The JJ Abrams Mystery Box is now beginning to open a bit over the last few days in regards to Star Trek Into Darkness. First, we got a teaser poster (see below) and last night there was the release of an announcement trailer. Yes sir the marketing machine for Star Trek Into Darkness is now getting fired up and what is being released has left me, a loyal fan of Star Trek, with mixed feelings.
First, here is the teaser poster:
Welcome to Star Trek Into a Dark Knight. It has been commented on repeatedly on many other sites just how much the above poster is reminiscent of the teaser posters for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. I can't say I disagree. There is an awful lot of similarities to be had here. In addition, the whole debris opening that creates a symbol has been done before as well, with the posters for the aforementioned Dark Knight and also for this year's The Dark Knight Rises. So is JJ and company intentionally just copying Nolan's marketing genius? Yes and no.
Highly successful marketing trends tend to be repeated until something new comes along. That is the case here as well. If this type of marketing plan worked so well for Nolan's Batfims, then the thought process goes that they can work for many films with similar themes. But the decision to use this type of marketing could have been made by Paramount's marketing department or the suits at the studio. With that said, could JJ have had a hand in this design? Most certainly. Given he and the writers, Bob Orci and Alex Kirtzman's, love for Nolan's series it would not surprise me to see them copy Nolan's marketing for that series as well. But more likely the decision to use this marketing strategy was made by Paramount's marketing department and less so the creative team on the film.
As far as the poster itself? Well it is simply just average to me. It isn't blowing up my skirt, but it isn't leaving me cold either. I like the idea of the Starfleet Delta being made from the opening created by Cumberbatch's villain. I also like that the skyline is that of London and not the city of choice in Star Trek: San Francisco. I think the gray tones are nice and I like the font used for the title card.
With that all said, I hate the whole figure with his back to us thing. It is too reminiscent of the stance Heath Ledger's Joker took in the posters for TDK. But more than that it just looks kind of dumb here. I would have rather they remove Cumby's villain from the frame and just leave the insignia, with a view of the devastation caused to fair London. What caused said devastation? Who knows. Come and find out in May.
I also kind of miss the space bound aspect in this poster. All of the previous posters to Star Trek films have had outer space play a part in the poster. This poster remains curiously Earth-bound. While I understand establishing the destruction Cumby's villain unleashes on Earth is important to the film, I still think they could achieve this same effect but incorporate the space element. Perhaps have a picture of Earth from space. The Enterprise saucer section just barely seen crossing the very bottom of the poster, perhaps arriving home. Above, ships scattered and in ruins. Destruction on a massive scale.
Just a thought there I suppose. Overall this poster just seems repetitive as far as what has come before and is not that arresting of an image to override the feelings of similarity between this and any other poster for an upcoming film, particularly Nolan's TDK.
So for those keeping score at home. We have one moderately interesting poster, with too much billowing trenchcoat for my tastes.
Next, we got the STID announcement trailer.
Now this is a pretty damn well made announcement trailer (BTW hate the idea of an announcement trailer, it is a teaser trailer, ugh). It does a good job establishing the tone of this new film, while also clearly demonstrating the fact that the stakes have been raised. Now I could do a breakdown of the trailer, with in depth analysis of images on display. But there are far better sites than mine that have already done so. Go seek those out if you want to see a more in depth examination of this trailer.
What I will say is that this trailer does a good job of neither confirming or denying my theory that Cumby is playing Khan and Alice Eve is playing Carol Marcus. I still stand by that theory by the way. Although I will add one small wrinkle to that theory. What if Cumby is not playing Khan but rather one of the other soldiers under Khan's command? Perhaps Khan was killed when the Botany Bay was found and his second in command took over and assumed his name out of honor.
Just a thought there, nothing more.
Overall the trailer was quite good, while the poster left much to be desired. There is more to come of course when the first nine minutes is released with the Hobbit on December 14. Three days later the first full trailer for this film is released.
Coming up on an exciting time in regards to the marketing of this film. I can't wait. The Khan commeth!
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