Since the first teaser poster for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness hit the web a few hours ago, it’s been repeatedly pointed out that the image draws a lot of inspiration from The Dark Knight‘s own one-sheets. I don’t know if I can avoid adding my own voice to that echo chamber of common observation whatsoever– it’s spot-on. Nobody’s talking about the former wholly mirroring the latter, but the similarities between the two are rather striking and tough to ignore; after all, Nolan’s second Bat-film bore the promise of massive influence right out the gate in its theatrical release four years ago. We’ve seen that influence play out in earnest this year with Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man, and we’re seeing it here with Star Trek (side note: I also get Terminator Salvation vibes from this, but I doubt Abrams even took one look at that poster for ideas).
In short, it feels like something I’ve seen many times before. Behold…
Of course, the poster won’t do anything to sate the info-lust of rabid fans dying of curiosity over the identity of the villain– instead, it’ll only feed those message board speculations. Is that Cumberbatch, the man we know plays the film’s heavy but whose name still remains a mystery? (Is he playing Khan? Gary Mitchell? Someone else entirely? God forbid a new character?) Or is Kirk? My initial thought is that the figure at the center is actually Pine, something the source article linked below agrees with me on, but I immediately tempered that first notion with the realization that I don’t think it really matters. What does matter is that Star Trek Into Darkness is promising some big-scale destruction in the Trek-verse to top what happened in the last film, no small feat when you consider that Abrams blew up an entire planet in his reboot. Per the synopsis:
In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness.
When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.
With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.
The only family Kirk has left? A personal score? Interesting details. I don’t know that I’m all that excited for the Lost mastermind’s next foray into the realm of Starfleet, but between this poster and the vaguely outlined synopsis (produced below), I can’t deny that the guy knows how to work the hype machine better than almost anyone else in Hollywood. Star Trek Into Darkness arrives in theaters on May 17, 2013.
(Source: Hitfix)
