Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness is an enormously fun movie that captures your attention and zips by at warp speed. It's a true successor to 2009's Star Trek, if not the franchise's history as a whole. This is not a big deal, because it rules

Much like JJ Abrams' first Star Trek film that rebooted the franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness is great example of a summer blockbuster movie. 

Of course, a summer blockbuster film doesn't have all that much in common with the Star Trek tradition, which seems to be the source of a bit of hate being directed its way online.

On the other hand, who cares? I walked out of this film on a cloud of happiness. I'm a huge Trek fan who can admit that the franchise had been largely strangled to death by the time of its demise. There's no point rebooting the franchise only to see it killed by reverence. (Although this film has a surprisingly large dose of that.)

Star Trek Into Darkness continues Kirk's attempt to live up to the whole Captain thing and again revolves around the Kirk/Spock relationship. The Enterprise crew go up against the excellently-named Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays a Starfleet Officer driven to terrorism by his anger at the Federation.

Cumberbatch is an excellent addition and does a cracking job as a madman with gravitas. He even seems to elevate the performances of the main cast when he's around. 

The acting is great in general and the cast continue their successful walk of the tightrope between inhabiting existing characters and bringing their own performances.

The visuals are excellent. Abrams really knows how to present a beautiful universe and it really feels established.

This movie moves quickly on a current of humour and action that keeps a smile on your face, doling out exciting scenes at a steady clip.

If traditional Trek fans were unhappy with this film's discordant relationship to the franchise, I wouldn't be inclined to dissuade them. Traditionally speaking, Trek's value has been in commenting on the present world (you know, like science fiction does). While there's some 9/11 terrorism military warmongering  lessons learned here, it's really a bangsplode piece.

There are also some bum story notes; there's a lot of moving parts that may put off some and I wanted more out of a particular alien race, as well as some mention of the sheer number of people who die. Of course, if you enjoy the game that I do of pretending actors are every character they've ever played, then this is a movie that involves both Sherlock Holmes and Robocop, and thar has to count for something.

Judged on its own merits, rather than measured against the rose-coloured achievements of the storied franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness is an enjoyable movie.