Star Trek Into Darkness Review

• 4th May 2013

So the new crew get their second outing in this tale of revenge and friendship. Kirk and co get tp partake in a mini adventure at the start of the film, almost pre-credits Bond style – and whuile it looks good, it’s all rather bit superfluous if it wasn’t for the need to set up dramatic tensions between Kirk and his first officer, as well as landing kirk in deep trouble with the brass back home.

But before there is much of a chance for Kirk to worry about life without the enterprise – the brass themselves are attacked by one John Harrison, one of their own. Kirk in turn is sent out with his crew to “run the bastard down.” From here it’s a case of Kirk making the right choices for himself, his crew and Starfleet as they head out on their mission.

Well let’s say that tempers flare, relationships are strained to the brink, and Kirk gets to come face to face with a guy who can stand to take a beating or two. There also might be one or two nods to previous ventures from another timeline along the way. Just one or two mind… Damon Lindelof isn’t the kind of writer to milk it too far…?

The writing team may have some good dramatic and comedic beats, but they are more often than not clutching at straws as to what works for each character. The needs of the many here do out-weigh the needs of the few, but there are perhaps too many cooks where a single writer could have delivered something altogether more balanced.

What is impressive is the structure of the characters and how they fit into the narrative.  The flow of the plot is wonky at best, but this perhaps keeps the audience alert as to how the story will develop- despite it becoming terribly predictable once all intentions of certain characters become clear. It’s a miracle then that some of the moments in this film come very close to perfection, only then to be followed by something that might perhaps make you groan out loud.

The crew themselves try to slink into their new roles. Karl Urban is still the only actor channelling his predecessor, and continuing to do it well. Chekov and Sulu pull the short straws again. Pegg’s Scotty makes up for most of the disaster that was his first pass at the character and is altogether more interesting this time round; especially when given an important early dramatic beat to play against Kirk. Saldana also has lesser duties in the second half and is literally beamed into the action for the sake of having something to do.

It then comes down to the central friendship: Spock (played well again by Zachary Quinto) gets to really mine what is going on in Spock’s head, and Pine really sets about earning his position as Captain.

As we have said there are pitfalls in the characters – mainly through dialogue. And literally every character has something great, but something equally terrible to bring to the table. In the end what outweighs what is thankfully enjoyment over boredom.

Abrams and co have built on what they have done before, but seem to have dragged along the same errors as before as well. They’re just rearranged them so that they appear in different places this time. Except the lens flares of course (yes old argument, we know, everyone is bored of that joke, whatever, deal with it: They are there and they bloody well shouldn’t be!).

As for the villain stealing the show… Well Cumberbatch actually has less screen time than you might imagine, but he’s not too shabby when he is onscreen.

Steven Hurst