Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5
Star Trek Into Darkness is the second reboot of the original Star Trek series and occurs with the original characters prior to ‘5 year mission’ of the original series.
The movie will appeal to both fans of Star Trek and just generally sci-fi/action movies. For the most part, the special effects are pretty good (although the communicators that were so awesome almost 40 years ago seem sort of bulky by today’s standards and the phasers are also nothing special today). I liked the action sequences for most of the movie, but thought the ones towards the end were a little overboard and could have been done better.
For fans of the series, there is a lot of the familiar interaction and humor among Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty, as well as the usual discussions on logic vs. gut decisions influenced by emotion. It did bother me a little that the last movie sort of wiped the slate clean of the original TV historical record, with characters going back in time and therefore changing history.
Zachary Quinto was spot-on as Spock and Simon Pegg always added some humor in a underutilized role as Scotty. Benedict Cumberbatch was excellent as the villain. They even brought Leonard Nimoy back for a cameo, but that was sort of a cop-out in my view that the young Spock needed help from the old Spock.
Overall this was a good movie, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
Bill I’s Review – 3.5 out of 5
I was captured from the opening scene, with the way they immediately immerse you in the adventure, although I rolled my eyes when Spock was able to function in the middle of an active volcano. The story was good enough, bringing to life current issues that we face such as the legality of hunting and killing US citizens “abroad”, and the rogue government agents who become ruthless killers justified by some larger mission. The actors are terrific, the action scenes exciting (terrific editing by Maryann Brandon!), and the villian(s) relentless and heartless. At the end my eyes rolled again when Spock showed off his hand-to-hand fighting skills (and where did that come from?). Overall, a thrilling fun ride from JJ Abrams.
I liked the movie and thought the humor captured some of the goofiness that I remember from the old TV show. I suspect that Trekies aren’t too happy about rewriting history though…