Saturday, June 15, 2013

Star Trek Into Darkness (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

Star Trek Into Darkness

The long awaited "Star Trek Into Darkness" has arrived at The Tropic in wondrous  3D. Modern maestro J.J. Abrams again takes directorial control in this sequel to his 2009 adventure featuring the beloved crew of The Enterprise as young men.

Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto revisit their iconic roles as Capt. James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, respectively, and in this outing they face a villain as impenetrable as night itself. Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) co-stars as the legendary antagonist Khan, who is seen in previous Star Trek outings in film and Tv by Ricardo Montalban.

Here, Khan's incarnation is profoundly opaque and Luciferic, with malevolent echoes of Loki's "Thor" , Milton's Paradise Lost and the evil historical efforts of eugenics.

Most of the laughs are provided by the comic Simon Pegg as Scotty and Karl Urban as Dr. "Bones" McCoy. McCoy is just as no-nonsense as you remember and Scotty is delightfully nervous and fretful with his usual quips like "I'm doing the best I can Sir! The ship has no power! The radiation will kill us all!"

The eye-catching Zoe Saldana appears once more as Lieutenant Uhura and she is all the more smoldering, efficient and forever transfixing.

The fun in these two films is the narrative, the process of watching these characters grow and change and the action never stops.

Chris Pine is caring yet rakish, a ladies man with moral streak. We can see the shadow of Shatner within him and he once again makes Tiberius proud. Zachary Quinto also gives an entertaining interpretation as the lovable young Vulcan who is oddly unemotional as his species dictates. There are some semi-sweet Vulcan sparks here and if that appears an illogical fantasy, keep in mind that Spock is half human.

"Into Darkness" is a rolling adventure with the intensity of a graphic novel and the crisp 3D effects, although potent, never overcome the story with soaring fires or falling space-junk. There  are leaps of action, zippy one liners (which playfully pay homage to Trekkie camp) romantic tension and philosophic dilemmas. There is something for everyone here---including Leonard Nimoy as a reverent Spock and a classic tribble---and you need not be a Star Trek aficionado to enjoy this latest foray into The Starfleet Command and let us hope there is another chapter at Warp Factor 5, exploring more limits.

Write Ian at redtv_2005@yahoo.com

2 comments:

Mick said...

If this movie is any portend of the 5 year exploration to come...then the series as we knew it is doomed. The bad stuff:
1. They tried to hard to find actors that look, acted and sounded like the originals. If this was to make us older Treckies feel good, it failed.
2. The part of Kahn was the only saving grace as it was acted with vigor, but alas he's gone to sleep...again.
3. The 3D was pitiful, it looked better without the glasses. Everything was doubled, nothing even close to Avatar and you pay extra because it was in 3D...right.
4. Story line wandered, supposedly to get 3D effects... which only added to the plot discomfort.
5. I'm hard of hearing (without aids) and had to plug my ears due to the decibel level. It HURT!!!
All in all not much there. Only plus came when I was able to get out of a hot and muggy day. Zero out of 5 Stars, don't waste your money.

Mick said...

I guess you saw a different movie than I did. Mine was not good at all, glad to hear yours was.