Star Trek: Into Darkness Review

A funny, action packed frivolous ride aboard the Starship Enterprise

JJ Abrams had a tough job on his hands in revamping the Star Trek franchise for a new generation while minding the need to appease die hard Trekkie loyalists. In 2009, the relaunch of Star Trek was met with praise from critical and commercial audiences who deemed Chis Pine’s Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s Spock a combination that reignited a series classic with slick humour and good old warm-heartedness.  Smart casting brought together a strong supporting company of colourful characters on board the Enterprise including irritable chief medical officer Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), communications officer Nyota Uhura (Zoe Salanda), Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) and Scottish chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (Simon Pegg). 

Four years later, the long awaited sequel has finally arrived in fine fashion. Star Trek: Into Darkness is a romping action comedy that sets a high bar for summer blockbusters. Its title is wholly deceiving given how much popcorn fun is packed into a tight 133 minutes. Abrams’ adventure is a breath of fresh air amidst a genre of philosophical fanfare and over-serious pursuits into the meaning of existence and the ethicality of biotechnology. Instead we are propelled, literally, at light speed into chaotic urgency where our beloved Enterprise crewmates (each sporting either mustard, blue or red coloured V-necks) are faced with perilous danger.

The film opens on an action set piece on a foreign planet where Spock’s life is jeopardised when he attempts to negate a volcano eruption. In order to save his friend, Kirk breaks ‘Prime Directive’, revealing the Starship Enterprise to the planet’s primitive civilization and as a result, after being called back to Earth, is stripped of his captaincy.  But an unstoppable force of terror is rising from the darkness and it is not long until Kirk leads a manhunt to capture John Harrison, a one-man weapon of mass destruction played by Benedict Cumberbatch. The narrative speeds along, barely giving the audience time to breathe before Kirk and his comrades are thrust into a villainous trap once again.

No time is wasted on regathering footing giving the packed plotting a televisual sensibility, which can be explained by Abrams’ conception in TV drama. It can be argued that there is a lack of real suspense in Star Trek: Into Darkness because no matter how panicked the crew is or how frantic the bridge station, we know where these characters end up.

Unfortunately Abrams’ signature overuse of lens flares is in full not-so-glorious splendour. His stylistic attempt to bring tension by projecting strands of light across the frame is distracting and comes off as a saturated sweaty mess more often than not.

Despite these technicalities the continuing bromance between the two leads is compelling, as the hotheaded Kirk tries to break the emotionless veneer that shields Spock. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto get the human element at the heart of the narrative just right while providing a mixture of warmth, rivalry and instinct.

Fans will be pleased that everything is as expected. Star Trek: Into Darkness is a flashy affair of colourful and action packed set pieces. The humour remains good hearted, the action is just as frivolous as the first time round and Spock’s eyebrows are the same which begs the question, are we really delving into darkness here or are we boarding another frolicking ride on the Starship Enterprise?