of the Dead is to blame), so I was happy to see more of him here and have him come to the rescue. *g* And yes, I though so to about Eve's character at first! But I talked to my colleague today who really loves the old tvs eries and the movies (and her boyfriend is even more into it), and she said that Dr. Marcus actually was one of Kirk's old flames that later showed up with Kirk's son. Yep. So, I guess they're setting something like that up? I at least detected hints of mutual attraction in that last scene. *g*
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This was my main complaint, also. I also saw it twice, and I can CONFIRM that his CONFIRM is the last word he speaks in the film. The last 20 minutes are all shouting and grunting and snarling-- what a waste!
So yeah, a fun romp, but I couldn't help being disappointed they didn't do a rise of a real character, show Harrison's development and the plot at ST HQ, which just gets dropped.
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I think the filmmakers should have done a flashback sequence or something featuring Harrison's past and him interacting with his comrades, that would have been interesting.
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I just googled for images from STID and cropped out this image without altering anything. Feel free to take.
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And yes, I soooo want a commentary by him. And if nobody else from the cast wants to participate, I think he would have no trouble doing a commentary track all on his own and just talking to himself for hours, lol!
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