Directed By: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana and Karl Urban
What It’s About: The crew of the enterprise tracks down terrorist John Harrison to avenge an attack against Star Fleet.
Rating PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence)
Runtime: 132 minutes
By Aaron Sanders, Diversions Editor
One thing that made 2009’s Star Trek such a great film was its ability to instill a sense of wonder and spectacle with a cast of charismatic characters, witty dialogue and straightforward plot. JJ Abrams’ Star Trek was an organic entity that birthed a new generation of Trekkies and washed out the bad taste left in fans’ mouths from Star Trek Nemesis. Star Trek into Darkness, however, fails to live up to the quality of the first film.
Into Darkness is missing a certain quality from the first film, a folly on the screenwriters’ part. J.J. Abrams keeps his style intact, but not the concise writing of the first film that gelled everything together. The film opens with a fairly impressive sequence in which Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Bones (Karl Urban) is chased by a primitive indigenous alien tribe through a vine forest while Spock (Zachary Quinto) attempts to extinguish an erupting super volcano. Naturally, the characters have settled into their respective roles as their relationships to one another have long since been defined, but the crew of The Enterprise feels detached and lacks the charisma we first saw.
As every Trekkie in the universe probably speculated, Benedict Cumberbatch plays none other than the infamous and formidable villain Khan. And like every other villain in a blockbuster from the last year, he is a methodical super terrorist. This does not however mean that Cumberbatch makes a bad villain, just that his version of Khan is more derivative than the filmmakers expected.
Into Darkness takes a lot after the famous Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan from the adversarial rivalry between Khan and Kirk to the dramatic “Khaaaaaaan!” line. Abrams provides enough fan service to make old Star Trek fans giddy in their seats. The not-so-surprising Khan reveal notwithstanding, a certain hostile alien race makes an appearance as well as some direct shot-for-shot scenes from Wrath of Khan, which could be seen as lazy rather than creative.
Despite its flaws, Star Trek Into Darkness is an entertaining summer blockbuster that is well worth the price of admission, in 2D of course.
Courtesy of www.startrek.com