Tag: Into Darkness

  • Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

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    As I sit here and begin to write this review I am just now seeing the weekend numbers for Star Trek Into Darkness and disturbed greatly that the movie did not bring in the metric shit ton of money the studio “expected” it to over its first weekend.

    Why am I disturbed?

    Because of all the things I want to be associated with this movie, flop is not one of them. Star Trek Into Darkness is big, bold and just plain damn fun and emotional.

    I will keep this review spoiler free, so no need to read ahead with trepidation.

    Star Trek Into Darkness moves at a break neck pace. I am not saying this in a bad way, much the contrary. There is no wasted movement here. When I say a lot happens in the first thirty minutes, trust me, it does. From Kirk and McCoy being chased off a savage world as Spock dives into an erupting volcano to save a planet, Kirk losing his command, an important character death, new faces being introduced and the set up for the majority of the movie, STID has a lot of explaining to do and thankfully it is done without feeling rushed…even though it sort of is.

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    Starfleet is under attack by a one man army. A former Starfleet officer named John Harrison coordinates a bombing in London and then lays waste to an important meeting of Starfleet brass and flees the planet. Kirk finds out he has gone to the Klingon home world of Kronos where Harrison believes Starfleet can not follow unless they risk starting a full-scale war with the Klingons.

    Now don’t get your nerd panties all hot and bothered about seeing a lot of Klingons in this. Kronos and the squadron of Klingons are used sparingly during one part. It does seem like they are laying the groundwork for a larger scale event with them, possibly in the third film, but for now just enjoy what you get.

    And yes, the new Bird of Prey looks A-MAZ-ING.

    Sorry. Where was I?

    After disobeying orders on killing Harrison (it’s James T. Kirk, what did you expect), they try to capture him which leads to a shootout with the Klingons and Harrison shows that he is indeed more than meets the eye. It is a secret and no, he is not a Transformer. Harrison begins to place doubt in Kirk’s mind about just what exactly Starfleet has been up to of late and if they are truly exploration based or a military on the rise. I loved this being brought up because there are some that have questioned Trek’s future losing Roddenberry’s original idea that the show was about seeking out new life and touching on social issues of the day.

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    A great thing that Star Trek Into Darkness does is continuing the ever evolving relationships between all of the main crew, even while the movie keeps whizzing along. The main focus, as is with most of the films involving the original cast, is Kirk and Spock’s friendship, which is something Spock is unfamiliar with for a lot of the movie. Giving this franchise the old reboot has allowed us to see it take shape and form into the lifelong bond that we all grew up watching.

    The cast is more fun to watch this go round because they seemingly have connection with their characters. They were birthing them in the 2009 reboot and here we get to see the fruits of that labor. The roles are becoming theirs and can be compared less and less with their legendary counterparts. If I had to pick out the real standouts it would be Karl Urban as Bones with his (sometimes) Georgia draw and metaphor filled advice (of which Kirk makes mention) and Chris Pine can seemingly put Kirk on cruise control and still come off as suave and cocky as Shatner ever did. The biggest parts are left for Zachary Quinto and Benedict Cumberbatch who are worth the price of admission by themselves. Quinto’s Spock runs the full spectrum of emotions (yes, emotions) and should really have any doubter of his ability to be this generation’s Spock put to shame.

    Quinto could have easily stolen the movie had it not been for Benedict Cumberbatch. For those of you who are used to him flexing his mental and vocal muscles on Sherlock you are in for a surprise when he uses his actual muscles. Like seriously, dude put on like 20 pounds and is completely badass. Imagine if Sherlock went evil and mix him with the physicality of Tom Hardy’s Bane and you have a good beginning.

    Star trek Into Darkness Movie

    Say what you want about J.J. Abrams (except a lens flare joke, its been four years), the man knows how to do big, and make no mistake about it, Star Trek Into Darkness is big. The effects, the feel, the music (again by Michael Giacchino) is sweeping, haunting and nostalgic at the exact right times. Watching this should give Star Wars fans hope that the prequels are long since gone and better days are ahead. I instantly began wondering where this would rank on my list of Trek films as soon as I left the theater and it is high…very high, which are also my expectations for the future adventures of the Starship Enterprise as this franchise boldly goes towards its 50th anniversary.

     

     

     

     

  • Star Trek Into Darkness 3D Blu-Ray Set…Yes Already

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    Be still my Trekker heart.

    How soon is too soon to get ready for the home release of a big summer movie? How about two days?

    Amazon is already taking pre-orders on the Star Trek Into Darkness 3D Blu-Ray Set which comes with a full-scale replica of a Starfleet phaser. The set retails for $99.99, but Amazon is offering it for $79.99. No release date is set although it will be in the fall sometime.

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  • Star Trek Into Darkness Moves Up Release Date

    Photo courtesy geektyrant.com
    Photo courtesy geektyrant.com

    Paramount has announced that the early showings of Star Trek Into Darkness in IMAX 3D set for May 15th at 8PM are selling out nationwide. Cities like New York, Seattle and San Diego are reportedly at capacity.

    In response Paramount has moved up the release date of the sequel by a day to Thursday, May 16th. So if you already have tickets reserved through Fandango for Friday showings….I guess you’re f***ed. Actually I am pretty sure you can change your tickets, I just love messing with you.

    Any way I can see Star Trek sooner is certainly fine by me.

  • Review: Star Trek: The Video Game

    Photo courtesy dapsmagic.com
    Photo courtesy dapsmagic.com

    Set Phasers To Meh

    I am a lifelong Star Trek fan. Not a bandwagon since 2009 when J.J. Abrams made it cool to like the adventures of the Starship Enterprise. Now do not get me wrong, I absolutely loved the 2009 reboot and applaud everyone involved for making Trek accessible to a whole new generation. Now, this summer we will be getting the much anticipated follow-up, Star Trek Into Darkness, and with that comes the dreaded words….movie tie-in game.

    I first saw footage of Star Trek at E3 two years ago and was generally excited about what I saw. A buddy co-op space adventure starring Kirk and Spock with influences coming from the Mass Effect series and Gears of War, two of my favorite franchises ever. The game was set for release in 2012, but was given a whole extra year of development time to coincide with the release of the movie sequel. I made the mistake of thinking that this would help the game become more than the run-of-the-mill movie game and yet here we are, in 2013, with exactly that.

    Star Trek is set after the first film (obviously), but it does not bridge the two movies. For that you will need to pick up IDW’s four issue mini-series, Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness. The game plays out as more of an extended episode of the series with the new crew. One long, long episode. All the good will that is built up in the first hour or two of play is wasted when the story stretches out way farther than it needs to. By the end, you are wondering exactly how much longer you will have to pry open one more door, hack one more door lock or fall off a ledge from the game not reading your jump command.

    Photo courtesy uverseonline.att.net
    Photo courtesy uverseonline.att.net

    Gears of Kirk? Spock of War?

    Star Trek has you choosing to play as Kirk or Spock at the beginning of the campaign, but I never really saw much of a difference in the two. The makers have said that Spock was to be played as more of a logical, stealth option while Kirk a headstrong, shoot-first type. In theory, this sounds good, yet it is not actually implemented in the game. You have the option of stealth during multiple missions and it doesn’t matter which character you are playing as to do it because once the shooting starts both you and your A.I. partner have a license to kill.

    The main plot involves a Vulcan scientist who has created a source of energy called the Helios device which will aid the Vulcans in the creation of New Vulcan. Due to sabotage, the device opens a rift in space which allows creatures known as the Gorn to pass through. These creatures appeared only once in the original series in the famously cheesy fight with Capt. Kirk.

    Give Uncle Scrotor a hug
    Give Uncle Scrotor a hug

    But now they have been given a modern makeover and appear much more dangerous. You will find many different variety of Gorn to fight like the green Gorn, red Gorn, blue Gorn and multicolored Gorn. Sensing a theme here? One of the main problems with Star Trek is the complete lack of enemy variety. Now you will have some levels that have you fighting infected Vulcan or Federation officers where you stun them and choke them out, but the majority of your time is spent obliterating one lizard or another. Now I know this is the essence of every shooter, but at least with games like Gears of War there is enemy variety. The Gorn are literally different colors with different weapons.

    Cover mechanics are not bad or good, they are mostly serviceable. There is no melee attack to speak of unless you stun your enemy first making for some weird situations when you have someone running up on you and you can not quick fire to hit them. Don’t expect to melee them back, just run away, turn around and fire again. There is an attempt to have an upgrade system for health, tricorders and weapons, but it is rudimentary at best. You use your tricorder to scan your environments for alien plant life, audio logs and new enemy types to add to the data log which gain you XP. Spend as you wish on phaser upgrades or tricorder abilities like healing your partner. The useless part of this is that you can easily beat the game without upgrading one single item.

    The Voice of Reason

    The two aspects of Star Trek that truly do excel are the music and the voice work. The music takes pieces of Michael Giacchino’s 2009 soundtrack and mixes them well with new samples that work very well in the Abrams reboot universe. The voice acting is also on the good side. Chris Pine seem to be having fun voicing a video game character and his Kirk is just as cocky and headstrong as his cinematic counterpart. Zachary Quinto’s Spock is equally up to task and there were multiple moments where his interaction with Kirk was very enjoyable and worthy of the movies. The rest of the cast is here as well including Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Karl Urban and Zoe Saldana. Sadly it sounds like Saldana read her lines at gunpoint with someone telling her to sound as disinterested as possible, kind of like her role in Avatar.

    Photo courtesy jjplace.com
    Photo courtesy jjplace.com

    Star Trek has a lot of good ideas and ambition that never comes to the surface. You can tell the influences that drove the game throughout, but it never gets past mediocrity. The sections on board the Enterprise are a bit of fun and the voice acting is a treat (except for you Zoe) while the music is too good for the product it is attached to. If they could have tightened up the controls and cut a couple of hours of the blah plot, Star Trek could have been better than average. It overstays its welcome and the final few hours are spent on bland looking alien ships that test your patience. If you find this in a bargain bin for $20 and are a Trek fan, by all means pick it up, but for a full priced $60 title, there is a lot left to be desired. As melty as I get over Chris Pine’s voice, it is not worth the price of admission.

     

     

  • The Enterprise Is Dwarfed In This New Star Trek Into Darkness Poster

    Photo courtesy collider.com
    Photo courtesy collider.com

    There have been so many posters for Star Trek Into Darkness that all I can really say now is that is one big damn ship. That would be the USS Vengeance or as it is otherwise known as, the USS Cumberbatch’s Fury.

    Star Trek Into Darkness releases on May 17th. Early IMAX screenings begin May 15th.

     

  • Star Trek Into Darkness Clip Takes Kirk Further Down The Rabbit Hole

    Photo courtesy digitalspy.com
    Photo courtesy digitalspy.com

    First things first, if you are any kind of lifelong Star Trek fan then I warn you that watching this clip will completely give away something huge if you pay very close attention.

    Still here?

    Paramount has released this clip from Star Trek Into Darkness titled “I Allow It” and it has a tense back and forth between Chirs Pine’s Kirk and Benedict Cumberbatch’s John Harrison. The two parry well off of each other with Kirk letting his emotions lead him while his nemesis is calm, cold and collected.

    Star Trek Into Darkness releases on May 17th, but if you attend the early IMAX screenings you will get a free poster.

    Also don’t forget that we are giving away some free Star Trek items!

    http://youtu.be/CkdaaLSEKWA

  • Star Trek Into Darkness IMAX Posters To Be Given Away

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    Artist Mark Englert has created this beautiful poster for Star Trek Into Darkness. The best part is that if you attend one of the 8PM IMAX showings on May 15th, you will be receiving one of these posters in your grubby little hands.

    Be sure and check to see if your local theater will be offering the posters here.

  • Wait…MORE Star Trek Into Darkness Posters? Yep.

    Damn Paramount. I think you have officially taken over the “king of the movie posters” from Harry Potter. At this rate by the time the movie releases we should have about 38 more one sheets. Karl Urban’s Bones is a big fan of Samuel L. Jackson in Deep Blue Sea apparently.

    Photo courtesy geektyrant.com
    Photo courtesy geektyrant.com

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  • New Star Trek Into Darkness Posters Make Up For Yesterday’s Mistake

    And by mistake, I meant that there was no Scotty or Chekov posters with the batch that came out yesterday. Simon Pegg is getting his best Carl Lewis going and Anton Yelchin looks like he just realized he is wearing a red shirt.

    Wait…why is Chekov wearing a red shirt? Is he going to bite it in the sequel? Damn. Cold blooded.

    Star Trek Into Darkness releases on May 17th.

    Photos courtesy collider.com
    Photos courtesy collider.com

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  • How Many New Star Trek Into Darkness Posters Are There? Seven…It’s Seven.

    All photos courtesy collider.com
    All photos courtesy collider.com

    Here is a new batch of character posters from the UK marketing of Star Trek Into Darkness. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Carol Marcus, Sulu and Benedict Cumberbatch’s mysterious John Harrison are all featured.

    Now if I could just ask one question? Where in the purple-blooded Klingon hell are Scotty and Chekov? I know Alice Eve is hot and all (by me pausing her “space undie” scene in the trailer can attest), but you are going to releases seven posters and not just go ahead and make it nine and add two of the main crew?

    It’s the tiny things.

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