JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movies were arguably an audition for his Star Wars movies, but the middle films in both modern triologies faced a considerable fan backlash, though one was more deserving than the other. Abrams didn’t direct Star Wars: The Last Jedibut he was key to revitalizing the Lucasfilm franchise for the Walt Disney Corporation. Rian Johnson has said that he pitched The Last Jedi story to Abrams, who gave him notes before allowing Johnson the creative freedom to tell the story he wanted to tell. A story that would prove controversial for Star Wars fans, The Last Jedi subverted the franchise’s mythology, leading to Abrams returning to direct Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Star Trek Into Darkness, the second of Abrams’ Star Trek movies received a similar backlash from trek fans upon its release in 2013. As with his first Star Wars movie, Abrams’ 2009 reboot of Star Trek: The Original Series was well-received by audiences and secured a sequel. However, where the 2009 Star Trek movie left Abrams’ Kelvin timeline with a relatively blank slate, the 2013 sequel was a remake of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khanone of the greatest Star Trek films ever, which led to considerable controversy.
Star Trek Into Darkness’ Backlash Explained
While there were certainly problems with JJ Abrams’ first Star Trek movie, it was easy to see why the movie still worked. It had been seven years since Star Trek: Nemesis killed any future movie plans, so rebooting legendary trek characters like Kirk and Spock with younger actors turned out to be a smart move that garnered a wider audience for the franchise. Nero’s (Eric Bana) meddling with Star Trek Continuity was an original story that was designed to hand the Starship Enterprise to a new cast of young actors playing familiar characters, with Leonard Nimoy returning as the classic Spock to give it legitimacy.
But rather than seek out the new stories the Kelvin timeline allowed for, Star Trek Into Darkness instead remade Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Khan’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) appearance in Star Trek Into Darkness didn’t have the desired effect on fans, however. It’s easy to see why fans took against Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Khan Noonien Singh. First, there’s a problematic whitewashing of the character due to casting the British Cumberbatch as Khan. colder and less charismatic than the scenery-chewing tyrant who had been immortalized by Ricardo Montalban.
Another issue for fans was that Spock’s (Zachary Quinto) heroic Wrath of Khan death was flipped so that Kirk (Chris Pine) sacrificed himself instead. Where Spock was eventually rescued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Kirk’s death in Into Darkness was very quickly reversed before the movie ended, which made it a cheap reference lacking weight. The portrayal of Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) also fed into the backlash against Abrams’ divisive trek sequel.
How Into Darkness Mirrors Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Fittingly, the problems with Star Trek Into Darkness’ Attempts at fan service are more similar to how JJ Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker attempted to “fix” the perceived issues created by Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi. However, there are still comparisons to be made between Into Darkness and The Last Jedi, most notably in how both movies were deemed to have failed to capture the spirit of their respective franchises. The Starfleet of Into Darkness is a more militaristic organization, which is clearly lacking the hopeful and utopian ideals of Gene Roddenberry’s original vision.
While there’s an interesting story in how the Kelvin Timeline has created a more technologically Starfleet to be militarized, Into Darkness doesn’t tell it. Chris Pine’s Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s Spock are trying to unmask a Starfleet conspiracy, but it’s essentially a mission to avenge the death of Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) rather than a heroic mission to restore Starfleet to its core ideals. It’s a harsher and less optimistic take on the Star Trek universe that left many fans cold.
Similarly, The Last Jedi depicted a radically changed Luke Skywalker, who, in tossing his lightsaber off a cliff, had seemingly rejected the very Jedi teachings he’d spent the original trilogy learning. This was seen by fans as an insult to the mythology of the Star Wars universe, rather than a fascinating character beat that shed light on how the galaxy had fallen back into dark times following the defeat of the Empire. The idea that the Jedi Order was damaging, rather than protecting the galaxy, was seen as a fundamental rejection of everything that George Lucas had created.
Luke Skywalker rejecting his Jedi training was as sacrilegious to Star Wars fans as an evil Starfleet Admiral inspiring with Khan Noonien Singh to start a war with the Klingon Empire was to Star Trek fans. However, there’s a fundamental difference between Into Darkness‘ dull retread of a far superior movie, and The Last Jedi‘s recalibrating of the Star Wars universe. Most notably in the fact that Rian Johnson was at least trying to tell a new story.
The Last Jedi Did One Thing Different From Star Trek Into Darkness
Arguably, The Last Jedi isn’t a rejection of Star Wars‘ core values as fans think it is. While Luke Skywalker’s crisis of faith wasn’t what fans wanted, the movie ends with a message of hope that suggests everyone in the Star Wars universe can be a hero. That’s the original message of Star Wars: A New Hopein which a space princess, a farmer, and a smuggler team up to save the galaxy. The Last Jedi‘s storytelling grounds Star Wars in a world beyond magical space samurai, and reminds audiences that everyone has a part to play in overthrowing fascism. That message had been lost in the mythology-heavy, Jedi-centric prequel trilogy and Clone Wars series.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi did something remarkable, which was to look at the fictional universe from a fresh angle to interrogate the franchise’s mythology. It might not have landed with fans in as positive a way as Rian Johnson may have hoped, but the movie has a fascinating approach to Star Wars mythology for the 21st century. On the other hand, Star Trek Into Darkness seemed happy to simply repeat the main story beats of Wrath of Khan while failing to understand the franchise’s mythology, or the original movie’s themes of aging and mortality. In that respect, JJ Abrams’ difficult middle Star Trek movie deserves far more criticism than The Last Jedi.