The Most Geekiest Review I can give:
SPOILER ALERT!!! (Duh, arnt you reading a post release thread?)
Saw the midnight showing of ST:ID last night in 3D on a Big D screen. So heres some thoughts:
The Good:
-BEAUTIFUL! Just about every shot was pure eye candy. Everything about this movie LOOKED outstanding! The effects were mind blowing, heck Im even used to the lense flares.
-Characters! My god! Karl Urban OWNS every moment the camera is pointed at him! His McCoy is spot on without being an imitation. Zachary Quinto IS Spock! He has really grown into that character and made it is own. I also very much like that Spock is now an ACTION hero! The last chase and fight and us going "WOW! and "Dahumm!" at Spock! Cumberbatch just absolutely ate up every scene he was in. He was addictive to watch. Until he finally snapped, I was thinking that this "new" universe version might actually be a "good guy". Guess not. I also thought Chris Pine was very solid throughout in his performance. There were some Shatner like moments, but you can tell at this point in the characters life, he just doesn't have that confidence. Cocky-ness, just not TRUE confidence. I swear that Simon Pegg actually sorta LOOKS like Dohan!? He was a pleasure to watch in every scene he was in.
-SETS! The Enterprise looked great! I'm glad they didn't change everything like they used to do in the old movies, but the updated engineering and warp core was a welcome addition. It FELT more like a star ship. Also, I LOVED the design of the Vengeance bridge. MAN what a cool ship that...... didn't do much.
Now, here's what rubbed me the wrong way:
First lets define something about Star Trek. Everyone always wants to compare Star Trek to Star Wars but one notable difference is "Trek-nology" Whereas Star Trek has "The Force" and other mystical elements in it, Star Trek has always relied heavily on science. Albeit fantasy science, but since the very beginning, Trek established certain "rules". Now we all know that the writers often break these rules on a whim, but Into Darkness went a bit too far just for the simple sake of doing "cool" stuff.
From the very beginning, Kirk was stripped of his command and then just immediately demoted to Commander, then repromoted to Captain within minutes. This entire subplot harkening back to '09 trek where Kirk got command of the FLAG SHIP of the Federation within 4 years, was just absurd and went against all "old" Trek where Officers were CAREER positions that took many years to move through the ranks. The "Nu Trek" make Starfleet seem like a cheap karate school where you just fly through ranks!
The other CONSISTENT thing that bugged me was the complete disregard for previously established TrekNology. The Enterprise under water? The Enterprise entering Earths Atmo (falling to pieces mind you!) and then being able to "pull up" using thrusters only? For that matter what does the warp core have to do with thrusters of impulse engines? Arn't those separate systems?
Speaking of the "warp core"... You're telling me that the ENTIRE Enterprise can be knocked out of commission by a big laser thingy getting knocked to one side? and then that a 140 lbs man can just KICK it back into place? This whole scene was just really contrived.
While we are talking about THAT scene, Let me go ahead and hit it: NEARLY Line for Line RESHOOT of the ST:TWK death scene! WHY?!?! It seems SO unnecessary and really threw me out of the movie because I was quoting the lines as they said them. But it got worse: KHANNNNN!
....really? did that just happen?
Yes, and just a few minutes before, Nu Spock had a facetime chat with Leonard Ni...err, I mean Old Spock where he learned..... well... nothing. Let me make a comment about that: These new ST films have FIRMLY established that they are REWRITING Trek History. Meaning all the stuff we USED to know is null and void. So WHY ask Old Spock? NOTHING he remembers or experienced really matters. Even though they didn't mention it by name, In this new timeline the S.S. Botany Bay was not discovered by Kirk, it was discovered by Admiral Marcus. So already what Khan was doing and his motivations were different.
The rest:
Well, I really appreciated all the to nods to the previous Trek. In fact, did anyone notice the models on Admiral Marcus' desk? I SWEAR their was a model of the NX-01?!?!? Anyone else catch that?
Also, I liked the more subtle stuff like the "Kelvin Memorial Library". Section 31....
Overall, it was a very solid movie. Well acted from beginning to end. Sadly the faults I give it are that it was trying TOO hard to hold on to old trek. At this point I am really hoping they pull away from trying to mirror old trek and just do their own thing. While it was "cool" that Cumberbatch was Khan, in actuality it added NOTHING to the story and really was just so that old trek fans could gasp!
I like that they acknowledged the impact Nero and Khan had on Star Fleet, but Im glad they got it back onto its actual purpose: Exploration. Pine's voiceover at the end really moved it forward!
I look forward to where they take us for the third one!