Star Trek Into Darkness review

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2013)

Story: This movie is basically a tale of revenge and hunger for war, although the latter wasn't expressed well because it was only a desire of one character. However the former is what made this movie what it is, the villain is wreaking havoc to get back his crew or to what they did to him and his crew and one of the protagonist is after the villain because he *SPOILERS* caused the death of a character *SPOILERS*. I liked the story of this movie because it was simple, it wasn't making itself complicated. You can easily grasp the story and once you're in, it's hard not to look away.
Acting: If you've seen the first installment you can pretty much say that the acting is the same but in this movie the actors were given a little more to work with because they are much more emotionally driven here. They were able to give the characters more depth than the usual. Having said that I'm now going to delve in to Benedict Cumberbatch's performance. I consider this as one of his best performance to date, he was a threatening force that can bring an end to the enterprise. He was able to show a ruthless villain but you can also feel sorry for him despite his extreme methods, and to top that with his deep epic voice, we may have one of the most memorable villains on screen. I also liked Zachary Quinto here, he was able to play with his emotions, first he was this emotionless dickwad and the next is he is a caring ally. What I didn't like here though is Alice Eve as Carol Wallace, she gave almost no intensity to the role and the character had very little development.
Action: The previous one had more action scene in terms of gun fights (or should I say laser/plasma fights?) but this one had more fights in the hand-to- hand combat department. Cumberbatch was able to hold his own in action scenes and Pine and Quinto was also able to show more of their action side.
Music: I loved the score in this film, it remained true to it's predecessor and you can feel the awe in each scene through the wonderful score of Michael Giacchino.
Cinematography/ VFX: Like the score, I also loved the cinematography here. The looks of the film feels very authentic and it almost feels like it's a real thing. Next is the VFX, it was amazing, especially the part where the USS Vengeance crashes on San Francisco, wow to put things simple, amazing.
Direction: J.J. Abrams directed this film the way he directed the first one. I liked the pacing that he did in this film, it wasn't fast and it wasn't slow either which is a good thing because you are able to understand more of it's story and more of the character's motives.
Overall: 'Star Trek Into Darkness' is solid a sci-fi film with great performance from the cast especially Benedict Cumberbatch. Top that off with amazing visuals and an enchanting score from Giacchino, this is sure to be one of my favorite films of this year. Good job J.J. and cast and crew, I give this a 4.5/5