By Rudie Obias | 7 years ago

Back in May, Star Trek Into Darkness was anticipated to be better than the first reboot film from J.J. Abrams. Many felt that this entry would be the “Empire Strikes Back” of the Star Trek reboot film series. Boy, were we wrong about this one. While Star Trek Into Darkness is a terrible movie, it’s pretty much the same thing we watched in 2009 with the first reboot movie as it recycled many of its elements, structure, and action. Star Trek Into Darkness also played heavily on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with its villain John Harrison, played by Benedict Cumberbatch (Is revealing his character name still considered a spoiler?).

The good people at Screen Junkies have released a new Honest Trailer skewering Star Trek Into Darkness as its centerpiece. Honestly, they got this one completely right. Star Trek Into Darkness is a mediocre Star Trek movie; it’s not the worst, but it’s clearly not the best either. It sits there in between the first Star Trek reboot from J.J. Abrams and the first Next Generation movie, Star Trek: Generations.

The Honest Trailer also points out one of the biggest criticisms of the sequel film, its handling of the Dr. Carol Marcus character (Alice Eve). Marcus was one of the most brilliant characters in the original Star Trek timeline, but Abrams and crew reduced her to eye candy for Captain Kirk and 14-year-old boys. If you remember the controversy surrounding the female characters, in Star Trek Into Darkness, you’ll see Screen Junkies has every right to point it out.

The Star Trek Into Darkness Honest Trailer is also a collaboration with the “How It Should Have Ended” people, and that makes you wonder what would be included in a “How It Should Have Ended” video for Into Darkness. Hopefully, they’re working on one.

Star Trek Into Darkness was one of the biggest disappointments of the summer. Maybe expectations were too high after J.J. Abrams delayed the film’s production because he wanted to get the sequel film right. Maybe we should’ve gone into Star Trek Into Darkness expecting nothing more than a thrilling action movie on the level of a Michael Bay Transformers movie. If that’s the case, then Star Trek Into Darkness succeeds.

The Blu-ray/DVD of Star Trek Into Darkness arrives on September 10, and perhaps cooler heads will prevail once we watch the film again at home, but that’s doubtful. There were just too many dumb moments in Star Trek Into Darkness to overlook, including “Temple Run: The Movie,” the U.S.S. Enterprise underwater, San Francisco’s destruction without consequences, Kirk dying and then coming back to life 10 minutes later, the Khan reveal, the villain wanting to get caught as part of his plan trope, and the appearance of super blood.