Into Darkness

Okay, I can't keep my mouth shut anymore.  So if you have not seen this movie yet disregard this post!  It hurts me inside to spoil people. But I must discuss why this movie is so awesome!!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

So a little while ago I read this blog  and was blown away by the incredible writing that went into that story to craft such a beautiful theme.  Fast forward to the present and you get Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Now, despite being a writer myself, I've always struggled with recognizing theme, let alone describing it, let alone having any idea what themes are in my stories.  (I let them form on their own because otherwise I over focus on them and it kills the whole story).

Watching this movie however, I was completely glued to my seat the entire time with my jaw hanging open as I watched this amazingly written and acted story play out.  And it's the first time that the first time through watching a movie I was aware that someone did write it.  (I'm always "aware" but yeah, moving on).

I'm still in awe at how beautifully they touched on the themes in the Wrath of Khan, mirrored them, and then brought in something new.

So, the story opens when they're on a planet that starts with an n (give me another viewing and I'll have that memorized along with quotes that are already in my brain).  They're working to stop an active volcano from errupting and wiping out the planet.

However as do most things with that crew, things go wrong.  While lowering Spock into the volcano to set up his device that will freeze it, his line is cut and he falls in.  The shuttle has to leave because the engines are being fried by the heat.

To skip ahead a little they're trying to find ways to get Spock back on board before the device goes off and kills him, but Spock being Spock keeps reminding them that to do so would go against their prime directive of not being seen.

He's perfectly willing to let himself die to make sure that doesn't happen, and does his Vulcan thing and doesn't show any emotion that goes along with dying.

They end up saving him of course, but Uhura is, putting it bluntly, pissed.

But here they touch upon something quite beautiful.  I'll get to it in a minute.

Later on after the antagonist of the story blows up a building, then later attacks Starfleet headquarters and Pike dies in the conflict (sad).  Spock mind melds with Pike as he's dying and feels his emotions.  Kirk, being very much human, as soon as he sees Pike is gone, breaks down right away and cries.  He feels the emotions Spock as chosen not to.

Skipping ahead cause I won't say everything that happens in the movie.  They chase John Harrison to Kronos, the Klingon home world.  While they are flying through its atmosphere, Uhura and Spock have a discussion.  Uhura is hurt and upset that Spock had so willingly accepted death.  Accuses him of not feeling or caring what him being gone would've done to her.

Spock however, very sweetly reminds her that just because he choose not to feeling, does not mean that he didn't care.  He says that while Pike died he felt his emotions of anger, loneliness, confusion, emotions he had already felt multiplied greatly as he'd watched his home-world be destroyed.  Emotions he'd vowed never to feel again.  I think in a way, he's afraid of getting in touch with his human side.

Often times in the movie, now that I think of it, Kirk keeps telling Spock that he's trying to talk to the human half of him.  That he is half human and that means certain things come with that.  Emotions being one of them, and loyalty to friends above loyalty to the rules.

Anyhow, fast forward through many awesome moments (like discovering John Harrison is Khan), and so forth.  The enterprise is severely damaged by the new ship and is being pulled by Earth's gravity.  But they have no power and no way of stopping it.  Spock tries to order everyone to escape but they refuse and stay with him.

Down in engeneering Scotty, Kirk and Chekov are working to get power back on the ship.  That's when they discover the... name escapes me, but the thingies are out of alingment and there's no way to revive the ship.

Kirk however, knows there is a way.  Someone would have to go into the highly radiated core and realign the (dang it I almost had the word).  He knocks Scotty out so he can go in there himself and do it (cue much crying from me).

When Kirk's actions succeed and the ship is safely hovering in the atmosphere, someone on the bridge exclaims it's a miracle.  Spock however, says there's no such thing.  That's when Scotty tells him that he needs to get down to engineering and fast.

Right here, riiight here is where the beautiful really starts happening.

Spock gets up and sprints down the ship, and you can see on his face that he knows exactly what he's going to find, but desperately wants to be wrong.

Here, they beautifully, beautifully, beautifully mirror the scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock dies.  But instead obviously it's Kirk.  (And here comes me awkwardly trying to breathe without sobbing in the theater, cause that's embarrassing).

Kirk and Spock talk about how each of them did something the other would have done.  Spock crippled Khan's ship by setting off the torpedoes me made Khan think still had his crew inside, while Kirk sacrificed himself to save the ship.  Kirk then tells Spock that he's afraid.  He asks Spock how he does it?  How does he choose not to fear.

Spock is starting to cry.  He tells Kirk that in that moment he doesn't know how.  He can't remember how because he's feeling.  He's feeling the fear, the pain, the loss.  He's loosing his friend.  After Kirk dies, Spock lets out a huge bellow of rage.  (And I'm seriously a mess at this point).

But isn't it amazing??  The whole movie is a journey for Spock to come in touch with his human side.  To let go and feel.  He's no longer denying his emotions and this point and for the rest of the climax is acting based on his emotions rather than his logic.

Kirk doesn't actually stay dead (thank heavens) because of Khan's superblood and a cryotube.

I remember my mom telling me about a review before I went to see it, saying the movie had no character development and was trying to hard to please both old and new fans.

To that reviewer:  This movie has some of the best character development I have ever seen.  They meshed the old an the new in a way that I never saw coming and completely blew my mind.  They paid homage to an amazing movie and made it their own.

I am still blown away by how awesome that movie is.