Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)
DIRECTOR: J.J. Abrams
CAST: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve, Peter Weller, Bruce Greenwood, Leonard Nimoy
REVIEW:
Warning: While I will try to avoid outright “spoilers”, this review will discuss elements of the film’s plot.
Like Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, J.J. Abrams resurrected the floundering Star Trek film franchise with 2009’s simply-titled Star Trek, and now, after its critical and box office success, he has, by his own admission, sought to provide Star Trek’s answer to The Dark Knight, a sequel that is bigger, more epic, and goes to some darker, more surprising places. I’m not prepared to say he’s completely accomplished this task—Into Darkness pulls a punch where The Dark Knight had no such compunction—but what he has succeeded at is a second breakneck space high adventure that’s engaging and exciting, serves up plenty of action and tension, and is lighter on comedy and higher on drama. Star Trek had some emotional moments—George Kirk’s hero’s death in the prologue, and the death of Spock’s mother during the destruction of Vulcan—but there are moments in Into Darkness that have more impact because we’ve gotten to know the characters involved better. The emotional stakes are raised beyond even the worst of what the characters endured in their “first” outing. If Star Trek was Kirk, Spock, and company’s christening, Into Darkness is their baptism by fire.
We open with the Enterprise crew trying to save a primitive culture from an erupting volcano. In the process, Spock (Zachary Quinto) gets trapped, and Kirk (Chris Pine) violates regulations to come to the rescue. Kirk’s disregard for rules and orders gets him demoted to First Mate, with command of the Enterprise given back to Admiral Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Meanwhile, top Starfleet agent John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) goes rogue and sets out on a vengeful warpath against the superiors he claims wronged him, first setting up a bombing in London, then making a surprise attack on Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco. Starfleet bigwig Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) lets Kirk back in the saddle for one purpose—hunt Harrison down—but there may be more at play than meets the eye, and Kirk may get himself and his crew in over their heads.
Star Trek had plenty of homages and easter eggs, including lines of dialogue, to the older films, but Into Darkness goes significantly further. There’s even a Tribble. Abrams may be moving Trek into the future, but he also liberally references the past, including one entire sequence that’s an almost exact rehash of probably the most famous scene from The Wrath of Khan, except with an important role reversal. While Abrams has rebooted the series into an alternate timeline, and familiarity with The Wrath of Khan is not strictly necessary, the scene in question is more powerful to those who understand the reference. This has proven a controversial decision, with some decrying Abrams’ perceived lack of imagination, but I prefer to think of it as I feel Abrams intended it—an homage and a tying together of the old and the new. The scene lacks the wrenching impact of the original, mostly because the punch is pulled—at least quicker than it was in the 1980s—but it’s still effective, albeit relying on a cheat to manipulate emotions.
Like Star Trek, Into Darkness has a fast, whizz-bang pace. It’s action-adventure-oriented, and those who were unimpressed with this in Abrams’ first installment and felt it sacrificed character development/relationships and the underlying themes the older films were known for are not likely to have their opinion changed here. That said, there are some nice character scenes, and while Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Karl Urban haven’t been at it long enough to have settled into the easy camaraderie of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley, the friendships, especially between Kirk and Spock, are conveyed effectively. The central Kirk/Spock dynamic has more depth here, and echoes the one we knew when it was being played by Shatner/Nimoy. Into Darkness might be largely an action extravaganza, but it also doesn’t forget about the characters, or at least not the most crucial ones.
The special effects, as in the previous film, are first-rate, on par with anything onscreen in recent years. Some action sequences are noteworthy, including the opening, with Kirk and Bones fleeing from unfriendly natives while Spock descends into an erupting volcano, Harrison’s blitz attack on Starfleet headquarters, Kirk and company pursued by Klingon warbirds, Kirk and Harrison’s space jump from ship-to-ship, a space battle between an outmatched Enterprise and a larger, more powerful ship, and a climactic chase through a futuristic San Francisco, culminating in a hand-to-hand smackdown. And while Abrams’ films aren’t huge on subtext, there are touches of political commentary about terrorism and about manufacturing a pre-emptive war to eliminate a perceived threat. It’s not anything tremendously deep or subtle, but the movie isn’t brainless either.
The returning cast have settled into their roles. Chris Pine is excellent, mixing Kirk’s usual cocky swagger with more emotion, as well as the most heroic Kirk has been yet in Abrams’ series (and ranking right up with anything that can be named from the original series and films either). Pine proved his charisma in 2009; here he also shows dramatic chops. Two scenes, one early and one near the end, are the most vulnerable Kirk has been maybe since Spock’s funeral in 1982’s The Wrath of Khan. Zachary Quinto is solid too, finding the right line between logical detachment and emotion. As before, there comes a moment when Spock cannot contain his emotions, one that has even more impact here because the personal stakes are even higher. In the first film, Pine’s Kirk and Quinto’s Spock, just starting out as opposed to the effortless “click” of Shatner and Nimoy developed from decades of co-starring, were just finding their footing around each other. Here, we believe that they care about each other because the actors sell it. None of the rest of the Enterprise crew gets much to do. Karl Urban skulks around uttering countrified metaphors and of course some “I’m a doctor, not a ______” one-liners, as well as occasionally dishing out a dose of common sense. Zoe Saldana gets to share another kiss, as well as some bickering, with Quinto, and speak some subtitled Klingon. Simon Pegg gets more comic relief, as well as a couple more serious moments, while John Cho and Anton Yelchin stay mostly in the background. Bruce Greenwood is solid in a small returning role. And Leonard Nimoy again makes a cameo, though a significantly briefer one than in 2009.
Of the newcomers, Benedict Cumberbatch, a British character actor probably best-known as Sherlock Holmes on the BBC series Sherlock, is intriguingly ambiguous as the enigmatic John Harrison, but he’s underused. Cumberbatch does a lot with a little, radiating menace and icy intelligence in limited screentime, as well as trying to give Harrison a sliver of depth above a one-dimensional bad guy, but he’s hindered by a script that sidelines him for too much of the movie. Those who have been following the online rumor mill will be unsurprised to know there is a surprise twist about Harrison which ensures one of the old films casts an even longer shadow over Into Darkness than it would have otherwise. Alice Eve has a limited role, but her character of Dr. Carol Marcus will mean more to Trekkies than some casual viewers: in The Wrath of Khan, Carol (played by Bibi Besch) was Kirk’s lover and mother of his son. Whether that history will play out in this alternate timeline remains to be seen, though there are no sparks flying yet. As her father Admiral Marcus, Peter Weller plays a Starfleet Admiral cut from the same cloth as Admiral Cartwright in 1991’s The Undiscovered Country…with friends like these, who needs Klingons?
Into Darkness will do a little dividing of fans; whether the aforementioned scene borrowed and flipped around from The Wrath of Khan—and the repeat of a famously shouted line from that film, albeit by a different character—gives you goosebumps or an eyeroll depends on whether you take it as an homage or a lazy and unimaginative rehash. There are other flaws. The plot is a little more convoluted than necessary. Cumberbatch doesn’t get enough to do. A little foreshadowing about Kirk having some sort of health problem feels vaguely floated, then never followed up on. The movie relies on nostalgia for a previous film and emotional manipulation to provoke a response, then not only pulls the punch, but cheats with a deux ex machina to do it. The climax is a little anti-climactic; after space battles and planet-hopping, it comes down to a street chase and a fistfight? But on the whole, Into Darkness continues in the fast-paced action vein that Abrams opened in 2009, with less comedy and a little more intensity, and it’s sufficiently rousing and entertaining that it should be well-received by most moviegoers, Trekkies and mainstream crowds alike. By now, those slapping down their money for a J.J. Abrams Trek film should know what they’re getting into. Those pleased in 2009 should feel largely satisfied in 2013.
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