"Happy Face"

The movie was good.

"Mean Face"

This movie sucks out loud.

Rob guest reviews: Star Trek Into Darkness

So, like usual, I just don’t see the world as I’m being told to…even with something as mundane as the new Star Trek movie, “Into Darkness.” The complaints this weekend have been loud and varied, across all spectrums, ranging from true “Trekkies,” to movie critics, to action film lovers, to sci-fi-geeks, and everyone in between. Whether or not they represent the majority of people who will ultimately see the movie, there is, of course no way to know, but what I find odd is that those complaining are getting all of the attention. Even defenders of the film often start off with “well, it certainly isn’t as good as the first reboot in 2009.”

Let’s start there. The hell it isn’t.

As a guy who grew up on the original Star Trek movies, starting in 1979 with the “Motion Picture,” starring William Shatner and the original cast, I had no interest in seeing the modern day reboot three years ago in which, in my ignorance, a bunch of modern day B-listers would simply impersonate the original actors and characters. Fortunately for me, I have a persuasive girlfriend who convinced me to watch it months ago and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I’m stunned, however, by folks claiming it was, in any way, superior to “Into Darkness.”

The complaints have been as follows: It’s too political, the action supersedes the plot, and/or it doesn’t stay true or pay homage to the original Star Trek. All wrong. Desperately, pathetically wrong.

Star Trek has ALWAYS been a show of political commentary. That was the very reason Gene Roddenberry created it 4 decades ago and such plotlines and morality plays have been the very foundation of everything Star trek is. And while there is no doubt a brazen plotline in this move that demands you to truly think about America’s current use of unmanned drones to assassinate people without trial, it hardly dominates the film. In fact, it’s barely a blip once it’s been made an underlying theme. The action is intense, fast and spectacular. The moment the movie slows down, it revs back up to levels that you thought it couldn’t. And while you don’t need to have even been alive, let alone have ever seen, the original Star trek show or movies, this film not only throws in tasty little moments for long time fans (Hello, there’s a Tribble in this movie!), it also does a masterful job of taking the best of all things Star Trek, The Wrath of Khan, and incorporating it in a way that perfectly fits with this new version of Kirk, Spock and the crew.

Like with all great movies, there are various holes in the plot or moments you’d like to ask Director J.J. Abrams about. I mean really, it can’t possibly be as easy as it was in this film to attack Starfleet Command in San Francisco. That’s just ludicrous. And yes, I know that many purists will be offended by the hand-to-hand battle featuring Spock towards the end of the movie, but grow up, already. The truth is that times change and this version of Star Trek has beautifully combined the past with the present with our beloved idealistic future. These actors, almost all of whom I hate, seem born to play these roles and, oh by the way, there are a half dozen laugh out loud hysterical pieces of dialogue in this movie as well. It has everything. The packed theater I was in Sunday morning stupidly gave it a standing ovation, and as ignorant as it is to applaud a screen that can’t hear you, it restored my faith that maybe the people complaining are just the vocal minority, because this movie is excellent.

POST-SCRIPT (added a few hours after writing the initial review above): I was so annoyed by the idea that people didn’t like this film that I was happy to see many emails from our loyal maggots that not only loved the movie, but also indicated that, using viewer review websites like Rotten Tomatoes, the film is being very well received by the general movie going public, and even most critics. Thanks for the heads-up; it would appear that those doing the bitching are, indeed, in the minority. Either way, they’re wrong. Or stupid. Or both.

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