Shining a Light on the Darkness

Last night, I went to see the new Star Trek film, Star Trek Into Darkness. I know that because of the unusual mid-week opening, many of my readers who intend to go themselves have not yet had the chance, so I'm going to strive to keep this review free of major plot spoilers. Still, I could understand that some of you don't want to risk even that much. (The Entertainment Weekly review of the film, for example, claims to be spoiler free, yet describes the opening sequence in great detail in its first paragraph, and is so "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" in dancing around certain plot points that only a total idiot wouldn't be able to connect the dots.) So for those of you who don't want to risk any details at all, I give you the summary first, and then you can head out: Star Trek Into Darkness is a fairly good movie, but falls short of J.J. Abrams' previous effort, and of several other previous films in the storied franchise.

One thing this movie delivers in spades is high-octane action. Eleven prior Star Trek films have never served up anything even close to the intensity of the action in this movie, and there are several very well conceived action sequences. (Although there are also one or two that maybe wilt a bit after the fact when you question the logic of the situation.)

There are also some solid character moments. As in the previous Trek film, Kirk, Spock, and Uhura get very strong scenes throughout. Scotty's rather minimal role from that movie is paid back with a more substantial role in this one. Chekov is once again solid comic relief, and McCoy is wonderful again thanks to the uncanny channeling of DeForest Kelley by Karl Urban. (It's Sulu that gets a bit marginalized this time around.)

The movie is a visual triumph (aside from some incredibly distracting lens flare; I'll come back to that). It has visual effects more dramatic than any previous Trek films could dream of, trumping even Abrams' previous effort. There's intriguing makeup design for several background aliens, cool new ship configurations, and more. It's also a feast for the ears, with lots of chair-rattling sound effects and a Michael Giacchino score that surpasses even his exceptional work on the first film.

However...

The first Abrams film did a superb job of balancing the new interpretations of the characters with our classic expectations of them. The movie did right by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols -- and to the writing of their characters over the years -- honoring that history while bringing something new we hadn't seen, the story of "how they all met". This movie felt to me not so much like it was honoring and expanding that character history, but rather that it was trading on it. It forced the realization that these in fact are not the people we've loved for decades. The film tries for a greater emotional depth, and couldn't really reach it because we've only spent a collective four hours with these incarnation of the characters. Key scenes specifically conjure our memories of things that happened to the original versions of the characters, and it usually doesn't work out for the best.

Character development is also lacking in the villain -- a weakness shared by the first film. Benedict Cumberbatch does a lot to try to inject motivation and emotion into his character, John Harrison, but the script simply doesn't feature him enough to quite get us there. Here again, the movie asks the audience to do the heavy lifting.

And seriously, J.J., stop with the damn lens flare. It's impossible not to have noticed in the previous movies and television that J.J. Abrams has directed that the man likes his lens flare. (He's been parodied for this extensively.) But while this has bothered many people in the past, I personally have never found it distracting until now. There's a particular scene in this movie (and you will know it when you see it) that goes way too far. It's an emotional, dramatic moment at a key juncture in the plot, and you can't even pay attention to the actor speaking for the blade of light beheading them.

There are still strong performances all around -- particularly from Zachary Quinto (who muscles through a critical line of dialogue that is unintentionally funny; no one in the audience laughed out loud, but I was stifling a laugh inside). There's all that adrenaline-surging action I mentioned. But the heart of this film isn't beating as strongly as last time around.

I feel like I've tiptoed around saying many of the things I really want to say about this movie, so perhaps I'll come back in a day or two, after more people have had a chance to see it, and give the spoiler-laden version of this review. But in any case, the bottom line is that I give the movie a B. It's certainly worth seeing, but also worth realigning your expectations a bit before you do.