In the case of Star Trek Into Darkness, you get a sequel to a reboot. We have the new character iterations of the reboot, and the chance for new adversity for them to face with the sequel. I will be discussing Star Trek at a later date when it comes up on this list, but the idea behind the reboot gave an opportunity for new and different character arcs, since 'the past' was altered for all at the beginning of the movie.
So, how come at the start of this film is everyone getting along so well as a team? The story starts going at full speed, quite literally with a chase. As the chase progresses, we see each of the primary characters of Star Trek come into the story one at a time. Their roles are already defined in this setting - Scotty is worrying about the Enterprise, Sulu is challenged with piloting, Bones is worried about a situation he's not suited for - each have a conflict. But, it needs to be mentioned, because this is important - the roles that they are in are for old classic Star Trek characters. It is, in a sense, the conflicts that the original characters before the reboot faced. These people, however they may seem like it, are not the old crew - because of how the original reboot was handled, the past of each person is different. While they are acting like people we know, they are vastly different. That is the core of what Star Trek Into Darkness becomes - having these new people face their new adversity, growing away from the molds set from the original storyline and becoming their own personality. What better way to spur this conflict than to have the greatest villain the crew of the Enterprise faced - Harry Mudd.
Just kidding. While it would have been amazing to have Harry Mudd return, it doesn't take the brain of a Tribble to know that they were going to throw Kahn into the mix. Kahn, along with being one of the best Star Trek villains, is also tied to the second film of the original series. I'm sure the filmmakers were very aware of the parallels that they were drawing from that, and it did not just stop with the villain. Dialogue and plot situations are shared between Into Darkness and The Wrath of Kahn, usually just substituting out the person who is delivering the lines. By the simple inclusion of Kahn, as a Star Trek fan you would automatically draw the parallel that this wasn't going to end well for some. Kahn was the main adversary to the Enterprise as a whole - remember, it was his conflict that started the ball rolling to eventually have the destruction of the Enterprise in The Search for Spock occur as they were attempting to rescue Spock on Genesis. So, before I go more off the rails on Star Trek lore, lets just look at some of the conflicts that are faced in this movie.
One of the more subtle conflicts is the one faced by Scotty. He is the voice of the Enterprise - his warning about the torpedoes in the first act directly leads into his removal from the Enterprise. Most of this film has Scotty away from the ship, basically placing him where he was first discovered in Star Trek - alone and isolated on his own planet. While the old Scotty was stuck in this isolation and tied to the Enterprise, the new Scotty breaks free from this and takes action, stowing away on a different ship to eventually save his ship from destruction. His role is less of a background engineer and more of an action hero as he helps with the mutiny against Admiral Marcus. Once he secures his position as his own individual, he is reunited with his 'love' personified as the Enterprise.
Uhura is similar in many ways to Scotty, taking essentially an inactive role on the old Enterprise as a futuristic secretary/telephone operator. As chief communication officer, she simply conveys and passes along messages, with her only significantly active role in the old movies being a 'sexy palm frond dance' that was used to distract people. This Uhura is different - she takes action, specifically for her main conflict in this movie in dealing with a Klingon patrol. Uhura isn't passing on a message in this situation - she is directly delivering a message TO the Klingons, putting herself in direct physical proximity and danger in doing so. She removes the buffer of a communication hail between her and others to take a physical presence, growing to the point that in the final conflict with Kahn she herself beams down to face him. She eschews the old model of being an inactive presence to an active one.
The last conflict I will look into is one and the same - Kirk and Spock. Their friendship is structured on the concept that each is one distinct side of a coin - one side emotion, the other side logic. As the movie progresses, its a battle of Kirk against his emotions and a battle of Spock against his logic. Spock tries to explain that the needs of many outweigh the needs of a few and Kirk tries to explain the reasoning of saving his friend from death in a volcano. As the story progresses, their roles reverse - quite literally, from the original series. Kirk sacrifices himself in the reactor core, something that Spock did himself in The Wrath of Kahn, because he sees that as a captain, his responsibility is to the needs of many instead of his own. Spock, upon seeing his friend dies, uses his emotion to pursue and capture Kahn - he, in fact, delivers Kirk's famous line from the original series, 'KKKAAAAHHHNNN!' In the end of the movie, while each are still rooted in their own values, they have grown because they have taken on some of the qualities of their other half - a Star Trek yin/yang of values.
Side note - Bones totally came up with the cure for death. They should of just kept Kahn in deep coma freeze and siphon off his blood occasionally to keep others alive and cured of disease. I'm sure he would have won the Starfleet equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Science for that shit.
Time to remove this movie from the list and generate a new number! Lets see what we get.....
Alright! 230 it is....time to find out this movie on the list.......
Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Rings it is! That may take some time, with it being a rather long film, but it will come soon.
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