Fulfilling..

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2013)

"Star Trek: Into Darkness" is the highly anticipated sequel J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot of the "Star Trek" franchise. After the events of "Star Trek" the crew of the USS "Enterprise" have returned to their regular routine. They are sent to a distant planet to observe an alien race. Their mission goes terribly wrong as a natural disaster threatens the lives of the planet's indigenous civilization. In efforts to protect the planet, the ship's first officer Spock tries to control the situation, but his life is soon in grave danger. Captain James T. Kirk is forced to disobey the "Prime Directive" to safe Spock's life and exposes the enterprise to the planet's civilization. Upon returning to the starfleet's headquarters, Kirk is stripped of his position as ship captain, but is appointed as the first officer to admiral Montgomery Pike, who takes Kirk's place as commanding officer of the "Enterprise". Parallel to this, an unknown terrorist is plotting an attack that not only threatens the safety of the starfleet, but the entire "Galactic Federation"
Despite director J.J. Abrams overly stylistic direction, I immensely enjoyed "Star Trek: Into Darkness". The awe-inspiring action sequences gave me chills and Benedict Cumberbatch's performance was excellent. His voice literally made his character so great. When I went out of the theater, I wasn't sure if I liked the film, but now after some consideration I have come to the conclusion that I loved it. Even though it is action packed, it still provides a great story and plenty of substance to keep the viewer engrossed all the way through the film (though it dragged on a bit close to the end). Often times big budget action films have mediocre acting, again this is not the case with this film. The entire cast provides good performances, but Benedict Cumberbatch stole the show.
I don't have a whole lot to say about this film other than it had great special effects, great action, great pacing and great characters. The only downside was that towards the end the film dragged on a bit. Other than that, "Star Trek: Into Darkness" is another win on the behalf of director, J.J. Abrams.