If the first trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness left you with the impression that the movie would either be a Prometheus-style bust or a Dark Knight-style “Hey, that was way better than the original, and the original was amazing”-type classic, the second trailer is unlikely to clarify things. It’s still easy the imagine the movie going either way. Here’s a brief breakdown of the movie’s high points/low points.
Why It Might Be Bad: The title is awful.
Why It Might Be Good: Martha Marcy May Marlene and I Heart Huckabees also had bad titles, and look at how they turned out.
Why It Might Be Bad: It’s written by Damon Lindelof, who’s desecration of the Alien franchise rightfully made him the most loathed screenwriter in movie history. The other two screenwriters credited on the movie wrote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was somehow even worse than Prometheus.
Why It Might Be Good: It has Benedict Cumberbatch as the bad guy, and if he’s half as good here as he is in the BBC’s Sherlock, the movie should be a classic.
Why It Might Be Bad: It’s directed by J.J. Abrams. Even though he hasn’t made a bad movie yet, his decision to direct Star Wars Episode VII and bring back Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fischer for cameo appearances throws his judgement into question.
Why It Might Be Good: The bit with Kirk flying through space on a jet pack looks pretty cool.
Why It Might Be Bad: The whole “Kirk is a rebel who plays by his own rules” angle was played out in the first film.
Why It Might Be Good: The bit where Kirk jumps off a cliff also looks pretty cool.
Anyway, here’s the trailer. Star Trek Into Darkness hits theatres May 17th.