Even numbers only star trek10/28/2023 ![]() While I like that Sybok isn’t an outright evil person, he comes off like an overly familiar camp counselor. First, it invests far too much in its villain Sybok ( Laurence Luckinbill). Unfortunately, Final Frontier shortchanges the original cast on two fronts. Unless you have a villain like Khan ( Richardo Montalban), a villain who is rooted in the old show and who’s utterly captivating on his own merits, then your greatest strength is the camaraderie of the old cast working together. ![]() When it comes to movies with the TOS cast, the best thing to do is keep the focus on the cast. It starts out from a promising position, but quickly falls into lethargy, and missing the point of what makes a Trek movie with The Original Series cast work so well. Unfortunately, Star Trek V is constantly silly and nonsensical rather than fun and upbeat. Watching Star Trek V, it’s like Shatner saw the lighthearted success of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and wanted to redo it for his directorial contribution to the franchise. Someone give William Shatner a participation trophy. For some it may pass as mindless entertainment, but it’s mindless to waste Trek in such a vicious, vacuous manner. Rather than boldly build a new world, Into Darkness steals from the old one, and does so poorly. It also fails as a friendship tale, as there’s little chemistry between Pine and Quinto, so the big “Khan!” moment comes off as laughably terrible. I understand that for Kirk, this is a learning experience film for him, and he has to overcome his cockiness and irresponsibility (you wonder how someone who responds to breaking the Prime Directive with “Big deal,” should ever be a captain in Starfleet - assuming you care about Starfleet), but it’s such a drag, and the character is so deeply unlikable that you’re almost rooting for him to fail. It may stimulate the lizard parts of your brain with the bright colors, canted angles, lens flares, and set pieces, but it’s bad storytelling that tries to steal from a far superior picture. He’s interested in making Space Adventure! and he does a poor job of telling the story. Star Trek is about science fiction, and J.J. That’s the artistry, but that’s not the core of what makes Star Trek tick. It’s fine to update Trek with new uniforms, a new ship design, a new score, etc. If you’re not a Trek fan, I doubt you’ll care, but imagine if someone made a Star Wars movie and tried to take the mystical force and turn it into something scientifically measurable (oh wait). Abrams’ Star Trek movies: if you want to take them as simple action movies, they’re serviceable enough, but that’s a waste of a world and disrespectful of what Trek is about. While it’s not as bad on a second viewing, it’s still suffering the growing pains of not knowing what Star Trek really is. I must politely disagree with my colleague Chris Cabin on the merits of Star Trek Into Darkness.
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