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Paramount<\/p>\n
There are quite a few “Star Trek”\u00a0fans who have a serious bone to pick with writer, producer, and director\u00a0J.J. Abrams, myself among them. After delivering the 2009 “Star\u00a0Trek” reboot \u2014 which created the Kelvin timeline and deviated from the canon set by the original series, but was surprisingly entertaining \u2014 he had earned a bit of goodwill. Unfortunately, that goodwill was phasered out of existence with the sequel, 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the first Abrams “Star Trek” had a few issues, they could mostly be ignored because it was a pretty darn fun adventure with some truly brilliant casting<\/a>. It was a little more bombastic and action-packed than most of “Star Trek,” drawing heavily from Abrams’s other true love, “Star Wars,” but it mostly worked. So when hardcore “Trek”\u00a0fans and new fans alike sat down for\u00a0“Into Darkness,”\u00a0they hoped for more… and instead got a confusing, muddled retread of “Star Trek II: The\u00a0Wrath of\u00a0Khan.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The film’s marketing had tried to be sly about the fact that “Sherlock” star Benedict Cumberbatch was playing the famed “Trek” villain but any Trekkie could tell that was the plan, and it was made all the more frustrating by “Into Darkness” doing nothing new and missing the point of “Star Trek”\u00a0by lightyears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Star Trek Into Darkness is a rebooted Wrath of Khan… and that’s a bad thing<\/p>\n
Paramount<\/p>\n About halfway through “Star Trek\u00a0Into Darkness,” we learn that the rogue Starfleet baddie going by the name of\u00a0Commander John Harrison is actually Khan Noonien Singh, the single most important villain in the entire “Star Trek” franchise<\/a>. While there are plenty of smaller beefs to be had with “Into Darkness,” including killing off Admiral Pike<\/a> (Bruce\u00a0Greenwood) in a way that also totally misunderstands his role in “Trek”\u00a0lore, completely and utterly blowing it with Khan is a far greater sin. First they whitewashed the character by casting Cumberbatch when the original was played by\u00a0Mexican acting idol\u00a0Ricardo Montalb\u00e1n. Then they made him purely revenge driven, without much nuance.<\/p>\n In “Star Trek II: The Wrath of\u00a0Khan,” Khan absolutely is looking for revenge and destruction, but he also wants to create new life in the aftermath with the Genesis device. He’s a tyrant and a murderer, but a complex one whose rise to power the audience can understand. The Khan of “Into Darkness,” on the other hand, is pure villainy, and it makes for a much weaker story. When you add in Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy) death at the end of\u00a0“The Wrath of Khan” being switched out for Kirk’s (Chris Pine) death in “Into Darkness” \u2014 leading to Spock (Zachary Quinto) screaming the infamous\u00a0“Khaaaaaannnnn!!!!” \u2014 it feels less like an homage to “The Wrath of Khan”\u00a0and more like a poorly assembled remix made from lesser parts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Into Darkness is all lens flare and no substance<\/p>\n
Paramount<\/p>\n While some mainstream movie fans might have been alright with “Into Darkness,”\u00a0it definitely rubbed Trekkies the wrong way, and even frustrated “The Wrath of\u00a0Khan” director\u00a0Nicholas Meyer<\/a>. He was critical not only of switching around Spock and Kirk’s deaths and cribbing some lines directly, but of the movie’s ultimate undo button that allows for the dead to be resurrected. He pointed out that killing someone only to bring them back in the next scene removes any emotional weight, and he’s right. While Spock’s death in “The Wrath of\u00a0Khan”\u00a0led to an entire movie about bringing him back with “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,” in “Into Darkness”\u00a0Kirk’s death is undone before the credits even roll.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n ![\"Benedict](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/star-trek-into-darkness-is-a-rebooted-wrath-of-khan-and-thats-a-bad-thing-1762640964.jpg\")
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\n ![\"Zachary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/into-darkness-is-all-lens-flare-and-no-substance-1762640965.jpg\")
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