Star Trek Into Darkness

 

Expectations:

If you’ve ever read my blog, it’s likely that you know about my great love for J. J. Abrams. Some may even call it “an obsession.” However, as someone who is often asked for his opinion on entertainment issues, I believe this obsession is healthy! Regardless of my love for Abrams, 2009’s Star Trek was absolutely brilliant, and I believe that most people would agree with me. The recreation of the classic Star Trek characters was done so, so well, and I don’t think it really received the praise that it deserved. Of course, as good as the first film was, my expectations for Star Trek Into Darkness were very high, and I honestly believed that Abrams could pull it off. On top of that, he kept almost every detail of the film secret. There is nothing more exciting to me than a director hiding details! Really, there was not even a small piece of me that thought this film could be bad… AT ALL!

Plot:
Because of the secrecy of the trailers and the news, I will avoid saying too much about the plot of Star Trek Into Darkness. I will lead off by saying that, after watching the film, I don’t really understand the broad title, so don’t try to find answers in the “Into Darkness.” With that being said, I thought the storyline, along with the twists and turns, was great. Abrams managed to fit a lot of happenings into a short (for a blockbuster) two hour run time, and that made me happy, because I was able to go to bed at 2:30 on Wednesday night, after the midnight premiere. I will say that there were a few extremities, with regard to the events of the film, which were a bit over the top. However, the entire Star Trek name encompasses nothing but over-the-top extremities, so it is to be expected.

Characters:
The only real problem that I had with Star Trek Into Darkness was the lack of screen time for some of the main characters. Somehow, in his first Star Trek film, Abrams was able to create a back-story for every single character from the original Star Trek cast and come up with a time-travelling storyline featuring two Spocks (all in just over two hours!). In the sequel, it seemed like situations were created just so the characters would have something to do. In particular, John Cho’s Sulu and Anton Yelchin’s Chekov just didn’t have anything to do, and I like each of those characters, so it was tough for me get over that. Very few of the characters were BAD, but many were a bit underutilized, in my opinion.

Negatives:
The only real negative in this film was the random addition of Peter Weller’s Marcus. While the character was important, I just didn’t like the fact that he became SO important SO quickly.

Positives:
If you've seen 2009's Star Trek, you know just how great the entire cast of this film turned out to be. Honestly, there were no low points in the casting of the first film, which is so so so rare when dealing with a remake of any kind. If you take a great cast and use that entire cast in a sequel, you are most likely going to get success in the category of "characters." That was certainly the case with Into Darkness. Every returning cast member was just fantastic, and I really thought Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto excelled in furthering the relationship between Kirk and Spock. This film leaves you with no doubt that you care about both of these great characters. In addition to the returning cast members, Benedict Cumberbatch's turn as bad-guy John Harrison was brilliant. Filmmakers are getting so good at creating villains, and I'm quite glad.

Conclusion:
Iron Man 3 may have been a good start to the summer movie season, but it's highly unlikely that any other May film will shine quite like Star Trek Into Darkness. A successful cast and storyline usually make for a good film. Throw in the great ending and the graphics, and Into Darkness is a GREAT film! With J. J. Abrams jumping ship to helm the next Star Wars film, the future of the Star Trek film series is in question, but we can all hope that whatever comes next is somewhere close to the greatness that was Star Trek Into Darkness. If you haven't seen 2009's Star Trek, watch it! If you don't really care for science fiction films, watch this one! With the great plot and great characters, you will forget that space is even a part of the equation. I promise!!! I give Star Trek Into Darkness 3.93 out of 5 stars.