Knowing I was going to be seeing this in the near future I (re)watched Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. Aside from the superior special effects, I can't say that Into Darkness is better.
Weirdly, it's like someone took this pre-production script for Wrath of Khan, pulled out its best concepts, and cobbled it together into a different film, using some of its identical scenes, sometimes giving its same lines to different actors.
What makes it weirder is that there are indications in Into Darkness that this is set in the same universe as the 6 original Star Trek films (of the 80s and 90s). If that's so, then how is the same stuff happening before it happens again? The crew of the Enterprise is doomed to repeat its own history, I guess.
What Into Darkness felt like to me was a big, loud, Star Trek knock off that was kind of okay. It hits the same beats that Wrath of Khan managed to pull off so much better, somehow, in the early 80s. I guess I wanted to see a totally original Star Trek tale, not one that borrows so heavily from a previous one. J.J. Abrams leans too heavily on fan love for Wrath of Khan.
Hate to say it, but thinking about it makes me want to re-watch the Star Trek tribute/parody Galaxy Quest. Not sure why.
Weirdly, it's like someone took this pre-production script for Wrath of Khan, pulled out its best concepts, and cobbled it together into a different film, using some of its identical scenes, sometimes giving its same lines to different actors.
What makes it weirder is that there are indications in Into Darkness that this is set in the same universe as the 6 original Star Trek films (of the 80s and 90s). If that's so, then how is the same stuff happening before it happens again? The crew of the Enterprise is doomed to repeat its own history, I guess.
What Into Darkness felt like to me was a big, loud, Star Trek knock off that was kind of okay. It hits the same beats that Wrath of Khan managed to pull off so much better, somehow, in the early 80s. I guess I wanted to see a totally original Star Trek tale, not one that borrows so heavily from a previous one. J.J. Abrams leans too heavily on fan love for Wrath of Khan.
Hate to say it, but thinking about it makes me want to re-watch the Star Trek tribute/parody Galaxy Quest. Not sure why.