IIb or Not IIb

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2013)

I guess the secret(s) are out. When IMDb reports major film spoilers just in the credits, it's safe to say: few surprises are left with Star Trek Into Darkness.
But, that doesn't mean I have to (or will) spoil anything. The fun for me was finding out the few surprises along the way, enjoying some new twists and reminiscing about the Star Trek film franchise's past. Sort of past, that is.
The movie looked gorgeous and mercifully, Abrams scaled back tenfold on the lens flares. I'll pause for a minute. I never actually noticed them until I heard a few (dozen) complaints about the overuse of them in the 2009 film. Recently, while getting hyped for this, I revisited that film and I can see now with open eyes. Or sore eyes; there had to be 300 of them! Here, in 2013, he's learned his lesson. For the most part, anyways.
Aside from the great cinematography and special effects that went hand-in-hand, the score was rich, though not as great as the 2009 tracks. But, in contrast, the actors really became their roles and were much more fleshed out, with the exception of Uhura, than the previous installment.
Unfortunately, the problems I had, though few, were big enough for me not to escape. The plot staggered and never felt completed. The movie seemed to be all over the place at points and left enough black hole sized wrongs that I could not ignore. To state them would be the spoiler I advised I would not share. Also, the pacing was far off at points and the movie certainly went on much longer than it should have. And finally, the villain was just incrediblyblah. I will simply not compare this villain to the one everyone whose seen this knows who I'm referring to, but that other villain was ten times the character that Benedict Cumberbatch played here.
Despite the step downs from the "original" 2009 near-masterpiece, the movie is a lot of fun and absolutely funny, thanks to Bones and Scotty. The movie also has a huge amount of heart at points, especially one scene towards the (overly long) finale that I couldn't help but choke up at.
Jim Kirk has since settled in his role as the Enterprise captain and is trying his best to make sure everyone knows he doesn't follow the rules – any rule, that is, when a new threat emerges in the form of one strong male. Apparently, this one villain can take on the entire Star Fleet without any assistance. But, luckily, we have plenty of disposable and expendable officers to attempt to match this one bad guy.
Along the way, we get more depth of the bromance between Kirk and Spock and that's a lot of fun. We get some absolute laugh-out-loud moments, terrific battles, a whole lot of people running all over the place and an unwelcomed/overused cameo.
So, as you can tell, from every couple of positives I find, more equally puzzling and negative opinions. That said, it did range above the 5-star dead even average to 6 stars out of 10.
I think it's going to be a must-see on BluRay. And repeatedly, until the (hopefully more fleshed out) Part III hits theatres.