Does
the new Star Trek movie live up to the first?
4Front's
review of Star Trek Into Darkness B-
Star
Trek Into Darkness is the second installment of the
rebooted Star Trek series directed by J.J. Abrams. Star
Trek franchise before J.J. Abrams was in decline, the
movies performance were lackluster, the TV shows couldn’t
keep viewers attention and everyone felt the franchise had
seen it’s best days. Then J.J. Abrams released a new
exciting version of Trek to the big screen four years ago,
and fans loved it, just like that Star Trek was back. The
new movie takes place in an alternate universe where James
T. Kirk is slowly becoming adjusted to Star Fleet protocol,
and his new role as the Capitan of the Star Ship
Enterprise. Chris Pine plays a young Capitan Kirk while
Zachary Quito plays his first officer Lt. Spock. Both do
great jobs and have chemistry together that will remind you
of the original.
In the beginning I really loved this movie. The writer did a good job of setting the story up. If you also see it in 3-D the beginning is beautiful. Somewhere along the way the writing stumbles and the movie also forgets that it’s in 3-D, and then you are taken on an average journey where you can pretty much take off your 3-D glasses. Zoe Saldana plays a new version of L.T. Uhura. She gets quite a bit of screen time, and does a pretty good job with it. Matter a fact, everyone of the crew get opportunities to get a little shine in this movie. Chekov, Scotty and Bones are not ignored.
If you’re a Trek fan who feels the last movie had a dash of Star Wars, you will feel the same with this movie. But you have to remember the last movie did $340 million while the one before that did $40 million. It’s makes economic sense to keep the same formula. The problem I have with this movie is that they bring in a legendary villain who I won’t name but unfortunately his casting and scripting did not live up to potential. I felt the writing really dropped the ball in that department, and his scenes in the end weren’t that special. There’s also a lot here if you’re a Trek fan that you have seen before and better. Toward the end the movie drags and you start to feel like J.J. Abrams really missed the bulls eye on this one. Good start to a movie but needed a better finish.