Into Darkness

"Darkness is coming" ~ John Harrison.

Update: I enjoyed one of only 300 early screenings in the USA, only one in Maine, on May 15th. It is an incredible film that is not as dark as the promotional material would have you expect. Still, this movie, along with Iron Man 3, certainly start off another "dark" summer of motion pictures, a growing trend.

Near the beginning, there is an explosion in a big city. Sound familiar?

Star Trek Into Darkness really gets going with a terrorist attack in London.

Movie openings, film legacies, and violent incidents have gone hand in hand, of late.

Dark Knight opened July 23, 2008, in Belguim; Heath Ledger died January 22, 2009, in New York City; nursery attack (3 killed, 12 injured) occurred on January 23, 2009, allegedly by the Dendermonde Joker in Belguim.

Captain America opened July 22, 2011 in USA; Anders Behring Breivik on July 22, 2011, set off a car bomb in Oslo, shown above (killed 8, injured 209) and attacked youth camp on Utøya island, Norway (killed 69, injured 110).

Dark Knight Rises opened midnight July 20, 2012; James Holmes allegedly targeted Dark Knight Rises while dressed as Bane with Joker underneath (allegedly killed 12, allegedly injured 58), July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colorado, to Newtown, Connecticut, where on December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza killed his mother, then went to the Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 children and 6 adult staff (total 27).

What have the major studios learned from these recent events? Don't open a blockbuster movie in 2013 on July 20, 21, 22, and 23.  This year, on the closest Fridays, you will note that Red 2 is due to open on July 19, and The Wolverine on July 26. These are not movies in the same darker mold as Man of Steel (June 14), The Lone Ranger (July 5), and Star Trek Into Darkness (May 17) this year.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens in Britain on May 9, 2013, and in the United States on May 17, 2013, the 12th film in the Star Trek franchise that was created about 50 years ago by Gene Roddenberry and led to six TV series.

May 9th is a date called Victory Day throughout most countries in the old Soviet Union, for victory over Nazi Germany was achieved by the Soviet Union on that date. Parades and other celebrations are sometimes still held. Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov and 23 other people were killed in a bombing in the capital Grozny, during a World War II memorial victory parade in 2004. In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130, in 2002.

And Star Trek Into Darkness, relatively speaking, opens with a boom....

Let us hope the only darkness is on the screen this time.

But let's not forget....

Boston Marathon Bombing - Three killed, 299 injured

Boston (above and below)

London (below)

 Star Trek Into Darkness opens midnight the evening May 16th, in some US locations.

 Darkness can be evil personified.