"Star Trek Into Darkness" Boldy Goes Where We Have Gone Before, and Succeeds

The voyages of the Starship U.S.S Enterprise continues in Star Trek Into Darkness. Based on the original Star Trek series created by Gene Roddenberry, the film follows Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) going on a manhunt for an AWOL Starfleet officer named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), after he made an attack on the Starfleet Command base in San Francisco and killed many Starfleet officers. Its up to Kirk and his crew including First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto), Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Ensign Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Lieutenant  Dr. Bones McCoy (Karl Urban), Lieutenant Commander Scotty (Simon Pegg),  Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu (John Cho), and including new recruit Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve), to search for Harrison and to bring him to justice for his crimes. Out of this simple yet exciting set up, the film never disappoints by providing us with clever twists, incredible action scenes, and enjoyable characters. 



Pretty much the entire cast absolutely nails their performances and they capture the true essence of the original cast members while also putting a new spin on them. Chris Pine as Kirk could not be more enjoyable. Like the predecessor film from 2009, Pine knows how to capture William Shatner's likeness in performance while also putting in his own style in the character. The character himself as well is very entertaining, determined, believable, written well, and I like his character arc about him trying to be a more responsible and protective captain of his crew. It leads to good character development as well as good payoffs. Zachary Quinto as Spock is pretty much the same as Pine as Kirk. This shows true when Spock goes through his own arc on learning how to embrace his human half instead of always going by the codes and morale of his Vulcan beliefs. Quinto manages to give a believable performance as a young Spock. Benedict Cumberbatch as the  film's villain John Harriosn is all around threatening, powerful, and villainous. Cumberbatch gives a chilling performance that probably should be out of place of the tone the film is going for, but it is still refreshing to see as it helps up the ante for the film. Karl Urban owns as Bones. He captures DeForrest Kelly's performance to a tee and he steals every scene that he is in when he is saying his comedic one-liners that only Dr. Bones would blurt out. The character himself is very likable, and I would go as far as saying he is as likable as the original Bones. This character is a good example of how much the writers and actors care much for the original source material and how much they want to represent it while at the same time giving something to newcomers that they would be interested in. Simon Pegg also owns as his role of Scotty. The comedic scenes that he is involved in are very funny without going on for too long, unlike the last film I reviewed on the blog. On top of that both the actor and character shares great chemistry with Chris Pine's Kirk. The scenes involving the two of them sell perfectly. I am not too familiar about the original Uhura played by Nichelle Nichols, I'm guessing Zoe Saldana's performance is pretty original, but I enjoy it all right as well as the character herself. Her character arc inludes having a complicated relationship with Spock, which should be a groaner, but the arguments Uhura and Spock have with each other are very funny to listen to, especially considering the fact that Spock is a Vulcan that has trouble keeping up with human emotions, female human emotions to be exact! Chekov and Sulu are pretty minor in this film but both share very memorable scenes still making them likable. Anton Yelchin and John Cho pull off the characters well. Then there is the incredibly beautiful human Aphrodite, Alice Eve, as Dr. Carol Marcus who turns out to be a fun, enjoyable, as well as adorable. I love British accents from pretty woman! I probably went a little too unprofessional there. 




A lot of the action scenes are beyond incredible as well as the visual effects. They are exciting, thrilling, and they kept me off the edge my seat desperately wanting to know what is going to happen next. The scene where the Enterprise Vengeance crash lands onto San Francisco looks unbelievable, making the scene one of the grandest effects to be ever seen in a Star Trek film. Director J.J. Abrams, returning as director from the 2009 predecessor simply titled Star Trek, does his job of creating his exciting and new vision of the world people are so familiar with. It sort of gets me hyped for what he is going to do with the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII! P!lus, LENS FLARES AHOY! I do not know what is up with J.J. Abrams' fascination with using lens flares. To be honest though, even though a lot of people might be distracted or a little annoyed by it, I really enjoy the lens flares. Might be overused, but I think only Abrams knows how to make them look cool and give a lot of scenes the tone they are going for. 



Some of you might be curious why I put "Boldy Goes Where We have Gone Before, and Suceeds" in the title of the review. Well to be truthful, the story of the film is a little familiar to not only something related to Star Trek, but to other films in general. That and it is a very simple story, nothing very complicated. And also they do homages that may remind you of another certain famous Star Trek film. Not going to say which one, because that would be spoiling, but those of you who are Star Trek fans probably know what I am talking about. But the little homages in my opinion are kind of clever, with this film being set in a parallel universe of the original series. So to me they make very much sense, and on top of that the scenes are acted very well and they give much respect to whatever they are referencing. But those die hard fans who might be a little cheesed off by it, do not worry I totally understand where some of you might be coming from. I just personally enjoyed as well I thought it being clever. And even though the story is very simple and easy to follow, it still is very entertaining and also very well paced. It still is a good story and on top of that we get to be entertained by a lot of these characters that are well written and also well acted. Star Trek Into Darkness still manages to offer a lot of good aspects, including the story which is till engaging and entertaining. The story is solid, the acting is great, the action scenes are great, the writing is clever, and it is directed well by J.J. Abrams. I have not seen the 2009 film in a while and I probably should have before going to see this film so I can compare better and decide which film is better. So far I can definitely say I like it just as equal or even a little better. It was just worth to watch, making it a film that seems like it offers a little, but offers a whole lot, and boldly succeeds. 

GRADE: P+



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