StarTrekIntoDarkness

Once again, J. J. Abrams is back to whelm the first sequel to our favorite space action-adventure franchise, Star Trek! With Michael Giacchino's sonorous score returning after 2009, you're immediately in the frame with the infamous personas in an engagement with trouble featuring a fantastic action block! The moment you're thrown into a red drenched class M planet Nibiru, the experience for the eyes & mind is blazing! Color usage of red at times of agony, danger & revenge is spot-on! From the initial few minutes of the grand introduction, you'd be able to notice a lot of greatness. The ice cube suit design, volcano environment, better acting, magnificent production design of London with futuristic fashions & apparatus implementation, creature animatronics glazed with CGI as finish & sui generis camera movements and wide takes are here to tell you, this is going to be darker & more serious movie than it was before!

No matter what it is, Star Trek is about the characters, especially of James T. Kirk & Spock. Their relationship is further explored. While the first film had more information to convey about Spock, it is in this installment we see more expansion of Kirk. What a deep voice projection that resonates command Chris Pine has! We get to see him emotional through adequate close-ups. He has the best motivation to go after the antagonist, and the way he rages upon him is strong! Although he is emotionally tarnished, he still maintains optimism. He does get lost. But the film's about the choices he make. And to do so, we have a tremendous supporting character named Spock! This adorable persona, acted wonderfully by Zachary Quinto, beautifully hides the feelings inside him. The chuckle points are extracted upon his inability to emote. Towards the end when Kirk dies, that's when you see him lose it all and sets out for another appropriate revenge! The friendship between these two is truly heartfelt, and this is one of the best onscreen relationships we'll ever see on silver screens!

Wow, the actions! The high octane action sequences are with purpose, mind you. Be it the Starfleet HQ attack, Kirk & Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) launching into space to a small opening, strolling across inverted & upside down hallways and the city destruction for the climax, it has badass written all over it! Action episodes are only valuable as to how intense the construction is! Ticking-time, being outnumbered & outgunned provide marvelous tense! As much as it is about the action, Star Trek is about the team as well. Even through segregation, splitting due to frictions & slight jealousy thanks to newly added members, you always see them coming together every single time when facing crisis! The leadership qualities in each and every one of them is well shown! New additions like Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) has relevance for inclusion too.

Issues with big-budgeted movies like this usually comes from the convenience in screenwriting. But surprisingly, Into Darkness has minimal to none! Yes, Chekov (Anton Yelchin) coming to rescue out of nowhere is one such small event, but that's pretty much it. The question of why Khan has to save the trio & surrender is raised and explained in the script itself. Upon knowing the right number of torpedoes owned by the Starfleet troopers, that's when he realizes that this is the ship he has to board to succeed his plan. From this point onwards, the story takes an interesting route to discover the mystery ploy within Starfleet, particularly surrounding Admiral Marcus, acted with perfection by Peter Weller. He has a reason to reach out to the Enterprise in the wild, because Kirk didn't follow his orders. Exposition & villains' motivation. These are two other problems with films as such. Where the picture falters a tad would be during its heavy verbal exposition scene prior to Mid-Point. Khan Noonien Singh is somehow a White man with an Indian name, is a sturdy villain with a slow buildup from a corner, but with hazy motivation. The same can be said about Admiral Marcus'.

Visual effects for Into Darkness is something to talk about! The 360º user-exploitable security camera, full warp after-spark & Enterprise dropping through a fluff of clouds are literally jaw-dropping instances! There's a clear hint from Scotty (Simon Pegg) about the torpedoes delivered through a special tight shot, and the way the editors cut his 'Holy shit' to a shutter door opening is brilliant! Troughs in the pacing are used to solve story points & minor character moments; in other words, necessary & apposite. Dress change clip is uncalled for, but it's minor, so forgivable. Didn't many others die too in the headquarters ambush apart from Pike (Bruce Greenwood)? The last part of Kirk's attempt seem to be a stretched heroism, and Khan's DNA being used to resuscitate our hero is smart & fitting! With a happy ending, we have another sequel waiting to show what happens in the next 5 years of Enterprise's space adventure!