A Solid, Exciting Second Adventure; Cumberbatch is Awesome

Rating: 8/10 (22 November 2013)

It seems 2013 is the year of fan rage, as it seems pretty much every major summer blockbuster became the object of their unmitigated anger. While the others seemed to infuriate fans for changing details, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS appears to fall on the opposite end of the spectrum. People seem aggravated that the filmmakers were too eager to reference the source material (while at the same time, simplifying it for a wider audience). In the case of just about every major movie released this summer, I feel like I'm in the minority of people who actually enjoyed them, and that includes our second adventure in the new STAR TREK universe. It wasn't as good as the first film but it was a solid, exciting film and one of the best we're bound to get. It begins about a year after the events of the first film with Captain Kirk using his command of the U.S.S. Enterprise to violate just about every rule in Starfleet. When an unsanctioned mission to save a primitive race from extinction brings the wrath of his superiors and puts him at odds with Spock, Kirk nearly loses his command position before it every truly gets started, but a terrorist attack on a Starfleet facility in London leaves him with no time to dwell on it. After suffering a personal loss, Kirk makes it his mission to hunt down this terrorist, a man going by the name John Harrison, and bring him to justice. Pursuing the man deep into enemy territory, Kirk finally confronts him to discover that he's more than he appears to be and he might not be the largest threat on the horizon.
I really enjoyed INTO DARKNESS. It's not quite as fun on repeat viewings but there's still a lot I loved about this movie. For better or worse, our new STAR TREK is a more action-oriented franchise and the action is always bigger than life. I swear, J.J. Abrams primary mission in these movies is to put the Enterprise through as much pain and suffering as he can to get the money shots that'll put audiences in the seats. We get the Enterprise falling through an atmosphere, rising out of an ocean, rising above clouds, rocketing out of warp speedevery conceivably cool shot he can imagine, he'll find a way to fit it into the movie. And I can't complain because, frankly, the effects in this movie are so awesome that these shots look absolutely amazing. Of course, there are also plenty of brutal hand-to-hand combat and phaser battles because our new TREK isn't a mission of peace. Once relegated to the occasional away mission, action is the name of the game now. The production design, makeup effects, and visual effects are all top notch as you'd expect from a nearly $200 million budget. No one can argue that this movie doesn't look fantastic. It's one of my favorite things about the new franchise; we get an updated, modernized interpretation of a classic universe. Speaking of classic, this movie manages to shoehorn in Klingons, tribbles, and casual references to Harry Mudd and Nurse Chapel.
And here is where it seemed to get a lot of negative chatter. The writers and director have been accused of straight-up ripping off STAR TREK II because (and I refuse to consider this a spoiler seeing as how Benedict Cumberbatch is credited as the character on just about any cast list you find) Khan Noonien Singh returns and the movie makes more than a few loving references to THE WRATH OF KHAN. To give my opinion, no, I am not outraged about all the little homages scattered throughout the movie and I believed the plot was different enough from anything done in WRATH OF KHAN to avoid accusations of laziness. Aside from a major sequence near the end of the film (now THAT is a spoiler and I won't ruin it) that felt a little too on-the-nose and was resolved way, way too simply, I had no complaints in that regard. In fact, I thought Cumberbatch was an awesome Khan. He was sinister, intelligent, and an intimidating presence with his cold, calculating demeanor. He gave the constant impression that Khan was a powerful man and always in control of the situation, even when he shouldn't be. He was not as eccentric in the role as Ricardo Montalban in STAR TREK II, but I think he gives an equally powerful performance. You believe this man would slaughter every man and woman in his path to achieve his goals. Alice Eve is another addition to the cast as a weapons expert who invites herself aboard the Enterprise on its manhunt while hiding her own agenda (dodging some more minor spoilers here), but she doesn't do much. I don't know, maybe next time, I guess.
If fans want something to complain about, there're better things to complain about. Despite not having watched any of the series regularly in years, I'm pretty sure the Enterprise isn't capable of flying within an atmosphere (which it does twice here), much less landing and taking off. How does the Enterprise go from Earth orbit to the heart of Klingon space in ridiculously fast time? How did Khan teleport across so many systems? Was another high- speed space jump sequence really necessary? I guess it must've been so popular in the first film they felt the need to do it again and up the ante. How was the construction of a warship kept secret in the middle of a bustling stat system? Why was the Klingon moon already destroyed despite not occurring until STAR TREK VI? Although I guess that last one could be copped up to the whole reimagined timeline bit. Regardless, the new franchise is one of mass appeal and, understanding that we probably won't see a STAR TREK film like the old days, this one's pretty good for what it is.