Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

Plot:  Picking up after the events of the 2009 original, Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) finds himself stripped of his command after violating the Prime Directive, turned in by his own first officer Spock (Zachary Quinto).  However, when a mysterious former Starfleet commander named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) goes rogue and destroys a Starfleet archive in London and then attacks Starfleet Academy itself in San Francisco, Kirk is pegged by Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller) to track Harrison down and kill him.  Yet on this mission, the crew of the starship Enterprise will discover nothing is as it seems and that a threat can come from anywhere.

Review:  Move over Wrath of Khan there's a new dog in town!  To say I went into Star Trek Into Darkness with high expectations is an understatement the size of William Shatner's ego.  Aside from Man of Steel it was my most anticipated movie of the summer.  Well I'm happy to say that director J.J. Abrams and crew not only met my expectations but surpassed them. 
     From the opening scene where Kirk and McCoy (Karl Urban) are escaping a planet about to be engulfed by a volcano, to the final epic showdown in Earth's orbit, Star Trek Into Darkness grabs you by the throat and never lets go.  Punctuated by Michael Giacchino's awesome score,  Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof have crafted a phenomenal script that's worthy of the Star Trek franchise.  Darkness packs more action punch than a Romulan ale yet it is also surprisingly intimate.  Two relationships in particular stand out, the one between Kirk and Spock and the one between Kirk and mentor Admiral Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood).  Star Trek Into Darkness made a concerted effort to expand the relationship between Spock and Kirk.  It explores the questions of what does friendship actually mean?  Who can we rely on in a crisis?  What is the nature of sacrifice?  Pine is the perfect foil to Quinto's logical mind, while Quinto is the perfect foil to Pine's ego.  As for the relationship between Kirk and Pike it is definitely a father/son dynamic.  Despite Kirk's brashness and tendency to impulse, Pike is constantly trying to reign in Kirk's antics.  Kirk clearly looks up to Pike and it makes Kirk's pursuit for Harrison that much more personal.
     In many ways, Star Trek Into Darkness is not just the actual physical darkness of a violent act, but the darkness within each of the crew.  Kirk and Spock especially are wrestling with their own personal scars.  Darkness addresses what it means to confront those scars and rise above them.
     Pine eats up the screen as the cocky self assured Captain Kirk, finally coming into his own and owning the character fully.  Chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott's character (Simon Pegg) is heavily expanded here, supplying most of the comic relief.  However, there is a strong moral fiber to Scotty that shows itself early on in the film and is quite poignant.  Unfortunately, the rest of the crew kind of gets shortchanged in this film especially Karl Urban's "Bones" McCoy who I really liked in the first movie.  However, John Cho's Sulu does have a memorable moment where he gets to sit in the captain's chair for a bit.  Alive Eve was sexy as Dr. Carol Marcus, however she was used sparingly in the film.  Her scenes did have significant impact however and I'm excited to see where her character progresses in the next edition.  And at this point I wish they would just drop the whole relationship between Spock and Uhura (Zoe Saldana).  It's just annoying.
     And what can I say about Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison?  His real "identity" is probably something you can intuit early on or even if you have a passing association with the Internet.  However, I won't spoil it for anyone here. Suffice it to say he blew me away.  His physical prowess is only surpassed by his cleverness and heightened intelligence and cruelty.  In many ways he is the ultimate dark version of Kirk and the byplay between Cumberbatch and Pine is a thing of beauty.  Some of the scenes are just dripping with tension.  If anything I wish there was MORE of Cumberbatch in the film.
     In the end Star Trek Into Darkness proves to be a phenomenal film and one of those rare instances where the sequel is actually better than the original.

My rating:  9.5/10