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By Drew Dietsch | Published
How do you choose the worst Star Trek movie? There are so many criteria to judge. Do you choose the one you think is the most boring? What about the one with the silliest plot? Maybe you should choose the one Did that effectively kill the film franchise for over half a decade?
These are all valid scales for judging the worst Star Trek movie, but we have to look at this decision through a broader and deeper lens. There are plenty of superficial reasons to call a Star Trek movie the worst of the bunch. While some have been misunderstood, there are others who have earned a certain amount of disdain. Is Star Trek V: The Last Frontier A ridiculous vanity project with a climax that deserves ridicule? Probably. Is Star Trek: Nemesis a weak and unusual farewell to The next generation crew? Certainly.
But these reviews alone don’t earn them the title of worst Star Trek movie. To achieve such status would require a story that gets to the very heart of Star Trek’s optimism and hope. It would have to be aggressively stupid in the plot department, lazy and slightly sacrilegious in its conception, and secretly an affront to everything Star Trek is supposed to stand for.
That leaves only one option for worst Star Trek movie: Star Trek into darkness.
The surface of the worst Star Trek movie
There are a number of deeper reasons why Star Trek into darkness qualifies as the worst Star Trek film, but before we really open this film, let’s examine the film’s most direct problems and flaws.
The most immediate question is that Star Trek into darkness wants crib Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khanpossibly the fan favorite entry of the entire series. It’s not inherently bad for a film to remake or reconfigure elements of a previous popular entry, but the way in which Star Trek into darkness manage your The Wrath of Khan parts is embarrassing.
benedict cumberbatchThe performance is somehow grand and quiet at the same time, never reaching the melodramatic joys of Ricardo Montalbán’s iconic portrayal of the character. Most horrendous is a tone-deaf remix of the memorable “Khan!” Scream where Zachary Quinto delivers his riff on the spot and it’s just… *sigh*.
It should be noted that the cast of Star Trek into darkness They’re doing the best they can with a truly atrocious script. JJ Abrams struck gold when he picked up a reboot of his series in 2009, but a good cast can’t save a story full of bad character motivations, leaps in storytelling logic that don’t hold up if you think about them for a second, and an overall tone that is constantly at war with itself.
the title Star Trek into darkness it certainly evokes a feeling of “Oh, this Star Trek movie is going to be serious business!” That’s definitely what the movie wants you to believe, but its wild swings from grim-faced sadness to silly character parts collide so hard and break upon impact with each other. The film never finds its tonal rhythm.
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Part of that reason is because Star Trek into darkness It’s a disaster when it comes to filmmaking.
Chaos behind the camera
When JJ Abrams took over the film franchise with 2009 trip to the starsbrought a particular sense of manic action energy to the series. To be fair, the Next Generation The films had certainly set that tone, but their filmmaking styles had remained relatively entrenched. A big part of that was the fact that purely digital camerawork had not evolved to the point where it could depict believable landscapes and fluid camera movements.
However, that capability existed at the time of ’09. trip to the stars it rolled and Abrams made the most of it. Driven by this aesthetic and energetic choice, he turns it up to eleven in Star Trek into darkness and it’s unbearable. It’s an avalanche of noise and visual pandemonium that stops working as a narrative.
But that film choice wasn’t as irritating in the 2009 film because it felt in sync with that film’s swashbuckling tone. Star Trek into darknessThe decision to try to be grim while maintaining the visual language of a more exciting adventure story adds to this dissonance.
Still, all of these problems and others (poor handling of villains, poor characterization, problematic portrayals of female characters) pale in comparison to the element that actually makes Star Trek into darkness The worst Star Trek movie.
The insidiousness of Star Trek into darkness
When we talk about the worst Star Trek movie of all time, we have to consider more than just how that movie acts on its own terms. Star Trek into darkness It fails as a piece of sci-fi action cinema, but where it becomes downright repugnant is how it relates to Star Trek history as a vision and ideal.
Screenwriter Roberto Orci was able to use Star Trek into darkness as an allegorical vehicle for their own repulsive conspiracy theories about September 11 attacks. This may sound ridiculous, but the inclusion of a dedication at the end of the film to “post-9/11 veterans” changes the color of the entire film.
The details of this reading of the film are well documented elsewhere, so I’m not going to parrot all of those observations. Instead, I want to emphasize why this particular facet is what really makes Star Trek into darkness The worst Star Trek movie.
As a fictional concept, Star Trek is intended to represent the most optimistic possibilities for humans. Yes, there have been critical episodes throughout the franchise that have tested the integrity of Star Trek ideals, including the best episode of Deep space nine – but it always came from a place of sincerity and heart for the world Star Trek wanted to build.
Star Trek into darkness it removes that hope and replaces it with blatant cynicism. It vilifies Starfleet and the Federation by presenting them as an inherently corrupt organization headed by a leader who wants to instigate war at any cost. It rips out the heart of Star Trek and replaces it with something so rotten that it’s impossible to even watch the movie without feeling sick.
It’s not that the world of Star Trek can’t support darker, more self-deprecating stories. Deep space nine is my favorite Star Trek series, and a big reason for that is its willingness to live up to the ideals and practices of the Federation and Starfleet. But the creators behind Deep space nine He clearly has a deep and understanding love for Star Trek that the main creatives behind Star Trek into darkness don’t share. Instead, they exploited Star Trek in order to sell a misanthropic worldview that is ugly in and of itself, but becomes even uglier when channeled through the world of Star Trek.
And it is evident that these creative forces were what led to this horror. The sequel, Star Trek Beyondreplaced the director and writers, resulting in the best of the reboot films. And that film was even able to express some critical sentiments towards the Federation without having to resort to an insidious political agenda.
This is the big reason why Star Trek into darkness It has to be the worst Star Trek movie. The fictional and technical merits of all the other films can be debated, but none come close to actively depicting something so toxic at its core. If you love Star Trek, you’ll probably love its attitude toward humanity and its belief that we can work together for the greater good. If you love Star Trek, you love hope. Star Trek into darkness is a desperate, vengeful, immoral blight on the name of Star Trek.
If that doesn’t make it the worst Star Trek movie, I don’t know what does. I’ll take God needing a spaceship over this any day.
