Although Star Trek Into Darkness is one of the year's better films, that's not really saying much, because 2013 has been a pretty bad year for movies. If you're willing to negate plot and characters for the spectacular action that the original film delivered on, you'll most likely enjoy this. However, the characters have become blander and sillier in this second installment to a great reboot, and the explosions often overshadow them completely. Don't get me wrong, this is a fun movie... but not an objectively good one.
Paying epic homage to the best Trek film of all time (1982's The Wrath of Khan), Darkness introduces a new villain-- who is later revealed to be the younger version of Ricarado Montalban's Khan from the Original Series. In this film, Khan is once again trying to save the lives of his crew, who have remained frozen in capsules after the Eugenics War. Khan, of course, is a superman who has been genetically engineered to possess enhanced intelligence, strength, stamina, and healing powers.
An evil Starfleet captain finds Khan's pods, and revives only him, in order to orchestrate a war with the Klingons (who no longer look like the heavily makeup-clad humans of old) in order to try out some new fancy weapons. Khan, being the badass he is, had his own plans, and smuggled his crew away using the torpedoes that the captain had him build. Here's where Kirk, Spock, Bones, and the rest of the peeps come in: After several terrorist attacks are staged, they chase Khan to the Klingon homeworld, violating the Neutral Zone (and thereby laying the grounds for war). Unknowingly, Kirk captures Khan, and the two are forced to team up to defeat the evil captain.
As is with any science fiction movie, the visuals often run the risk of overshadowing the plot and characters, a little more so here than in 2009's Star Trek. I think there are about five climactic battles. But fortunately, the witty banter that has made this franchise endure is still there. Uhura and Spock have a few spats, which is fun to watch, seeing as he can't really get pissed off. Scotty resigns his post, but returns to save the day in spectacular fashion. And Kirk gets to live through the EXACT SAME sequence from The Wrath of Khan, but this time it's him behind the glass. I won't get into it, as it would spoil the entire film... but this is really required viewing. Also, there's an epic tribble cameo in the film, just to appease the die-hard fanboys who would get all butthurt if it didn't make little nods of the head to the Original Series.
Of course, Benedict Cumerbatch isn't quite able to live up to the big shoes left behind by the original Khan, but that's to be expected. He's a pretty bland actor, and (here's a minor personal bias for me) I feel like he was cast only to please the fangirls. The rest of the cast performs admirably, but the finest moments of the movie are when the characters are experiencing their own little interpersonal crises, not battling atop flying forklifts or running around active volcanoes. And yes, there's a healthy amount of lens flare, as always.
So, where does Darkness rank in the Trek filmography? Well, nothing will ever topple Khan from its sacred position as the height of the saga, and it's certainly not as good as Star Trek, the fantastic reboot that, although featuring the same characters as Darkness, was a lot fresher and more exciting. But I would put Darkness in fifth place easily, perhaps tied with The Search for Spock. F**k The Next Generation, Jean-Luc Picard is a pain in the ass.
Altogether, Star Trek Into Darkness (I feel like there should be a colon there) is a fun time at the movies for Star Trek fans, but is unlikely to please the uninitiated. I hardly remember the movie now, which disappoints me, as the first was packed with hundreds of unforgettable scenes-- not only in space, but between the characters. I was hoping that this reboot franchise would live up to the standard set by the original films, but it's not quite there yet. I suppose super-blood isn't any more ridiculous than traveling back in time to get some humpback whales, but this movie takes its silliness way too seriously.
Final Score for Into Darkness? 6/10 stars. This movie is bland and unmemorable, and often makes me feel like a Christopher Nolan-style reboot OF A REBOOT. As the title suggests, it's a lot darker, a lot moodier, and is filled with Inception-style BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAs. The imposing skyline of future San Francisco is a little too overdone, and the final sequence where (spoilers) Khan's ship levels the entire skyline verges on Transformers-level destruction. It's not bad, but to be honest, it's not that good either.
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