Great Follow-Up To The Stellar Original

Rating: 9/10 (7 March 2017)

I loved J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot of the franchise for the way it expertly brought back the characters Trek fans know and love (even roping in a whole new audience in the process). With "Into Darkness", Abrams and his crew again craft an exciting adventure, this time echoing some great Trek lore of the past.
For a basic plot summary, this film once again sees Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine), First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto), Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), and the rest of the crew manning the Enterprise. When terrorist James Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) detonates an explosive device in England, the Enterprise takes the lead in figuring out just exactly what is going on and proposing the best plan to set things straight again.
This is a tough film to review because of potential major spoilers, so the above was about as generic of a plot description as one can give (!). Truth be told, it is a very complex film that hearkens back to many themes running through multiple Original Series adventures.
From my point of view, though, the biggest reason that I enjoyed this film so much may be because it builds off the character development of the first to great a great stand-alone Trek story. It even uses the alt-Universe conceit put in place in the first one to weave in some "old friends" from the Original Series and its own feature films. Basically, the framework set up in the original is expertly built upon here to create a more stand-alone story with a more interesting villain.
The visuals are worthy of Trek science fiction, the dialogue is snappy and contains doses of humor at vital points, the acting is spot-on, and the soundtrack (from Michael Giacchino) is a treat.
Thus, "Into Darkness" continues this franchise in the right direction. I do not understand the criticisms that have been heaped upon the film (most specifically the overt references to previous Trek material), as I enjoyed nearly every moment of it.