Star Trek Into Darkness (****)

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Zoe Saldanha, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Alice Eve, Peter Weller, Leonard Nimoy

Seen: 2013 – Exact date was lost in some crack

**** Out of ****

I was blown away by J.J. Abrams’ first Star Trek movie in 2009, and he has gone ahead and made a worthy sequel that I like so much, the two movies have now lowered my opinion of the Star Wars movies. The visual effects in Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness is fantastic, the acting by the entire cast is great, and the action and tension are real and nail-biting in imaginative and exhilarating set-pieces. When I initially went to see this movie, the 3D projector broke during a crucial (and rather lengthy) action scene, and I’ve only caught this scene on Blu-ray recently. Now that I’ve seen it in all its pulse-pounding glory, I am catching up with this review, which until now has fallen into a bit of a crack.  J.J. Abrams is not even a big Star Trek fan, he will be handing over the reins of this new franchise to go direct Star Wars VII, but he has made two incredibly entertaining movies here.

Star Trek Into Darkness starts with a fantastic chase sequence, Kirk (Pine) and Bones (Urban) running for their lives from an indigenous species on some planet as Spock (Quinto) attempts to render inert the volcano that will cause their end. Their mission was to save this civilisation, but their prime directive is to remain undetected, so as to not influence the civilisation’s culture. In the chaos of their escape and Spock being endangered, Kirk ignores the prime directive, and the natives spot the Enterprise, which they are soon shown to have adopted as their new object of worship, the old being discarded. Because of this, Kirk loses command of the Enterprise, and Admiral Pike (Greenwood) is reinstated. The movie then jumps to a couple having trouble with a sickly child, and the man who shows up to help them forces the father’s hand for his child’s live – and the father bombs a Starfleet facility in London.

When Kirk, Spock, Pike, and Fleet Admiral Alexander Marcus (Weller), among others, meet to discuss this bombing, John Harrison (Cumberbatch) attacks the meeting, killing Pike before getting away and fleeing to the Klingon home-world of Kronos. Admiral Marcus sends the Enterprise to apprehend Harrison, arming the Enterprise with 72 prototype torpedoes, which contain much more than just explosives, and after an impressive firefight on Kronos between the crew of the Enterprise, Harrison, and the Klingon, Harrison surrenders, joining the crew on the Enterprise. This all turns out to be a gift-horse that should rather have been looked in the mouth though, as Harrison is much more than anyone at first believes, and far more dangerous.

Star Trek Into Darkness is fantastic entertainment with a great story and high tension. J.J. Abrams has certainly crafted a brilliant science fiction action movie here, upping the stakes for his own Star Wars to come. The cast of this movie, as in 2009’s Star Trek, work perfectly, with everyone getting to play their small but integral part. I cannot wait for more of this, Star Trek is alive, and very well.