Directed By: J.J. Abrams
I know it’s been a little while since this film has come out but I finally got to watch it. Anyway, after a terrorist bombing organized by rogue Starfleet Agent John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) go after him. Venturing into the lonely crevices of deep Klingon space.
Without giving away much of the story, this sequel manages to fill the space boots of the previous installment. What we don’t get is action oriented set pieces, or campy dialogue scenes, or even scenes just to please those obnoxious die hard Trekkies. We get well paced story telling. Each scene has two purposes, to emotionally engage and excite the audience. And 2, to smoothly bring the film to an end, seamlessly without gimmicks. The action sequences are clean and gut wrenching, with some of the best CGI I have seen to date. It’s not just the quality of these scenes, it’s the sheer epicness created to bring out a sense of wonder and excitment, the true objective of the Star Trek franchise.
Whether it’s diving through space trying to avoid debris while trying to fit into a 2 feet hole, or interrogating a formidable villain behind a glass prison. Into Darkness tasers you with it’s scale. What it accomplishes is something almost impossible for sequel, it’s that it can be a standalone film. With it’s own themes of morality, revenge, family, and sacrifice. We see Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew deal with even greater obstacles than presented previously.
As an aspiring film maker, I know what kinds of projects I want to tackle. My schtick is small, personal art house movies, something like ‘Chungking Express’ or ‘Black Swan’. But watching J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek films inspire me to want to tackle something expansive. It brings out the awe of movie making, a childhood dream of directing my own ‘Star Wars’ film…or something along those lines. Into Darkness didn’t have that complete wonder of exploring an origin story, because it obviously isn’t one. But this sequel is definitely darker, and it can stand as it’s own film. The story moves along like…a story, a very engaging and cool looking one.
Verdict: 8.2/10
OmLogdom 