'Star Trek' taps 'Into' its 'Darkness' for trailer
Posted Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 11:30 AM Central
Last updated Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 11:34 AM Central
by John Couture
If the recently released poster for Star Trek Into Darkness was just so-so, they more than made up for it with today's teaser trailer debut. Or should I say debuts.
That's right, debuts as in multiple trailers. Now, before you get all spastic with geek-tastic joy, it's really just one trailer and one with a few extra seconds of footage, but wow, what a difference a few seconds can make.
The trailer(s) debuted on iTunes Trailers and the biggest takeaway for me was the shift in tone from the first film. A few other sites have noticed it as well with many of them making comparisons to the tonal shift in The Empire Strikes Back.
While I won't go quite that far, I can see where they are coming from and why they are making the comparison. Given the outright disdain for each other among the respective fan bases, I will simply say that from this trailer Star Trek Into Darkness looks about as far removed from what we expect a Star Trek to look like short of calling it Episode VII.
It's dark. It's grim. And it's full of action. I'm sure there will be plenty of witty banter between the crew on the bridge of the Enterprise, but that was excised from this teaser. No, this trailer served a singular purpose: to prove that Star Trek can, indeed, kick ass.
What is more interesting though is the speculation over just who the ultimate baddie will be in Star Trek Into Darkness. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, the overriding speculation is that he will be playing THE bad guy Khan, but the filmmakers are staying surprisingly mum on the matter.
The additional footage from the Japanese teaser trailer seems to hint at one of the most iconic scenes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. No, not the "Khaaaaaaaan!" scene, that would be a bit too much on the nose, wouldn't it now?
No, the scene in question is Spock's death scene. Although to be fair, I have no idea why I'm using our spoiler mechanism on a scene from a 30 year old movie (side note, I'm really old), other than it might foreshadow a possible spoiler in Star Trek Into Darkness.
Here's the Japanese trailer where the extra footage is tacked on at the end before the credit titles pop up.
Tell us what you think of the trailers. Is Spock going to die? Again? Will he come back to life? Again?.
PS: Yes, I know that the spoiler is totally ruined in the clip from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but I love our spoiler mechanism, so I'm keeping it in the story.