In case you haven't noticed, I've been
writing about
Star Trek Into Darknessa lotrecently because I truly loved that movie and had a blast watching it at the theater. It was the most fun I had at the movies in a long time and I'm looking forward to seeing it again and again. Still, for all the admiration I have for Abrams's sequel, there was one part of it that always felt "off" to me and that was the way the filmmakers handled Khan. I'm not saying it's a bad thing Khan was in the picture. It makes a lot of sense of him to appear in the rebooted alternate universe and it would have been a missed opportunity if they didn't include him. The thing I didn't completely like was all the secrecy and mystery surrounding "John Harrison's" true identity. It felt like a secret just for the sake of having a secret instead of using a plot twist to add to the film's story. It never made much sense to me why Abrams never said, "We're doing Khan. This is our version of Khan. I'm excited about it" and leave it at that. When Benedict Cumberbatch stares into the camera and essentially breaks the fourth wall by saying "My name is... Khan," the moment means a lot for people who have seen
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but doesn't mean a whole lot for the characters who are actually in the film. In the context of
Star Trek Into Darkness, Kirk and Spock have never heard of Khan before, so this revelation meant nothing to our heroes. The fact that John Harrison is Khan doesn't add anything to the story. Unfortunately for Abrams, Khan rumors saturated the Internet non-stop leading up to the film's release to the point where everyone was convinced he was going to be the movie's villain. In an effort to keep things interesting, he decided to borrow the Nolan trick of giving Khan a generic alias, but he didn't do a good job of hiding Harrison's true identity. Trailers showed new riffs on classic
Wrath of Khan imagery and in the moments prior to the big Khan revelation, Harrison wipes out a wave of Klingon soldiers by himself and takes several punches from Kirk without flinching (I loved Cumberbatch's expression during that scene. It was almost as if he was saying, "Are you done, little man?"). Whereas Nolan disguised Talia as an idealistic businesswoman who seemingly has no interest in revenge, Abrams demonstrated John Harrison is basically superhuman, like Khan is. The reveal felt anti-climactic after all the "is he or isn't he?" stories I read on the web. If you want to argue that the villain twist in
Star Trek Into Darkness is Admiral Marcus and his intentions to start a Klingon war, I'll give you that. I was not expecting that plot point and liked the fact the film went in that direction. Khan's monologue in the holding cell (when he tears up talking about his crew), makes the character somewhat sympathetic and forces you to question who is really the bad guy in this situation. Even though Khan and his followers wish to rule over those they feel to be inferior (read: just about everybody), you still want to see Marcus stopped (with him wanting to start a war and all) and it was fascinating to see Kirk and Khan, two archenemies, working together if only for a brief time. The "Marcus is a villain" revelation actually gives the film an extra boost and elevates if to be more than just a standard "good guys chase bad guy" plot. When you think about it, his plan was very diabolical. Still, you can have the Marcus twist and be honest about Khan at the same time. There was no real reason to keep Khan hidden. Like I said at the top, the name in context means nothing to the characters (for comparison's sake, the name al Ghul means almost everything to Bruce Wayne), so it just felt like Abrams had a secret in his movie for the sake of having a secret. While I don't oppose to the appearance of Khan or Cumberbatch's performance, I did have some small problems with the execution and the impact it had on the final product. I think most moviegoers let out a sigh of relief that all the speculation could be put to rest instead of having that big "a-HA!" moment the crew so desperately wanted them to have. Kudos to the team for keeping this secret for so long, though.
The Khan secret may have ultimately fell a little flat, but at least it didn't completely derail the movie. There's a large vocal majority of comic book readers who are extremely displeased with the way Marvel Studios portrayed Iron Man's greatest foe, the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), in
Iron Man 3. You probably know all about it by now, but in case you don't here's a recap. Originally believed to be a ruthless, Osama bin Laden type terrorist, "the Mandarin" is revealed to be a bumbling, drug addicted actor named Trevor who is hired by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) to be a face for evil in order to cover up some Extremis experiments gone wrong. It's one of the more wackier plot twists I've seen in a while and while I get what Marvel was trying to do, I didn't completely buy into it. I give them a lot of credit for rolling the dice and going with a plan that would completely alienate the very people who made a movie like
Iron Man 3 possible, but everything about it just felt odd. Again, it was a secret just for the sake of being a secret. It didn't add anything to the story or give the characters more depth like a great twist should, it just felt very... weird. A dialogue exchange that takes place after the reveal is either the most super meta thing in a summer blockbuster or an unfortunate choice of words by Shane Black: "THIS is the Mandarin?!" Rhodey exclaims after learning the truth about Trevor. "I know... it's kind of embarrassing," replies Tony. Comic fans were rightfully upset by the character change because the filmmakers did not honor the spirit of the true Mandarin (this is something for another discussion). As a fan of the movies, I wasn't offended by it. I just thought the whole thing was odd. The trailers had done an effective job at selling the audience on Kingsley playing a menacing terrorist who would finally be a worthy adversary to Iron Man. Black fooled us all, but at what cost? The revelation that Killian is the "real" Mandarin does nothing to enhance the plot. It was the bizarro Talia al Ghul twist. Killian just as Aldrich Killian was a scientist who had a personal vendetta against Tony Stark. Killian as the Mandarin is a scientist with a personal vendetta against Tony Stark. The twist doesn't change anything about the character or his relationship with Tony. This is why I took issue with it. I do admire Marvel's decision to go ahead with something that they knew would divide fans and I appreciate the fact they took a chance, but it wasn't really a smart choice. That's why it hurt the film. The filmmakers thought that having a surprise in the movie would elevate it, but it ended up dividing people. There was no real need to use the smoke-and-mirrors approach. Just go all in on the evil sadistic terrorist and give the fans a climactic showdown between Iron Man and the leader of the Ten Rings organization - the very same one that captured him in the original film. Killian could easily be the Mandarin's right hand man, supplying the villain technology to attack Stark. This would have made more sense. It may sound like a cop out, but the ultimate answer to my question is a secret can either help or hurt a film. It just depends on the situation. When a plot twist is used correctly to add a new layer of intrigue to an already intriguing film, it can definitely help the movie become something more. If the screenwriters keep an element hidden from us and that element ends up being no big deal, it may not hurt the film from an artistic standpoint (
Star Trek Into Darkness is still an amazing summer blockbuster), but it will leave viewers wondering why that one thing was kept a mystery. Secrets will continue to be a part of Hollywood and I like that. I'm not calling for all directors to spill every detail about their upcoming films. I just think a little more thought should be put into what's kept a secret and how a secret will impact the final film.
What do you think? Were you a fan of recent plot twists? Did you not like them? Let us know in the comments section!