"Star Trek: Into Darkness" - Film Review

There are a handful of reactions that you are pretty much guaranteed to have when you go to see a summer blockbuster. The big three are pleasantly surprised, mildly disappointed, and outright desiring your money back. There are summer blockbusters that are a rip roaring good time, that earn their spectacle through interesting situations and great characters. There are films that amuse you but leave you slightly dissatisfied. And then there’s those other ones you totally regret seeing it.

JJ Abram’s Star Trek fell squarely into the pleasantly surprised category. It was not the summer blockbuster that was most on my radar, but it was one that stuck with me after I’d watched the film. The film took something familiar and elevated it above the well-worn tropes that had made the series a cultural hallmark.

Star Trek: Into Darkness doesn’t stick with you the way its predecessor did. It’s what we might describe as mildly disappointing. 

Into Darkness reminds me of another recent summer blockbuster: Iron Man 3. Both are sequels to major successful franchises. Both fail to live up to the merits of a sequel. There’s more spectacle at times, but the spectacle never feels completely well-earned. The plotting is inelegant and the stories try much too hard to provide a gravitas that simply just isn’t there.

And this, mind you, is me talking about two films that I largely enjoyed. Into Darkness has some moments that are popcorn action at its most engrossing, but the plot is also frustratingly scattered. So much so that the film is often a collection of mostly good scenes that are somewhat disjointed. It takes a third of the movie to really get cooking, and even then the film has suffered from an opening sequence that’s uninteresting and perfunctory. There are also a number of twists piled on top of eachother that start to become tedious. 

There are many moments in the film that feel like they’re in this movie merely because the studio expects it’s the type of stuff we want in there. Scotty makes an off-handed quip. Kirk and Spock have disagreements over commanding the ship. McCoy amusingly suggests an alternative action to Kirk. Leonard Nimoy makes an appearance! But after a while a number of these moments come off as if they don’t service the narrative but rather are in place just to try to get a reaction out of the audience, to carelessly make us laugh or thrill us. And too much of it is leaning on our affection for these characters and this universe (granted, many of these previously mentioned expected moments really are a treat and arguably would have detracted from the film had they not been there). But as appealing as they may be, on their own a solid film they do not make. 

Don't get me wrong. The action of Into Darkness is wonderfully staged and addicting. This action is made all the more pleasurable by the tremendous performance of Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of the villain who vexes our heroes with his delightful scheming.  

There’s a lot of fun to be found in the film, but it just doesn’t step its game up the way a big budget sequel ought to. 

Grade: B