Well acted, well cast, doesn't quite live up to potential

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2014)

Star Trek: Into Darkness is a well cast, well-acted, well directed film, which still manages to disappoint at nearly every turn. Christopher Pine, Zachary Quinto, and (especially) Karl Urban, as Kirk, Spock, and Bones respectively, do no disservice to their namesakes. Pine's Kirk is confident, macho, intelligent, and brash, often to a fault. Quinto portrays everyone's favorite Vulcan Spock quite well, he is calm and collected, and there is weight, and implied wisdom behind his words. Karl Urban plays Dr. Leonard McCoy so convincingly, with such curmudgeon , even when he quips " Damn it Jim I'm a doctor not a ______" it feels real, not like some shoe horned catch-phrase.
The film is very well paced, the beats are exciting and interesting, and the film never feels boring despite its considerable length. The action is expertly choreographed, from Star Ships blasting each other from orbit, to Kirk speeding down the corridors of the Enterprise. This is all enhanced by the magnificent special effects. High quality effects are really just par for the course now for any decently budgeted Hollywood film, but even conceding that, it still looks fantastic. The score is adequate, but compared with previous Star Trek film scores, it really pales in comparison. In the past Star Trek has employed world class composers such as Leonard Rosenman and Jerry Goldsmith, a sharp contrast to Into Darkness composer Michael Giacchino whose credits include " Cars" and " Ratatouille".
Star Trek has always been overwhelmingly story driven. It is, at its best, cerebral, thought provoking science fiction. This is not the case for Star Trek : into Darkness. The plot is predictable, to an almost comical extent. Few films in the last decade can claim to be as strictly formulaic. All the standard action movie tropes are there, they really pulled out all the cliché's this time around, no pulled punches. The result of all this is, the final product feels much closer to a throw away summer blockbuster, more akin to Transformers or the latest Die hard than anything recognizable as Star Trek.