‘Star Trek: Into the Darkness’ is a worthy sequel to the reboot started by J.J. Abrams in 2009. It lives up to it’s promise: “This is not your father’s Star Trek”. Given that I consider myself a purist when it comes to Star Trek, I am surprised I enjoy this reboot as much as I do. In fact, in some ways, it veers away from what Star Trek is supposed to be all about. Growing up, there were two groups of people. Star Wars fans or Star Trek fans. Both are impressive views of the future and of science fiction story telling, but they approached it in very different ways. Star Wars is all about the swashbuckling. Basic stories of good and evil told in a classic fashion albeit in the wondrous worlds of science fiction. Star Trek was more subtle. The voyages of the Starship Enterprise were about exploration and the discovery. It explored the philosophical and human conditions through science fiction metaphor. We saw our own political and moral crisises illustrated and exaggerated through the stories of observing other races and planets. Star Trek was much more of an intellectual exercise of what was possible for humans to aspire to. Star Wars was all Saturday matinee swashbuckling adventure.
The director J.J.Abrams takes the Star Trek concept in a decidingly more action based direction. In this day and age of summer block busters one has to compete with the explosions and super human exploits of almost every big budget film out there. Abrams does this unapologetically and I must confess that I thoroughly enjoy his vision. This isn’t to say that Abrams doesn’t explore the characters or the inner demons they wrestle with, but the star of these movies is the visceral.
J.J.Abrams has found a way to skirt the Star Trek purist’s devotion to sequence and timeline in the Star Trek universe by deftly creating an ‘alternate universe’. This allows him more freedom to create a vision where we are not exactly sure what will happen. SPOILER ALERT: This film borrows loosely from the events that took place in the classic “Star Trek :The Wrath of Kahn”, the 2nd installment in the original movie series and by many accounts, the best of the Star Trek series. It’s difficult to go into too much detail without revealing too many of the surprises in this film. In my humble opinion Ricardo Montalban (who was almost considered a kitsche actor at that time) deserved to be nominated for an Academy Award for his Milton inspired performance of Khan Noonien Singh. To this day, he is arguably the best Start Trek villain ever. With that being said, I was pleasantly amazed by Benedict Cumberbatch’s rebooted portrayal of this great villain. He is receiving universal praise for his performance and I predict this will be a breakout role for him.
The story itself takes place just prior to the 5 year mission made legendary by the TV series. When a series of terrorist attacks rock Star Fleet to it’s core, The impulsive and brash (and still untested) Captain James T. Kirk talks Star Fleet Command into letting the Enterprise go after the suspected culprit. Unfortunately, the rogue villain (called Ben Harrison at this point) has taken refuge on the Klingon home world and any attempt to bring him to justice could ignite an interstellar war. While the original series celebrated Kirk’s brashness and cowboy ways, this version explores the consequences of action without prudence. Ego coming before decisions of llfe and death is not always a good thing (or even mostly).
The relationship between Kirk and Spock was always one of polar opposites. Kirk leaps before he looks and prefers action to prudence where Spock was a study of dispassionate logic and analysis. Each viewpoint ineffective and dangerous taken to the extreme, but the two balance each other out and somehow the two form a close bond because of it. This film does a great job exploring the budding ‘bromance’ between Kirk and Spock. One where, despite the tension and frustration, grows stronger than any other relationship they have known.
This film provides the action and adventure that the current money spending theatre crowd demands, but provides plenty of inside jokes and tributes to the old series to quell the agitated über nerds who obsess on how this film doesn’t fit into the Star Trek universe. Cumberbatch is the true star of this film even though I thought much of his performance borrowed liberally from Tom Hiddelson’s Loki portrayal in last year’s ‘The Avengers’. Cumberbatch is the visceral force of this film and you are mesmerized during each solioqy (actually , they aren’t soliloquies, but you barely notice anyone else in the room when he goes off on a rant). Cumberbatch’s excruciating pronunciation and emphasis of every syllable that comes out of his mouth oozes evil and menace. The slower he talks the more intently we listen. Just a great performance.
I give this film high marks and is a worthy successor not only as a sequel to the last Star Trek, but to J.J. Abram’s status as an A-list Hollywood director. It’s going to be interesting to see how he transfers this mojo as he heads the new Star Wars trilogy coming out in 2015.
I give this film **** stars
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