'Star Trek Into Darkness' Review

Star Trek Into Darkness immediately throws the viewer into the action in its opening moments, as Captain Kirk must rescue Spock from an exploding volcano. The opening scene really sets the tone for the rest of the film. J.J. Abrams has created an extremely fun summer blockbuster that is not only entertaining, but smartly written and compelling.

Unlike other summer films, this one rarely has to sacrifice logic and common sense to show off its big-budget action scenes. While the action scenes are indeed massive, the movie is primarily concerned about the characters and entertaining the audience. As a result, Star Trek Into Darkness has a near-perfect mix of humor, intensity, philosophical drama and huge spectacle.

Much like its 2009 predecessor, Star Trek Into Darkness is designed to appeal to both old school Star Trek fans and casual moviegoers. Director J.J. Abrams somehow manages yet again to make a Star Trek movie that will appeal to just about anyone. I was new to the Star Trek series when I saw 2009's Star Trek. In fact, I had no interest in seeing it at all, but was very impressed when I did. I am very happy to say that Star Trek Into Darkness may even surpass the excellence of Abram's original Star Trek.

While Abrams did a masterful job of rebooting the Star Trek series with his 2009 film, the new one is actually more fun to watch. The characters have grown a bit and the action scenes are more impressive. Abrams was clearly given a bigger budget and a larger canvas to paint his weird and wonderful alien landscapes on. Into Darkness also has a much stronger villain than the first film, played by the wonderfully suave Benedict Cumberbatch.

Cumberbatch, who plays a terrorist named John Harrison, is terrific in this film. His performance is a complete joy to watch; Cumberbatch is menacing, calculating, cold, yet somehow still sympathetic. He's a relentless, seeming unstoppable force with wits and brute force on his side. This is a memorable villain and a brilliant performance. Cumberbatch is a real talent, the type of actor who should be showered with as many Oscars and Emmys as possible. He can be seen on the BBC series Sherlock in the title role and in the upcoming Hobbit films as the dragon Smaug. Cumberbatch is one of the most interesting actors working today and I just adore everything he appears in.

Cumberbatch is only one of many great actors in this film. The rest of the cast almost uniformly nails it in this movie. Chris Pine is once again excellent as the young and brash Captain James T. Kirk. Kirk's relationship with Spock was one of the best elements of the movie. 2009's Star Trek saw the two bickering for most of the film, then coming to understand each other by the end.

Spock's emotionless, logic-based nature clashes with Kirk's gut-reaction decision making. The personalities of Kirk and Spock come very much into play for some key decisions later in the movie. I'm glad J.J. Abrams never lost sight of the characters and the story he wanted to tell while making such a big movie. I guess that's the main reason Star Trek Into Darkness works so well. I genuinely cared about the characters and felt for their struggles, even the villain. I can't believe it, but I cried during one scene in this movie. I did not expect for a second that the film would have such an emotional scene towards the end, but it packed quite a punch and I was surprisingly moved.

Alright, so you've heard me gush about the acting and the attention to the characters, but that's not all this movie has to offer. If you're solely going to watch this movie for awesome action scenes alone you will get your money's worth and more. I wanted to get up and applaud after at least two of the action sequences in this movie. Again, these scenes work not only because of the visual effects, but because you care about the characters. That is why these scenes are so thrilling.

Epic is a word that is way overused nowadays, but this film had some epic action scenes and landscapes to show off. Between the intense action, the great characters and the humor, this movie blows Iron Man 3 out of the water. There's a very strong possibility that Star Trek Into Darkness will end up being the best summer movie of 2013. For the second time, J.J. Abrams has pulled off the seemingly impossible: making a Star Trek movie that everyone can enjoy.