Star Trek: Into Darkness

Star Trek: Into Darkness

I have to give J.J. Abrams credit.  Star Trek was dead.  As much as I liked the Next Generation television show, the films featuring that cast were abysmal by the end.  The franchise, one I grew up with, seemed to be over.  When word of a reboot began to spark up, I wasn't too excited.  I did not want to see a young Kirk and Spock in the Academy.  I thought that was a terrible idea, made worse by the fact that I thought no one would be able to replace William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and the rest of the gang.  I happily admit that I was wrong!  Despite a few silly plotting moments and way too many lens flares, the reboot of Star Trek was a rollicking good time, and I think Abrams deserves credit for that.  But the real miracle was that cast!  He had somehow pulled off the impossible and found a group of young actors who perfectly embodied the iconic characters without resorting to simple impersonations (well, mostly).  The film was a hit, and naturally a sequel was planned.  It took a bit longer than anticipated to get here, but now we have Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Without ruining too much, I will try to describe the plot in a sentence or two.  A mysterious agent named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) stages a series of devastating attacks on Starfleet and Kirk and Company are sent out to kill him.  The planned assassination is against the law, something that irks many on the Enterprise crew, creating a divisive atmosphere on the Enterprise.  It is this morally ambiguous area that I think gives the film its subtitle.  Into Darkness does not refer to the darkness John Harrison brings, but the darkness inside Star Fleet, an organization meant to be morally pure, intellectual, peaceful, and idealist.  But thanks to the catastrophic events of the previous film, Star Fleet is changing its tune, adopting a more warlike and shadowy stance.  It's a nice direction to take the franchise in, providing some nice moral dilemmas for a young Kirk to consider as he still adjusts to command.  That said, it is hardly original, since the franchise already mined this territory superbly in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Overall, Star Trek: Into Darkness is, well...objectively, I have to say it is not bad.  It is probably better than the previous one.  The plot is leaner and more focused, and some of the sillier slapstick instances of comedy have been replaced with more character-driven humor.  Abrams' direction is fine (though he still has too many lens flares) and Michael Giacchino's score is superb.  So why am I so disappointed with the film?  It unfortunately all comes to Benedict Cumberbatch, who is just woefully miscast as John Harrison.  I don't want to ruin anything, so I'll just leave it at that for now.  My Spoiler explanation is below.

I'm not sure what else to say.  There are some plot holes and the ending just goes too over-the-top with references to the previous films, but generally the movie is okay.  I think most people will like it.  I just couldn't get into it.  The casting just nagged me the whole film.  Full disclosure, the casting hasn't really bothered many of my friends so maybe I'm making a big deal about nothing.  But I couldn't get past it.

SPOILER ALERT HERE:

So why did Benedict Cumberbatch bother me so much?  I'll be upfront and say it has nothing to do with his performance which is committed, arrogant, and passionate.  He's a great super human.

But he ain't Khan.  In the original series, Khan was a sikh from northern India.  When I think of a Northern Indian, I do not think of a tall, thin British guy.  And yes, yes, I understand that Ricardo Montalban, the original Khan, is Mexican.  But that was how Hollywood casted projects back then, and he at least tried to evoke the character's heritage with his performance.  And I think most people agree that his Khan is one of the greatest villains in science fiction history.

Friends have told me that this is an alternate universe so maybe in this timeline Khan IS British.  But I counter that by saying that timelines are supposed to be the same until that moment when the planet Vulcan blows up.  So Khan shouldn't change.  He should still be a sikh.

So why cast Cumberbatch?  Maybe they just felt no one can play morally superior as effectively as the Brits.  Or maybe the PC police were slamming on Abrams' office door and demanding that in a movie about terrorism it would be a bad idea to have the bad guy be a foreigner.

...

Either way, Khan is not a tall British guy.  End of story.

I'm not a religious obsessee of Star Trek canon or continuity.  I'm not someone who looks for minut details and pinches a fit if they don't jive with with the continuity of some random episode of Deep Space Nine.  I don't care that much.  But for some reason, this really, really bothers me.  This franchise reboot has been an impressive and worthwhile experiment.  And given that they had already achieved the impossible by finding great replacements for Shatner, Nimoy, and Co., I am surprised they dropped the ball on this one.  For some reason, this casting just nags at me. I think what it comes down to is that they decided to create an all new character and name him "Khan" just so they could pay lip service to fans who wanted to see the infamous villain.

And I think they missed an awesome opportunity, too.  John Harrison could have been one of the other super humans in Khan's group, but not Khan himself.  Think how cool that would have been if at the end of the movie, the good guys finally win, breathe a sigh of relief and say, "wow, that guy was intense.  There is no way there is someone more dangerous and horrible than him out there."  And then we cut to the space pods, and do a slow pan over them all...and then we stop at one pod in particular and see Khan's name written on it.  That would have been a great set up for a sequel, and a great way to bring Khan back to the franchise.  As a sikh.

Anyways, this all may seem like a small detail, but it ruined the movie for me.

Oh, and one more pet peeve.  Why did they need Khan's super blood to save Kirk if they had 72 other super humans onboard the ship?  Just saying...

Anyways...


BEST LINE:

Kirk: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Spock: An Arabic proverb, attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects.

Kirk: Still, it's a hell of a quote.

MVP:
I'm going with Michael Giacchino, who delivered a top notch score.  I think it is better than his first Trek score, which while entertaining became repetitive, relying a bit too heavily on the main theme. With Into Darkness, Giacchino takes the best parts of the first score and expands on them, and adds a whole slew of new and exciting music to the mix.  Well done!

TRIVIA:
This is a neat little bit of trivia.  Benedict Cumberbatch recorded his audition in his best friend's kitchen, using an iphone.

Prometheus

Prometheus

When I was coordinating schedules in order to see  Prometheus with an old friend, I unknowingly reviewed the film fairly accurately via text message.  I wrote, "let's grab a beer after the movie so we can discuss how brilliant Ridley Scott is, or how disappointing.  Or more likely both."  And that, my friends, pretty much sums up Prometheus.

Whether I like Prometheus or not depends entirely on how I am thinking of the film at any given moment.  When I think of the mistakes, the inconsistent behavior of certain characters, the missed opportunities, and the major, major plotting problems, I get a bit sour on the film...and yet...and yet, there is too much brilliance here to completely discount Prometheus.  It is a brave film, it is about something, and it doesn't insult our intelligence.  It is a movie that makes us think, and that is always something worth celebrating.

Let's get into it then.  Prometheus is about the quest for where we came from and who we are.  Scientists Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall Green) and Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Repace) have found carvings and paintings across the globe that prove that we were created by another race.  Thanks to a trillion dollar investment from the Weyland Corp, they now journey through space to find their makers, who Dr. Shaw likes to call The Engineers.  Among the various scientists and crew, we also have a super cool captain (played by the always super cool Idris Elba), the frosty corporate executive (Charlize Theron) and the android David (Michael Fassbender), who serves as the ship's steward and who also happens to be obsessed with Lawrence of Arabia.  The ship lands on a barren and remote planet where they find an abandoned alien facility.  But something isn't right.  Something horrible happened there 2000 years ago, and if our heroes aren't careful, they could unleash forces beyond their control.

So first, the good.  We have a dazzling film, with top notch special effects, superb cinematography and editing, and wonderful acting.  They also do a remarkable job with the 'science' part of science fiction, with a whole slew of fun little gadgets that are entirely believable (I love those little mapping globes).  Most of all, as I mentioned earlier, I like that this movie is about something.  Ridley Scott is asking interesting questions here - not just where do we come from or where do we go, but also do we even belong?  What is our place in the universe?  And what does it mean to be a creator?  This last question is an intriguing theme that runs through the film.  Mankind has advanced so much that they are now creating life, or at least a very close simulation of life in David.  The difference is the Engineers seem to have left mankind alone, whereas man is constantly reminding David that he is just a creation and has no soul.  That must get really annoying.  But it also raises the uncomfortable question of whether humans even have a soul - something Prometheus doesn't answer (probably so we can spend our time debating about it).

But then we have those flaws...and there are many, mostly plot-driven.  I think the film barrels along, despite its problems, leading easily to the best scene of the movie...and then it just kind of falls apart during the last twenty minutes.  There are gaps in logic, story holes, a stupid death straight out Looney Tunes, and despite everyone's best efforts, the movie just begins to collapse under its own weight.  I have read that the blu ray will have some extra footage - maybe those extra scenes will solve some if not most of my problems (just like the superb director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven solved all my problems in the theatrical version of that film).  But until I see that director's cut, we are left with this theatrical version - in all its brilliance and maddening frustration.

P.S.  For those who want to know what specifically bothered me in the movie, I have them bullet pointed at the bottom of the review.  Don't want to ruin anything for anyone!!!

BEST LINE:
David:  "I didn't think you had it in you.  Sorry, poor choice of words..."

MVP:
Michael Fassbender is probably my favorite up and coming actor right now, and in Prometheus, he shows why.  His performance is superb, playing David just slightly off, just enough to make you make you realize he is not normal and to make you uncomfortable.  It's not a flashy role or performance.  It's subtle and brilliant.  I think he deserved a Supporting Actor nomination, but alas he did not get one.

Which leads me into some spoiler territory - just what is the significance of David's obsession with Lawrence of Arabia?  His obsessions is extreme enough that he even dyes his hair blonde and practices lines from the film, most significantly, "the trick is not minding that it hurts."  Lawrence and David have much in common.  They are both outsiders, they are both different than what society accepts as normal, and they are looked down upon and ridiculed for their uniqueness.  The irony is that Lawrence actually thinks he is better than everyone else.  He's smarter and craftier, and he knows it, and yet everyone still mocks him.  And how does his arrogant ego allow him to put up with this continuous disrespect?  By "not minding that it hurts."  For David, watching Lawrence of Arabia must have been a revelation and inspiration.  He fancies himself a modern day Lawrence, surrounded by lesser beings who think they are better than he is.  It's a fascinating parallel and explains many of David's actions throughout the film.

Anyway, that's all a tangent.  What is all goes back to is that Fassbender is amazing and he gets the MVP.

TRIVIA: 
Spoiler/foreshadowing alert!!! The name of the moon where the crew finds the facility is LV 223, which could be a reference to Leviticus 2:23: "If any man among your all your descendants throughout your generations, approaches the holy gifts which the sons of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from before me."  Coincidence?  I think not!  Thank you, IMDB for this one!


SPOILERS:

Okay, so you want to know what really bothered me about Prometheus?  Here you go.  Some are admittedly nitpicks, but since I am keeping a list anyway.

1. I don't like how the two scientists who are smart enough to try and leave the alien facility because they don't want to be horror movie cliches suddenly turn into horror movie cliches when they a) get lost, b) decide to stay put in the sketchiest place in the facility, and c) decide it would be a good idea to play with the scary looking cobra snake worm thing because it "looks cute."  I'll buy this sort of behavior in a crappy slasher film, but not here.  This film is supposed to above such shenanigans.

2. Aren't there good actors out there who are in their 70s?  Why did they cast middle-aged Guy Pierce as an old man?  This makes sense if they had flashbacks or if they had de-aged him at some point, but this never happens.  It's just Guy Pierce in bad old person makeup.  Don't we have talented older actors?  Why not Max von Sydow?  Why not Joss Ackland?  How cool would it have been to cast Lawrence of Arabia himself, Peter O'Toole?  Now, that would have been really trippy for David!  Oh, well.  Maybe there is a flashback in the director's cut...

3. Meredith Vickers' death is straight out of Looney Tunes, I'm sorry.  It's ridiculous.

4. Did we really need that gratuitous shot of the xenomorph alien in the end?  We all already understood that the monster was a giant face hugger on top of the Engineer at the end...Ridley Scott had successfully made the link to the Alien franchise.  Did he really have to ruin this cool moment by showing the alien itself?  It made people in the theater laugh.

5.  I don't like how Dr. Holloway, Shaw's partner and boyfriend, keeps changing character, going from an adventurous and supportive scientist to the ship's drunken asshole to Mr. Lover Boy.  I liked Logan Marshall Green; I just wish they had done a better job with his character.

6.  And the BIG problem.  This is the one I can't live with.  After the best scene in the movie, when Dr. Shaw has surgery to remove an evil alien that is growing in her womb, we get perhaps the worst scene in the movie.  Dr. Shaw stumbles around the ship, covered in blood, and walks into a room and sees Weyland and David, and they ignore the fact that she's covered in blood!?  Granted, David puts a blanket over her, but that's the extent of their noticing her condition.  They're just, "hey, what's up?  We're gonna go talk to the Engineer.  Wanna come?"  And despite the fact that she just went through major surgery (with kind of a crappy, rushed patchup job, I might add), she still says she will go!  And I don't care if you occasionally grunt and lean over like you are in pain.  That isn't enough to explain how you are running around, jumping, getting punched in the stomach, etc. etc. after what might be the craziest surgery I've ever seen in a movie.

Then you have the fact that they completely drop the point that David tried to forcibly cyrofreeze Shaw with the evil alien inside her...neither of them talk about that, or that she beat up two guards to escape, or that David even knows or cares that the alien is no longer inside of her.  WHAT?!  I can't help but think that there are scenes missing in this area, because this whole sequence just makes no sense.  And it bothers me to no end.

7. The deus ex machina at the end is a bit silly.  You know, when David says, oh, by the way, there are other ships.  And if you take my decapitated head to the ship, I can totally fly us wherever you want to go.  Well, that's awfully convenient.  It's made a bit more annoying when David starts his dialogue by saying, "I know we've had our disagreements..."  But as I mentioned above, they actually don't have their disagreements.  Because they never actually talk about their conflict or bring up the fact that David just tried to screw her over.

Sigh.  Maybe the director's cut will fix all this.  Frustrating.