Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Plot Summary
The latest mission of the USS Enterprise takes them deep into space to rescue an endangered species from an active volcano. However, once again Captain Kirk's reckless behavior compromises the mission and nearly gets him booted from Starfleet. Turning back to his mentor Captain Pike, Kirk is demoted to a cadet and has to start over. But when an evil force attacks Starfleet HQ and kills Captain Pike in the process, Kirk takes command and takes the Enterprise deep into the "forbidden zone" and the planet Kronos. While forces between Starfleet and the Klingon army are hostile enough, it isn't helping that a Starfleet traitor is manipulating the two sides into a possible war. Will Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew stop the war before it's too late? And what awaits the crew of the USS Enterprise on their forthcoming five year mission?
That summary is vague and even alludes to the setup to the next film. I will try my very best to be spoiler free but knowing me i'll probably lose myself while typing this and spoil some things so you're duly warned from this point on.
All is not what they appear to be in this movie but the setup does a good job of utilizing current events and themes and applying it to the Star Trek world what with the "terrorism which inevitably leads to war" angle being a big part of the plot for the first third of the film. This brings up the clash between the new fans and the fans of classic Trek. It's clear that J.J. Abrams' vision of Star Trek is one that is more muscular and action oriented than the philosophical and hard sci-fi elements of the original series and films. This was made very clear in the first Nu-Trek film and again in this one what with the overt militarism that is brought into the fold. I fall more towards the classic conception of Star Trek but I thought this movie did a far better job of synthesizing the action elements with the mythos, concepts and characters of Trek.
The film has a lot more humor that is based on the characters rather than being humorous for humor's sake. The humor comes from Spock being by the book and coldly logical, Bones fancying himself as a ladies man and also being a born complainer, Kirk's recklessness and bravado and Scotty's overall lust for life and love for his ship. Utilizing character specific humor rather than general humor helped to show the growth and depth of the characters' friendships with each other.
The story is quite well written even if it walks familiar ground and shifts some details here and there though one scene towards the end of the film cheapens the iconic nature of the parallel scene in one of the older Star Trek movies. Despite that one misstep I thought the co-mingling of the terror/war dynamic with the villainy of a particularly well known Trek villain was excellent. I also liked that this movie focused on Spock as it was more his movie than Kirk's. The growth of Spock from the beginning of the movie to the end is dramatic while staying true to the nature of the character. Honestly, there was nothing in this movie that stuck out like a sore thumb the way the wedging of the Spock/Uhura relationship was done in the 1st film.
The villains were very good in this and the main villain played by Benedict Cumberbatch was menacing and cold. I might as well say who it is as it's no longer a spoiler by now but Cumberbatch plays Khan and he does it to great effect with the unbridled ego of someone who believes himself to be superior and seeing Khan at his peak physically and mentally was a sight to behold. He's nearly unstoppable! The other villain I won't elaborate too much upon but as you watch the movie you'll see he was heading down the villain road. Peter Weller is excellent in this and the tightrope of being a controlled authority figure who secretly harbors a war lust was a tough act for him but he handles it beautifully. This kind of character can easily be played way too over the top but Weller keeps it to a minimum but yes, he does do some good scenery chewing in a pivotal showdown scene towards the end of the film.
Last but not least the action was handled beautifully with the fights filmed realistically without too much jump cutting which is a trend in a lot of action movies these days. You get a clear shot of what's going on. The shootouts are a little haphazard but again not as wildly filmed as in other action oriented movies. One last thing I do have to note is that THANKFULLY J.J. Abrams toned down on the lens glare that made the first film nearly unbearable to watch. There's still a bit of it here but it's not so obtrusive that you are driven to distraction.
Highly recommended
****
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