Star Trek: Into Darkness - Movie Review

"After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction."

I couldn't think of a better way to start off this review with expressing my passion and amazement of the first Star Trek film. Not being a fan of Star Trek or even being that familiar with the content at all, I thought the 2009 reboot would pass me by. To my astonishment it didn't, and I absolutely loved it! J.J Abrams breathed new life into an old concept, refreshing it for a modern audience that I felt pleased general audiences as well as probably satisfying 'Trekkies'.

Starting off with the plot, which I thought was pretty much your bog standard story. Nothing particularly groundbreaking about this but of course, it was always going to be the approach taken by Abrams and his team that would be the shining star within. I felt there was enough to take the film into different directions and implement twists and turns along the way to give fans of the first film enough content to love this one too.

J.J Abrams is a phenomenal director, I don't think you need me to even corroborate this statement to you because I merely see it as factual. He has a knowledge and understanding of films that far surpasses many of the working directors out in the industry to date. He brings a substantial amount of energy and even emotion to this film which was certainly an element that I didn't expect. As it is a spoiler-free review, I won't give anything away but if you have seen the film, you will know exactly the moment I am talking about. His direction was something I greatly admired about the sequel and an aspect that undoubtedly had a strong effect on me loving the first one so much. You can see that he has such a control over every fine detail of the film, which is of course expected as a director but he more than makes use of this authority. He seems to nail most elements down to a tee, printing his fine stamp of film making all over this movie indefinitely.

For a sci-fi film, it's a mandatory requirement for me to mention the effects and visuals of the film in my eyes. Which were personally breathtaking. The sheer spectacle of the film was a sight to behold. Abrams really grasps the concept of depth of field and in both of the Star Trek films he has created, he takes full advantage of this. It is far superior in this department to its predecessor as I felt it more than expanded on the universes and areas we had previously seen. The action sequences which there are more than enough of, definitely stand strong. Each of them seemed to one up the last and it was almost a competition of which was the best by the end. The CGI was great which when it is a part of a J.J Abrams production, I have no concerns about how the final product will look.

Some problems that I did have with the film though included the first 15-20 minutes. This is after the opening action sequence which pumped me up for the rest of the film beyond belief. Although after this, I felt that this opening didn't really deliver. Especially with a sequel, it needs to fill us in with gaps between the two movies, bridging the differences that they have and helping us to become up to date with the going ons. I didn't really felt it did this as good as possible, it felt like it was dieing to jump into all of these huge set pieces and adventure aspect rather than providing the viewers with enough information to be invested from the beginning. I did worry when watching this first 20 minutes as I honestly felt I wasn't going to be on board and that it would completely take me out of the film, enormously hindering my enjoyment. This wasn't the case thankfully but it did stop me from giving a higher rating than what could have been.

Another aspect earlier on that didn't sit with me right was the introduction of Cumberbatch's character. Although it was fairly early on which was of course necessary, it felt like they tried to jump into his story arc too soon rather than getting to the bottom of this character and giving him some much needed development. One attack was made on Earth and suddenly we're met by him without providing us with any insight to who he may be. This could be purposefully done by Abrams to add to the ambiguity and mystery behind the character which I can accept but I felt giving some form of back story could have only satisfied people more. Even though I feel this way, it didn't drawback any of the effect his character had, and I think it won't do for anybody else.

I have some mixed emotions about the writing for the film. It seems to be the trend now that scripts are a lot more lighthearted and include various comic relief moments. This was the case for Iron Man 3 which comes to mind when thinking of this but I felt there it was executed much better and fit the purpose perfectly. It wasn't that I hated it, but sometimes I would have liked moments to have been taken much more seriously than they were. Granted, it is a Star Trek film but I think Abrams has somewhat grounded the whole idea and the tone that the film was setting almost juxtaposed with the writing that was presented. 

The 3D had its positives and negatives which is a bit of a recurring theme for the tool. I personally, aren't really a fan of the whole 3D bandwagon that Hollywood is utilizing to its maximum nowadays but I feel it can be useful if done correctly. This is why I had some form hope that Star Trek: Into Darkness may get it right and really break into the core roots that make it such an interesting tool to use. It did add to the whole experience received at the cinema to an extent, it added some real depth and dimension to the universes and galaxies that we came across within the film. Immersing you into a film like this is what 3D should be all about and it certainly had glimpses of this. What I personally loved about it, was that in a particular action sequence, it outshone any form of 3D I've seen on the big screen (after Life of Pi's ship destruction sequence). Without giving too much away, dimension, camerawork and immersion played pivotal roles in my enjoyment of this and were fully used to immaculately. If you've seen the film, I think you'll have an idea of which sequence I am referring to. I was completely in awe for the moments it lasted and it was a sheer spectacle that I was observing. Fine work by Abrams to capture it so beautifully.

Again, without giving anything away about the climax of the film, probably my biggest problem was that it seemed to end abruptly. Everything wrapped up a little too nicely for my liking and it wasn't just that, but it came across as if it was rushed. We had all of this build up to an inevitable final showdown and then out of nowhere it all came to a halt. It seemed like such a short period of time that everything was addressed and wrapped up in, it may have just been me that had this feeling when leaving the cinema but I felt the conclusion could have been drawn out a little longer and given some much needed development to leave us on a positive note.

The score which deserves an honourable mention is just as good as the original film's was. Which was immense. It fits the tone of the film and any visuals that it presents so well. I am quite upset that Michael Giacchino won't be brought into compose the score for Star Wars Episode VII but it was always going to be done by John Williams which is certainly not a bad thing. 

Now, you must all be wondering whether you've seen the film or not, what I thought of Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of the villain of the film. I don't think incredibly amazing even sells it enough. It was something that I was looking forward to seeing a huge amount while of the trailer's and footage was being pumped out earlier on in the year and to say it delivered would have been an understatement. I think the performances of Ben Kingsley in Iron Man 3 has had a lot of hype and talk surrounding the matter in the last couple of weeks but this surpasses it every way imaginable. He brought such depth and a menacing persona whenever he was on screen, it was hard of the other cast to even get a look in as my eyes were always met towards him rather than focusing on other characters. 

Overall, Star Trek: Into Darkness is a great example of why the cinema experience is vital. It just gives such an effect off, and conjures up all sorts of different response and emotions that can't be exampled if you were watching a film say in your front room. While it doesn't quite surpass the original, it maintains to be a great action/adventure/sci-fi film and definitely up there with the best films that I've seen this year so far.