Star Trek Into Darkness {Movie Review}

First things first: I am not a hard core trekkie. I have never seen any of the TV series episodes nor any of the older films. The only Treks I’ve been on (pun completely intended) are the latest incarnations, and I loved them both.

Here’s the thing: I never would even have watched them if not for the involvement of my favorite actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the bad guy in the sequel. Did you know he shot his audition using an iphone, in his best friend’s home? Star Trek comes off as a bit too geeky for normal people like me (and by normal, I guess I mean people who get nosebleeds when too much Science is involved?) and I know that I’m not the only one because I asked a couple of guys if they were planning on watching it and they went: “Nah. Not interested. Fast and Furious 6, however…”

So if you’re a normal person who thinks that way, I am here to tell you: WATCH THE DAMN MOVIE. IT’S AWESOME SAUCE! (This marks the first time I ever said “Awesome sauce” ever, by the way.)

When JJ Abrams took over the helm, he apparently had the goal to revamp Star Trek and make it for a wider audience, so he made it more action-packed and gimmicky. This worked in luring new Trekkies, but it also caused a lot of old Trekkies to get mad. Oh well. I guess there’s no way to please everybody.

Read my review of Star Trek (2009)

Anyway. The new movie. I loved it because it was packed with action, special effects, witty one-liners and a good story. The action scenes were physical and not just of the phoom-phoom laser beams and explosions kind. There was running and glass shattering and punching and screaming but not too much gore, just the way I like it. Lots of scenes kept me at the edge of my seat (and asking Dred, waaahhh what’s gonna happen now????”)

She had every right to scream at this scene

Glass shattering is always a nice effect in movies

Physical fight. So badass.

The movie hit the ground running with its opening scene and did not relent from start to finish. I hate slow scenes that lull me to sleep or make me wonder ugh, when is this movie gonna pick up pace? No such boring moment here, folks. And I’m sure at least a cinema full of people agrees with me because we laughed and screamed together in the darkness while watching Into Darkness. Yes, I really had to say that. Sorry. I promise to stop.

The special effects were incredibly realistic. Whenever the ship went into warp speed, I felt like I was also shooting off into the universe with them.  I loved it! The kid sitting next to Dred did too and even mimicked the sound every time it happened. So cute.

You can bet Spock’s phaser’s not set to stun.

Uh oh. Looks like the Enterprise is in trouble.

I loved everyone’s acting overall and of course Benedict killed it as a baddie. There were moments that reminded me of Sherlock, though, the way he talked very fast and acted all haughty and superiorly intelligent and that moment when a tear spilled down his cheek, a scene that highlighted the color of his emerald green eyes.

Anyway, the movie in a spoiler-free nutshell:

A terrorist sets off an explosion and Star Fleet finds out that he is John Harrison, one of their very own. Captain Kirk and his Enterprise crew must stop him, so they fly off to the edge of dangerous enemy territory to find him. But just who is this guy and what are his motivations for his actions? Watch the trailer below.

Warning: Spoiler alert follows after the pictures! 

Did you read my warning above? You have now reached the SPOILERS SECTION so if you don’t want to be here, PLEASE GO AWAY NOW.

Okay. There was a lot of mystery and secrecy behind the character portrayed by Benedict. At first they refused to reveal his name, but then later when they revealed it to be John Harrison, the fans were convinced that it was a red herring and believed that he was really Khan, the iconic villain from the most popular movie of the franchise, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.

What convinced them of this was the one line he uttered in the trailer: “I am better.” Kirk asks him, “At what? “Everything!” he finishes. Non Trekkies don’t get it, of course, but apparently, Khan is a genetically engineered superhuman, which makes him literally better than everyone at everything, putting that one line in context. Not a bad deduction, eh, Sherlock?

Benedict at first refused to speak about who his character is, and he even flatly denied that he is Khan.

Well guess what, folks. The internet was right! He is Khan!

Original Khan

Why is Khan so completely different looking in this parallel universe? LOL.

His back story is still the same, though. He has been cryogenically frozen for hundreds of years along with his crew of 72, and he is still as hell bent on revenge as ever. They seem to be two completely different people, though, and not just the looks, they had two completely different personalities, it seemed to me. This was how I explained it to Dred: “Old Khan is like Kirk’s evil version while Ben’s Khan is more like Spock’s evil version.” Not sure if I am making any sense at all here.

Oh yeah, I hadn’t seen The Wrath of Khan before but I got curious after watching Into Darkness that I just had to watch it to make a comparison.

There were a couple of scenes in TWOK that was taken and flipped in the new film. In TWOK, the Enterprise’s power is compromised and everyone is in danger of certain death until Spock runs to the engine room and manually fixes the power thingie (yes, I’m so technical like that), exposing himself to radiation. He saves the ship at the expense of his own life, and right before he dies, Jim runs to him and they gaze at each other through protective glass as Spock explains, “Don’t grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” He then raises his hand in a Vulcan salute and presses it against the glass. Jim presses his own fingers against it before Spock dies.

Old Jim and Spock

In STID, the scene is reversed, and after Jim dies, the normally stoic Spock, tears streaming down his face, yells KHAAAAAN!!! which was actually Jim’s iconic line in TWOK, though it was in a different moment.

New Jim and Spock

Bromances. They always get me. Sniff

But aside from those scenes and the background story, the two are completely different movies. I liked them both but honestly, I prefer STID. TWOK is just a bit too outdated, the special effects look kinda funny to me. I don’t blame it, though, because hello, it was released in the year I was born. That’s how old its technology is. I also prefer funny, action-packed films more than deep serious ones. Just shallow, I guess? Oops.