My review of Star Trek Into Darkness
Warning! There Be Spoilers Here
Some time has passed since the events of the last movie. We join the crew of the Enterprise in the midst of a mission of some kind on a jungle planet. With Spock caught in a life or death situation, Captain Kirk makes a decision that has immediate and dramatic consequences for his career. Meanwhile, an enigmatic terrorist called John Harrison begins a one man war on Starfleet. Kirk and the Enterprise are propelled towards a confrontation with Harrison on the home-world of a species with which the Federation is all too close to war.
I'm a lifetime Star Trek fan. No secret there. I enjoyed the 2009 movie in a lot of ways but also found fault with it in some areas. What was undeniable was that JJ Abrams had managed to make Star Trek attractive to a wider audience than had seen any of the previous movies. Not everyone was ok with that. It was clear that the sequel, four years later, would have much to do; namely to retain its broader appeal, and hopefully calm the discontent among the fan community. I'm happy to report that for me, at least, Into Darkness has succeeded admirably in the first and to a large extent in the second.
The film looks flat out amazing. The opening sequence is a vivid explosion of sound and colour, and yet soon presents Kirk with the kind of moral dilemma which would not have been out of place in any of the original series episodes. Namely, should he reveal the Enterprise to the native population Spock has just saved from a planet-wide catastrophe to rescue his Vulcan First Officer from a fiery death? This being Kirk, obviously the answer is yes. The opening ten minutes is one frenetic sequence which had me grinning from ear to ear, especially as the natives carved a crude image of the Enterprise which transitioned into a shot of the Enterprise warping through space. All of this backed by Michael Giacchino's epic main title theme, reprised from the first movie.
We then get our first taste of Benedict Cumberbatch's enigmatic John Harrison. In a scene familiar to those of us who caught the ten minute preview attached to The Hobbit, Harrison meets with an unfamiliar Starfleet officer, Thomas Harewood (played by Noel Clarke), and offers to save his terminally ill daughter, in return for a devastating mission. We learn that Harewood works in a secret Starfleet facility beneath the streets of London. He uses a device delivered by Harrison to destroy the facility, and himself, after using a sample of Harrison's blood to produce a miraculous recovery in his daughter.
It's nice to see here that one of the major gripes I had with the first movie is addressed here. Namely that Kirk's rapid escalation from cadet to Captain seemed ridiculous. Here, it seems that Starfleet agrees and following his latest escapade on the planet at the beginning of the film, and more importantly Kirk's subsequent underplaying of events in his logs, the young Captain is relieved of his command and dispatched back to the Academy, presumably to learn some humility. There are some great scenes here between Kirk, Spock and Pike (with Bruce Greenwood again providing a much needed mentor figure for the maverick Kirk). It's interesting to note that Spock and Kirk still have a somewhat adversarial relationship here.
Following a thrilling attack by Harrison on the assembled top brass at Starfleet, Pike is killed and Kirk returned to command of the Enterprise and sent by Admiral Marcus on a mission to kill Harrison. It has been revealed that Harrison works for Starfleet and that the facility destroyed in London is none other than Section 31. Geek overload at this point, as Section 31 is the shady organisation within Starfleet familiar to viewers of Deep Space Nine. More geek gold follows within Admiral Marcus' office as models of ships familiar to Star Trek fans are clearly in view, including the NX-01 from the series Enterprise.
Kirk and the Enterprise are sent off with a payload of top secret torpedoes which can be launched from the edge of the Neutral Zone to strike at Harrison's hiding place on the Klingon homeworld. Simon Pegg as Scotty is given more to do here and resigns from his postion as Chief Engineer when Kirk refuses to allow him to scan the torpedoes. While the brewery pipe sets from the first movie are still in evidence here, they are much less prominent and I actually liked the heavy industrial look of the warp core used here. In general the interiors of the Enterprise are much more satisfying . The shuttle bay looks really impressive, and is seen several times during the film. I also loved the multi level corridor hub seen several times. We also get to meet Alice Eve as Carol Wallace, a weapons expert on board for this mission. Eve is great in this role and I thought it was neat that her name was a nod to Janet Wallace from the original series. Wallace was one of Kirk's many old flames and I also liked the reference to Christine Chapel.
Kirk decides to break orders and apprehend Harrison, rather than kill him. Using a confiscated cargo shuttle, he and a small team fly to the Klingon homeworld. Loved that crewman Hendorff from the first film, i.e. "cupcake" is used again here. We meet some Klingon's following a very Star Wars looking chase through the planet's industrial landscape. Fascinating to note that in this timeline, the Klingon moon Praxis seems to have exploded already. Just as thing are looking bad for our landing party, Harrison turns up and puts the smackdown on the Klingons. He is clearly more than human here, and yet surrenders when he learns that the Enterprise has 79 torpedoes aimed at his hiding place.
Back on the Enterprise,an unexpected problem with the engines keeps the ship stranded at the edge of Klingon territory. Chekov has been promoted to Chief Engineer and is lot of fun in these scenes.
McCoy and Kirk speak with Harrison and we learn the secret of his abilities. So here is where all of those rumours came true. Harrison's real name is Khan, a gentically engineered superman exiled into space some three hundred years previously with 79 of his similarly endowed followers. I was ready to hate the movie when I first heard rumours of Khan. Why couldn't we have an original story? That niggle remains somewhat, but honestly, the story works here, and further reinforces that this timeline is different from what we have seen before. I'm sure the math is a bit off as by my reckoning that would mean Khan was frozen in the 1960s. In this timeline, it transpires that Khan was rescued from his frozen sleep by Admiral Marcus, who has been using the man from the past to build a new generation of weapons and ships to prepare for the war with the Klingons he feels is inevitable. I did not see this twist coming and it serves to make Khan an almost sympathetic figure. Benedict Cumberbatch is great as Khan throughout, subtle and nuanced, yet brutally physical when he needs to be.
Admiral Marcus arrives aboard the USS Vengeance, a prototype dreadnought designed by Khan . It becomes clear that Kirk's incursion into the Neutral Zone is to be used as an excuse to precipitate war. Fortunately, Mr Scott has stowed away aboard the beast and sabotages the ship. The Enterprise flees for Earth but the massive warship follows and the two ships engage in a spectacular battle which results in the Enterprise being crippled and plunging into the atmosphere. This whole sequence is thrilling and executed at a breakneck pace. The visuals are amazing, as gravity fails on the stricken ship and crewmen are thrown around the interior in some spectacular physical effects sequences.
The endgame of the film turns the well known scenario from the end of Wrath Of Khan on it's head, and was unexpected, at least to me. I found it affecting and satisfying, which surprised me. Again, these twists to the familiar events thrilled me, rather than upset me. We are then treated to a spectacular chase through San Francisco, which was almost dizzying in Imax. Ultimately, the familiar crew reunites and the Enterprise is set to embark on her historic five year mission. Khan is reunited with his people in cryogenic sleep.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and like it much more than it's predecessor. I found the story exciting and the visuals of the movie much more refined. There was even less lens flare. I would have liked more McCoy and less Uhura. I don't care much about the Spock-Uhura romance and could have done without it here. Uhura still comes across to me as a spoiled brat. The rest of the performances were stellar, however. Special note to Chris Pine for his performance as Kirk, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan. I'm excited to see where the next movie takes us, and look forward to seeing Into Darkness again, and owning it as soon as possible.
