Fulfilling the Needs of the Many: A Review of Star Trek: Into Darkness

When director J.J. Abrams took over the reins of the dying Star Trek franchise a few years back, few people could have expected exactly how well-received it would be. It may have had its fair share of detractors, but by and large, 2009's Star Trek gave Paramount Pictures exactly what they had hoped for: a healthy franchise for the 21st century. Four years later, Abrams is back with his entire principal cast for the sequel:Star Trek: Into Darkness.

The film opens with Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) of the U.S.S. Enterprise and his crew, specifically Dr. McCoy(Karl Urban), Lieutenants Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Salanda), and First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto) trying to save a planet covered in red flora and populated by what appears to be aborigines painted white from the eruption of a volcano. It falls on Spock to descend into the volcano with a cold fusion device, but when he is trapped in the volcano, Kirk and his crew are forced to reveal their ship to the relatively primitive natives, in violation of Starfleet's primary directive, in order to beam Spock back on board and save his life.

A stickler for the rules, Spock eventually files the report of Kirk's transgression which lands him in hot water with Starfleet, the consequence being that Kirk is stripped of the Enterprise. He received a proper dressing down as well from Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood) the man responsible for recruiting Kirk into Starfleet in the first place. The "band" is broken up, with Spock transferred to another ship and Kirk demoted.

However, an attack on a Starfleet archive in London by one of its own officers, a man named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) which leaves dozens dead prompts a meeting of Starfleet's top brass, including Admiral Pike, with Kirk and Spock in tow. Unfortunately, Harrison attacks the Starfleet meeting, killing even more people, only to flee to Klingon space using a portable transporter when Kirk cleverly disables his ship. As a result of the attack, Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) authorizes a covert strike on Harrison using a mysterious set of torpedoes. It's a plan that violates all that Starfleet stands for, but motivated as he is by a desire for revenge, Kirk agrees to the mission.

As he and his crew journey to Klingon space to deal with the rogue Starfleet officer Harrison, Kirk and crew soon learn that things are not quite what they seem to be.

While the script still isn't quite the strongest that's ever emanated from the franchise, screenwriters Alex Kurtzman, Bob Orci and Damon Lindelof have crafted a narrative that both drives the action at a breakneck pace and tosses several juicy tidbits to those who remember the first few Trek films. Also, the time-travel gobbledygook that left many viewers and reviewers (including the late, great Roger Ebert) a bit cold is no longer discussed here, though anyone questioning Kirk's characterization would definitely benefit from the knowledge that he's now living in a world where he grew up without a father. Still, I recognize that the choice of story for this movie was bound to stir up controversy, and without spoiling anything I think it'll be safe to say that of this new iteration of the long-running Star Trek film franchise, this particular installment will most likely go down in history as the one most talked-about by fans.

What makes this movie work for me are a number of things, starting with some very strong performance all around from the leads Pine and Quinto as Kirk and Spock, and an absolutely commanding performance by Cumberbatch at the villain of the piece. If any doubt at all lingered after the first film Pine really makes a clean break from Shatner's hambone acting of antiquity, and while Nimoy still remains the definitive Spock for me, Quinto has brought something new to the role; he has explored Spock's human side more than Nimoy ever did. While Kirk and Spock got off on somewhat the wrong foot in the previous film, this is the film where they firm up their working relationship and friendship. Their onscreen interaction has been amusingly described as a "bromance" and in truth the description does feel rather apt, but I suppose Abrams and his screenwriters had to crank up the evolution of their friendship a notch. After all, these incarnations of Kirk and Spock haven't yet had the benefit of the long running TV show to get to know each other; that's all still to come. By the time the first few movies rolled out they really were "old" friends in most senses of the word. The supporting characters have a fair bit to do here; Scotty (Simon Pegg) gets to have a little spat with Kirk in the beginning which ends in his resigning his commission, only for him to play a large part in the storytelling later on, Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) takes over from Scotty and has his hands full, Sulu gets to spend quite a bit of time in the Captain's chair, McCoy is basically a life-saver (and a virtual library of one-liners) and Uhura, among many other things, gets to speak a a considerable amount of Klingon! The crew are joined by new recruit Carol (Alive Eve), whose full identity I will not spoil.

As for Cumberbatch, all I can say is that whenever he's onscreen he just elevates the film. One of my major gripes with this film's immediate predecessor was its ill-conceived, poorly-executed bad guy Nero. Things like his motivation, misplaced rage, and even his muddled accent courtesy of actor Eric Bana really just irritated me. This was not at all the case with Cumberbatch, whose John Harrison, for me, deserves a place among some of the biggest badasses in all of science fiction, not just the Trek universe. He was certainly an infinitely more mesmerizing villain than the bad guy of Iron Man 3. It's hard to go in depth about what his character means with the story without flirting with spoilers, but I think it's enough to say that by bringing to this film the intelligence with which he imbues BBC's "Sherlock" he has done the character a huge favor. What makes him such a formidable foe, more than the fact that he's so strong he can actually crush people's skulls with his bare hands, is how frighteningly crafty he is.

Of course, no sci-fi pic would be complete without stunning visuals and sound effects, and Abrams and crew, including visual effects vendors Industrial Light and Magic, have stepped up their game accordingly from the last film. It was wonderful to finally see updates on classic Trek characters like the Klingons; I loved the new take on their ships, and even on the character makeup when Uhura confronted a Klingon commander. My family and I didn't bother catching this film in 3-D, and to be honest I don't think our experience was any the worse for it. The visuals are still great. Abrams claims he's no Trekkie, but the care with which he realizes this new take on something old and much beloved would suggest that he has truly come to love this universe.

Considering that in two years Abrams will be delivering the first new Star Wars movie in ten years, it's worth watching how he handles the space battles and the digital wizardry; his ability to balance storytelling and slam-bang action in his first Star Trek are basically what got him the job at Lucasfilm. I fervently hope whatever he does with those films will conclusively wash away from the franchise the stink left by Lucas' prequels. If anyone can do it, it's Abrams.

What saddens me about his involvement in the Star Wars movies is that now, Into Darkness may well be the last Trek film we see from him, though personally, I honestly hope not.

4.5/5