132 minutes. PG-13.
You think you’re safe. You are not. Is there anything you would not do for your family?
Star Trek: Into Darkness opens almost like an old original series episode: First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto) nobly indulges his death wish, Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) does daring things that mess up developing societies, and Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) gets dragged along, panicking all the way. As usual, things go south, but this time, Kirk pays for his egotism with his command. When a frighteningly effective new threat emerges, the crew of the Enterprise must come together again and face it together–as Kirk learns the true meaning of leadership.
As a fan of the original series, I came away from the latest installation of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek series reboot with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the stylistic elements that I liked in the first film were present here again. While I do miss the ultra low-budget charm of the original Star Trek TV series, Abrams realizes a vision of the future that compromises between camp and conviction. This cleaner, more artistic Trek universe fits much better with the show’s entire concept, and I can’t but imagine that creator Gene Roddenberry would have been thrilled.
But while the look was very nice, I felt that this installment was both less innovative and more fannish than the last. One of the things that I enjoyed the most about the reboot was that it used the existing rules of the Trek universe to invent something new. Into Darkness is less of a continuation of the alternative history established by the reboot than it is a collection of shoutouts directly to the original show and film spinoffs. From the radiation room scene between Kirk and Spock to a posse of random Klingons, Into Darkness struck me as bloated with fan candy. Not that I mind a few shout-outs, mind you, but when I start to lose the plot forest for the fandom trees, I begin to wonder if I’m perhaps being made fun of (or milked.)
My other problem with Into Darkness is the villain.
The part of Khan Noonien Singh, an ethnic south Asian Sikh, was played by Benedict Cumberbatch, the same thin, light-eyed white British fellow who played Sherlock on the BBC TV series. It might seem like a little point, but this casting decision took me out of the story every time I laid eyes on Khan. After all, it isn’t 1967 anymore. Not only is whitewashing no longer necessary (to the extent that it ever was,) it’s definitely no longer appropriate or excusable. Assuming there was not a single actor of south Asian descent in Hollywood willing to take on this complex and interesting part, was no south Asian actor in all of the Earth at all interested in the role?
While I won’t go any more deeply into this (IMHO) unfortunate casting decision, I am very curious as to why it isn’t getting more attention. When Idris Elba was cast in the part of Heimdall for Thor, all fandom broke loose, even though Heimdall’s ethnicity had never been addressed in the canon. (And BTW, Nick Fury, Spider-Man, Punisher. Where is your aneurism now, Elba haters?) Khan bears a distinctively Indian name and originally drew a great deal of his identity from his past as the absolute ruler of “Asia through the Middle East.” As Abrams shoehorned tribbles and Nurse Chapel into this fan-panderer, did he feel any discomfort at the fact that the one break he made with tradition was to visually Anglicize an explicitly Asian role?
The comparison with the original Khan also did Cumberbatch no favors. Played by Ricardo Montalban of Fantasy Island fame, Original Khan was one of Trek’s best threats. In addition to his frightening strength and military prowess, Original Khan was charismatic, smart and well-spoken. Convincingly sourced outside of the universe for which the crew of the Enterprise had trained, and fresh off his spot at the top of the heap of the most savage war in human history, it made sense that Khan was always a tick ahead of the good guys. Montalban, of course, absolutely cleaned up the entire performance. He aided the other actors so well that he effectively lifted all boats. “Space Seed” remains one of the best Trek episodes of any iteration and I strongly encourage everyone who sees Into Darkness to see “Space Seed” too. It’s easy to giggle at the hastily glue-gunned tee shirts and plastic phasers, but we do not giggle at Khan. The character remained that intense years later, when Wrath of Khan (again featuring the inimitable Montalban) saved the franchise.
So there it is: I was disappointed. But you may not be. This was a stylish movie and it was a nice pulse-pounder and the shout-outs were kind of cute sometimes. As far as movies go in general, this was definitely better than other sci-fi I’ve seen recently.
But it’s also Star Trek. And for Star Trek, I had hoped it would be stronger.
