Star Trek Into Darkness gets another weirdly generic trailer.

Isn't Star Trek supposed to be about star trekking?  Ya know, exploring strange new worlds, seeking new life and new civilizations, and possibly going where no man has gone before?  This may look like a decent action thriller, but it also feels like a painfully generic adventure that happens to be painted in Star Trek paint.  Benadict Cumberbatch shows up, Cumberbatch commits several acts of terrorism, Kirk goes after Cumberbatch.  I sincerely hope there is more to the story than that and there may very well be.  But what we've seen so far suggests the film boldly going where any number of sequels have gone before.  And, if I may, why oh why couldn't Paramount wait until next weekend to debut this with G.I. Joe: Retaliation?  Anyway, Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 15th in IMAX 3D and May 17th elsewhere domestically.  As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson  

Star Trek Into Darkness gets an action-packed new trailer.

The only spoiler bit is at around 1:02, where Captain Pike has some facial scars that I don't recall him having at the end of the first Star Trek (he was of course seriously injured, but I don't recall scarring). Perhaps Pike gets those scars when Cumberbatch escapes from his glass prison at the halfway mark, because "He planned to get caught the whole time!". Otherwise, this is a quick (78 seconds) and breezy action-packed trailer.  It's nice that they aren't focusing as much on Benedict Cumberbatch's mystery villain (I have a theory on that, broached by a friend of mine and backed up by what we've seen thus far, but I'm not sharing in case I'm right) and also showing off that the film isn't all gloom and misery this time around. The initial trailers tried to sell the film as a generic 'dark sequel' or The Dark Knight meets Skyfall meets Revenge of the Sith.  This new trailer plays in the Return of the Jedi/Tron sandbox with phasers set for swashbuckling adventure. 

Star Trek Into Darkness gets a very generic 'sequel' trailer.

Oddly enough, I did not see this trailer with my Friday afternoon showing of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  Now that I've seen this trailer, what do I think?  Well, it looks pretty solid.  Yes it still feels like we're following the 'dark sequel' template, almost as if it's in a Mad Libs book.  Yes we get not one ponderous 'character arc in a monologue' speech but two ponderous 'character arc in a monologue' speeches.  I could say that once again the film is being marketed as "The Dark Knight but Star Trek-style", but I think that's almost too easy of a label.  But the film both looks pretty epic in scope *and* seems to involve quite a bit of, trekking across various stars.  They do seem to be teasing both references to Wrath of Khan and a major character death. 3.5 years ago, I pegged Chekov (Anton Yelchin) as the likely 'killed off halfway through character, and the fact that Yelchin's star hasn't exactly risen since only adds credence to said theory (that we see him in a red shirt when Pike is monologuing about Kirk's arrogance getting his friends killed doesn't help).  Anyway, this looks somewhat like generic sequel 101, but it still looks awfully entertaining.  As always, we'll see, in this case when Star Trek Into Darkness drops on May 17, 2013.  What are your thoughts on the above trailer?  Do share below...

Scott Mendelson

New Star Trek Into Darkness image evokes serious deja vu....

 Gee, I wonder if Benedict Cumberbatch intentionally allows himself to get captured in the second act as part of a devious multi-pronged plan to escape and cause havoc in the very lair of his enemies?  Will said post-capture/pre-escape sequence also allow Cumberbatch to monologue about how he and Kirk and/or Spock really aren't that different, that their apparent control is merely an illusion, and Kirk and Spock are foolish for supporting governmental institutions that will discard them once they outlive their usefulness? We'll see soon enough, but don't bet against it!

Scott Mendelson

Star Trek Into Darkness gets a very 'Dark Knight' teaser...

I don't know if this qualifies as a teaser for a trailer, but since this seems to be a complete piece in-and-of itself, I'll let it slide.  Obviously the scope looks huge, but jeez how badly do J.J. Abrams and company want to market this as The Dark Knight of Star Trek films?  From the 'I'm going to shake you out of your comfort zone!' monologue from the lone bringer-of-chaos villain to the Inception/Dark Knight trailer music, it's humorously clear what the marketing template is.  Of course, if the film turns out to just be 'making a Nolan Batman film, but with Star Trek', that may be an issue (Star Trek generally hasn't faired well when going 'dark/gritty'), but for now let's presume that it's just Paramount marketing.  Of note is the second Japanese teaser, which includes an additional final shot that A) may be very very spoilery and B) ends the teaser on a more potent musical note.  Watch at your own risk, although I can't imagine a film as top-secret as this one (we still don't know who Cumberbatch is playing) would tease something that major in the first piece of marketing.  Anyway, the full teaser-trailer will be attached to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on December 14th and Paramount is keeping it offline until December 17th, which would be cooler of them if they hadn't just released this online-only teaser.  And of course the 9-minute IMAX tease will be attached to IMAX prints of The Hobbit.  Star Trek Into Darkness (still an awful title, natch) opens May 17th, 2013.  As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson

Star Trek Into Darkness gets a very 'Chris Nolan' poster.

When I wrote 3.5 years ago that Paramount hoped that the inevitable Star Trek 2 would "pull a Dark Knight", I didn't realize how literal I was apparently being.  Coupled with the teaser trailer attached to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Beginning and a 9-minute IMAX sneak peak attached to IMAX prints of same, this first teaser poster shows Paramount is copying the Chris Nolan Dark Knight playbook to a tee.  Snickering about obvious similarities aside, this is a very stylish and impressive poster.  It's the first official glimpse at Benedict Cumberbatch as 'He who has not yet been named', with implications that he does score a big win at some point in the picture.  So yes, it's a poster in the vein of the last three Chris Nolan films.  But  that doesn't mean it's not a very effective piece of marketing and/or art.

Scott Mendelson