3. Everyone Is An Idiot
Great movies dont often make you scratch your head when characters do something. Thats because the writers give you enough information about the characters to understand their motivations and thought processes, plus it keeps characters decisions consistent with their behavior. Star Trek into Darkness doesnt do that, making you ask Why are they doing this/why did they do that? throughout the film. Lets look at Khans plan. He blows up the London Section 31 facility before trying to kill Admiral Marcus, the man who (justifiably) screwed him over, instead of killing Marcus first and getting his people out of London. Instead, Khan stuffs his people into warp capable torpedoes, which Marcus loads onto the Enterprise, before beaming to Qonos, homeworld of the people Marcus has been getting ready to fight because theyre already in a cold war. The only reason this works is because Admiral Marcus decides to let Kirk and Spock handle Khan, instead of his stealth dreadnought and loyal crew (or just dropping the torpedoes into Jupiter's atmosphere). Rather than thanking Kirk and Spock for the intel about Khan, then flying over to Qonos and leveling the Ketha province (where Khans hiding), Marcus allows Khan to work his magic on Kirk, leading to deaths of thousands in San Francisco when Khan crashes the dreadnought. It doesnt help that Kirk and crew get in the idiot game too. At no point do they figure out that a saboteur is probably aboard, nor do they increase security to handle this potential threat. Then Kirk decides to let everyone in on his conversation with Admiral Marcus, where we get the whole Khan played me and you speech, which cuts off any potential deals with Marcus, because too many people know what went down. And when you think about it, all the deaths in San Francisco are his fault, because he didnt kill Khan (the guy he already suspected would betray him) when he had the chance. And don't get me started about Khan's blood...