Star Trek Into Darkness

One of my best friends brought up a good point during the last Star Trek movie, why are they always setting their phasers to stun. He argued that they must be set to kill just in case and only set them to stun when the threat level isn't that big. Well in Star Trek Into Darkness, the crew of the Enterprise rarely set them to stun.

When we pick up the story, James Kirk (Chris Pine) has been Captain of the Enterprise for some time. After a botched expedition, Kirk is demoted to Commander and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) is reassigned.

Meanwhile, there has been a terrorist attack on a London Starfleet post, masterminded by the mysterious John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). The leaders of Starfleet decide to declare a manhunt to track him down. After an attack on Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, Kirk and the Enterprise are charged with taking him down.

I found that although this movie was action packed, I found it to predictable at parts and too much of a carbon copy of the last movie. There are also elements from The Wrath of Khan, but only Trek fans will pick up on them. There are action cues, emotional cues and comedic cues which are hit at the right times. It's almost as if J. J. Abrams was making this movie with a formula that he has perfected.

The only really good acting of note came from two of the British cast members. Benedict Cumberbatch is cold and calculating as Harrison and I really felt like he was capable of killing without remorse. Simon Pegg is hilarious as Scotty, but that is a given as he is one of the comedic relief characters and considering his relationship with Star Trek (he did a whole comedy series called Spaced), he definitely has the chops to pull it off. I felt as though the third British cast member didn't really have anything to offer. Alice Eve plays Dr. Carol Marcus, a Starfleet doctor who sneaks aboard the Enterprise. I felt as though she was just a damsel for Kirk to save.

The other comedic element comes in the form of Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban), or more properly, Kirk's interaction with him. McCoy is always there giving Kirk advice in the form of elaborate metaphors or pointing that he is a doctor, not a bricklayer, rocket scientist, gym teacher, etc. There are also some humourous lines when Kirk makes reference to the fact that Spock is, in fact, a Vulcan.

Verdict: It was chock full of action sequences and lens flare, but ultimately this is just another voyage of the starship Enterprise.