Entertaining but flawed, enjoyable overall

Rating: 6/10 (29 March 2015)

I was actually kind of excited about this movie. As a kid I'd loved the Star Wars movies and knew them well but had never seen anything to do with the Star Trek universe. It's always been a mysterious world to me. Of course I've seen plenty of little snippets from the TV show, but only enough to know the very basics. The new Star Trek reboot seemed to be getting a lot of praise and I did find the previous film pretty enjoyable with lots of potential for good sequels.
Into Darkness was very disappointing at first. It tries too hard to be dramatic and funny at the same time. It's paper-thin. I never liked J.J. Abrams' style - I thought Lost was awful and avoided it as much as possible although my family watched it. His characters are always arguing, staring at each other, sweating. They're always emotional, frustrated, flawed. The problem is they're always dumb. They don't think or solve problems. Or if they do, they do it in a very controlled way that is dictated by the script. It's hard to describe but everything he does seems far too controlled. I can't believe they're letting him reboot Star Wars as well, I think it's one of the worst movie-related decisions I've ever heard of but then that's another story...
Once the actual plot of Into Darkness got going, I was more interested. At least it doesn't hold back much. It's like a kid playing with their toys - the good guys are nearly going to die but then something happens and they make a comeback and the bad guys escape and so on. Everything is done at the very last second. Everything is on the line, nothing is halfway. Spaceships can appear out of nowhere, chases can go on from one location to another, people can change sides or reveal secrets that change the situation.
But also, the physics is what a 6-year-old might expect to happen in space. We hear the spaceships. As soon as a spaceship's power goes out, it immediately starts falling towards the nearest planet regardless of whether it's in orbit or not. Kirk tries to kick something into place but he keeps kicking it at the wrong angle which had me nearly yelling at the screen. There is warp speed travel and after an early, unexpected stop, the heroes are a whole 300 thousand kilometres away from their destination. That's a tiny distance in terms of space, it only takes light one second to travel that far. So really, they're right on top of their destination and probably should have actually exited warp even earlier. These are obvious, huge plot flaws. They are distracting because they are easy to get right. Especially when films like Interstellar are being made, we have a right to expect less stupidity and more ingenuity. The universe is an amazing place and we barely get any cool insight from these awfully dumb movies.
Benedict Cumberbatch is the best part of the movie. He's intense and interesting to watch. His character has an air of mystery about him. He's powerful and his motives are unclear. He makes a very satisfying antagonist. The special effects are satisfying overall and most of the action is reasonably well directed. There were a few funny moments. The chase scenes were a bit exciting but often laughable as well.
However, it's pathetic how much the film-makers tie themselves down to the original series. It feels like there are more references than new ideas. Just make your movie! Create something new! Take what you like from earlier movies and episodes and use that merely as your jumping off point! Being too big a fan of something really limits you as an artist and that seems to happen here. They're afraid to step out of expectations. There is not enough boldness or originality. Abrams makes formulaic stuff that "pushes the boundaries" in a very safe, PC, conventional way and this movie is no exception.