Review of Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) by Metacritic131 — 03 Jun 2013

I'll give STID a 5, but I may be being too generous at that...I don't disagree with most of the things that users here who gave 0-4 points had to say about this movie.

I am 52 years old. I am of the ilk who thought that the ORIGINAL Star Trek series was BY FAR one of the best things to ever hit the small screen, before or since. I came from an age when elementary school kids rushed home after school to watch Let's Make A Deal with Monty Hall and Dark Shadows in the afternoon. I absolutely couldn't miss Dark Shadows--and if I did for any reason, I was seriously bummed. People my age who did the same thing know exactly what I'm talking about....

Then in the early '70's, it was Star Trek reruns every afternoon after school. Couldn't miss them, either, and I was on my couch, fixated on that show with my grilled cheese sandwich, my glass of milk, and my cookies, (if there happened to be any in the house). If you are not from this generation, you probably won't be able to relate to some of my comments here. That's understandable. You had to be there....

IMO, this "incarnation" of the Star Trek franchise using all of the characters form the original series (in the 2009 movie and now, STID) is pretty much an abomination. The new guy who plays Spock is actually the only "redux" character that I buy into in the least. The rest of 'em fail to nail the look or essense of the characters that they are trying to portray--in a way that is atrocious. I so wish that Hollywood would have gone to much more stringent lengths to keep the integrity of the new cast intact--but instead, I must agree that most of the "new" cast members comprise nothing more than a totally cheeseball attempt to re-do the roles with new faces and personas that fall pitifully short of measuring up. Worse yet, as far as the "alternate timeline" is concerned regarding events that happen in the new movies, I categorically refuse to even acknowledge their validity, and I reject them as being a TOTAL LIE.

In the original series, Khan (who is a guy of LATIN descent, played by Ricardo Montalban) and his crew were cryogenically frozen in the 20th century, and a couple of centuries later, they are discovered drifting around in space on some fossil of a spaceship from the 1990's by the Enterprise. Khan and his crew of frozen stiffs are then thawed out by Kirk and the Enterprise crew. Then Khan--having some superhuman capabilities-- eventually tries to hijack the Enterprise and steal it away from Kirk. Kirk gains the upper hand against him at the end of the episode, and ends up stranding him and his little band of misfits on some desolate planet. THE END.....THAT is the story of Khan. The storyline was revived in the Star Trek movie "The Wrath Of Khan" back in the '80's, where it basically picked up where it left off in the original TV series. The story going forward at that point was executed quite nicely in that movie, using all of the original cast members (including Montalban as Khan). It was a pretty seamless continuation of the plotline, woven together in a way that made sense, and that had few, if any flaws.....

THIS Khan movie??......NOT SO MUCH.....

Who is this pale-looking character who's about 14 shades lighter than the original Khan, and who speaks with a British accent (for God's sake!), and who looks like he was plucked straight out of his role as the villian in a James Bond movie, and borrowed as a fill-in for this role--and NOT a convincing one as Khan, in any way, shape, or form?? I DO NOT recognize this guy as Khan. HE IS NOT KHAN--and I don't care how many movies they make with him as an impostor; HE IS SIMPLY NOT KHAN. CASE CLOSED!!!!

You can't do that Hollywood. You've tried, but it doesn't wash. Not to someone who knows better. The fashioning of this alternate "Khan" in your "alternate timeline" of events is an absolute SHAM, and a MOCKERY of the TRUE story of Khan. There is no "alternate timeline" of that story. You can sell millions of worth of movie tickets to newbies who weren't even born when the last Khan movie was made (let alone the original series), and of course, everyone understands that that's why you're trying to rewrite the story, but one thing that you CAN'T do is REWRITE THE STORY!!! NOT TO SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE REAL STORY!!! IT JUST DOESN'T WORK!!! STID IS A LIE, PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!

That said, I do not have enough room here to even begin to cite the many flaws and absurdities in this flick. Spock's unbelievable entry into the volcano was one such offense.