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An amazing image of the SS Enterprise about to crash-land makes up this poster for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness
Captain Kirk's disciplinary difficulties are landing him in trouble. But with deadly attacks from an ex Starfleet officer with superhuman capabilities, Kirk and his spaceship Enterprise team are sent to seek out and kill the renegade Harrison on the enemy planet Kronos. Complications ensue.
Star Trek Into Darkness is written and co-produced by Alex Kurtzman (The Mummy (2017)), Damon Lindelof (World War Z (2013)) and Roberto Orci (People Like Us (2012)) and co-produced and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III (2006)). It is the sequel to Abrams' Star Trek (2009) reboot of the Star Trek franchise and the 12th film in the franchise.
With the for many familiar core characters firmly re-established in the first film, the sequel has room to play around with them some more, and especially the scenes between Kirk and Mr. Spock are enjoyable. Chris Pine (Poolman (2023))is still dead-on right as the face of humanity. Zachary Quinto's (Margin Call (2011)) head may have grown a bit fatter in the four years since the last Star Trek, but his Spock hasn't grown a millimeter in any direction. - Still the dorky, cerebral ol' Spockerino, quite amusing at times. I didn't object any longer to Zoe Saldana's (Avatar (2009)) Uhura loving him here, and overall I enjoyed her performance more in this film, especially when she spoke Klingon.
Anton Yelchin's (Fierce People (2005)) strained Russian-accented Tintin-like freshman of the crew Chekov has had his role reduced in Into Darkness (thank God), and instead we have more time with the likeable, funny characters played by Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead (2004)). SPOILER Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game (2014)) plays the Harrison character that is later revealed to actually be the major Star Trek mythology villain Khan. Cumberbatch makes a bland substitute for Ricardo Montalban's colorful, campy, sexually magnetic performance in the original series and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). SPOILER Peter Weller (Naked Lunch (1991)) plays a character you first think is good, but then... - Unless you guess by seeing Weller's very face that this is a no-good son-of-a-bitch. He is a welcome addition in Into Darkness to be sure.
Into Darkness does go for a darker, almost oppressive tone that I don't think it succeeds with, which is a shame after the very promising, more adventure-focused first Abrams Star Trek venture.
Michael Giacchino (Up (2009)) has again made a fine, thundering score. The special effects are beautiful and exciting to look at, as in the first film. The adventure and action of deep space exploration are some of the main attractions of the films, - not so much the super-dark villains, - but Into Darkness has both, and is over-all a fairly suspenseful film experience.
Whereas the previous Abrams' Star Trek took its time getting started but then turned out highly satisfying, Into Darkness begins to wobble in its third act: SPOILER Bruce Greenwood's (The Sweet Hereafter (1997)) character Pike dies at the beginning, which I thought was a shame. He and Kirk had good scenes together, and he would have been a great actor to keep in the films. Kirk later gives Pegg's Scotty the responsibility to watch over Khan, a man he has just acknowledged is a kind of super-man. This seems too stupid for any good captain, no matter how upstanding Scotty appears. Later, the self same Khan, who is at least two or three steps ahead of everyone else for the entire film, could not have imagined that the torpedoes carrying his people also could be armed torpedoes. Again, it seems like a flawed, easy writing solution, instead of a likely mistake made by the character.
SPOILER - At the very last climax, Kirk fixes the 'warp core' by kicking it a few times. This is both anticlimactic and a little silly. On the plus side, Spock gets the last fight against Khan, instead of the macho Kirk, which I rather liked.
Related posts:
More Star Trek: Star Trek Beyond (2016) - Lin's adventurous, foundation-honoring entry
J.J. Abrams: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2019 in films - according to Film Excess
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker/Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) - An insanely awesome saga ending
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - Abrams scores big time, makes beautiful space opera blockbuster
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Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser
Star Trek (2009) - Abrams' imperfect but awesome reboot
Cloverfield (2008) or, It Tore Her Head Off! (co-producer)
Mission: Impossible III (2006) - Cruise steers Abrams' flawed MacGuffin debut
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 185-190 mil. $ (different sources)
Box office: 467.3 mil. $
= Even
[Star Trek Into Darkness premiered 2 May (London) and runs 132 minutes. Pine was paid 1.5 mil. $ plus a 500k $ "if the film proved profitable" for his performance. Shooting took place from January - May 2012 in Iceland and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 70.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 another 2 weekends (#3-#4), grossing 228.7 mil. $ (48.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 57 mil. $ (12.2 %) and the UK with 39.2 mil. $ (8.4 %). The film was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, lost to Gravity. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, among other honors. The film additionally made an estimated 80.8 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. The Star Trek franchise returned with Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond (2016). Abrams returned with Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). Pine returned in Paul McCartney: Queenie Eye (2013, music video) and theatrically in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014); Quinto in We'll Never Have Paris (2014); and Cumberbatch in 12 Years a Slave (2013). Star Trek Into Darkness is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Star Trek Into Darkness?
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