J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness

[FQRizzo]

Why "Unfortunatly?" Like most Trek stories, the movie is an alagory for modern day events:

Spoiler

Terrorism. Drone strikes. Rogue military action. "One of our own" causes a terrorist strike before escaping to an enemy territory; a warmongering general sends a secret mission to bomb the sovereign nation but instead the unit captures their fellow citizen; the general attacks the unit in an effort to cover everything up.

The whole argument is framed to come to one simple point: Spock can't kill Kahn if he wants Kirk to live. In essence, the needs of the many outweigh the need for revenge. The rest is details.

No, it's just sloppy writing. The ends don't meet up. We have to assume there is something special about Khan blood because they just ignore the fact there are 70 some other superhuman popsciles on board. They don't address it. The fact that there is even magic blood is sloppy.

Some people just think it's deep because they need to fill it in themselves.

 

[JAWS]

Ramin's scores usually always outshine the film.

Iron Man's score was impressive. Fright Night was outstanding. Loved Clash of the Titian's score.

I enjoyed Fright Nights Score but felt there was nothing special about Clash of the Titans. Lots of typical rhythmic boom boom. If I remember correctly. Nothing that stood out from the pact.

 

[JAWS]

You don't need to watch the films to appreciate the score.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1mChFEL_8E

Yeah that is what I sort of kind of remember. Sounds like it could be in any action film. But I do like some of his work in Fright Night and Game of Thrones. Never cared much about Iron Man. Nothing really stuck out there for me either.

 

[CelticPredator]

It has a nice theme.

 

[JAWS]

Let's not forget Robcop and Starship

I always enjoyed Robocop's score but never cared about Starship.

Still neither of them hold a candle to Conan the Barbarian.

Basil's Quigley Down Under is another great score that is very much overlooked.

 

[BaxterStockman]

Abrams had us on the hook. He didn't take a huge risk with his first Star Trek release. With the second one, he could have really dived into the realm of Star Trek. He didn't have to play to the masses since people loved his first one. He already had people excited for the second movie even before they released the trailers. He missed his opportunity to really get a new generation of people into scifi and star trek.

 

[CelticPredator]

He also didn't write it.

 

[gdb]

No, it's just sloppy writing. The ends don't meet up. We have to assume there is something special about Khan blood because they just ignore the fact there are 70 some other superhuman popsciles on board. They don't address it. The fact that there is even magic blood is sloppy.

Some people just think it's deep because they need to fill it in themselves.

I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I was talking to a film school graduate and Hollywood professional. I didn't mean to interrupt your lecture.

 

[FQRizzo]

I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I was talking to a film school graduate and Hollywood professional. I didn't mean to interrupt your lecture.

You're right, I am way too high brow. I shouldn't be so tough on movies. I should learn to love NASCAR and also how to make fart sounds with my armpits and then maybe I can like movies again.

 

[David Dunn]

Abrams had us on the hook. He didn't take a huge risk with his first Star Trek release. With the second one, he could have really dived into the realm of Star Trek. He didn't have to play to the masses since people loved his first one. He already had people excited for the second movie even before they released the trailers. He missed his opportunity to really get a new generation of people into scifi and star trek.

I have a 13 year old nephew and 11 year old son who would completely disagree with this last statement. Man, they were re-enacting scenes on the way home opening weekend and even yesterday when my extended family came over to visit.

 

[gdb]

You're right, I am way too high brow. I shouldn't be so tough on movies. I should learn to love NASCAR and also how to make fart sounds with my armpits and then maybe I can like movies again.

Here's a good book on screenwriting and how Hollywood films are made "Writing Movies for Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too!"

[ame]https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Movies-Fun-Profit-Billion/dp/1439186766/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369705660&sr=1-1&keywords=thomas+lennon[/ame]

It's a fun read -- especially chapter 10. Why Does Almost Every Studio Movie SUCK Donkey *****?

 

[Gruson]

LOL You could throw in the Commando theme with the Gorky Park and 48 hours music as well as some tracks from Red Heat.

I remember seeing Clear and Present Danger and hearing the exact notes from Commando. Got to love Horner. . I do love his work though. Rocketeer, Aliens, Willow, Cocoon, Krull, Titanic, Field of Dreams, Sneakers.

It's a shame we don't get the big scores anymore. Lord of the Rings is the only one that really comes to mind. Batman movies were good too.

I like Goldsmith a lot, especially Rambo and Gremlins scores but Horner has a lot more classics IMO.

 

[JAWS]

I remember seeing Clear and Present Danger and hearing the exact notes from Commando. Got to love Horner. . I do love his work though. Rocketeer, Aliens, Willow, Cocoon, Krull, Titanic, Field of Dreams, Sneakers.

It's a shame we don't get the big scores anymore. Lord of the Rings is the only one that really comes to mind. Batman movies were good too.

I like Goldsmith a lot, especially Rambo and Gremlins scores but Horner has a lot more classics IMO.

I like Horner. Just don't love him. Sometimes his reuse of his own themes takes me out of the movie I am watching. Willow is a great example. Every time the bad guys show up that little trumpet part comes on and I am transported right back to Star Trek II.


James Newton Howard has a few good bigger scores. I love Unbreakable. Best Superhero theme besides Superman. But yes the large orchestral scores seem to be fewer and fewer. They will come back again though. They always go through this phase.

 

[Gruson]

I like Horner. Just don't love him. Sometimes his reuse of his own themes takes me out of the movie I am watching. Willow is a great example. Every time the bad guys show up that little trumpet part comes on and I am transported right back to Star Trek II.


James Newton Howard has a few good bigger scores. I love Unbreakable. Best Superhero theme besides Superman. But yes the large orchestral scores seem to be fewer and fewer. They will come back again though. They always go through this phase.

Funny, I LOVED that movie and score. I would put Elfman's Batman theme above it though. While not as moving as Unbreakable, it's more memorable IMO.

 

[BaxterStockman]

I have a 13 year old nephew and 11 year old son who would completely disagree with this last statement. Man, they were re-enacting scenes on the way home opening weekend and even yesterday when my extended family came over to visit.

But they would have probably been doing that for whichever action movie you brought them to. Since that is essentially what Into Darkness is. An action movie that just happened to be called Star Trek.

 

[CelticPredator]

Which is perfectly fine with me. Because that's what Star Trek (at least the TNG ones) movies always tried to be. Dumb as **** action movies.

 

[morphosis]

Saw Into Darkness today. I really enjoyed it. I like JJ's little twists off the originals. I know purist don't like it, but enjoy it because its not just a perfect carbon copy of the originals. From the start of his first movie, we knew things were going to be a little different. So im enjoying his series of movies so far.

As far as people debating about the blood:

Spoiler

I had no problems with them needing Khan's blood vs maybe taking it from one of the others. They way I saw it, McCoy was testing Khan's blood, not the others, and he saw Khan's blood healed/brought back life, he didn't have time to test the others, he knew Khan's would have the best chance of working. Plus its a movie and its sci-fi, gotta be a little open to suspension of disbelief....and it just makes a more compelling story that its Khan's blood.

but whatever, not everyone likes the same thing, we all have our own personal opinions.

 

[dragonsleeper]

Who cares what color the actor is even with a name like Khan. I have a friend with the last name Wong and he's not even close to being Asian

Remember Jango Fett, a Puerto Rican rights group think it was a dig at the increasing immigration of Puerto Ricans in the US because he was played by a Latino actor.

 

[Reinhardt]

Of all the things that bothered me about the film, the color of Cumberbatch's skin didn't bother me at all. Especially when you look at Montalban from Trek II, who was pretty pale himself.

 

[screamingmetal]

Star Trek movies are never hard Sci-Fi, they've been Sci-Fi adventure or action films and at most political action films. The Motion Picture tried to come close with a satellite that was given sentience and went looking for it's creator. But the best Trek movies; Wrath, Voyage, Undiscovered, and arguably First Contact didn't have much Sci-Fi elements other then time travel, cyborgs, and the Genesis Device that was nothing more then a MacGuffin.
STID at least deals with genetic augmentation as much as Wrath did. Montalban tried to show it with his intellect until he was shown not to be as smart as a Vulcan (maybe he should've played more 3 dimensional chess?). Cumberbatch showed it by designing an entire revolutionary space ship and with his physical abilities. Both Wrath or STID would've been better if they used the line from the series that "superior ability breeds superior ambition" which is why genetic augmentation is illegal in Star Trek. It would also made Khan a better villain if they mentioned that he conquered nearly a forth of the planet and the Augment War resulted in WWIII that killed somewhere around 600 million people.

The TV shows had better Science Fiction elements, which what the Abrams movie writers should be pilfering.