This movie is a tribute to Roddenberry's intent

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2013)

I give this movie a TEN rating, and I remember only ONE other movie I rated so highly; I will tell you here WHY. 'Star Trek Into Darkness' 2013 continues the franchise's extreme ability to entertain us with personable characters and action scenes beyond our wildest dreams. But I would like to address the "inner-core" theme of this movie: a scenario put forth with such subtlety, but which should give us pause, and hopefully make us think.
When I began watching "Star Trek the series" 48 years ago, even at 11 years old, I marveled at its intricate ability to relate the "moral of the story", and the show's value as a medium for teaching us about ourselves. Since the original series' end in 1968, throughout its installments which have followed for the past 45 years, the writers and producers have maintained the premise of Gene Roddenberry's intent - that premise being Star Trek's underlying ability to have deeper meaning, to employ entertainment to address the concerns of the times in our country.
Mr. Roddenberry began the tradition of instilling in the Star Trek characters and plots a reflection and upholding of our own ethics, morals and standards of that time, giving us hope that our very own core values would be preserved, and continue on into the distant future. This holds true in this latest installment, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS.
The parallels laid forth in this movie to today's threats, enemies, and recent events must be heeded, if we are to employ intellect alongside our driving desire to be entertained. Those parallels most obvious are:
1 -- the "awakening" of Khan by a power-mad leader, this done for the self-serving motives of this power-mad leader. When the character of Khan states, "you should have let me sleep", I could not help but be so aware of our own past "uses" for evil characters - we utilizing them to further OUR interests, but eventually having to confront our inability to control that evil we embraced. We would have been better off, had we passed them (and that course of action) by completely.
2 -- the character of Scotty demonstrates he is a bit frightened that he has "committed treason" against the organization's top leader (the very leader who's sanity is now in question). Though we can agree that he is correct in his action to lend help in averting the events unfolding, he knows that he would be persecuted and prosecuted for treason for those actions. This makes one ask, "is there a time when treason IS justified"? What if the person(s) in power were threatening the survival of the rest of us?
3 -- then, who could miss the stupendous scene where the totally brand- new re-designed USS star-ship -- a monstrosity built strictly and primarily for military use, a drone ship capable of being manned by one person, if necessary, and happens to be manned by that madman-leader's "finger on the trigger" -- is targeting those high-rise buildings we know are full of people at the time? And the "evil awakened" is the one directing that ship into those buildings.
This movie truly explores the theme of the dangers of a military leader with too much power, the deception and secrecy practiced by that leader, the eventual lengths to which he is willing to go, promoting the real possibility of a military "run a-muck". Anyone who looks past the wonderful new-age computer graphics, and the high-tension action scenes we live for, MUST then see not only the ever-present theme that good wins over evil - but look further. We see the details of HOW we win, by honoring those so-necessary ethics, morals and values within ourselves. It is important to our way of life to win against our enemies, but it is important for our souls that we do so in a way in which we maintain what made us great.
And the parting message, which highlights the last parallel to our present-day conflicts in this country, says it all so well. Pay, then, attention to the words of the final speech of the movie - which say:
"There will always be those who mean to do us harm; To stop them, we risk awakening the same evil within ourselves. Our first instinct is to seek revenge, When those we love are taken from us.
But that's not WHO WE ARE . . ." There is a . . . "Call for us to remember Who we once were, and who we MUST BE again."
If you've not yet seen this movie, see what you think. And if you've watched the movie - watch it again, and look at it in a new light.