Search - Star Trek Into Darkness (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy) on Blu-ray

Darwin H. (movienut) from BLOOMINGTON, MN
Reviewed on 6/1/2013...

Mark me down as being less than impressed with the new Star Trek movie. I'll try to give a non-spoilers brief review. I think all the actors did a great job with what they were given. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto pull off Kirk and Spock admirably. I think Simon Pegg is fine as Scotty, and Karl Urban's portrayal of Bones is absolutely amazing to me. He has all his mannerisms down pat and stays in character perfectly. All the more amazing when you consider almost all of his previous roles had been bad-ass tough guy characters (Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Riddick, Doom, Pathfinder, etc), so this new character is a 180 degree reversal from that. We also all loved Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain and thought he did a fantastic job.

We saw it in IMAX 3D. I thought the 3D was really unnecessary and didn't add anything to the film. Then again, I feel that way about 3D in general. I may change my mind eventually and am open to other's opinions but I really see it as more of a gimmick than anything else. I don't think it will catch on long term but we shall see. And yes, I am aware that you can hardly find any new large flat screen TVs any more that do not incorporate this technology. But that does not prove that 3D is here to stay in the home market. The real test is how many 3D Blu-ray movies are being sold. And from everything I've read so far the numbers are very disappointing. The sound in the IMAX was very good but also very, very, very loud. I mean approximately 11 on a scale of 1-10. Don't get me wrong, I love cranking up the volume on my surround sound system at home when I watch an action movie, and I will grant you that I am ancient, but this was just painful. It lierally hurt my head and was so loud that I felt it was a distraction rather than a complement to the overall movie going experience, (as was the 3D but to a lesser extent).

Anyway...as far as the plot itself. I know they are trying to appeal to a more current younger audience. I get that and it is fine. But it just seemed to be all flash and no substance to me. I felt like they had this huge special effects budget and by god, they were going to use it all. I could just see the director in a board meeting going "OK...we've got this huge budget and I want to know exactly how much sh** we can blow up!" Then it felt like later on someone realized...wait a minute...the heart of Star Trek was always about ethical and moral dillemmas...so we need to tack on a scene or two that shows that so we can satisfy the older crowd as well that may have seen Voyager, TNG, or even TOS. And I do mean tack on. We don't want to get too bogged down about that but let's briefly mention the prime directive, then ignore it, and we need Kirk and Spock to play with similar moral ideas for a few brief scenes as well. Not too much, as that would just be a distraction from our flash/bang principal focus. I could almost see poor Gene Roddenberry spinning in his grave.

I should also mention that I did not read a single review, online or otherwise before going in to see it. And when I mentioned my thoughts to my wife as we were leaving the theater she said...hmmm...that's what a lot of the critics were saying about it too. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad one that I'm in line with some of the critics on this one but there it is.

Overall - 3 out of 5.

Thanks for listening.

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