Star Trek is about working together to advance society. In the Abrams era of Star Trek most of this tone has been lost in favor of a more action oriented story telling. Its brisk it's kinetic its a fresh cote paint of on an old car. So when I get into my review of Into Darkness I'm focusing on whats under the hood.
The story pulls us in with an Indiana Jones style action sequence where Kirk and Dr McCoy are running from a prehistoric extraterrestrial culture. The dialogue is snappy and traded via banter in the middle of an action scene. It seems like these new films are obsessed with entertaining you. I have no problem with that but I do have an issue with invoking 9/11 like imagery to give the movie modern gravitas.
My issue with 9/11 imagery is that it is beginning to become cliche' with themes of smoking buildings, hunting terrorists, quick retribution this cheapens the events of that horrible day by using it as an entertainment context. The antagonist is Khan played marvelously by Benedict Cumberbatch. Khan is a genetically engineered super human fighting for his people. After blowing up a Star Fleet building the Enterprise is dispatched to terminate him without trial. Raising moral and ethical conflicts among the crew. After Kirk makes the choice not to kill Khan we later learn of a bigger Star Fleet conspiracy.
I love the action and where the story seems to be going and if this is any indication of what the new Star Wars sequels could be then this is a galaxy I want to continue to explore.
Movie grade A.
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