Star Trek Into Darkness and the problems with the Abramsverse

SPOILERS AHEAD

The whole goddamn internet is inevitably going to be filled up with debates, arguments, and all-out flame wars as Team Abrams and Team Not Abrams butt heats over Star Trek Into Darkness. It has its faults (this is, after all, Abrams/Lindelof/Kurtzman/Orci we're talking about), and it's also laudable for being a fun, well-paced, action-packed sci-fi adventure.

This is going to be an argument critical of Into Darkness. At least, into terms of story and the Roddenverse/Abramsverse Star Treks. I'll preface with a few things: As a twisting, plot-spinning action film, ID was a good film. Non-stop action, compelling villains, and no random Tyler Perry cameos. Second preface: I'm a huge Trekkie whose first-ever exposure to Stark Trek was watching Wrath of Khan with my father when I was about eight. I've been to conventions, can cite random pointless facts (the Vulcan equivalent of teddy bears are basically gigantic live spiders, for example), and am able to curse in Klingon.

In other words, I'm slightly biased.

My approach to movies is two-fold: what it is, and what it can be. The final product versus the potential. ID is an Abrams product: flashy story-telling that ultimately lacks substance. ID's potential was that of "The City on the Edge of Forever," "The Best of Both Worlds," or "In The Pale Moonlight." (I know, very high standards, but nonetheless achievable). That's the story potential of Star Trek, to be (very overly) blunt. Instead, we wound up with a quasi adaptation of Space Seed/Wrath of Khan. Which is fine, I suppose. Khan's a cool character, and seeing Benedict Cumberbatch reimagine him is worth the price of admission. But it's not very creative to a Trekkie like me. Abrams has a whole canon-free universe to operate in, and yet all he does is rehash a couple of elements from Space Seed and WoK.

At least Abrams-universe Klingons have cool body armor, I guess?

Khan Noonien Singh was undoubtedly the best TOS villain. He had a clear backstory and fantastic arc culminating in WoK. The Abramsverse, in my opinion, doesn't need its own Khan. Nor does it need its own Locutus of Borg or Gul Dukat. The only reimagination is that of Montalban's regal, power-hungry Khan being replaced with a brooding and predictably double-crossing Khan. Cumberkhan was also more of the recently popular trope of"cerebral big bad who's always two steps ahead of the protagonist until the third act," which isn't really keeping with Montalkhan's gladiatorial bravado. A few trains of thought: Cumberkhan is a reimagination of the character, and Cumberkhan is Khan in name only. Both of these seem to lead me to one conclusion: why have Khan at all? Montalkhan is a very compelling character in its own. Why adapt that character for the Abramsverse? Sure, the concept of genetically engineering human beings is rife with rich, philosophical quandaries, so that element of Khan's makeup is (multi)universal, but genetic engineering shouldn't necessitate a Roddenverse-specific character to make the (quantum) leap into the Abramsverse. The villain from Abrams' first Star Trek was (initially) interesting because we had no idea who Nero was or why he was fucking shit up. (Turns out he was fairly one-dimensional, sadly).

This is what irks me, that Abrams thinks he's doing a fan service by tying in Roddenverse characters, but all he ends up doing is forcing poor Zachary Quinto to be the unfortunate soul who screams "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" because that line also, for some reason, needed to cross over from the Roddenverse to the Abramsverse. The plot also mimics some of WoK: specifically when [Kirk/Spock] needs to fix the technobable by technobabling in the radiation-filled chamber, knocks out McCoy, and shares a heart-felt deathbye with [Kirk/Spock]. That just strikes me as lazy writing: lifting a powerful, emotional moment that was heart-breaking in WoK and flipping characters' places (and come on, we all knew Kirk wasn't going to be dead for good). And all those cheap feels because Abrams' Cumberkhan is running around.

Remember when Scotty straight resigned in protest due to those special torpedoes? Or how Kirk came about to realizing due process outweighed vengeance? (Both of which TOTALLY aren't analogous for drone warfare, obviously) I wanted more of that from Abrams, because it showed me he and his writing team are capable of grasping relevant moral and philosophical elements of today's complicated world rather than rewriting other people's stories that don't need retelling.