Trekking Into Darkness

My familiarity with Star Trek is unfortunately, very much restricted to the recent feature films and naturally I'm not in any position to understand whatever allusions to the TV Series that may or may not have been in the J.J Abrams' series.

I massively enjoyed 2009's Star Trek. From the breakneck pacing, the casting, Giacchino's score, and yes, even the lens flares. So naturally, expectation was high for a second outing.

Star Trek Into Darkness follows the crew of the enterprise facing one of their own agent, a man named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) who held a personal vendetta against Starfleet. Driven by very much the same emotion USS Enterprise's Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) decides to take up arms against Harrison, an act fully sanctioned by the Starfleet leader, Marcus.  However, Harrison turns out to be not the man they thought he was, and there is a far more sinister plan abound.

Retaining the first film's wonderful breakneck pacing, this Trek opens rather spectacularly with an exciting action sequence on an alien planet which put Mr. Spock at the heart of an exploding volcano which seemingly will become his final resting place. But of course, Kirk, once again break all the rules to save his (now) pointy eared buddy.  Their dynamic was the heart of the first film and in my opinion, the most interesting thing from the first film. Here, that dynamic works wonderfully in setting up the film's climactic scene.

The action sequences are very well staged, and the team seems to be getting very confident. One change, I enjoyed the most has to be the new "warp effect" which distorts and elongate the Enterprise just before it jumps into warp, leaving trails of lights , like a slingshot.

Not so successful is the introduction of Carol Marcus, General Marcus's daughter who joins the enterprise to perform an investigation of its cargo. To be honest, I think her existence is solely so they could put the infamous "lingerie scene" that was in one of the trailers.

SPOILER!

The film's second and third act are where things start to steer off course, despite the emotional climax. The revelation of General Marcus's sinister plan which sets him up as the film's villain, which needs to be defeated by The Enterprise's Crew with help from John Harrison (revealed as classic villain Khan).

Now, the first Trek film already re-booted Kirk/Spock dynamic, why not reboot Khan as an ally rather than a villain? He'll make wonderful addition to the Enterprise, if he's not so mad and zealous that is.

The film's ending also cheated the emotional climax by providing a very simple solution to resurrect someone from death (A"why don't they just" plot hole).

Its flaws aside, this is still a very entertaining film with wonderful mastery of its elements. Everyone is much more mature this time around. With Abrams confirmed for Star Wars Episode VII, and taking into account his direction for the two Trek films, It is exciting to imagine how his Star Wars going to turn out.

And one last thing, despite all the good things about the film, they still need to work on getting better posters.

3.5/5