"Star Trek Into Darkness" was met with glowing reviews back in 2013 but over time the film has become a letdown for many Trekkies who saw it as a gimmick rather than an evolving continuation of their beloved franchise. Indeed, 'Into Darkness' was a movie where you could tell the screenwriters had no idea what they actually wanted with the story. The film was a beautifully shot, well acted but abominably written film.
Appearing on the Midnight’s Edge podcast, "Wrath of Khan" director Nicholas Meyer was asked for his thoughts on "Into Darkness," after all 'Darkness' did borrow heavily from 'Khan.' Meyer didn't mince words because, like many of us, he admitted the film left him feeling disappointed.
“It is, on the one hand, nice to be so successful or beloved or however you want to describe it that somebody wants to do a homage to what you did and I was flattered and touched. But in my sort of artistic worldview, if you’re going to do an homage you have to add something. You have to put another layer on it, and they didn’t."
"Just by putting the same words in different characters’ mouths didn’t add up to anything, and if you have someone dying in one scene and sort of being resurrected immediately after there’s no real drama going on. It just becomes a gimmick or gimmicky, and that’s what I found it to be ultimately.”