Star Trek Into Darkness

In 2009, J.J. Abrams made one of the biggest and riskiest moves a film director could make. He put out a reboot of a famous series with a large and loyal fan following when he made Star Trek. Surprisingly,  it was an absolutely great film that earned it's money and put every actor's career who was in it on track. In a different way, a sequel was going to be more difficult to pull off. You would have to put in a new villain, put in a new plot and work with the same cast again. Well after seeing Star Trek Into Darkness, I see it as a very fine piece that could live on forever.

With similar feel of the the terrorist acts which are happening in our world today, there is a bombing of a secret Section 31 installation in London. This was masterminded by former Starfleet agent John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) who is on run with the Enterprise and it's crew in pursuit so to capture him.

The plot seems simple but once put into the bigger picture, it is much deeper. The character, John Harrison is no doubt the main highlight of this film. His performance more than matches the villain, Nero from the 2009 movie including a great Klingon fight and he fits neatly into the Star Trek world.

The third act is the most interesting part of this film. This is where everything comes together and also shows the San Fransisco of the future but it this is also where the main problem comes in. It drags and involves the death of Captain Kirk but with a plot twist on that and it seems that Abrams just didn't want to end this.

 

The movie does have the same main cast as the previous movie. Characters are more developed with performances that fit into each character. Zoe Saldana plays Uhura and is in the first act and only in some of the second. Anton Yelchin as Checkoff is in and out of scenes. The surprise of the film is Simon Pegg as Scotty who has a larger role than the previous movie and closes the film well. The cast plays out differently than the previous movie and I think they fit into the plot well.

As he does with the previous movie, Abrams nails the little points of this film. There is a new setting and the special effects are better than the last one. The costumes of each character are also pretty fun to look at and will help make the movie memorable.

I don't know what is next for this series. For now, I like where this series is. I do have a lot of confidence in Abrams and would not mind maybe five more of these and I bet he could do it as he has proved himself with this film and the last one.

4/5

Star Trek

The idea for a Star Trek reboot series has always been out there. It is an idea that came about in 1968 with the film prequel. Then the idea sat on the shelf for a while when finally in 2009, director J.J. Abrams put it all together. Obviously, this was a project with a very big risk to it with questions as to whether the film can top the original and others that preceded it.

This film follows around a young James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) who is kind of a primadonna and party boy who out of the blue finds his way into the Starfleet Academy and onto the Enterprise. He then meets a vulcan in Spock (Zachery Quinto) and their relationship starts out roughly but develops into friendship as time goes on. The plot has a lot of things including time travel and gives a good history of how the crew got assembled and developed. It also show Spock in many different forms which is interesting.

Probably the biggest challenge for Abrams was selecting a cast. Abrams probably felt to be true to the original that he had to follow creator Gene Roddenberry's lead from 1964 somewhat. You could certainly question actor Chris Pine as the choice for James T. Kirk. Before 2009, Pine had mostly worked in televison with not many films roles to his credit. That said, Pine plays the role of James T. Kirk perfectly which includes a great deal of character development throughout and he is able to bring out a full range of emotions that is required for this character. I liked him. I think it is kind of the same with actor Zachary Qunto who plays Spock. Quinto is an actor with no prior experience and does very well with a character that is just as complex and powerful as James T. Kirk. He also earns bonus point for looking like Leonard Nimoy who made this character famous. Once we get deeper in the cast, we see that it is made of actors that are more established and familiar to us including Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana and John Cho and I think each of these are casted perfectly and deliver great performances. Also, Eric Bana plays a villain from Nero and is absent quite a bit but plays his part well as a character that you just don't like.

Another challenge for this movie would be the plot because there is time travel in this movie that could be hard to follow and damage the flow of the movie, but it is really done well and in a neat way pays homage to and brings back the deceased Leonard Nimoy. The plot does show us different sides of Spock and Kirk that we are not used to seeing and the film does have a great set-up in the first scene that is probably one of the most memorable scenes in the Star Trek series. Finally there is a love scene that comes in the middle which is really unexpected. I think there is a lot of substance in the plot and liked it.

For a film that involves space and time travel, it is going to need many different sets and also special affects for it to be credible and there is plenty of that here. The special effects here are frankly great and ground- breaking. The elaborate sets and costumes show the time and effort that went in to making this film. You can tell Abrams really went the extra mile in putting all this together and it works. 

I think Star Trek really is a film that is great in every way. It is a film that kept many pieces of the original but also added many new things which kept things fresh and interesting so both old fans and new fans of the series could appreciate it. I recommend this movie.

4.5/5