One more international trailer for 'Star Trek Into Darkness' manages to still keep secrets

Can Paramount make it to release without spoilers being leaked?

<p>Between takes on the set of 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' Chris Pine likes to entertain the cast and crew with his impression of Cesar Romero as The Joker</p>

Between takes on the set of 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' Chris Pine likes to entertain the cast and crew with his impression of Cesar Romero as The Joker

Credit: Paramount Pictures

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It's amazing to me that we've got a new "Star Trek" movie hitting theaters in May and we still know very little about it. Amazing and, I must say, highly enjoyable.

At this point, I've decided that even in my review, I'm not going to spell out the details of who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing in the film. At this point, if Paramount and Bad Robot have successfully kept the true nature of "John Harrison" a secret, then more power to them. I think it's an interesting coincidence that they're using Robert April so prominently in the "Countdown To Darkness" comic series that IDW is publishing, since I was the one person to point the finger at April as the possible identity of Cumberbatch in the film, but I suspect even that is part of the misdirect.

What I do know for sure is that this is a seriously confident marketing push so far. This new international trailer has some great imagery, and I like that we're still not seeing a polished and practiced crew onboard the Enterprise. I don't mind seeing this new configuration of the classic characters go through some difficult learning experiences on their way to becoming the iconic characters of the original series. I hope they hold off on assigning them on their five-year mission until they've been well and truly tested as a team. After all, you'd send your best and brightest out there to make first contact with a wild and untamed universe, wouldn't you? And right now, these characters are still learning how to be a united crew.

One of the most interesting things happening in the comic prequel issues right now is the way they've got Spock struggling to get control of his emotional side. He's taking some major chances with his life, and Uhura seems to think it's his way of not dealing with his feelings about being one of the few survivors of Vulcan. I like that in this timeline, Spock has been left orphaned in a way that he never was on the original series. It changes who he is, unbalances that human/Vulcan equilibrium, and it makes him a very different person overall. It looks like that's not something that they intend to gloss over quickly or forget, either.

We are so close to the release of this film that I hope they don't cut any more trailers or reveal anything else about the film. Hell, we're two months away and we've just now seen the first few shots of Peter Weller in the movie, so it really does feel like they've managed to keep the film locked down, and in May, we should all have a kick seeing what it is they've put together for us.

You can "Star Trek Into Darkness" on May 16, 2013.

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Drew McWeeny
Film Editor
A respected critic and commentator for fifteen years, Drew McWeeny helped create the online film community as "Moriarty" at Ain't It Cool News, and now proudly leads two budding Film Nerds in their ongoing movie education.

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  • Summer09hitfix_talkback_profile

    gregel

    Yep, that's the Enterprise taking out Century City. JJ really has something against CAA. :)

    March 21, 2013 at 3:46AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Sayanas As Patrick said its commendable that one can earn about $6500 in 1 month by influencing website
      articles on Home Profit...did you read the page AT cutt.us/Career

      March 24, 2013 at 11:55AM EST
  • 3_talkback_profile

    Intellectual Ninja

    Greg & Drew... I still can't believe JJ et al have the balls to destroy the (in this timeline) 6-month-old Enterprise.

    That's a BIG THING. And the last time it happened, it was to serve a BIG purpose, saving Spock, "... turn death into a fighting chance to live."

    I like that they're seriously messing with the characters we've known, thrown them into situations we've never seen, or have seen, but throwing them into those situations when they're much younger and less experienced in how to handle them the right way.

    However... destroying the Enterprise this early on is pretty frakking huge.

    But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, in a world in which Tony Stark gets new Iron Man suits every film (sometimes 2 or 3 new ones in one film), that the Enterprise is a disposable object in need of semi-constant updating to satisfy the ADHD-addled needs of today's society that demands a new iPhone every year. ;-)

    I just hope the redesign is awesome and does away with the brewery-as-Engine Room.

    March 21, 2013 at 11:21AM EST Reply to Comment
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      DefRef Is it the Enterprise or just a Constellation-class starship? I can't see if it's got NCC-1701 on it.

      March 21, 2013 at 12:19PM EST
    • 3_talkback_profile

      Intellectual Ninja In the last US trailer, there is a shot where it specifically shows the ship going down is NCC-1701.

      Besides, in this timeline, because of the incursion of Nemo's gigantic Romulan ship, the Constellation Starship program was put on ice for 20 extra years to make the ships bigger(crew size moving from 300 to 1000, ship size from 300m to about 900m) and more technologically advanced to be able to handle that kind of threat.

      Think about it this way: the Enterprise we saw 4 years ago was as big as the Galaxy-class Enterprise D and as technologically-advanced as the Enterprise-A from The Undiscovered Country.

      Nemo's incursion into the timeline forced Starfleet R&D into overdrive.

      March 21, 2013 at 12:39PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Paul S Your reference to Iron Man was interesting...the Cumberbatch monologue reminded me of the Kingsley / Mandarin monologue from the recent Iron Man 3 trailer.

      March 21, 2013 at 2:09PM EST
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    mdk

    So the suits now believe "space doesn't sell anymore" so their instructions to Jar-Jar Abrams was to set most of the sequel on Earth, which he was happy to do. This trailer looks like a Die Hard sequell with ray guns... hell, even the ray guns don't look like ray guns anymore and no one wears the Starfleet uniforms they spent so much time updating. I guess they'll have to change the slogan to "Boldly Stay (On Earth)".

    March 21, 2013 at 2:29PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Jeff_avatar_2_talkback_profile

      Mulderism I was officially out after the last trailer.

      March 21, 2013 at 8:52PM EST
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    Jeff Mclachlan

    I'm not sure I'm crazy about the idea of all the characters not coming together as a crew until the end of the third movie when everyone's contracts are up and the franchise goes back on the shelf for six or seven years until they can figure out a way to reboot it again.

    Franchises these days sure do spend a lot of time showing familiar heroes becoming the icons we're familiar with, but not a lot of time showing them as we actually want to see them. I think I blame Robert McKee---a lot of these movies really seem to suffer from screenplay-itis, which is what I call an over-reliance on the "rules" of three-act script-writing that supposedly give an audience all the arcs and themes and rising-and-falling action that they're supposed to want, but to me mostly just present an exhausting parade of characters who need to learn humility, or the value of family, or that no man is an island. I'm really starting to feel like a lot of these movies are written with final draft open in one window and McKee's STORY open in the other.

    I mean Kirk's girlfriend has a father who's an admiral and who disapproves of him? Either Star Trek is in the business of ripping off year-old board game adaptations now, or there's going to be some real hackneyed beats in this thing.

    March 21, 2013 at 3:06PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Mark "...or there's going to be some real hackneyed beats in this thing."

      Seeing as it's written by Kurtzman, Orci and Lindelof i'd say that's a given. The appalling dialogue in the trailer is another giveaway.

      March 21, 2013 at 5:23PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Mark "...or there's going to be some real hackneyed beats in this thing."

      Seeing as it's written by Kurtzman, Orci and Lindelof i'd say that's a given. The appalling dialogue in the trailer is another giveaway.

      March 21, 2013 at 5:23PM EST
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    Drake

    How great would it be if Benedict Cumberbatch IS playing an entirely original character that has nothing to do with pre-existing Trek lore?

    March 21, 2013 at 5:52PM EST Reply to Comment

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