How the ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ DVD is Ripping Off Movie Fans

'Star Trek Into Darkness' hits DVD and Blu-ray on September 10 and fans of the movie might be tempted to pick up a copy, and if you're like us, one of the reasons you buy a DVD or Blu-ray of a movie you've already seen is for the many special features. Sadly, if you're hoping for a lot of special features on the 'Star Trek Into Darkness' DVD and Blu-ray you'll wind up sorely disappointed. This isn't because those special features don't exist - they do. You just need to pay more (and more...and more...) if you want to watch any of them.

The official 'Star Trek Into Darkness' DVD and Blu-ray includes just seven short EPK-style featurettes on the making of the film. No deleted scenes, no trailers, no audio commentary - nothing else. The reason you're not getting any of those additional features? They were promised to specific retailers and spread out as "exclusives" among several separate purchases.

For example: the iTunes download of 'Star Trek Into Darkness' offers an exclusive J.J. Abrams audio commentary as a special feature. The Target "Collector’s Set with Special Features Bonus Disc" includes 30-minutes of exclusive video content. The Best Buy exclusive comes with an additional 30 minutes of special features that delve into the creation of the film’s unique alien creatures, gives a first-hand look at one of the locations used for the U.S.S. Enterprise’s Engine Room and more.

That's over 60-minutes of additional footage plus director audio commentary that is being kept off the Blu-ray and DVD and instead doled out as retail exclusives you need to pay extra for. By contrast, the release of the 2009 'Star Trek' film included multiple documentaries on the making of the film, audio commentaries with Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Bob Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Burk, 13-minutes of deleted scenes and much more. All on ONE disc available for one purchase.

Now if you wanted all of those features, it would cost you a total of $85 ($20 for the standard Blu-ray, $20 at Best Buy, $30 at Target and $15 on iTunes).

It seems like they're trying to exploit 'Star Trek' collectors with as many purchases and "exclusive special editions" as possible. We get mad at studios for double-dipping DVDs but this is a blatant quadruple-dip that benefits only massive corporations and not hardcore movie fans.

Is this the wave of the future? Will we see the bastardization of special features as they're spread out over multiple discs? Let's hope not and let's hope enough people vote with their wallet, letting them know this isn't OK.