By Madmax673
I’ve drawn flak on several occasions for not watching “Star Wars”. The movie from which that Kollywood “genius” Maniratnam stole visuals from. Or was it E.T? Or was it both?
The idea of characters pulling action/adventure shit together in space or in some wonderland excluding the earth with some unimaginable ugly robotic nonsensical machines just doesn’t appeal to me.
Am I not a “sci-fi” guy? No! I’ll come to it by the end of this review.
After hearing favorable reviews about the ‘Star Trek’ reboot (2009), I watched it and was mildly surprised. So that raised my expectation towards this sequel.
Alas, this sequel was a bit disappointing.
Plot
The movie starts with the familiar spacecraft USS Enterprise exploring the indigenous civilization in a remote planet called “Nibiru”.
Following a volcanic eruption, Captain Kirk gets demoted by his higher officer, Pike for saving a logical Vulcan Spock and in the process exposing the space ship to the alien race, who actually end up worshiping it as a cult.
In the meantime, Starfleet agent John Harrison bombs London and kills Pike during an emergency meeting, thus setting our hero in the quest for capturing and bringing John Harrison to justice.
As the adventure continues, there are a few interesting twists in the form of who actually John Harrison is and where was he from and how was he set up and all that.
Since I don’t consider this movie as hideous compared to a few other movies I watched recently, I choose not to give away much.
Casting, Characterization & Performance
If there is anyone who is gonna save director J.J. Abrams’ ass, it’s the cast.
Almost all characters are memorable with their performances along with their own set of traits and persona.
A special mention should go to Zachary Quinto who portrays the logical half human/Vulcan, Spock. The scenes where he is logical while he is supposed to emote are chuckle worthy.
Bad Part
Once the mid point twist is revealed, things start to get predictable and boring.
The moment where Scotty coincidentally boards the ship’s secret yard is the same shit we’ve been enduring for ages.
With regards to the action scenes there is nothing new, particularly with the antagonist being shown as powerful and manipulative.
The fight scenes are plain eye sores.
Talk about the guns they use – they look worse than those ‘red-light’ blinking electronic toy guns that we used to get as presents as 8-year-olds.
For $185 million dollars, these bozos are unable to brainstorm a decent gun.
You get a feeling after a point “alright…you keep going I’ll catch you up later”.
Even a kid will guess that the hero isn’t gonna die in the end.
But the way these fellas take us all for granted and show that the hero is dead – Flat out embarrassing 🙁
Rating
There is a huge cult following for the “Star Trek” franchise just like the “Transformers” shit (except the first one).
The midnight special premiere drew a large crowd.
An incident happened by the way that reminded me of the Tamil saying (“Kaasikku ponaalum karumam tholaiyadhu”) “You won’t get rid of your sins even if you take a dip at Kashi (Varanasi)”.
There was a movie fanatic who sat close to me and kept on giggling – even for the bad scenes. God, she just wouldn’t stop! It was only her. All the others were quiet.
If you’re expecting a gem of a “Sci-fi” film like “District 9”, “Judgement Day” – let me warn you! You’re in for a big disappointment. Those films had aliens invading Earth and the filmmakers stuck to it making us glued into those characters and the following plot.
Star Trek Into Darkness just fails to do that.
Star Trek Into Darkness – Average “Trekkie” added by SearchIndia.com on
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Just struck my mind — Wonder what if they’d named the planet “Masi(u)ru” instead of “Nibiru”?
Anything works in Hollywood.
on your comment on Anjali, the movie was a mashup of ‘to kill a mocking bird and E.T..’ dont know the other influences. For one scene they had borrowed ideas from Star Wars, Raiders of the last Ark (finale) and I guess Poltergeist.
checked the trailer of poltergeist..yest they got inspired by it too.
Off-topic:
Was SI down for quite a few days? or Is it just me?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
A bunch of U.S.-based Telugus have pooled their resources and using IPs in India, U.S., China, Turkey, Italy and Romania launched massive simultaneous attacks on SI over the last one week.
Some counter measures we took to safeguard SI might have restricted access to some people.
We apologize. Always, please log on while reading so that we know it’s not a malicious element trying dirty tricks.
As a telugu fellow who likes this blog, I wonder why these other Telugus are attacking it.
I personally love all your reviews and articles and wish that you guys would write more.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The world is crazier than we can imagine.
One reason would be that SI seemingly gives more focus on the crimes committed by Telugus abroad.
This could make SI to be easily perceived as an anti-Telugu site.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We’ve also covered major crimes by Prabhakaran and Rajaratnam (both Sri Lankan Tamils) and not so major crimes by Dharun Ravi (Indian Tamil in New Jersey).
off-topic again:
http://www.wallstreetprisonconsultants.com/
Seen this? :O News to me.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Interesting example of entrepreneurship. 😉
I like the fact that the director is knowledgeable about prison life, having served a 10-year sentence.
Here’s some related sad news: Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt is feeling “suffocated” in Arthur Road Jail. Maybe, we should get him a room in Oberoi. 🙁
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sanjay-Dutt-feeling-suffocated-in-anda-cell-pleads-to-be-shifted/articleshow/20106409.cms
Same is the case with Ramadass.
He was arrested and was in prison for a week or so, and they blew every simple fact out of proportion. That, the govt intentionally forced him into the prison in Trichy (known for its hot weather) instead of Chennai. That the guards gave him only chapathis and idlis. His wife complained that the cell was full of mosquito and did not have enough facilities. WTF, is that not how jails are supposed to be?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
I think we should build special prisons for our Bollywood stars, politicians, consultants, sportsmen etc with air conditioning, big-screen TVs, broadband access, gourmet food and ‘company’ for the night.
In the U.S., another Indian Chutia with $100 million but wanted more, Rajat Gupta is (hopefully) going to prison soon:
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/rajat-guptas-lust-for-zeros.html
His speech is touching, indeed. Could easily fit in to play an inspiring role in a movie.
Another cinematic conversation that I liked from your link above.
“I have all the brains, and you have all the billions,” Kumar was overheard saying to Rajaratnam.
A “but” instead of an “and” would have been nicer. 😉
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The good news is Raj Rajaratnam is likely to die in prison. Apparently, he has serious kidney problems. There was talk of a transplant in a special prison hospital at a cost of $300,000 (Rs 1.6-crore) to the tax-payer.
Great fortunes are invariably preceded by great crimes. Only fools believe otherwise!
BTW, a movie is being made on Raj Rajaratnam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandran_Rutnam#Prince_of_Malacca
Oh really? So, what was the money worth for?
People accumulate money all the time, without realizing, the problems (health / social) are directly proportional to it.
Larry Page is worth 23 Billion USD and the man has lost his voice to a rare vocal cord paralysis.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
There is little justice or fair play in the world since times immemorial.
But the early exits of emperor Alexander and Steve Jobs, jailing of Raj Rajaratnam, Madoff and Jeffrey Skilling, conviction of Rajat Gupta etc offer some solace that the Devil sometimes ends up on the losing side. 😉
Apple’s/Steve’s fortunes were made on the basis of well designed products, fanboys’ enthusiasm, abject exploitation of Chinese workers and showing the middle finger to American workers. Several of Apple’s contract workers killed themselves at the Foxconn factory in China and countless American workers remain unemployed because of the practices championed by Steve Jobs at Apple.
Much as I hate China for stealing Indian territory (including 19 square km recently), The Last Train Home is a moving documentary.
It’s a coincidence that I’m watching it tonight – Last Train Home.
Have you stayed in any Oberoi, SI?
I have not stayed at an ‘Oberoi’ but the maintenance of these 5 or 7 star hotels are unimaginably bad.
I stayed at one in Delhi. Even the walls were dirty 🙁
Sanjay Dutt should better off in ‘anda’ cell 😉
Btw, sorry to hear about the attacks. That sucks!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Have you stayed in any Oberoi, SI?
No, I’ve not stayed in an Oberoi but been to a few for meetings, breakfast, lunch, dinner….Not impressed.
But I was not impressed with the Waldorf Astoria on Park Ave in NYC either. 😉
BTW, I hear the Leela hotels in India are impressive in sheer grandeur.
Nice review.
I can’t imagine watching these star trek movies. I also find the rise of JJ Abrams amazing. This guy will be directing star wars movies as well. How did he get to be such a big shot? I remember reading trekkies and star wars fans don’t like each other, I am talking about the fanatics here, not the regular joe who just watches these movies for time pass but people who are really passionate about the alternate universes these movies create. So the fact that this gets to direct movies from both these franchises is simply mind blowing.