A Voyage Where All Movies Have Gone Before

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2013)

"Star Trek Into Darkness" is the second installment in the reboot from director J.J. Abrams. As summer "blockbuster" movies go, it is entertaining. And like most of these movies, it's slim on story. If not lazy.
Abrams and writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman take us for a ride that seems all too familiar. (Spoiler Alert) "Into The Darkness" is the third iteration of "The Wrath of Khan." No Ricardo Montalban, but Benedict Cumbertbatch as the bio-engineered super human. (Actually, the character Khan first appeared in the original TV series episode 'Space Seed.') I suppose the director and writers can call this film an "homage." But this is a reboot of the series, and you'd think the brain trust would find another plot line. Trek fans would probably find the storyline just fine.
Kirk (Pine), Spock (Quinto), Dr. McCoy (Urban), Scotty (Pegg), Sulu (Cho), Uhura (Saldana), and Chekov (Yelchin) embody the style and mannerisms of the original series cast (Shatner, Nimoy et al.) even better now. They seem comfortable together. And the writers have brought back much of the humor and banter (for instance, Spock and McCoy) that made the original series fun. To that end, "Star Trek Into The Darkness" works. This ensemble cast is sailing at warp speed.
Now that the U.S.S. Enterprise has run its course of old story lines, perhaps now, if there is another Abram's Star Trek, their five year mission in space will actually go where no man has gone before.