Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness, Paramount Pictures, 2013, directed by JJ Abrams. Starring Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zackery Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Alice Eve, John Cho, Anton Yelchin.

 

Watch the trailer here:

BOOM! YEAH! STAR TREK!

I was never actually a Trekkie myself, but a combination of my mum (an original 60’s Trekkie who, no lie, got stuck in a lift with Deforrest Kelly one time) and the constant barrage of Trek references scattered across the internet means that when Star Trek came out in 2009, I actually got the references to Red Shirts, the Prime Directive and what the hell was going on with the Romulans. What I didn’t get was how sexy and cool and fun Star Trek was. JJ Abrams went back to the days of old, before Trek became painfully niche and loved only by cellar dwelling mouth breathers, back to a time when Kirk and Spock were young and sexy. Star Trek made Trekking fun again, taking it back to the mainstream where it sits very comfortably. Which is a good thing, because I doubt there’ll be a better blockbuster out this year – Into Darkness is goofy, fun and loud; oh it’s flawed (quite troublingly so in one aspect) but I defy you to have a better time at the cinema this year.

Any film that starts with a discussion of Bentham Utilitarianism inside an exploding volcano is obviously going to be all of the fun, and it doesn’t really let up from there. The characters discuss terrorism, conspiracy, freedom fighters and the politics of war, but they never do so without at least three explosions in the background. 

Spock, in a volcano, enjoying a quiet character moment

That’s not to say that the plot doesn’t matter at all - in fact it’s rather good. After a bomb in London kills forty three Starfleet agents, Admiral Marcus enlists Captain Kirk  and The Enterprise to go to the edge of the known universe and destroy the man responsible, rouge agent John Harrison. It becomes Star Trek Into Zero Darkness Thirty, the themes of justice and retribution running throughout the film. Kirk wants to murder Harrison in cold blood, Spock  wants to capture him and put him on trial, Scotty  doesn’t like the weapons of mass destruction Marcus insist they use, Uhura  has to fight for a chance to use diplomacy. However, the juxtaposition of the serious acts of terrorism with the silliness of the lens flares works. The bombastic cinematography means the film never becomes preachy or starts to take itself too seriously. Where The Dark Knight Rises suffocated on its own pretentiousness, it’s never a problem with Into Darkness, evidenced by a very tense scene alleviated by the simple (and very funny) act of Scotty running hell for leather down a massive hanger.

The cast is uniformly excellent, carrying their roles with grace and confidence. Chris Pine is a less confident Kirk this time around, feeling his way around the Captain’s chair after two serious arguments knock his self-assurance and he finds a sense of humility and grace in leadership. Zoe Saldana and Zackery Quinto, astonishingly, make Uhura and Spock’s relationship believable and tender, Simon Pegg’s Scotty becomes an action man and just he about pulls it off. Newcomer Alice Eve as Carol Marcus holds herself with dignity, despite a very gratuitous scene where she gets half naked for next to no reason. Abrams said it was to balance out Kirk’s nude scene, which occurred earlier in the film, but I call BS on that. See, Kirk was half naked, but so were the sexy alien ladies he was with – Kirk was obviously in a position of power and the Male Gaze went unquestioned. Carol, on the other hand, was ogled against her will. Kirk was asserting his authority and his position of power over her; I’m pretty sure that’s sexual harassment, and it’s a sticking point in the film.

However, it thankfully only remains a small sticking point because the Glower of London, formally known as John Harrison, formally known as Benedict Cumberbatch, is too good for something as slight as casual sexism to stop you from having a good time. Cumberbatch is breath-takingly good as a man who would murder forty three people just to get Starfleet’s attention. It’s a testament to his talents as an actor that he remains morally ambiguous despite the music introducing him with a score which, if were any more obvious, would be entitled Hey Look! The Bad Guy’s Here! One thing about 2009 Star Trek was that Eric Bana’s Nero wasn’t that compelling a villain; it is safe to say that this is no longer a problem.

 Seriously though, if he smouldered anymore he’d be on fire

Star Trek Into Darkness is the most fun I’ve had in a cinema in a long time. It strikes a fine balance between the silly and serious, the loud and quiet and is even quite moving in places. I laughed, I gasped, I cried, I even clapped with glee at certain moments - it's just such a shame that one throw away gag demeaned Carol Marcus's entire character. Abrams listened when his villain was weak, hopefully he'll take on board the very valid criticisms about sexism in his films and make good with Star Wars. Ball's in your court, JJ. Don't make the same mistake again.