By Drew Dietsch
| Printed 28 seconds in the past
How do you choose the worst Star Trek film? There are such a lot of standards to guage by. Do you go together with the one you’re feeling is probably the most boring? What concerning the one with the dumbest plot? Maybe it’s best to choose the one that successfully killed the movie franchise for over half a decade?
These are all legitimate scales to guage the worst Star Trek film by, however we’ve got to take a look at this choice by means of each a wider and deeper lens. There are many floor causes to name a Star Trek movie the worst of the bunch. Whereas some have been misunderstood, there are others which have earned some scorn. Is Star Trek V: The Ultimate Frontier a laughable self-importance venture with a climax that deserves ridicule? In all probability. Is Star Trek: Nemesis a weak and uncharacteristic sendoff for The Subsequent Era crew? Assuredly.
However these critiques alone don’t earn them the title of worst Star Trek film. To attain such standing would require a narrative that cuts on the very coronary heart of Star Trek’s optimism and hope. It must be aggressively silly within the plot division, lazy and barely sacrilegious in conception, and secretly an affront to every thing Star Trek is meant to face for.
That leaves just one selection for the worst Star Trek film: Star Trek Into Darkness.
The Floor of the Worst Star Trek Film
There are a selection of deeper the explanation why Star Trek Into Darkness qualifies because the worst Star Trek film, however earlier than we actually reduce this film open, let’s study the extra in-your-face issues and faults with the movie.
Essentially the most quick situation is that Star Trek Into Darkness desires to crib from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, arguably the fan-favorite entry in your entire collection. It’s not inherently unhealthy when a film remakes or reconfigures components of a earlier common entry, however the way in which Star Trek Into Darkness handles its The Wrath of Khan components is embarrassing.
Benedict Cumberbatch‘s efficiency is one way or the other each grandiose and muted in the identical breath, by no means reaching the melodramatic joys of Ricardo Montalban’s iconic tackle the character. Most horrendous is a tone-deaf remix of the memorable “Khan!” scream wherein Zachary Quinto delivers his riff on the second and it’s simply… *sigh*.
It ought to be famous that the forged of Star Trek Into Darkness are doing their greatest with a really heinous script. J.J. Abrams struck gold when he forged his collection reboot again in 2009, however a great forged can’t save a narrative full of poor motivations for characters, leaps in storytelling logic that don’t maintain up if you consider them for a second, and an general tone that’s always at conflict with itself.
The title Star Trek Into Darkness actually evokes a sense of, “Oh, this Star Trek film goes to be Critical Enterprise!” That’s undoubtedly what the movie desires you to consider, however its wild shifts from po-faced grimness to goofball character bits conflict so arduous and break upon affect with one another. The film by no means finds its tonal rhythm.
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Part of that motive is as a result of Star Trek Into Darkness is a multitude with regards to filmmaking.
Chaos Behind the Digital camera
When J.J. Abrams took over the characteristic movie franchise with 2009’s Star Trek, he interjected a selected sense of manic motion power into the collection. To be honest, the Subsequent Era movies had actually established that in tone however their filmmaking types had remained comparatively grounded. A giant a part of that was the truth that purely digital camerawork hadn’t developed to some extent the place it may render plausible landscapes and fluid digicam strikes.
Nonetheless, that capability existed by the point ’09 Star Trek rolled round, and Abrams used it to his full benefit. Empowered by this aesthetic and energetic selection, he ramps it as much as eleven in Star Trek Into Darkness and it’s insufferable. It’s an onslaught of noise and visible pandemonium that ceases to operate as storytelling.
However, that filmmaking selection wasn’t so grating within the ’09 film as a result of it felt in sync with that movie’s swashbuckling tone. Star Trek Into Darkness‘ choice to try to be bleak whereas sustaining the visible language of a extra thrilling journey story provides to this dissonance.
Nonetheless, all these points and others – poor villain dealing with, unhealthy characterization, problematic portrayals of ladies characters – all pale compared to the ingredient that actually makes Star Trek Into Darkness the worst Star Trek film.
The Insidiousness of Star Trek Into Darkness
Once we discuss concerning the worst Star Trek film of all time, we’ve got to contemplate extra than simply how that film acts by itself phrases. Star Trek Into Darkness fails as a bit of sci-fi motion cinema, however the place it turns into outright disgusting is in the way it pertains to the historical past of Star Trek as a imaginative and prescient and preferrred.
Screenwriter Roberto Orci was in a position to make use of Star Trek Into Darkness as an allegorical car for his personal repulsive conspiracy theories in regards to the 9/11 assaults. This would possibly sound ludicrous however the inclusion of a dedication on the finish of the movie to “post-9/11 veterans” recolors your entire film.
The specifics of this learn on the film are well-documented elsewhere, so I’m not going to parrot all these observations. As an alternative, I wish to emphasize why this explicit aspect is what really makes Star Trek Into Darkness the worst Star Trek film.
As a fictional idea, Star Trek is supposed to signify probably the most optimistic prospects for people. Sure, there have been crucial episodes all through the franchise which have examined the integrity of Star Trek’s beliefs – together with the very best episode of Deep House 9 – nevertheless it all the time got here from a spot of sincerity and coronary heart for the world Star Trek needed to construct.
Star Trek Into Darkness removes that hopefulness and replaces it with brazen cynicism. It vilifies Starfleet and the Federation by casting them as an intrinsically corrupt group headed by a frontrunner that desires to instigate conflict at any price. It rips out the guts of Star Trek and replaces it with one thing so rotted that it’s unimaginable to even have a look at the film with out feeling sick.
It’s not that the world of Star Trek can’t deal with self-critical and darker tales. Deep House 9 is my favourite Star Trek collection, and an enormous motive for that’s its willingness to carry a candle to the beliefs and practices of the Federation and Starfleet. However, the creators behind Deep House 9 clearly have a deep, understanding love of Star Trek that the primary creatives behind Star Trek Into Darkness don’t share. As an alternative, they exploited Star Trek so they might peddle a misanthropic worldview that’s ugly in its personal proper, however turns into even uglier when channeled by means of the world of Star Trek.
And it’s obvious that these artistic forces had been what led to this awfulness. The sequel, Star Trek Past, changed the director and writers, which resulted in the very best of the reboot films. And that film was even capable of lob some crucial emotions in direction of the Federation with out having to resort to an insidious political agenda.
That is the large motive why Star Trek Into Darkness must be the worst Star Trek film. You’ll be able to debate the fictional and technical deserves of all the opposite movies, however none come near actively representing one thing so poisonous at its core. For those who love Star Trek, you probably love its angle in direction of humanity and its perception that we will work collectively for the higher good. For those who love Star Trek, you like hope. Star Trek Into Darkness is a hopeless, vindictive, immoral blight on the title Star Trek.
If that doesn’t make it the worst Star Trek film, I don’t know what does. I’ll take God needing a starship over this any day.
