Brief Thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness (Non-Spoiler)

No spoilers here! Though some spoilers in the links. Links to spoilers are marked.

I could write a review of Star Trek Into Darkness. After all, if I've proven nothing on this blog it's that I'm perfectly capable of ranting about anything.

So instead of writing a full out review I'm going to link you to several other reviews that I in fact agree with.

If you're looking for a non-spoiler review, check out this one at io9.

If you want to talk spoilers with a reviewer who wrote Star Trek novels and is therefore intimately familiar with Star Trek, check out this one.

If you want to laugh at a hilarious mock interview trying to figure out what was really going on in Star Trek Into Darkness, check out this one. (spoilers)

If you want a discussion with a geek icon on the women in Star Trek Into Darkness, check out Felecia Day's brief essay on the subject. (spoilers)

And I have nothing clever to say about this review, other than you know spoilers.

Ok, some brief original thoughts from me.

If you loved this move, that's awesome. Power to you. I have nothing against people liking movies that I did not enjoy. In fact, my mother loved this movie despite it's flaws and she's a huge Trekkie. So there you go. It is possible to love Star Trek and love this movie. Not everyone has to be a debbie-downer.

I did not enjoy this movie. However, I did enjoy the first half. I was with them for most of the movie and was like "wow, this could be going some place really interesting that gives us an opening to talk about the nature of free will and chaos theory and the like." But no, they didn't go that route. Well, maybe they did, just not in a way I agreed with at all. 

Benedict Cumberbatch was amazing. I don't need to even mention any spoilers to tell you that. The man can act. Seriously. He can do more with a look than most of the others can do with an entire scene. Seriously. He's amazing. It might be worth it to see this movie just for him. Maybe.

So did they address any of the problems I mentioned I had with Star Trek previously?

Some yes. Karl Urban was as usual note perfect. Uhurra got to do something that actually related to her job and purpose on the Enterprise. Which was cool. Also Scotty was much better done this time around. Chekov? Not so much.

There were also some really clever subtle call-outs that made fans in the audience smile and didn't detract from the movie. There were also some not so clever call-outs that left me wanting to hulk out and destroy everything around.

I left this movie angry, and I don't do that often. I enjoy most movies, especially on the first viewing, and only discover it's flaws on the second or third time around. Heck, I enjoy Thor in all of it's inconsistent, lack of character development glory. But Star Trek Into Darkness? No. 

Also it's not often that a plot hole is so obvious that my movie buddy has to lean over and say "Why the heck didn't they just..." and proceeds to point out a major plot hole. I love my movie buddies, but they're not usually as discerning on these things as I am. Not because they're not intelligent (quite the contrary) but because they're usually of the opinion "it's just a movie, it doesn't matter, let it go." (They don't take stories/movies quite as seriously as I do.) So when they're pointing out plot holes, you know there's a problem.

Why didn't I like it? Maybe it's because I hold Star Trek to a higher standard. Maybe it's because I really thought with the bar being so low after Nemesis we could only go up. Maybe it's because I'm a curmudgeon. More likely it's a combination of all of these things.

Oh well. Enough with my debbie-downer-ness and curmudgeonly ways. What about you guys? Did you like the movie?