Star Trek Into Darkness

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Peter Weller, Alice Eve, Leonard Nimoy
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
2013

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) leads the U.S.S. Enterprise on a manhunt for a terrorist (Benedict Cumberbatch) who attacked Starfleet.

Review:

Tim: After J.J. Abrams stunned with his rebooted Star Trek in 2009, I was really looking forward to this long-awaited sequel (4 years is a long time to wait!). One again, Abrams delivers an intelligent, exciting, entertaining science fiction film. Star Trek Into Darkness is a great movie and a fitting sequel. While I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, there are a few issues I have with it. I know that no movie is perfect, and in this case, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. This is one of the best movies I saw in 2013.

It's been interesting to see how the time travel aspect of the last film influences this new Star Trek timeline. The writers here pulled off something very interesting- they pay tribute to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan while also giving this new timeline a different twist. It's pretty remarkable how this story pulls in elements from the original second film (did you follow that?) while also giving us a new adventure for the crew of the Enterprise. It was cool to see how they used established characters and events in a new way.

Now, this being said, it also leads me to perhaps my biggest complaint about this movie. There's a huge sequence of events in this film that are directly taken from The Wrath of Khan. Now, given this new timeline, things don't happen the same way. On one hand, it's brilliant that the writers took an event from that previous film and twisted and changed it for this one. That's impressive. On the other hand, however, that whole sequence of events is taken from a film we've already seen. While the twist and update was cool, it was basically a rehash of something we've already seen. I get why the writers did that, but with all the possible storylines for the crew of the Enterprise, why boldly go where they have already gone before? Why not give us something new, something we haven't seen before? That's my biggest complaint of the film, and it hurts the movie.

While this is a big flaw, overall, I really liked the story. I loved Benedict Cumberbatch, although I felt like it was pointless to keep his "identity" secret. It was a poorly kept secret, as most everyone already assumed who he was playing. Still, having Starfleet attacked by a terrorist, and then having that event be only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger conspiracy was quite interesting. This gives us some great sequences. I loved the scene where Kirk and Khan fling through space to board the other ship. The initial volcano scene was exciting. Perhaps the coolest scene was seeing the Enterprise in a free fall. There is a great climactic battle. While the heart of the film is the rehashed scene, this movie still features some incredible sequences.

The cast is once again excellent. I love how Chris Pine is getting more and more comfortable in the role of Kirk. He's quite strong in the role. Zachary Quinto is good again as Spock, although he didn't have as much to do as I would have liked. I still love Karl Urban as Bones and I loved every second of his screen time. Zoe Saldana was quite underused in the film. Benedict Cumberbatch is not someone I was familiar with, but he blew me away with his villainous turn. He's going to have a long, long career. Simon Pegg is brilliant as Scotty. John Cho and Anton Yelchin didn't have much to do, but I understand that. I felt like Alice Eve was a bit miscast- she didn't feel as connected to the rest of the film, and her underwear scene was so forced and ridiculous that it made me laugh. All in all, the cast in this film is incredible.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a great movie. While it's not as good as the last film, it's maybe the second best film in the franchise. I know that Trekkies hated this film and I understand why they did, but I had a great deal of fun watching this movie. It's entertaining, exciting, and one of the best movies of 2013. I've never loved the Star Trek franchise as much as I do now, and I am eagerly awaiting the next film in the franchise (which will be the 13th film in the franchise!).

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 8



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