Was exciting to watch, but I'm not happy about it

Rating: 4/10 (23 May 2013)

I'm a huge Star Trek fan and with a few exceptions I enjoyed most of Into Darkness while I watched it. There were a few scenes that try to call back to previous Star Trek movies, and one in particularly is howlingly bad. I actually laughed in the middle of the theater when the big emotional climax of the movie was happening because it just was so cheesy compared to its inspiration.
There are plot holes galore. No need for me to go into detail on them but needless to say some of the things that happen in this movie are just stupid and make no sense. Without giving anything away, it seems that both Starfleet and the Klingons have very lax security protocols because people keep sneaking into places way too easily.
Also, while I love the look of the Enterprise and its bridge, the overall production design doesn't give a sense that all these places that supposedly are on the same ship, are actually, you know, on the same ship. Engineering is this gigantic open vaguely industrial space, with nothing in common with the design of the bridge or hallways. Nobody walks from a hallway, through a door and into engineering. They go through a hallway and then after a cut they're in engineering. I'm all for giving the innards of the ship a more industrial or lived-in feel but they just don't feel like they're actually on the ship. The warp core is yet another room with lots of metal and dangly wires, with essentially two giant spark plugs in the middle. At one point, a character has to kick one of these spark plugs back into place!
I could go on, but yeah, it'd be a dissertation. Overall it's a mostly fun movie with some fun homages to Star Trek of old, great effects & music. But try not to think about it too hard or you'll end up irritated, like me.