Star Trek Into Darkness Review

Star Trek Into Darkness Review

Director: J.J Abrams 

Cast Headliners: Robert Downey Jr, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce

Original Release Date: May 16th, 2013

  The lines “Space, the final frontier”, “Khaaaan!”, “highly illogical”, “live long and prosper”, “I have been and always shall be your friend” and many more are iconic pop culture phrases which the Star Trek franchise has brought to the world.  The science fiction quests of Captain Kirk and Mr.Spock and the rest of the USS Enterprise crew are some of the greatest modern yarns ever spun.  Even the film versions have been great on their own merits, and after dozens of sequels in the old timeline a fresh start (in many ways but yet still loosely connected) was envisioned by JJ Abrams in 2009.  That was a fantastic film in both how it was a tribute to the original, and also in what it promised for the future adventures for the Star Trek crew.  So how can that film be topped, can it? The answer is by taking everything to the next level, and that it certainly is a amazing sequel in the vein of the original Star Trek “1 and 2”.

            Star Trek Into Darkness (because semi-colons aren’t awesome enough) opens in classic Trek style with a mission to a strange planet. This is a thrilling segment, and it’s great to be re-acquainted with the more youthful crew introduced in Trek2009. There’s the sassy Uhura ( Zoe Saldana), the humble Chekov (Anton Yelchin), the brave Sulu (John Choo), the hilarious Scotty (Simon Pegg) and his little alien friend, and of course the classic trio of Spock ( Zachary Quinto), Kirk (Chris Pine), and “Bones” Mccoy (Karl Urban).  An impressive ensemble cast, and I must admit probably a stellar spaceship crew rivaling Shatner and Nimoy’s , and Patrick Stewart’s from the Next Generation saga.  Aside from great missions, the series has fantastic characters that are easily anticipated to see.     

            The tone shifts to, as the title implies, a darker one.  Certain events involving a certain character named John Harrison who is actually someone from the first great Star Trek sequel (* COUGH*)  soon happen, and plot twist after plot twist mixed with incredible action visual set pieces soon happen. This “Harrison” is played by Benedict Cumberbatch of “Sherlock” fame, and oh my goodness. He is an incredible actor, and his villain role is also one of those characters that people will remember forever. This is a tale involving two awesomely cool people, this Kirk and this “Harrison”, and the plot involving the twists and betrayals along the way is filled with some great surprises. Kirk is awesome, the villain is just as great and I can’t stop praising it. There are some genuine emotional parts in the film, and they are handled so well for an epic blockbuster film of this type. I also want to make a shout out to Scotty, as Pegg becomes one of the main heroes of this film as well. I was pleased to see his role expanded, he is great in a space adventure like this.
            There are so many great things about this movie. The technology and visuals and score are amazing. The many different locales are awe-inspiringly beautiful. Each action scene gets more intense than the last, and as with Trek2009 it serves as both a perfect homage to large chunks of the original stories while also crafting a unique identity for itself.  JJ Abram’s has achieved an even greater directorial masterpiece with his movie, and I’d like to say I can’t wait to what he does next as this turned out so fantastic.  Oh wait, what is that he’s making? Star Wars: Episode 7? BRING IT ABRAMS, I’ll love it too. My only complaint is the obvious Abrams lense flare which really can irritate the eye slightly, and sometimes choppy camera movement. I would also like to recommend seeing it in IMAX3D if possible, this is a film meant to be seen that way and it totally works.    This journey to the final frontier, for a second time and most likely not the last, gives an extremely well deserved 9.2 out of 10.