Star Trek Into Darkness

The long awaited and hotly discussed sequel to the 2009 franchise reboot. I should start off by saying that we all have to remember that the Star Trek universe as we know it has been retconned. Everything Kirk & the crew of the Enterprise did in the The Original Series and the 6 films is erased. The time paradox theme changed the course of things at least until the next retcon. I decided to keep this separate from the entire 2013 film list since Star Trek and I go back a long way. First and foremost I am a Kirk guy. With all due respect to Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who's a great star ship Captain with a great crew. Picard is level headed, smart and quite dashing but Kirk is my guy. I also firmly believe that Spock blows away Riker as 1st Officer. Plus I never really got into the Star Trek: The Next Generation. Just to make sure it sinks in, the Star Trek universe has changed so try not to make comparisons like, "Kirk never did that against..." or "Nimoy never showed emotion the way Quinto does." It was tough for me not to make comparisons but I got over it and you have to judge the film by it's own merits.

In the opening scene the Enterprise and crew are saving a primitive civilization from a gruesome volcanic destruction. In doing so Kirk violates the Prime Directive, the most sacred commandment in Starfleet!, but gets away with a verbal chiding from Admiral Pike. On a side note because of the retcon Kirk has only had a few years of training. Whereas Shatner's Kirk had 14 years of training before getting a command. Spock kind of rats Kirk out and Kirk is bothered by it but Spock can't lie! What did he expect? There's also a lovers spat between Spock & Uhura that I thought was a bit much especially since they're relationship isn't really expanding on in this film but some of it was amusing.

Enter Benedict Cumberbatch, the shadowy villain who gets a Starfleet intelligence officer to blow-up an installation in London.  Let's cut to the chase, Cumberbatch is Khan Noonien Singh (but with a different accent from Ricardo Montalban's version, whatever). The genetically altered human from the Eugenics Wars of the late 20th Century. Khan is found floating in space (remember the "Space Seed" episode doesn't happen in the new Star Trek Universe) and is unfrozen by Admiral Marcus to have him develop new weapons of mass destruction (can you see where this is headed?) for the Federation despite the fact that he's from the 20th Century and everything is taking place in the 22nd century. I guess since Khan is from a war ravaged time, he must have some insight into some cool killing devices that the hippies of the 22nd century haven't thought of. Needless to say Khan is unhappy with situation Marcus has him in (Marcus holds the unfrozen bodies of his followers as hostages) and Khan plans to assassinate him. The attempt fails, Khan flees into Klingon territory and Kirk is dispatched by Marcus to kill Khan (be advised, Khan's identity hasn't been revealed at this point but unless you've been living in a cave for the months prior to the film's release, you had to know something was up) at any cost with 78 "special" photon torpedoes (ironically the same number as Khan's followers). Kirk and Spock argue about the morality of the orders...kill the alleged assassin and risk an interstellar war by violating the Klingon Neutral Zone instead of bringing him to justice (here's where the train I mentioned earlier is heading...a direct Bush/Cheney correlation. BOOM!).

During this time we also get to meet the lovely scientist and daughter to the war mongering Admiral Marcus, Dr. Carol Marcus...

Suffice to say she catches Kirk's eye almost immediately (not sure why she had to undress in one scene but who am I to counter such crucial plot lines) and she helps Kirk try to get her father to back off from destroying the Enterprise after Khan revealed the Admirals plan of provoking a war with the Klingons (more Bush/Cheney!).

So now Kirk has to enter into an unholy alliance with Khan in order to save the crew of the Enterprise (which his impulsiveness has led them into a trap by Admiral Marcus). Kirk by now understands that Khan will betray him and put him and the crew back in jeopardy once gets what he wants. Despite being "intellectually superior," Khan gets outsmarted by Spock (given but Spock gives props to Kirk for the plan). Skip a bit and Khan is defeated but not killed (sort of a permanent Guantanamo Bay theory) and it appears that a war with the Klingons has been avoided despite the fact that the Enterprise did commit an act of war by violating the Neutral Zone, firing upon Klingon warships and killing Klingon soldiers.

The movie itself is a fun ride. The CGI and special effects are pretty amazing and the story is good. It's not great (its got a lot of wholes but they're minor to me) but its good. Since there's a lot going on anyway, you almost don't mind or at least I didn't. Some of the main plot points of the film are borrowed heavily from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In the original film, Spock saves the Enterprise from the destructive power of the Genesis Wave...

This time around, Abrams decides to switch Spock and Kirk. That's right, Abrams kills Kirk (same way too, shot by shot remake of the original scene). So you get Spock (showing emotion that he didn't show for his dead mother!) delivering this classic Shatner line....

But hold on! Kirk may be "dead" but as luck would have it, Bones with the aid of Dr. Marcus is able synthesize a cure for death from Khan's genetically altered blood (Bones is able to figure out that Khan's blood has curative powers when he injects it into a dead Tribble and brings it back to life). In order to get it, Uhura has to beam down to make sure a highly emotional and very violent Spock doesn't kill Khan with his bare hands (he wasn't this pissed when Nero destroyed Vuclan).

Abrams is trying to develop the Kirk/Spock relationship (more or less leaving Bones as the 3rd wheel). In the original series it was always Kirk, Spock & McCoy. The trio was already a tight group. Sure McCoy had his issues with Spock but they both respected each other and either one of them would sacrifice himself for the other. This is the main issue I have with the film, the chemistry between Kirk and Spock is uneven. Spock snitches out Kirk in the beginning and Kirk says, "never trust a Vulcan." Kirk has the knowledge of knowing what great pals he and Spock will become thanks to hanging out with Nimoy/Spock in the first film. Kirk is clearly trying to force it as if he's forgetting that Spock is Vulcan and just isn't into that kind of stuff. There's even a scene where Spock consults his future self for advice on what went down with Khan in the 1982 film (once again I'm not sold on the whole time paradox plot and I'm lukewarm at best with future Spock and current Spock living in the same time stream). How present day Spock even knew it would be a good idea to consult future Spock left me scratching my head but it's science fiction so I just keep those things to myself.

Kirk also seems to have a pretty unique relationship with Scotty as well. It's different from the original series since Kirk and Scotty met on the ice planet (leaving people to wonder why an engineering super-genius like Scotty is doing stranded on a distant Federation outpost) and became fast friends. I found it a bit weird that Kirk has a better relationship with Scotty than he does with Spock. Though to be fair, Scotty does quit (something James Doohan's character would never do. He respected Kirk and would lay his life down for him but he loved the Enterprise!) and it put Kirk in a tough spot (to say nothing of the joy that overcame Chekov when Kirk informed him that he'd be promoted to Chief Engineer and that he needed to get a "red shirt," the international sign of death in the Star Trek Universe) but he does come back after Kirk apologizes and say he was right.

Cumberbatch plays Khan much differently than Montalban (Montalban and Shatner never had a scene together). Montalban's Khan is more Shakespearean,

whereas Cumberbatch's version is more of a Batman villain as we get to see his superior physical strength when he dispatches a Klingon patrol with ease. Plus, Cumberbatch doesn't monologue the way Montalban did and is quicker to violence (though we never see it, it is referenced that Montalban "went mad" and slit the throats of the crew of Regula 1), as seen when he brutally murdered Adm. Marcus and coldly broke the leg of Carol in the process. All in all both actors did a great job on the character.

This was a solid film. It was full of action and a lot of fun. The story was good but not great and the dialogue was really good. I may even see it again. As always your comments are welcome. Thank you for your time.