Closer to Gene Roddenberry's original vision? This movie has a heart.

Rating: 8/10 (6 June 2013)

The title Star Trek Into Darkness is misleading. The trailer, too, leads one to believe this is a tale of revenge. And this film features Khan. The film Star Trek II is dedicated to Khan's obsession with revenge. In one scene, released to the public before the movies premier, Captain Pike tells Captain Kirk something like, "The Federation isn't about personal vendettas". Captain Kirk replies, "Maybe it should be".
Instead what Captain Kirk learns, pretty much on his own, perhaps as a continuation of the end of the first film Star Trek 2009, is that justice is not about revenge. Human life isn't his to take. At least not in cold blood. Leonard Nimoy appears again in this film and he also provides a firm sense of moral grounding. Nimoy's performance here is not solely about bringing Vulcan sensibilities to the part? Surely we are seeing something of the real Leonard Nimoy in his performance. Nimoy would title his second autobiography, "I am Spock". Bringing something of his real character and morals to his performance in Into Darkness is why it's so meaningful, it's real. In the previous film, the Romulan Captain Nero destroys Spock's home world, in a quest for revenge of a sort. All the elder Spock can say about Nero, after pausing to think about it, is that Nero is 'troubled' as if he's concerned about Nero. The ending of this film, at least Kirk's medical recovery, leads one to wonder if perhaps Khan might return.
As other reviewers have noted, this film sails closer to Gene Roddenberry's 'humanistic vision'. Whether it's been made under the influence of Roddenberry or not, this film has a proverbial heart.
We also learn that friendship is more important than truth. For Spock, who cannot tell a lie, this is something he will learn, or be corrupted by, over a lifetimes worth of experience. When captain Kirk falsifies a report to Star Fleet, I was kind of hoping the lesson to be learned would be one about the importance of being truthful, but instead we're learning about the importance of friendship. And also that friends believe different things than we do and sometimes live in different ways than we do, but we should still be committed to them. It's what gives life meaning?
In a Star Trek episode from the original series, 'The Enterprise Incident', Spock does lie, convincing a Roluman Captain that he's defecting from Star Fleet. He's actually on a spy mission. He uses the fact that it's known Vulcan's cannot lie against this female captain. When she discovers the deception, Spock confesses that, "I was not unmoved" by this woman's advances. In one of the more famous episodes from the original serious, 'Mirror, Mirror' the crew are errantly beamed aboard an Enterprise that exists in an alternate universe where the Federation is an 'Empire' that rules by maintaining terror. When captain Kirk is talking to his concubine on the evil ship, a woman who's figured out something is wrong, captain Kirk tells her, "you're the captains woman until he says you're not". He plans on finding his way back to his own Enterprise.
I think I enjoyed the first film more, Star Trek 2009. Perhaps it was the joy of seeing these characters in action once again, because that movie had a, pardon the phrase, illogical plot. There was more dialog, I think, especially between the characters, in the film 2009. This new film has a heart.