Star Trek Into Darkness

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
 Star Trek Into Darkness
Released 5/17/13, now in theaters

J.J. Abrams returns to the Star Trek franchise with his second installment in the venerable series.  The cast from Abrams' first Trek film returns with newcomers Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Weller, and Alice Eve rounding out the cast.  The director struck gold with critics and Trekkies alike with his first offering.  Will Into Darkness be yet another gold strike or a lump suffocating coal dust?

Starfleet has a new enemy.  And it's one of their own as Agent John Harrison (Cumberbatch) has gone rogue by masterminding the bombing of a Starfleet installation in London.  When Fleet Command calls a meeting to discuss the attack, Harrison attacks the meeting in a gunship, slaying Captain Kirk's (Chris Pine) friend and mentor, Admiral Christopher Pike.  Harrison escapes by teleporting himself to Kronos, a deserted planet on the fringe of the extremely hostile Klingon Empire.

Desperately craving revenge, Kirk, who was stripped of command of the Enterprise from an earlier incident in the film, is reinstated as the ship's captain by Starfleet Commander, Admiral Alexander Marcus (Weller).  His mission; track Harrison on Kronos and exterminate him with extreme prejudice using prototype photon torpedoes.  Then, the trick will be for the Enterprise to leave Klingon space without being detected and sparking a Federation/Klingon war.  Things get more complicated when Harrison saves Kirk, Spock (Zachary Quinto), and Uhura (Zoe Saladana) from a Klingon battalion on Kronos.  There is more to Harrison and his actions than meets the eye.  And does Marcus know more than he lets on?  When the truth is revealed about Harrison, Star Trek fans will get an unexpected blast from the past. 

In the endless "war" between Star Wars and Star Trek fans, I am and will always remain a faithful follower of George Lucas's masterpiece (Episodes 4-6 anyway).  I have liked some Trek movies.  Wrath of Khan and First Contact were great, but it never made go over to the Trek universe.  While J.J. Abrams may not make me a full convert, I am a huge fan of his Trek universe.  The reason?  I think it's because I always had the underlying feeling that Star Trek was hokey even when I did like the movies.  And while Abrams does keep some of the corniness to please the hardcore fans, he has made this sci-fi universe accessible to the non-believers.  The eye-rollers are even self aware.  For instance, there is a scene in Into Darkness where Bones gives his usual, "Damn it, Jim!  I'm a doctor, not a ..." you fill in the occupation.  Kirk meets the statement with exasperation and a statement of his own asking Bones to cut the melodrama. 

Into Darkness strikes a fine balance between science and all-out action.  Before Abrams, the Trek movies never had this type of action.  Granted, I know it was due to the age of the original crew and to a lesser extent the Next Generation crew.  It was a very good decision to make the original crew young again and reboot the series.  And I dig Mr. Spock:  Action Hero.  Yes, it's a little weird seeing Spock running through the streets and (horrors) resorting to fisticuffs, but it is pretty cool.

Another nice touch in the film is that the audience is introduced to life outside the Enterprise.  There are many good scenes with the characters on Earth including a glimpse at military life within Starfleet.  It was always in the back of my mind, I guess, but it never really hit me until now that Starfleet really is space military as much as it is space exploration.  It may be silly, but, I had a revelation here!

Star Trek Into Darkness is another great offering from J.J. Abrams.  Trek fans should be very happy he took over this franchise.  It remains to be seen if his influence will remain as he's been tapped for Star Wars Episode 7.  After seeing his Trek movies, I am more than confident he will bring the magic back to the galaxy far, far away.  And, I would like to say to both Star Wars and Star Trek fans that there is room in this big universe for both franchises and it's ok to like them both.  I know.  The next thing I'll say is Cubs and White Sox fans can live in harmony and dogs and cats can live together.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

**** stars


Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee. Buy this on DVD when released!
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.