Well Star Trek: Into Darkness is hitting the theatres in
less than six months, and so in the run up to the release I decided to take a
look back at the other films in the franchise.
In an earlier post I described this film as having a high
concept and being less interesting than watching paint dry, and I stand by that
statement. It has the opposite problem
that a lot of the other bad films in the franchise have I think, the theme is there, and
is quite well thought out, but the vehicle to delivery that theme in is bland
and boring.
Now I think part of that comes down to the look of the film,
and I’m not just talking about the effects, I get to those in a minute, I’m
talking about the costumes and the sets.
Man the costumes are bad in this film.
It’s not just that they look like pajamas as many people have said to me
it's that they look like footy pyjamas that little kids wear, it makes
everyone look absolutely unprofessional; and those shirts that look like potato sacks that Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and Decker are in when they go to connect with V'Ger don't help that image at all.
And furthermore it makes the characters almost blend in with the sets. While the old show certainly didn’t have a
lot going on in the costuming department at least those uniforms had a distinct
bottom and top to them. Also the bright
colours of the uniforms, and their different coloured divisions, made
everybody stand out against the grey backgrounds. Here it almost looks like everything is just
one big greyscale, and it’s just not enjoyable to look at it. And honestly I know that wasn’t what they
were going for since so much time and effort was spent on effects shots to make
this film look good.
The effects themselves have actually held up really
well. I like the effect of V’Ger digitizing
the Klingon ships, because it wasn’t just some explosion where you could be sure
they were destroyed. It leaves room for
mystery and intrigue about what is really going on here. I like the warp effect, except the wormhole part that I don't understand and probably never will, all the different
chambers of V’ger look really nice, and I loved all the lighting work done on
the Enterprise when it was in spacedock.
There was simply too much screen time devoted to the effects at the
expense of the characters. Things like
the long fly by of the Enterprise. I can
totally see why this was done. This is
the first time the fans will have seen this ship in a decade, we’re seeing it on
the big screen lets show it in its true glory.
Show how big it is, how sleek, let us see why this is Kirk’s pride and
joy. This scene just goes on far too
long though. I personally think it
should have cut off right when the shuttlecraft got to the front of the ship rather
than making it seem like docking the shuttlecraft is the most awesome thing
ever, at least according to the music.
Speaking of the music that’s a thing in this movie that
really works; the score is just awesome.
I even like the overture. There’s
nothing to really watch on the screen so I like to go make popcorn while it
plays, but that doesn’t make the music bad.
Sure since the main theme was then reused as TNG’s theme hearing it over
the opening credits with the original cast's names is a bit jarring, but that doesn’t
make it bad either. In fact I really
like the slow version of the theme that plays through-out the rest of the movie
better. I think it helps convey the
majesty and vastness of space far better than endless shots of V’Ger and people
staring at it with no dialogue.
So what about the whole V’Ger thing does the whole storyline
of a machine needing to evolve and wanting to bond with its creator work? Yes and no in my opinion, and that comes down
to the argument that this movie is a rip off of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Do I
think the creators leaned heavily on that film for ideas when making this
one? Absolutely. Take 2001 and the TOS episode ‘The Changeling’
smash them together and you have this movie.
Now this actually isn’t a bad thing on paper. After all the original series certainly took
ideas from other fictional works and used them in their own way. It isn’t billed as “Wagontrain to the stars”
for nothing. Also the fact that this
came out of the whole Phase II thing I can see why ideas from the old show were
in scripts for the new one. The later
spin-offs shows would do this too. A small problem that comes from this is the use of the captain's log, no doubt left over from when this was a TV pilot. You don't need Kirk to narrate events in the movie to the audience, because there aren't any commercial breaks. The
main problem for me though comes in, in the fact that they didn’t use this idea of man and technology and both of them moving to the next level in their
own way, they just took Kubrick’s idea and transplanted it into Star Trek. Kubrick used sound and visual imagery to
convey the themes of man and technology in his film, relying very little on
characters and dialogue. But Star Trek
always used character relationships and dialogue to convey its message. So having a bunch of effects and sounds doesn’t
work here, having character connections does.
When this story used the characters things actually started
working. For instance I love the whole parallel
of V’Ger looking for something more and Spock looking for answers too. I like that this was set up early too with
the priestess on Vulcan telling Spock he would have to find his answers outside
of logic, and initially Spock ignores this.
He thinks he will find the answers he seeks in a being of pure logic, and
that’s why he is so intent on melding with V’ger. But he comes to realize that logic is not
enough, that he needs his human half, he needs those emotions after all, and in
that sickbay scene we see him accept that.
We see him actually content for the first time all movie. He calls Kirk Jim and acknowledges that what
they have between them is genuine, and that he is okay with it. He even trades a quip with McCoy about
dealing with human emotions as the film wraps up. Also McCoy is the only one bringing any kind
of humour to the film and it is so sorely needed. I even like little physical character details like Scotty growing a mustache. It looks good on him and makes him really stand out from the other cast members. Finally Kirk offers a lot of gravity in the
film with his competition with Decker.
We see him work to regain what he has lost since he became an admiral. His ship, his place in that centre seat. He works to get McCoy back on board and he
tries to substitute Spock with another Vulcan, trying to get his life to be
what it used to be. And I love that that
only really happens when Spock comes back, and when Spock is really at peace
with himself. At that point Kirk becomes
like the man we used to know and that was great to see. And I love the parallel of Kirk and Spock and
Decker and Ila. These two people who are
so different have to come together to really complete each other and move
forward. Through Decker Ila, as a probe,
gets in touch with emotions that it, V’Ger, desires. And Decker is with the one he loves again. Spock has found comfort with his emotions and
Kirk has found his balance again now that he has Spock back at his side.
In the end what drags this movie down really is that the
focus is in the wrong area. People are
so concerned with effects and camera angles and make the movie look good, heck
the people doing the effects get top billing in the credits for crying out loud,
that the characters and the pacing suffer. The
connections are all there to have something really good and I like a lot of
those individual character scenes, even with the crappy costumes, but it’s not enough to save the film. I like to watch clips of this film. I don’t
like to actually sit down and watch it the whole way through in one sitting, I
couldn’t even do that for this review.
Yes the effects are good, and the music is lovely, but too much emphasises
was put on them at the expense of everything else.
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