Embargos vs. international screenings…a publicist’s nightmare to be sure, but such is the age we live that even though we’re still weeks away from even glimpsing “Star Trek Into Darkness” stateside, it has premiered in Australia and the first reviews are out and they are mostly positive.
Whether or not J.J. Abrams keeps tweaking until the last moment remains to be seen, but as 3News notes, “the film was so new the credits hadn’t been properly completed.” But otherwise, they say the movie was finished and it goes into “darker territory here – a perfect blend of action, humanity and humour.” But Alice Eve gets one of the few knocks (along with Bones’ endless one liners) being described as “the blonde, blue-eyed equivalent of Chris Pine, but somehow less interesting.” Zing.
IGN says that the picture is “a hell of a lot of fun, maintaining such constant velocity that by the time you’ve half-formed a criticism in your head it’s swept away by the next plot-twist or action sequence” and it indicates truly “a franchise reborn.” She thought “it just risks – a tiny bit more this time – isolating the fan base that loved it so much in the first place.”
Less entralled was Graffiti With Punctuation who contextualizes the movie as the second in a trilogy for some reason. And as such: “This isn’t the franchise defining ‘middle’ picture that this reviewer was hoping it to be. It’s not the ‘Empire Strikes Back‘ of an Abrams trilogy; and consequently it didn’t quite hit the emotional crescendo of that kind of film.” However, he does concede, “It’s a rousing adventure and Abrams has laid the platform for a healthy and long lasting franchise.”
Lots more voices to come in the next few weeks, so until then, here’s a new clip extending a moment from the recent trailers and some character posters too.