Star Trek Into Darkness
Review by Sean Lynch
Ah, yes, the difficult second album! J.J. Abrams is back with his second dig at the iconic Star Trek franchise following up a genuinely stellar 2009 piece of popcorn fun.
There's a lot riding on Into Darkness, not simply in terms of the weight of expectation left after the unexpectedly excellent reboot, but also because of the fact that the ORIGINAL Star Trek sequel (Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan) is largely considered one of the great film sequels of all time.
Star Trek Into Darkness kicks off at a ferocious pace, with our heroes in the midst of a civilisation-saving attempt on a distant planet. There's a volcano, the Enterprise hidden from sight and some fun character banter jam packed into this opening sequence - it's one of the most succinct, exciting and perfect examples of just how well JJ Abrams knows how to handle the franchise.
However, spectacular events have their downside when the crew of the Enterprise are called back home only to find an unstoppable terrorist (seemingly from within their own organisation) has declared a one man war against Starfleet.
After a bloody attack, Kirk - fuelled by revenge - leads a a rogue manhunt to a war zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. To give away much more would really do a film like this injustice.
It's sad too, because Star Trek Into Darkness contains so many twist, turns and Easter eggs - the one thing you want to do after seeing it is to dissect, discuss and generally gush about it. Damn you spoilers - you've really got me by the balls!
So what can I reveal? It's hard to say, while the film serves as a perfectly serviceable action adventure for newbies (the set pieces, intimidating use of scale, Michael Giacchino's fist pumping score, the photography in space and IMAX sequences are often awe inspiring), Into Darkness is VERY much a sequel that gives its all for the hardcore fans.
JJ Abrams "alternate timeline" set up in the reboot has really opened up the doors to a genuinely exciting, unique and wonderfully familiar world for fans. Not only can (and does) it reference and pay homage previous adventures, it USES them to it's advantage... but in ways you will genuinely never expect them to.
While Super 8, JJ Abrams only non pre-existing franchise film, was a genuine dud - his abilities to embrace the past while injecting life and a modern sensibility into known franchises is unparalleled in cinema (as he's done with Mission Impossible and now Star Trek) and bodes INCREDIBLY well for Star Wars nerds (as he will be directing Star Wars Episode 7).
Special credit must go to the cast whose chemistry is divine (including ROBOCOP!!), they've managed to find a rhythm together that it took several decades for the original team to really find. Benedict Cumberbatch also intimidates as one of the films villains, despite being pipped at the post by The Avengers' Tom Hiddleston for the "most threatening skinny English man" award.
So what have you learned? Well, for starters, never read reviews before a film. Go into a movie without expectation or knowledge and enjoy the ride. Into Darkness has led me down a Star Trek rabbit hole of checking out old-era stuff, something I never thought I'd ever do (as a long time "Back To The Future" trilogy guy, rather than a Star Wars / Trek fella) and that extra curricular journey has been just as much fun as seeing the actual movie itself.
However, if you DO want SOME level of preparedness then [Spoiler Alert]
... Maybe, just maybe, spend a a couple of nights before seeing Star Trek Into Darkness (in IMAX if you can, it's the only place to see shots of space) catching up on the Star Trek TV series episode "Space Seed" and the film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".
Like I said, JJ uses this history and your knowledge of it, but not in the way you will EVER expect.
You could almost say, he's boldly going where no franchise reboot has gone before...
4 out of 5
Star Trek Into Darkness
Australian release: 9th May, 2013
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Weller
Director: J.J. Abrams
