Review of Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) by Allan C — 24 May 2014

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! The rebooted crew of the USS Enterprise are back and this time face probably the greatest foe of TOS crew, Khan Noonien Singh. The story is something of a mash-up of "Space See" and "The Wrath of Khan," but the story is really it's own thing, incorporating elements of domestic terrorism and simply making some fun nods to the source material that fans will enjoy.

Spock Prime even makes a brief but memorable appearance! Chris Pine is good as the brash Captain Kirk, but Zachary Quinto nails it as Spock, stealing any scene that he's in. Zoe Saldana is excellent as well as Uhura, which kind of took me by surprise after her dull performance in the "Rosemary's Baby" remake.

Karl Urban is terrific as McCoy. The rest of the crew is also good, but don't get that much screen time. Peter Weller is great, as always, as Admiral Marcus, as is the underused Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike.

J.J. Abrams got a fair amount of hate on this film from fans, but I thought the film delivered an an action packed story without sacrificing the character dynamics, which always helped elevate Star Trek able other similar fare.

Abrams managed to make an even bigger action spectacular than the first reboot, but did so without making it dumber. One bit of trivia I read on IMDB that would I would have loved if it had happened is that Micky Rourke was considered to play as Khan, but Benedict Cumberbatch is quite good in the role, though I'd have loved to see Rourke do some serious scene chewing Montalbán-style.