Captain’s log, stardate 6833401.342. It has been four long years since J.J. Abrams released his first reboot smash hit called Star Trek. Many have waited in anticipation for the coming of his newest creation.
And finally, it has arrived.
Star Trek: Into Darkness is an emotional and action filled roller coaster that takes the audience through the movie at warp speed, rarely pausing for breaks to breathe. The pace of the film is great, never keeping one waiting very long for the next action scene while also leaving room for the intense intimate conversations.
This version of the classic franchise delves deeper into the characters themselves as well as the plot that involves new villain, Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch). Most importantly, Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are the two that the audience gets to learn more about and see in a different light.
Kirk’s maverick-style personality gets exposed and shaken when he sees his friend, (and somewhat of a mentor) Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), get killed by Khan after never even having one of his own crew members lost before. This traumatic event forces the young Kirk to become slightly more level-headed even while retaining most of his maverick-style. He appears to grow up a little throughout the course of the movie and becomes a better leader and captain as a result.
Spock too, deals with his mental capabilities being tested. As a half-Vulcan, he rarely shows emotion and prefers to keep them hidden; especially after seeing the destruction of his home planet. But as the movie progresses and Spock has to deal with more and more intense issues, he finally lets loose after he loses Kirk (who Spock comes out and says is a true friend to him) to an overdose of radiation and his withheld emotions turn into a raging fire of pure anger.
Personally, this was my favourite part of the film; when Spock becomes enraged and goes to hunt down Khan immediately. It’s very rare that fans ever get to see Spock act in such a way and it was a neat character development for such a well known figure. Oh, and be sure to note…
Don’t ever piss off a Vulcan.
The film had very good acting, with all of the characters being played well and Khan being done very well as an intelligent, sadistic villain. The music was just as good as the first movie, with classic stuff such as the original (slightly altered) Star Trek theme used in the appropriate areas.
There were lots of tidbits for hardcore Trekkies as well. I didn’t quite catch all of them, but there are many that those who love the franchise will enjoy. And even for those who don’t, it doesn’t really matter as the film is just a fantastic movie in itself.
The Klingons were finally introduced in this flick, during which there occurred and epic battle scene that is one of the best in the entire thing; Khan does a lot of eye-popping acrobatics during this fight. It’s cool to finally get to see the Klingons and what they look like in Abrams’ world. Needless to say, they’re done pretty darn well and there is even a bit of Klingon that is spoken, so for the people who took the time to learn the fictional language, there you go. I guess.
The comic relief supplied by Scotty (Simon Pegg) is entertaining as always and has to be one of my favourite things about this movie too.
The special effects were done extremely well and everything looked fluid and jaw-dropping (I saw it in 3D), keeping the audience glued to the screen for every single photon blast and phaser beam.
And let’s face it, seeing the Enterprise take up the entire theatre screen while epic music is playing just never gets old.
Finally, I’m glad they ended the film like they did the first one and like they did every episode of the original show, with someone (previously old Spock, this time Kirk) saying: Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise. It’s five year mission; to find strange new worlds, to explore new life and civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Yeah. Classic stuff.
Anyways, that’s it for this time around. Howe, out.
Rating out of 100: 85
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