Greetings! It's been a long time since I put a review up on this blog of mine. Apologies for that, the last two months have been absolutely crazy what with school finishing for the summer and then finals week was last week for me so it's just been hectic. I have managed to see quite a few movies in the last couple of months, I just have not had the time to sit down and type up reviews on this blog.
But now it's summer and I plan on typing up more reviews now that I have a ton of free time on my hands. With that being said, let's begin today's review.
The summer movie season is once again upon us as we have had Iron Man joining the billion dollar club at the box office and F. Scott Fitzgerald's vision coming to life on the big screen (If I had to give both films grades right now, Iron Man would get an A- and Great Gatsby would get a B). But now, it's time to revisit Captain James T. Kirk and the rest of the crew of the U.S.S Starship Enterprise in Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot. The film reunites Abrams with the cast of the last movie, as Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), along with Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Bones (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho), and Chekov (Anton Yelchin), as well as the rest of the crew of the Enterprise go after John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), a terrorist responsible for bombing London as well as attacking Starfleet. However, Kirk and his crew realize that not everything is what it seems.
Now I will say this right now: I am not what you call a "Trekkie." I was never a gigantic fan of Star Trek I was always more of a Star Wars guy. However, I loved the hell out of Abrams' 2009 reboot to someone who was not that big of a "Trek" fan, it was an excellent introduction to someone like me who wasn't a fan (since then I have seen the original show AND Next Generation AND the movies). So I was greatly curious to see what Abrams had planned for his second outing.
I'm just going to cut to the chase right now: I loved this movie. Loved loved loved loved this movie. To me, this is summer blockbuster entertainment at its finest.
The performances in this movie are fantastic all around. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are excellent together as Kirk and Spock respectively. They still show excellent chemistry together and you truly believe that the two could be life long friends. It was also nice to see Kirk's character evolve a little bit. There's still a bit of the cockiness from the first movie in there, but there's also a bit more maturity in there, with Kirk slowly becoming the leader he was meant to be. The rest of the supporting cast was great as well. Everyone seemed to be given more to do this time around, which was fantastic. The standouts to me were Pegg as Scotty, who is excellent in this role, Saldana as Uhura, whose relationship with Spock is explored a bit deeper this time around, and Urban, who captures the original Bones' mannerisms so well. It was also nice to see Peter Weller in a movie again
But the standout in this movie is Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison. I loved Cumberbatch on Sherlock (if you haven't seen Sherlock yet, stop reading this review and go watch it Go. It's amazing. I'll wait.....back? Let's continue). I was excited when Cumberbatch was announced to be the villain because he can pull off menacing and controlled, someone who has a plan and has to execute it by whatever means necessary. And my God, was he amazing in this role. Cumberbatch gives the best performance of the entire film. He is one of the best villains I've seen on screen in a while.
And that's all I can say on Cumberbatch's character because, as a wise person once said, spoilers....if you get that reference, give yourself 20 bonus points.
Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed is Abrams' direction in this movie. Yes there are tons and tons of lens flares in this movie but it's the way he handles the action is what fascinates me. He handles them so well and you can actually see what is going on. The action is also fantastic to watch, especially the final fight scene. Also, his creature designs and the way he shows us the planets are breathtaking. Abrams' next project is Star Wars Episode VII and I am greatly interested in what he has planned for that movie.
There were some things that annoyed me about the movie. For one. Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve), I thought, was greatly underused. She seemed to have little to no pint being in this movie, other than eye candy...not that I'm complaining mind you but still I thought she could have been given a lot more to do. Also...yeah the amount of lens flares Abrams has does get a bit annoying at times.
But overall, Star Trek Into Darkness is an excellent movie. It is easily the best film of the summer so far and one of the best of the year in my opinion. Abrams yet again creates another enjoyable fun ride that Trekkies and non Trekkies can both thoroughly enjoy.
Grade: A
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