Star Trek - Into Darkness

Being a lifelong Star Trek fan - indeed, virtually a "Trekkie" - I was somewhat looking forward to this film, especially now that there are no more new TV series likely to be forthcoming. By means of a sequence of events not worth going into here, I was able to go and see this on its first day of general release - and in 3D to boot - but I'm not sure that it was worth the effort.

Basically "it WAS Star Trek, but not as we know it Jim". The franchise seems to have been taken over lock, stock and barrel by JJ Abrams, who is responsible for "Lost" and "Fringe", two other major US sci-fi TV franchises. I never watched Lost, but I found Fringe to be a most infuriating programme, veering between sci fi at its best and most inventive on one hand, and meaningless nonsense, disappearing up its own backside on the other. The latter tended to outweigh the former and it always looked to be a pale imitation of The X Files. The previous Star Trek film under his guidance wasn't too bad (see my review), but this seems to be going the same way as Fringe.

Classic sci fi needs thought provoking, intelligent story lines with a bent for technology/ alien life/ time travel etc etc, with a healthy dollop of moral agonising to chew over. This film had virtually none of that - to all intents and purposes this was "Die Hard" set in space, but without the comedy and without the tongue placed firmly in cheek. It was action, action, action, with explosions galore - and it went one better than Die Hard in that Spock jumped blindly off an airplane - and landed miraculously on another!

Benedict Cumberbatch was much touted as the villain, but he didn't appear very villainous at all, and you had to listen very carefully indeed to deduce why he was villainous - as well as have a good knowledge of the back catalogue of the Star Trek films. He should stick to playing Sherlock Holmes.

What saved the film from total crassness was the use it made of the good old original Star Teek characters - Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Uhura, Chekov and Sulu. Having said that, in reality they contributed very little to the film other than the fact that they were there, with their character traits and quirky sayings.

It's good to see the characters being resurrected and sensitively played by younger actors - it's also good to see that the franchise itself is also alive. Times are hard though, Star Trek isn't what it was, and I just hope that before its too late the actors get a proper intelligent sci fi story to take part in, one that's more in tune with what Star Trek is supposed to stand for.  

10.05.13