As a result, Into Darkness feels less like a movie, and more like an homage reel made by someone who never watched the original show. At least when Bryan Singer attempted a similar approach with 2006’s Superman Returns, he was a fan of what he was paying homage to. The intended thrill of Into Darkness seems to be merely spotting the references to other “Star Trek” stuff. Nothing in the film is supposed to elicit thrills from itself. It’s all a game of “I recognize that!” In a dismaying way, Abrams’ approach was exactly the same as Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer’s notorious spoof movies. Those films’ intend to gain comedic traction by reproducing scenes from recent movies without actual spoof or comment. Into Darkness, likewise, isn’t spinning old material or creating new material out of the old, but merely repeating it.
Indeed, by repeating old lines and events with such a stringent accuracy, the viewer may begin to get the sense that this new Abrams-created universe is destined to repeat everything that the original series did, only with more action and slimmer, younger actors (Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock certainly fit the bill as younger, sexier versions of the characters we know). We have descended into fatalism.
All of the fatalism aside, however, Into Darkness is still bogged down by a shockingly violent tone. The Starfleet of most of “Star Trek” felt laidback and enlightened. The people were explorers and open-minded egalitarians who would use intelligence and technobabble to traverse weird species and spacial phenomena. In this film, people are dressed with Generals’ stars, wear slate-gray uniforms, and bark orders like marines. There is an unsettling undercurrent of dark fascism lurking underneath Into Darkness. Lip service is paid to anti-war messages, but the film is too eager to leap in to take them very seriously. So much for Roddenberry’s peaceful vision of the future.
What’s more, there are several glaringly noticeable plot holes in the film which only become more noticeable upon a second viewing. I would list them, but it would be tedious for everyone.
A colleague posited the following (rather brilliant) way to counteract the fascism and military violence of this new Trek universe: Sometime over the course of the inevitable 13th film, Kirk puts on a gold sash, Spock grows a goatee, and we learn that this version of “Star Trek” is actually the same “evil” mirror universe seen in the 1967 “Star Trek” episode “Mirror, Mirror.” It’s really the only way out.
The Blu-ray offers little insight, as all the special features are par-for-the-course making-of documentaries. Here’s something telling: One of the extra features is a 90-second ad for a military charity, praising soldiers, narrated by Chris Pine. Hmm…
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and co-star of The Trailer Hitch. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind. If you want to buy him a gift (and I know you do), you can visit his Amazon Wish List.
