Film Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

Director: J.J. Abrams

The second film in J.J. Abrams set of Star Trek movies (twelfth film overall), with the back story of how the crew coming together dealt with in the first film it gave this film the opportunity to be bolder and more complex in its storyline for the USS Enterprise to battle an intergalactic foe. The ensemble cast from the first film regathers with the additions of Alice Eve and Benedict Cumberbatch as the main antagonist. I have to point out that I watched the film in standard 2D and not IMAX 3D which I feel is superfluous when watching a film.

Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) and Captain Kirk (Chris Pine)

The crew of the USS Enterprise land in hot water when they reveal themselves to a planets primitive inhabitants, this is against the primary directive so Starfleet take the Enterprise from them. But when Starfleet is attacked first by a bomb planted within an archive facility in London and then a gunship attack at a an emergency meeting of the high ranking officers, it's down to Kirk and his crew to go after the attacker in the Enterprise.

Naturally the film is a glitzy CGI spectacular with impressive visuals and action scenes galore as the crew are placed in peril on numerous occasions. Although Chris Pine playing Kirk is the Captain and at the centre of most of the movie it is Zachary Quinto's role as Spock that is always the most enjoyable with his unknowing wit and timing. Karl Urban's role as Bones is one I'm never comfortable with, he plays the character with such obvious intensity that it borders very close to parody, although he does deliver a few clever comedy lines.

John Harrison/Kahn (Benedict Cumberbatch)

Benedicte Cumberbatch isn't your conventional villain with his slight figure but his convincing intellect makes him an intriguing adversary nonetheless. There is very little in the way of clever dialogue between Kahn and Kirk like you often see in other action films and this is a shame, Cumberbatch and Pine could really have worked some snappy lines at one another. The addition of Alice Eve made a plot device for later rather obvious and her contribution in the acting stakes can be summed in one scene where she needs to get changed in the same room as Kirk.

The story has a couple of moments that make possible endings very obvious to keen observers during the film, whilst an enjoyable film I felt they could have been grander and more ambitious with the plot. The end sequences were far too long and just as you felt the film was about to reach a reasonably satisfying climax it finds one more battle and in this case it was one too many. It's certainly a film franchise that still has some life in it for now.

2/4 Improvement on the first but expectations were higher