My Review of "Star Trek: Into Darkness"

Star Trek: Into Darkness came out back in 2013. It was one of my anticipated movies back then. I loved the reboot Star Trek (2009) movie and I was surprised I never reviewed this movie. The only reviews I'm missing is this one and Star Trek: Beyond which is coming soon.

This movie starts off with a bang. It's out in this foreign planet that the gang are trying to save. Unfortunately the indigenous beings there are too primitive for the group to introduce themselves to. It's some sort of prime directive that they have to follow so that they have no influence on their growing culture.

To save this planet, the crew unfortunately have to reveal themselves because Spock fell into the erupting volcano. In order to save Spock they ship had to have a clear line to him. This brings upon the conversation of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the individual. It's a common theme throughout this movie. The needs of Spock outweighed the need for the gang to follow the prime directive of protecting the indigenous beings from being exposed to them.

We then jump back to Earth where there is a Starfleet officer that is having issues with his daughter. She's dying of an unknown disease and he's willing to do anything to save her. This includes committing a terrorist incident. Again the theme of the needs of many versus the individual. It's sprinkled beautifully throughout the movie.

This causes a catalyst that has everyone searching for the mastermind of the terrorist act. We start to learn more and more about why this terrorist is did what he did. He's also quite an enigma himself. I love how everything is slowly revealed but Star Trek fans of the past will recognize what's going on.

You also have to remember it follows an alternative timeline as the original so you can't totally be surprised as to what is about to happen. The way they organized everything in this movie felt like it was so meticulous. Everything was explained logically so that nothing felt totally out of place.

I had reservations about the Spock character losing most of his emotions in this second outting. It didn't seem quite right but then they kind of explained why he was the way he was. It's still weird to have someone be able to turn on and off their autism spectrum though. Then again he is half Vulcan.

Some of the things I noticed in this movie was that the movie was filmed with much better equipment. Watching it in 4k Blu-ray is a treat. You really notice how much cleaner the image is and the audio mix is superb! There's things flying around the room and really immerses you into the scenes. I didn't even notice but there are IMAX scenes where the black bars will be removed for bigger landscape scenes. This was a really welcome touch and really made the movie feel a lot bigger than I had expected.

There are people that will be angry that they retreaded on familiar material from the old movies. Then again this is the age of reboots and remakes. This series never made any excuses and we knew from the beginning as to what it was so you can't be angry about it.

They do make some notable nods to the past. There are a number of homages made in this movie to the original series. I also like a lot of the fashion and art direction that lends itself well to the origins of this series. It's sort of like a modern twist to what it used to be like.

The team works very well together and there is a pretty good cohesion to the team. Although I would like a bigger role for some of the supporting cast other than rescue missions. Bones had a bigger part in the original series and he does feel a little unutilized.

Overall, I could watch this movie over and over again. It is utterly entertaining and a true classic for me. You really get the nuances if you've watched the original 2009 movie but you can probably keep up as a stand-alone movie. That's why I have to give this movie a 8.5 out of 10. I can't believe how much better it got when I got to see this movie again.