Star Trek Into Darkness (Spoilers and Nerd Anger Found Inside Review)

Star Trek into Darkness was one of the most highly anticipated sequels that have come along for me in quite some time. The first time JJ Abrams took a stab at Star Trek in 2009 he made what is easily one of my favorite movies ever made and a film that I have seen multiple times. So as is usually the case when expectations are so high I was naturally disappointed with this film. If I am being fare and just not reacting emotionally then this was not a bad film. There were some impressive special effects, as well as solid performances across the board. Once the film gets underway there are times when it is compelling. The action sequences are excellent. The best part of the movie in my opinion was the battle on Cronos, the Klingon home world. However, the negatives to me outweigh the positives. The movie took way too long to get started and the first part of the film up until Kahn appeared was completely lifeless and useless. Additionally what was the major dramatic question of the film? To put it simply what was the plot of the film? Was it that Kahn, yes the worse kept secret in cinema that Benedict Cumberbatch was Kahn turned out to be true, was a evil genus who needed to be stopped? Because if that is the case they did a truly awful job of establishing Kahn as a character worthy of being feared. Benedict Cumberbatch was great as Kahn but he got to do next to nothing with the role. He needed more screen time, he needed a better back story and he was defeated way too easily. Nero was a far more complex villain from a story standpoint then Kahn was granted I will easily concede that Benedict Cumberbatch is a far better actor then Eric Bana. Also Peter Weller, who is usually excellent, arguably is the real monster here because he awoke a particularly dangerous man to exploit his savagery in the hopes of provoking a war with the Klingons (this angle was handled to perfection in the underrated Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country). Kahn is no doubt evil but the Admiral is the real monster. There is a paradox here because one of the key concepts of the Star Trek universe is that humanity has supposed to have reached a point in their existence where we are more enlightened and educated and as such people like the Admiral are not supposed to exist and if they do and can manipulate Star Fleet then how is this future not in fact much worse then our own? There was nothing to root for in this film because Kahn was to be feared essentially based on his reputation from the original films. How does that make any sense? To further hammer this fact home we get a cameo by Leonard Nimoy basically telling us that hey remember Kahn is very bad. That does not cut it. Also his cameo was great in the first film but totally just thrown in here as a cheap plot device. All of the originality and ingenuity of the recent remake were gone here. How about the massive plot hole left by the film in that several Kilngons were slaughtered by the crew of the Enterprise and Kahn and as such as the plot made abundantly clear simply setting foot on their planet would lead to an all out war. So I guess that sets up the sequel or it is just a terrible plot hole. Too many movies under utilize their most complex and interesting characters. By the time Kahn becomes the dangerous lunatic that we know he is he almost instantly gets defeated. No build up, no drama, and no tension. Hence no real reason to root for Captain Kirk and company to bring him down because they do it rather easily and we somehow know that there will be no real problem for them. Also how many times can the Enterprise be blasted by lasers and not get destroyed? Not all is lost in this film and it certainly does nothing to ruin the franchise. However, the totally wasted a major opportunity. Lastly, the end sequence of this film is quite powerful and at the same time unbelievably perplexing. Essentially we have the first Hollywood film since September 11 to incorporate a terrorist plane crash directly into the movie and pull almost no punches in showing the devastation that it caused. Kahn is a terrorist no doubt about it but then the repercussions against him are to put him back to sleep and we get a speech that should be powerful by Captain Kirk about not letting essentially terrorists change who we are as people but it was so quickly thrown together that it feels wrong. Honestly, Kahn deserved to die for his actions and I do not think that most people would have a problem with that. At the very least he could have been put in jail instead being put back in the cryogenic chamber to simply wait it out for some other commander to use him. There is so much more I can say and I should have known I was in for trouble with the overwhelming amount of positive reviews that this film got that is usually a red flag for me. Consider this there is a sequence in this film that is directly inspired by The Godfather III. Now granted it copied the best part of The Godfather Part III, however any film that looks to the third Godfather for inspiration is a colossal failure. I am a JJ Abrams fan but I am now worried about Star Wars.