Star Trek – Into Darkness: Another Sci Fi Triumph

Director J.J. Abrams has done it again.  After resurrecting the buried Sci Fi classic Star Trek film franchise with the 2009 reboot, Abrams has continued that momentum and, if possible, built on that success.  His latest film, Star Trek: Into Darkness, continues the epic adventures of the first but manages to thrill fans with deeper character development, a more terrifying villain and brilliant twists on the much storied Trek lore.

Premise: Kirk and company are thrust into battle with a new, more trying villain than ever before as Star Fleet is again in mortal danger. Result: Despite confronting a similar danger, the crew must respond in far more profound ways, giving the needed depth to characters we know and love.

The film begins en media res, with Kirk (Chris Pine) and Bones (Karl Urban) fleeing a temple on a distant, primitive world with frightening, painted inhabitants in hot pursuit. In tandem, Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), and Sulu (John Cho) attempt to salvage the planet and its inhabitants who are in imminent threat from being Vesuviused, as a monstrous volcano threatens cataclysmic destruction.

The true conflict, however, comes when their mission places lands Spock squarely in the belly of the volcano, accepting a death, that seems inevitable. As the only means to save Spock would be to reveal themselves to the planet’s aboriginal population, a direct violation of the Prime Directive, Kirk must break with Star Fleet’s most solemn vow or let Spock die.

The consequences of this mission are spectacular.  Kirk is eviscerated by a fuming Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who sense his arrogance is as bottomless as a Ferengi’s greed and ultimately Kirk is demoted. Kirk and Spock fall out as Kirk senses great betrayal despite having saved Spock.  Uhura and Spock become wrangled in one of the more humorous and horrifying couple fights in the galaxy.

What really rises from all this chaos is the emotional instability of a heroic but ultimately fragile crew.  Only months after Vulcan was destroyed (and almost the rest of Star Fleet), this crew is still reeling and although loyal, unsure of what this loyalty means, unsure of the depths of these relationships or the implications for their collective and individual character.  There is also the sense of balancing love and death, a sense that whatever emotion they may have is wrong or too painful to bear.

But there is little time for sessions on the couch as this crew is once again thrust into an unspeakable danger. This threat has taken the form of a terrorist lurking deep in the shadows that has targeted Star Fleet as part of an unknown plot.  This man, known by Star Fleet as John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), but whose true identity is far more terrifying, is no longer an external threat from some Romulan renegade, but an insider with the deepest level of security access and intimate knowledge.

The ensuing events will test the crew as never before, forcing an emotional catharsis that will consume them all.  This villain is a manipulative genius on his worst day and challenges the full crew (including Scotty (Simon Pegg) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin)) in ways not thought possible.  And the roles of Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) and Carol (Alice Eve), serve to destabilize audience understanding of the plot, introducing twist after glorious twist.

Abrams is simply masterful in his construction of complex, deeply impactful scenes.  On the one hand, the action is non-stop, visually stunning and thoroughly thrilling.  Yet, he also masters the art of emotion both through dialogue and even through the film’s score, that allow his characters and on screen events to touch audiences.

There is one scene in particular, that introduces one of our villain’s unwitting accomplices that is simply morbid beauty, that visceral melancholy captured perfectly on screen.  It becomes a pleasure to watch and allow the film to pervade ones senses.

The film is ultimately deeper and more interesting than even its predecessor, now opening up these characters to truly great performances that these actors soundly deliver.  Pine continues to be a perfect Kirk, combining arrogance and gut and charm and brutal honesty into an unmistakable blend of character from which none can look away.

And his range, along with Quinto’s in a specific scene in this film, reach new heights of gut-wrenching emotion.  Both manage their on screen chemistry with undaunted professionalism, evolving their characters from spot-on parodies of the former great icons, to make them their own.

Saldana is radiant as Uhura, demonstrating an inner and outer strength combined with a brilliant elegance that keeps her firmly entrenched at the top.  And Pegg’s performance can only be described as another comedic triumph – perfect from the first scene to the last.

Greenwood and Weller both offer nuanced and deeply intriguing performances, even as neither is the center of the film; nevertheless, both portray characters that in any other film may have been.

Urban, Cho and Yelchin perform admirably; while Yelchin’s role is the least engaging of the group (by no fault of his own), Cho does offer us a rare glimpse into his true power in an interesting moment as he takes the helm of the Enterprise.

But it is Cumberbatch that steals the show among a cast of brilliant performers.  It is a testament to his inarguable talent that he produces each scene, each sentence, each word he utters with such mesmerizing distinction and complexity as to elevate his character to the heights it deserves.  Cumberbatch, for whatever his role may have been, gives us what a true villain should be – terrifying, haunting, and unforgettable.

Ultimately, the film is a brilliant display of what can be accomplished in Science Fiction.  It is a better film than the 2009 reboot, as it should have been.  It has thrilling action, breath-taking visuals, a complex, thoroughly enjoyable plot and myriad characters and performances that can’t be beaten.  And while Abrams will be turning the reigns over for the next film as he directs Episode Seven, the franchisee will march onward: perhaps, we hope, to a place no Star Trek film has gone before.

Rating: 9 – An expensive red wine and juicy steak that someone else is paying for and where you don’t have to put out