Star Trek Into Darkness

cinema, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) film

High expectations? No, not really, because I wanted to call 'Star Trek XI' a debacle, and yet on balance I liked it as a good film. At the same time, and still being intrigued by what they might follow on with, I was no longer concerned about this being the be-all and end-all of Trek for the future, but merely a passing stage. So for 'Star Trek Into Darkness' I rarely got too excited in the four year wait, and so I didn't go in with hopes and dreams hoping to be fulfilled (and I pity those that were 'blown away' by XI, as I'll call it from now on, and went in with galactically high visions to be met - it's a sequel, and generally, in this time of exceedingly bottom-line driven franchises, that means it's going to be more of the same), but if they were going to even match the tempo and exuberance of XI, they were going to have to come up with something special. Only what they thought of as something special, may not be my idea. Before all that, (and please be aware this is not to be read before seeing the film as the mystery is one of the good points), a little examination of the title…

It was stated by one of the writers that the colon in the film titles represented everything about Trek that people didn't like (forgetting 'Star Trek Nemesis,' the lowest ranking Trek film ever, didn't have one!). Clearly this is a huge responsibility to lay at the feet of a humble character of grammar (do they have feet?), like saying all the faults of the first film (sorry, eleventh - this all gets confusing!), were due to Keenser, Scotty's oyster-headed diminutive comedy sidekick. Now I know some may agree with that, but that's beside my point. My point is that somewhere down the line of all their money cannons firing publicity and the Prime Money-Making Directive at cinemas, this 'anti-colon' stance was not filtered down to all the cinemas because I went to see the film at my local Vue, and on the timetable outside, listing all the films, was 'Star Trek: Into Darkness.' Something didn't translate, obviously, because that colon represented everything that was wrong with 'Star Trek,' apparently, and yet here they are, colon-ing away with apparent disregard for the filmmakers' wishes! I had to smile. But then, at the start of the film, on the BBFC's own certification page, the film was titled 'Star Trek - Into Darkness.' So what, colons are out, but dashes are in? Where did the message get lost that this was going to be 'like Batman' with its 'The Dark Knight Rises' title (and no doubt, hopefully a billion dollars), and its statement of intent, a sentence, get colon-ed? And despite this oversight, I hear the film's done pretty well, so there was no need to worry about that colon after all, was there?

The fact that Star Trek was going 'Into Darkness,' was, I felt, underplayed. It was about time a 'Deep Space Nine' reference got its share of film time (not counting the shuttlecraft looking like Runabouts!), as it'd been the ninth film, (fittingly), since anything 'DS9'-related was referenced, unless you count Worf in the tenth film, but he was part of the 'TNG' cast, so I don't. If they were going to take something from the pinnacle of Trek's achievement, it had to be something like Section 31, the illicit, yet secretly sanctioned Starfleet undercover organisation that was revealed to be a kind of secret police, preserving us, or preparing us, for the nastiness of space with the dichotomy of abandoning the ethical codes of the Federation to ensure its survival. I was thrilled when Section 31 were mentioned as being behind the plot, whom Admiral Marcus was working for, or perhaps was head of, it isn't explained. Very little is explained with regard to the organisation, which is as it should be, but like the Romulan's physical appearance being known without question in XI, it's another detail that shouldn't have been known, and yet neither do we understand the coolness and horror of the organisation, that they were there from the founding of the Federation, hidden behind it all. I understand that with the new timeline, Starfleet's become more aggressive in its defensiveness, and no doubt 31 has been more proactive thanks to the shock of the Narada, Nero's futuristic Borg-enhanced mining/battle ship.

Saying all that, I never felt the film went into 'Darkness,' it seemed more like a convenient title plucked from the air than a true theme. The theme, as I understood it, was to be terrorism, with the mysterious John Harrison waging a war on Earth. But I never had the impression that he was responsible for that much devastation - he set up Mickey from 'Dr. Who' (sorry, but he looks the same, and doesn't have that much to say, just like his old character!), to blow up an archive, and then he attacked the assembled members of– was it The Daystrom Institute, or just 'Daystrom' in this universe (made me think of the 'Voyager' episode 'Alliances'!), and then goes to Qo'noS (or Kronos as they spell it - I'm not nitpicking, in fact I think it might have been spelt both ways in the past), for… I didn't get the reason for that, but anyway, he eventually slams a massive starship (the USS Vengeance), into San Francisco, but that was after the terrorism, so I never got how 'bad' he was. Plus, he couldn't be seen to be irredeemably evil or Kirk and crew wouldn't have been able to work with him as an ally. So they defanged him a little to fit into their plans, but wouldn't it have been better if they'd been forced to work with him while also despising him, barely able to contain their feelings? That's another thing, I never really felt for the characters, things seemed flat all too often. On a kinder, more appreciative note, I will give them the praise for being more sober, less wackycrazyzany as they were in XI, though even this had a backlash.

Importantly, and one of the best things about this new film is that they clearly listened to criticisms of the previous film: questions were asked, complaints levelled, and many of them were answered, many responded to, which pleased me no end. One of the major problems was with Kirk, who had been a cocky, irresponsible, womaniser, who never took anything seriously and got bumped up to Captain because… well… the older people had been killed off by a disease like in 'Miri'? Nope. They all left to go to the 'Prime' universe because they were getting headaches from all the lens flares? No, sir: The fleet was away in another system. So far away that Starfleet had to make do with an Academy-full of cadets, and Pike liked Kirk's Dad and wanted his son to grow up. Yes, none of it made much sense, but this film attempts to undo some of the damage, and succeeds by having Pike lecture Kirk on his attitude and behaviour (though it doesn't stop him being a ridiculously stereotyped lecher, that the real Kirk never was), demote him, and give him some motivation to become a responsible leader of his young crew, which I was all heartily in agreement with (even if it was Pike's fault in the first place for allowing Kirk to be Captain too soon!). Besides Pike, there are still barely any older people in evidence (maybe everyone looks young in the future, or is this further evidence of 'Logan's Run' to come?), but there is a robot man on the bridge. What was that all about?

Lens flares already being mentioned, I will say that they were used far less, to the extent that they were almost missed - it made things less shiny, but it's not a complaint, it just means that we can't make jokes about them any more! The characters were oddly turned about in my mind (not in a 'Turnabout Intruder' way), but because Kirk was being a serious Captain, and becoming the Kirk we want, I liked him more. The same for Spock, because he was more logical and Spock-ish (except for the inexplicable crying and despairingly anguished rage-shout, but we'll get to that, and how Kirk and Spock aren't such good friends that I could believe in that moment), even Uhura wasn't as intrusive as in the first film, helped by the plot point that she's not talking to boyfriend Spock after he was willing to die in the volcano at the start, which means there are fewer scenes where she's going gooey over him - I was delighted that the awful love story was interfered with, though the sub-plot of Spock learning from Uhura and Kirk what it is to be a true friend, and sacrifice that, and experience emotional loss or attachment, and then he does 'get it' at the end, was weak. It was messy.

I was underwhelmed by the opening, the 'teaser' if you like. It was like 'Mission: Impossible' where we see the team working together on something unrelated to the real story, just the joy of the group in action at what they do. Only I'm not attached to these characters because they don't have a quarter of the charm of the original actors, and I've only spent about four hours in their company, instead of seventy-nine episodes and six or seven films. The opening was a response to the criticism that there weren't enough alien planets in XI, so they gave us one that looked like it was right out of wackycrazyzany 'Dr. Who,' with yellow land and red plants, and natives right out of 'Stargate SG-1' (can't remember the episode name, but they were there). In fairness this was the wackiestcraziestzaniest the film became, as far as I can recall, which is why I used the word sober to describe the overall style. They wanted to get some lighthearted stuff out the way before all the 'Darkness' came, but the characters were flat and unappealing, which was very different from the rampant, joyous, flagrant disregard for 'Old Trek' and its supposedly 'boring talky dullness' that was at the heart of XI, which made watching it such a gut-wrench because on the one side it was trampling previous Trek in the dust, but on the other it was vibrantly alive and kicking, like a giant baby that had been birthed in space, wildly thrashing around and causing a spectacle that was as colourful and in-your-face as it was fast and frenzied.

This time there was never anything of the immediate punch of the opening to XI, where Kirk's Dad sacrifices himself for his ship, as baby Kirk is born in the midst of battle, like some tragic Greek legend. They tried to recreate some of the impact with Pike's early demise, but it didn't have the same power because it was essentially a meaningless death - Kirk (who in this universe is the guy Pike mentors, rather than Spock, and so has more loyalty and connection than the Vulcan), takes it badly, but later in the film he's comfortable working alongside the man that killed Pike - it's like he's more Vulcan than Spock! I didn't really feel anything, and I was too busy wondering if Spock was nabbing Pike's katra to place inside another body or maybe a robot (that was what that robot guy could have been for!). As Pike was shot I was thinking it was all part of an ongoing plan to turn him into the scarred, blinky-light, wheelchair-bound Pike of the real universe, so I wasn't worried. And then he dies, Spock mind-melding with him, seemingly without permission, and definitely without any of the preamble and mysticism such an act used to entail, which lessens its dramatic impact. It wasn't even to take away Pike's pain or ease his passing, it was Spock's scientific interest in getting a good feel for what emotions someone experiences as they die, which is a bit distasteful! But Vulcans aren't without emotion, their whole mystery is in keeping those feelings under control, not in being unable to understand emotions!

Back to things that were an improvement on XI, though: Scotty was more like Scotty, not the wackycrazy… you get the idea, from XI. He's given a scene where he shows real principles, resigning his commission because he feels the safety of the ship is compromised as he's not allowed to examine the Section 31 torpedoes brought aboard for the mission to stop John Harrison. I was expecting Kirk to refuse, but when he'd unexpectedly accepted the resignation, I was expecting Scotty to give in comically, or even Keenser to sign for them, so I was pleased with that turn of events, even if it meant Mr. Scott was once again abandoned and left to his own devices, except this time that means he gets to be a bit of a spy, sneaking aboard the Vengeance to help disable her, reminiscent of 'Star Trek III' and his sabotage of the Excelsior. Talking of which, it was good to see Sulu's command career taking shape in a small way even in this universe, with him being given the Captain's chair, relishing it and living up to the experience, as a tie to the future that he goes on to be one himself (a captain, not a chair), even if he never actually did anything while he was there: go on, sit in the chair, okay, aaaand… stop. That's it, you've had your fun now.

I'd have to say that all the other characters were like cameos in Kirk and Spock's story, Chekov not even a character in my view - one problem of XI was how everyone ended up in the right place regardless of story logic or earning the right, and in this film it was Chekov who continued this otherwise corrected strain of thought, becoming Chief Engineer when Scotty leaves. But it's okay, because he'd been shadowing Scotty for a bit. WHAT?! To put a teenager in charge was as ridiculous as the shenanigans of Merry-Go-Captain's-Chair in XI. You just don't promote a child to Chief Engineer of your starship, even if he is a genius (and his genius has so far been mainly spoken of rather than experienced), especially as there's a chain of command, with other engineers under Scotty who would replace him long before the ship's Navigator did! But compared with XI there were very few of these stupidities to contend with.

Other loose ends of annoying choices from the previous film were neatly dealt with, such as Scotty's transwarp beaming capability - we're told that Starfleet confiscated his equations. Does that mean they were too long to be remembered, and even if Scott couldn't recall them wouldn't Spock be able to get them out of him with a meld? Not that the crew would go against Starfleet regs for no reason, but I did like that this save-all tech was placed off limits. I'll ignore the fact that Harrison can use a portable version of it, and move on. Another thing that was explained was that Old Spock made a vow not to reveal details about the true time period that he came from so as not to alter this one, but I liked that he made one exception for this case, speaking of a big sacrifice that was needed to defeat the enemy, even if he doesn't say what. One thing that rankled a bit was the idea that people would still be driving around on roads in, basically, cars. Yes, we've seen vehicles before (in 'Nemesis' Picard drives an off-roader around and that had actual wheels!), but one reason why Trek generally avoids getting into the details of Earth is that they'd have to deal with things like this. Why would people drive if they can transport in seconds? We know of the prevalence of Transporters from stories people like Ben Sisko have told - when he first joined the Academy, he used to beam home for dinner, and yet we see a planet that looks very crowded and is full of ugly little cars going around ugly little roads, and it's all a bit too much to accept.

One of the big mistakes of the ending to XI was the callous way Nero was dispatched, which is now mirrored in the opposite at the end of this film when Kirk makes his anti-revenge speech (as well as revealing that the famous 'To boldly go…' monologue has become known as the Captain's Oath), one of the most important things in turning this behemoth around a little more towards Roddenberry's idealism that had been snubbed in XI. I liked the militarism versus exploration that was a minor theme running through the film, Scotty pointing it out, and Kirk mentioning it in his speech, something which is at the heart of Admiral Marcus' motivation in trying to take over the Federation by force. While it was good to meet Carol Marcus' Father, as long as it had been known that Peter Weller was going to be in the film I was hoping there'd be some kind of connection with his 'Enterprise' villain, either a clone of Paxton or a direct descendant. I didn't mind him being the villain, but I very early on realised where this was going: I've seen 'Star Trek: Insurrection' before! That's what I felt, though, that the Admiral and Harrison were like Admiral Dougherty and Ru'afo in the ninth film. That Admiral was also doing something dastardly for the good of the Federation, while his accomplice had an ulterior motive.

Marcus' villainy and connection to Section 31 weren't the only obvious story points I saw coming: I guessed the torpedoes held bodies even before they were being opened, partly because they were so bulky, and partly because of a misconception over Harrison's motive - I thought he surrendered to Kirk because the torpedoes would decimate a part of Qo'noS (perhaps containing his followers, or that he was defending something in Klingon culture), and that in fact there were only a few torpedoes, not the seventy-two that were claimed, which I assumed was a bluff. It was after this that I realised the importance of the tubes, not merely a weapon created by Section 31, but a possible invasion force that could take over the Enterprise, though it never happened. The other big honker was Kirk's death. Ugh. If you're going to copy the ending to a film, go for it, don't ape it, while being obvious that you're not going to kill off your main character! The whole point of this new universe was that there would be real jeopardy for the main cast because we don't know their future, yet we know they aren't going to be killed off even in this timeline because they want them to make more films (and money!). So one of the biggest rationales for a new timeline has been dispensed with!

I saw it coming ages before McCoy did, that Khan's blood would be able to cure Kirk, just as it cured Mickey's daughter at the beginning, so that whole scene with Spock losing emotional control and recreating Shatner's scream of 'Khaaaaaaaan!' was no more than a parody of a great moment in a great Trek film, something this was not. They didn't even allow Pine's film-star looks to be tarnished with the radiation, as opposed to 'Star Trek II' when Spock really looked physically ravaged. It was an empty end, ripping off a great finale and doing it badly and obviously. I must admit, I had the merest whiff of a thought that Spock might die in this film if it was to feature Khan, but I didn't genuinely believe it, even when they had a few pointers in dialogue about death and sacrifice, like in 'The Dark Knight Rises' people speak as if it might be the last time they will talk to Batman, a few times, and aping the beginning of 'Star Trek II' where it looks like Spock might die/be dead. But all was emptiness.

Well, the cat's out of the bag, Harrison's identity was Khan. It's impressive that they managed to keep his name secret in the modern age of every detail in a film being known the world over before it's even released, and it gave the film a good sense of mystery that sucked me in and helped me warm to the middle part of the film, but I was still hoping throughout that Harrison would turn out to actually be one of Khan's genetic supermen, pretending to be his great leader for the purposes of eventually being able to revive a CGI Ricardo Montalban, lying in stasis waiting for the right day when technology was advanced enough (ours, in terms of CGI, not theirs!), who might prove to be an even greater challenge in the next film (which will fortunately not now be titled 'Star Trek XIII: The Search For Kirk'!), and would explain why this Khan looks and sounds absolutely nothing like the real Khan we know and hate. The only similarity was the black hair, and it's a tall order to even try to equal what is likely the best-loved film villain of the Trek canon: they shouldn't have tried! They need to be making their own stories, not relying on plot points of the past, that's the reason they wanted a new timeline, so they weren't bound by canon, but what do they do? Pick up the same old pieces and essentially tell the same story, inferior in both drama and suspense.

I didn't hate Benedict Cumberbatch, and indeed, he was suitably menacing, his rich, velvety voice adding gravity to all the high-pitched squeaking of this younger crew. In fact, I wish he'd been the one to take the Spock role as his voice is closer to the gravelly timbre of Nimoy than Quinto's is. I liked when Kirk used all his energy pummelling his enemy, punching and thumping until he's tired, while Harrison just lets him, staring back, perplexed. It's one of the great moments of the film, but I can't say the same about the scenes that preceded it: after a lacklustre opening I was excited to be going to Qo'noS, and to be seeing Klingons. Knowing the Klingon connection with Khan's people as discovered in 'Enterprise' (they're basically the reason for the ridge/non-ridge situation in Klingon history), I knew that they were to be featured after ending up in deleted scenes in XI, and that this time we'd see underneath the helmets. So when they were built up as fearsome beings, murdering torturers that Uhura bravely goes out to meet and does a Hoshi Sato, talking to them in their own language (love subtitles of alien languages!), it was something I'd been looking forward to. But then all we see is a brief shot of one without his helmet, displaying a less detailed forehead and lots of face jewellery, and then BIF! BANG! POW! we're plunged into a close-fought battle which is as impossible to follow as if you were actually being pummelled by a Klingon yourself.

The shaky-cam style of presenting action, particularly hand-to-hand fighting, has long been a sore point with me, and after so many wonderfully choreographed Klingon fight scenes in previous Treks, this could have been spectacular. Instead, it's just a headache, a blur of gunshots (I can't call them phaser blasts, they don't have any of the style, grace or poise), punches and shouting. This may be what it's like to be in the midst of a fight with a herd of Klingons, but I want to be able to see their incredible blade-fighting skills, and their much-vaunted capabilities. I could make out bladed weapons, though not specifically bat'leths, and the whole sequence disappointed, from the ship chase in that mini-Millennium Falcon (fly sideways, just like in 'Star Wars' or escaping the Dyson Sphere on 'TNG'!), with Klingon ships that had none of the beauty of design that launched a thousand imaginations thanks to 'Star Trek III,' and had very little in common with Klingon style. And the fact is that after this, the Klingons aren't in it again, so it's over in one blow. I knew Harrison was going to be taking on Klingons and I was expecting it to make him look cool, but all we see is motion blur and flashes - the Augments trilogy did it better in 'Enterprise,' and that was a TV series, a decade ago!

I can report that the engineering section was much improved, with a design that looked much more like the one from 'The Motion Picture' with white walls and multiple levels, even if they still had a few moments inside a brewery! I found the bridge to be messy, you never get a sense of place and focus there, or can imagine the main characters all sat round in the family that we expect from a Trek bridge crew. I'm over the bulging, neon version of the Enterprise this time, and I noted with pleasure that we do get to see a little of the rubber band effect in warping this time, though I wasn't so keen on the shaky lines of space dust left in their wake. Odd that they would choose to make going to warp look less sleek in comparison with previous Treks. There were plenty of fun references for the observant viewers (and listeners), with the 'Mudd' incident (where they confiscated the round shuttle from), being one such bone, though as I understand it, it isn't in fact a reference to old Harry, but to what may have been his daughter in one of the comics that have been released as 'Star Trek Ongoing.' If you didn't know that though, you can still believe it was Harry Mudd they were talking about! Christine Chapel was another name thrown out there, but sadly it seems in this timeline she's left the Enterprise to be a nurse far away from the lecherous Kirk, so there's none of the Chapel/Uhura rivalry I was anticipating, a soapy option that at least had some basis in fact from the series (in terms of Chapel holding a candle for Spock).

I'd have liked them to mention Jupiter Station since they were in the vicinity, maybe the USS Vengeance facility could have been that famed location. But my favourite of all the references were the beautiful models displayed on Marcus' desk, charting the progress of human space travel, and featuring among them what looked like the Enterprise, the Kelvin, and most excitingly, the Enterprise NX-01. One of my biggest hopes for this current series is that an 'Enterprise' character (most likely either an elderly Archer or T'Pol), could make an appearance and join those two parts together, since that series happened the same for this universe as the real one, the time-changing incident occurring well after it had ended. But it didn't happen this time, sadly. We did get Old Spock there to share his wisdom (something which was spoiled by someone before I saw the film, though it wasn't a major revelation) - I knew he'd visited the set during filming, but they played it down, although I suspected they might do a short cameo. When the Vulcan haircut first appeared I thought it was Sarek because I was expecting him, for some reason (there still needs to be a scene where younger Sarek meets his ancient son!). I didn't particularly want Nimoy to pop up in a brief cameo because he ended XI so well that I didn't need to see him again unless it was equally as substantial.

It will be a shame if that's Nimoy's final appearance as Spock, though if they get a move on with the next film it would be good to find out what's happening on New Vulcan and how Old Spock has helped his people. I was always hoping that a different old cast member could be sucked into this universe for each film, but this was clearly the 'First Contact' of the Abramsverse to XI's 'Generations' in that we'd had the connection to the previous generation and now they were standing alone. So no new titbits about the 'Prime' timeline, or links to it, except that Khan's full name, Khan Noonien Singh, was spoken by Old Spock, something I was glad for, because I was worried, with the recasting in a different race that it might mean they were softening the character's heritage so that in some way he wouldn't 'offend' people of that race. In fact it sounds like the opposite happened with people complaining that they should have stuck to Khan's original race (though they still kept quiet about him being a Sikh).

There were far fewer overt problems with the story and characters this time, perhaps because they had plenty of time (too much?), to refine the script and story, and with so many complaining words about the other film to guide them. But even so, there's a rhyme they say about warp drive, 'faster than light, no left or right,' which was painfully messed with in the Vengeance's attack in mid-warp. Now I don't think it should be possible to fire at something when at warp because you're already going many times the speed of light, and weapons aren't going to be quicker than that, not having warp engines on them, but far more problematic is that the Enterprise is shot and actually spins around, mid-warp flight and yet somehow isn't ripped apart by the force! And as for the people that get sucked out of the ship, they would be instantly vaporised, surely? It also appears that in space no one can feel you fall. Okay, so there's either artificial gravity and you stay on deck, or the gravity's knocked out and you float around, so it doesn't appear to make sense that people can be hanging from things as the ship barrel rolls into oblivion! I understand that the ship is falling into the Earth's atmosphere, but even so, I'd feel very charitable to use that as an excuse.

The USS Vengeance herself, aside from the unlikely name (we've had worse, I'm sure), was a good-looking ship, though it did evoke thoughts of the Enterprise-E. I only wish we'd got to see a bit more of her - we do get a massive docking bay which Kirk and Harrison space-jump into, and the bridge was dark and beautiful, but the camera was leaping around so much we didn't get a really good look at the sets. It appeared so advanced as almost to be from the future, a notion boosted by the uniforms Marcus and his crew wore which brought to mind something like the time agents wore. I was even looking at Carol Marcus' earrings and wondering if that was meant to look like a vertical version of the horizontal chevron insignia inside an oval that has also been the sign of 29th Century Starfleet (the logo used by Chronowerx), but it's entirely possible I'm reading too much into it, just as I did with the look of the Kelvin's uniforms, which appeared similar to the futuristic ones of 'All Good Things…'! I'd seen a clip of the Vengeance crashing into buildings so I was looking forward to them topping the incredible saucer crash-landing in 'Generations,' but I didn't feel any of the connection or concern I did in that older film, nor was I that impressed by the spectacle of it all in this case, mainly because it threatens faceless people that we're not given a reason to care about: mere spectacle.

There were other things I liked, such as the cool tech Kirk uses to view images from the terrorist attack, zooming in and around the image three-dimensionally on a 2D screen, like viewing a mini-holodeck. It was good to have the occasional throwback to XI, such as Pike talking about Kirk's bar fight, or the space jump Kirk can't be bothered to explain to Harrison before they take off for theirs. Actually, that bit was quite good, reminding me of Data making the leap in 'Nemesis,' and I liked the 'Smallville'-ian (as in Lex and Clark as friends), way that Khan saved Kirk in space, though again, the infiltration of the Vengeance could have been so exciting, and didn't get a reaction out of me. The skull-crushing, though implied, was maybe a step too far (though again reminiscent of the way Dougherty was offed by his evil puppet in 'Insurrection'), and I was also surprised at the amount of swearing for a 'Star Trek' film. Just as I struggled to spot older crewmembers, there didn't seem to be many people with different accents (I suppose the African lady that takes Chekov's place counted - I half wondered if she was going to be a Deltan since her hair was so short!). It would have been nice to hear a new main theme for this film, just as they used to do for each of the previous films, and I have the feeling Giacchino is either lacking confidence, or too lazy to create a properly individual theme, just as with 'Mission: Impossible III' and 'Ghost Protocol.' It's a good theme, but it should have stayed with XI.

A few final points: I liked that future London was seen, I think, for the first time in Trek, though I knew about it in advance. It was also good to have 'Cupcake' man from XI back, though I wasn't completely sure it was him until viewing the credits - you'd have to know a little backstory from the comics to realise his name is actually Hendorff and that he and Kirk had a reconciliation after their bad start, but his inclusion was so brief and didn't explain any of this. More care with the details of this world would be appreciated, without us having to keep track of 'non-canon' media to understand things like that. One security guy I recognised for sure was the big, burly guy, part of Harrison's guard party who also gets a line - the actor played a bodyguard of the bad guy in 'Mission: Impossible III.' Weirdly, Chris Hemsworth was in the credits as George Kirk, as was Jennifer Morrison as Winona Kirk, but neither was in the film, so I didn't understand that at all, unless they were in deleted scenes! Someone I was expecting to see, but didn't, was Christopher Judge who I thought was supposed to be playing a Klingon, but he's not credited. A shame because I could imagine him making a great Klingon - get that man on a new Trek TV series as one! When we did go to the Klingon homeworld I wasn't sure if that half-exploded moon was supposed to be Praxis, as if the Klingons had already overdone their war production and 'Star Trek VI' had come early, or whether it was just a visual thing for people like me to wonder at?

A couple of things done with the technology were noteworthy - it was only a small thing, but I don't think we've ever seen someone talk on their communicator while holding it in their mouth before! Also, the mechanically released seat belts looked good, even if I never like seat belts in Trek, and was relieved that the scene in which a similar moment occurs in 'Star Trek Nemesis' ended up deleted. Still, when there's major problems with the artificial gravity, seeing a seat belt or two wasn't going to make me care in the slightest! Clothing, on the other hand, was something that was way overdone on this film. With the bigger budgets of the film series we always got more uniforms, but in this they have something like ten different costumes, or more, and that's no exaggeration! It was ridiculous that they needed that much variety of different clothing, and it seemed like just an attempt to get more money onscreen. Some were better than others - I saw a picture of Kirk and Bones' wetsuits before I went to the film, and I was struck by the similarity to the EVA suits of 'The Original Series,' though when it came down to the actual film, things flashed by so quick it was like a fashion show where the models dash in and out, so there was no time to really take in the many costume changes! I really didn't like the dull, military uniforms with caps, which looked far too much like 1970s 'Star Wars.'

So how do I feel about the film, on the whole? I wasn't upset, irritated or bored, as so many films leave me these days, and there's still something of a minor thrill to see the words 'Class M Planet,' or hear the word 'Klingon' on a cinema screen, but I was underwhelmed with the experience. There are plenty of little nitpicks I could level at the film - Spock's continued assertions that Vulcans can't lie (wait a minute… that's a lie!), the fact that Khan's history is glossed over with no mention of the Botany Bay, or of his reign taking place in the 1990s (probably for the best, as I'm not sure how a modern audience would accept that particular revelation!), and in some cases, as I've gone through, things made more sense this time - I believed in Starfleet going out proactively exploring more, due to the threats they've been awakened to in the timeline change, thus finding Khan early.

At the same time there were things I realised I'd wanted, such as news of New Vulcan. Nurse Chapel now won't be part of things, perhaps in honour of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry's legacy as being the most prolific part of Trek, where all the other characters have been recast, but it seems Janice Rand won't either, with the development of Carol Marcus joining the crew for their five-year mission. They obviously needed another female role, but it's still surprising she should be chosen over the other two familiar names. It also sets up the series a bit too pat, with Kirk, Spock and Uhura the modern triumvirate where it used to feature Bones - now there are four of the young people so they can go on double dates! See what I mean? It's all still playing up to the youthful soapiness, while these actors are ageing with so many years between films! Will war with the Klingons be the story of the next film? And are we supposed to be excited that they finally got to go off on their five-year mission? Apparently, from the reactions of some characters, this had never been done before, another alteration to the timeline, since originally the Enterprise had gone on a couple under Pike, and it was a common thing. It seems likely this mission will play out in the comics, but they could still be planning to set the next film during it.

Trouble is, they leave it in the same place as they left the last film: the crew's assembled and they go off into space. The difference is that on that occasion I was curious as to what would follow, and now I'm… less so. I like that they were more restrained this time, but they also lost vitality. That was true of the ending, too, which lost me amid its boxing match atop a moving transport vehicle. It was good that Spock got to be a match for Harrison, but it was never tense, it was just a piece of action that was occurring. There's a reason 'Star Trek II' never degenerated into a face to face battle at the end, and this shows why, undoing the good feelings I'd felt towards it in the middle of the film with an obvious and dull conclusion of explosions and punching. But I take comfort from the perspective of several years: this is no longer the only future for 'Star Trek,' as it seemed when XI came out, so I wasn't concerned this time, I just left my brain at home. I'm glad I wasn't one of those people pinning all my hopes on this film for four years, and getting sucked into the hype and excitement. It's too long to wait for something satisfying, when this is really just a snack, albeit new, between stints of watching old Trek.

On balance, I was underwhelmed by the opening and disenchanted with the ending, the mystery in the middle was what sustained me, but unlike XI, I couldn't call this a good film, which means I'm rating this as the worst Trek film so far. That indictment sounds harsher than it actually is, it's merely that it failed to live up to the good things of XI, while still having some of the problems. I've always rated the films as at least being 'good' (even 'The Motion Picture,' 'Voyage Home' and 'Nemesis'!), but this just didn't have enough in it to satisfy even that measure - I still don't identify with the new versions of the characters, I still watch it in spite of them, they haven't become much-loved, but have remained two-dimensional. There will be another film, and then maybe we'll get back to real Trek, that's what I hope anyway. After the closing credits at the cinema, the 'Star Wars' theme inexplicably played us out - it was really odd at first, but then I saw that it was actually very appropriate, summing it all up, really. This is practically another Wars film, and since we're going to be getting more Wars films, the first from JJ Abrams himself, is there even a place for these kinds of Trek films any more? Only JJ has the answer.

**