Out of Darkness

I'd like to formally extend my personal thanks to Abrams and co. They clearly read my critique of 2009's Star Trek: The Star Trek and went out of their way to make Into Darkness a movie I could happily watch. As I wrote way back when, the single biggest problem with their 2009 attempt is that it pretty thoroughly shat on Gene Roddenberry's ideals. This new movie goes the complete opposite direction, thoroughly embracing Gene's Dream, and I can only assume they made this change purely for my benefit. So, thanks.

Of course, I've still got a fine selection of technical quibbles, but this time round I'm happy to enjoy dissecting them as amusing gaffs, rather than feeling they represent a general pattern of intentional disregard for what came before.

I had an extra great time because I went to see it along with a large gathering of the crew of the USS Dauntless, with about half of us in uniform. I'll post a couple photos once I've had a chance to filter out the best ones (free sample included below).

Our mighty commanding officer had put out a press release, which a couple smaller outlets took note of, and we spent a good 30 minutes or so before the movie parading up and down for a camera crew (for some documentary? Nobody really explained it to me). And we may even have had a little recruiting success (results still pending).

Also, this happens to have been only the second 3D movie I've seen, and the first since early 2009, when I saw Coraline in that medium. I'm still not sold on it, but it was ok.