Today's Hot Trailer: Star Trek Heads Into Darkness With New(?) Characters
Posted 12.18.12 by Ryan
"You think you're safe? You are not."
A lot has changed since the first "announcement" teaser trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness. For instance, we now know that Alice Eve's (She's Out of My League) mystery character is, in fact, Dr. Carol Marcus, a love interest of Captain Kirk (Chris Pine). The character first appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which did little to quell the rumors that Benedict Cumberbatch's (BBC's Sherlock, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) villain character was indeed Khan. Then again, those rumors refuse to die even after Cumberbatch revealed that he is playing John Harrison, a "one-man terrorist, who does despicable things for a noble cause," whatever that means. Also, nine minutes of the movie were revealed during select IMAX screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey over the weekend.
So, with all that information, how much do we know now that a second trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness has been released? The answer is (still) not very much.
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What we do know is that director J.J. Abrams has said that Cumberbatch's Harrison is a "frightening and cool villain," but why exactly is looking to seek "vengeance"? And why is Eve only shown screaming in terror in the trailer? So many questions, and the latest trailer doesn't answer any of them. Even more frustrating, the trailer will only make you want to get those answers even more.
As for whether Cumberbatch's character of John Harrison is indeed a Star Trek canon villain, perhaps pulling a "Robin" move a la The Dark Knight Rises, co-screenwriter Alex Kurtzman would only tell Trek Web that the character would "honor the history" of Star Trek.
Well without revealing too much what I can tell you is that in the same spirit as "can the Enterprise be under water? What does that mean? How are we going to justify this? How are we going to explain it?" We went back and we talked a lot about things that made us want to make the first movie in the first place as fans. And what do we feel was successful for the fans. A lot of that had to do with honoring the history — honoring the show. But we also want to come up with a way to make the stories feel fresh and unpredictable. So without revealing too much, we applied the same thinking to Harrison.
As for whether Kirk will get much time for romance with Dr. Marcus, Pine was as evasive and vague as Kurtzman when responding to MTV, saying he'd rather "leave it to the people who watch to see how far it goes."
What I will say about the film is that so much happens, with the action, the plot, the current of it is so fast, there’s really not much time for Kirk to do anything other than save the crew and save his own ass, because danger is imminent, and all that. But clearly, Kirk being Kirk, Kirk loves a blonde, and Alice is a beautiful woman, so the flirting and the connection is there. I’ll leave it to the people who watch to see how far it goes. But what she adds to it…her scientific knowledge and her education, scientifically speaking, plays a big part in helping solve the crisis.
Star Trek Into Darkness was written by Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who also wrote the 2009 reboot, as well as Damon Lindelof (Prometheus). Whoever "John Harrison" is, it looks like Kirk, Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban) and the rest of Enterprise crew are in trouble, but we'll find out for sure next year.
Next Showing: Star Trek Into Darkness opens on May 17, 2013