Review of Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) by Trevor R — 26 Nov 2014

For a franchise built on "going where no man has gone before," everything in "Star Trek Into Darkness" feels incredibly run-of-the-mill. The plot makes zero sense, character motivations are imperceptible, and Kirk simply repeats the same character arc he had in the first film, leaving the entire affair to cruise purely on pretty visuals and cast chemistry. Granted, this was the main draw of the first film too, but things felt far more balanced the first go around (Uhura's role is now "nagging girlfriend;" Sulu, Bones, and Chekhov barely register; and Alice Eve's Carol appears for nothing more than a few moments of blatant objectification). Qunto and Pegg are maybe the only two cast members to come through unscathed, while Chris Pine is embarrassingly awful at times.

Benedict Cumberbatch's villain is entertaining in spurts, but he's also all over the map and plays a variety of functions-- part tactical genius, part tortured anti-hero, part Bourne-esque superspy, part sociopathic terrorist-- yet he never fully inhabits any of these roles, and never makes much of an impact as a result. The decision to name him "Khan"-- a classic Trek villain with which he shares zero characteristics-- was downright baffling, and keeping it a secret from the public by way of the "John Harrison" moniker (despite no narrative consequence whatsoever) was even more bizarre. Using his character to preach 9/11 truther conspiracy stuff (and inject some supposed political relevancy by ripping off "The Dark Knight") come across as ham-fisted and dumb.

The lack of dramatic stakes in the final twenty minutes are utterly laughable (Bones desperately needs the blood of a genetic super-being like Khan to revive Kirk! There's like fifty of them in the room he's standing in!), but I appreciated that an FX heavy blockbuster would feature a relatively low-key foot-chase as its climactic action sequence (Sometimes bigger isn't better). It's a profoundly uneven film that occasionally stumbles upon some good moments and ideas, but it can't draw them together in a remotely satisfying way. There's less lens flare though, so that's something.