Not as Dark as it Could Have Been, but a Worthy Follow-Up

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2013)

J.J. Abrams brings a visual flair and storytelling experience not equal to most other directors. He has a forte for character development, instilling empathy for the characters, visual style, intense action scenes, suspense, etc. This style + Star Trek = Very Good Star Trek Movies. I attended a double feature so was able to watch "Star Trek" and then "Star Trek Into Darkness". When watching the first one again, I was reminded how good this movie actually is. As I said before, I've never really been a Star Trek fan, I dislike the style and shape of the Enterprise, and the phasers always looked lame to me. Those two things still being true, "Star Trek" is absolutely awesome, and the phasers and ship are as cool as they could ever be in this adaptation. The intro and back stories to Kirk and Spock are brilliant and I can't imagine much more of a perfect cast for the entire crew.
The plot (POSSIBLE PLOT SPOILER): The Enterprise crew is on a mission to help avenge and apprehend a mysterious perpetrator who is responsible for mass casualties and damage to Starfleet.
The review: The second movie doesn't start with backstories or insights to character's pasts. It starts with a bang, and we find a couple characters in a scene reminiscent of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Bones (Urban) and Kirk (Pine) are outrunning a tribe of aliens after they stole something sacred from their temple to try and create a diversion so that Spock (Quinto) and company can stop a volcano from decimating the alien's homeland. After this series of events, Kirk and Spock have some relationship and personality issues to deal with such as overconfidence, friendship and other human and moral characteristics.
Some acts of violence against Starfleet and some significant leaders occur next, and the perpetrator is a mystery man. The search and apprehension for this villain is the basic plot of the rest of the movie. There are some intense action sequences, some good character development, and many scenes of the crew trying to keep the Enterprise afloat as usual. Also on par as usual is Bad Robot Production's consistent rocking soundtrack/score that drives the film, even when there is no dialogue you can feel the emotion in the sound. Without giving too much away, the ending of the film has a scene with Kirk (Pine) which felt very much like the finale of "Lost" where Matthew Fox selflessly helps his friends, awesome on "Lost", awesome here as well.
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