Star Trek Into Darkness
{4.5/5} “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
Kirk has disobeyed the rules one too many times — this time to save Spock’s life — and is busted down to commander. Then a man named John Harrison blows up a Starfleet facility. The facility is not what it seemed, and the man is not who he seems. Harrison flees to the Klingon homeworld and the Enterprise is ordered to hunt him down.
Star Trek Into Darkness, released in 2013
It’s a sequel to Star Trek. I saw it in 3D but wish I hadn’t — I don’t like things flying at me in 3D.
It’s without question a great action movie. Is it a great science fiction movie or a great Star Trek movie? I’m less sure about that. Although there’s lots to like, I didn’t love it as much as the previous movie.
Certainly it was highly enjoyable the first time seeing it, despite the occasional pieces of debris flying at me out of the screen. Parts are funny, and there are numerous references to past Star Trek adventures.
The character of John Harrison is perhaps a bit more interesting than the average action movie bad guy, but this movie is very much good guys versus bad guys.
Michael Giacchino’s (Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol) soundtrack sounds a lot like the one for the previous Star Trek movie. I love the previous soundtrack, and it’s possible that there are interesting subtleties if one listens to this one on its own, but it seemed a bit too similar the first time around.
The actors we expect are back from the previous movie. Chris Pine plays Kirk, Zachary Quinto plays Spock, and Karl Urban plays McCoy. Zoe Saldana plays Uhura. Simon Pegg plays Scott, John Cho plays Sulu, and Anton Yelchin plays Chekov.
Bruce Greenwood reprises his role as Christopher Pike.
Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) plays John Harrison.
Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) plays Carol Marcus. Peter Weller (Screamers) plays Admiral Marcus.
The movie was directed by J. J. Abrams (Super 8).
Abrams will likely not be directing the next Star Trek movie, because — in a stunning turn of events — he’s directing the next Star Wars movie.
Spoiler alert
I was ambivalent about the repetition of events from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Although it was done in a clever way, on the whole I’d prefer they (boldly) go somewhere new rather than repeat what’s come before. I knew that there was no way Kirk was going to die, so that scene didn’t have the same impact.